The Auteurs was a British alternative rock band of the 1990s.

Unfair… Read Full Bio ↴The Auteurs was a British alternative rock band of the 1990s.

Unfairly dismissed as the egotrip of acclaimed songwriter Luke Haines, The Auteurs were one of the unsung bands of the mid-nineties Britpop movement. Releasing their first record, New Wave, in 1993, the Auteurs were compared to Suede, and the resurgent glam-rock movement, and began to amass a reasonable cult following. 1994's second album, and commercial highlight, Now I'm A Cowboy, saw the band embracing at times a more contemporary sound, notably on the single Lenny Valentino, which probably remains Haines' best-known song. Now I'm A Cowboy was marked out by sprawling guitar lines as much as by Haines' inimitable lyrics, a kind of visceral social commentary. While touring this album in 1995, Haines jumped off a fifteen-foot wall, breaking both ankles, resulting in his being in a wheelchair for the rest of that year, recording the starker, angrier third album After Murder Park, most notable for the ballad-like lead single Unsolved Child Murder, released for Christmas at Haines own bidding. Following this, Haines took time out to work on other projects such as Black Box Recorder and Baader Meinhof, reforming the Auteurs in 1999 for the release of the mostly overlooked final album, How I Learned To Love The Bootboys.

While Haines remains widely respected for his lyrical eloquence and eye for the minutae of life, his eccentric, confrontational personality, and habit of styling himself as a louche ne'er-do-well, perhaps impeded the formation of a more affectionate bond with his fans. The Auteurs, similarly, tended to be respected rather more than they were loved.

Don't Trust The Stars
The Auteurs Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Who cares about
your mystic lies
Is it a claim to some reality
I found myself barefoot
on stones
I don't think
`It was meant to be'
I don't think

`It just had to be'

So how can it be pre-arranged
When there's no order anyway
I found myself barefoot
on stones
I don't think it was destiny
It wasn't in the stars that day

Good fortune smile
On my ascendant star
Take heed, small talk
Don't trust the stars

I know that it's insufferable
Visionary can be so vain
To think that somewhere
There's a path for you
I know it makes
it seem mundane
It makes it all seem
so mundane

Good fortune smile
On my ascendant star

Take heed, small talk
Don't trust the stars

Overall Meaning

The Auteurs’ “Don’t Trust The Stars” is a song about rejecting the idea of fate or destiny, and instead embracing the idea of personal choice and free will. The song’s opening lines set the tone for this rejection, asking “who cares about your mystic lies?” and dismissing the idea that events are predetermined or ordained by some higher power.

Throughout the song, the singer recalls a time when they found themselves “barefoot on stones,” suggesting a sense of vulnerability or uncertainty. However, they reject the idea that this moment was somehow fated, insisting that “it wasn’t in the stars that day.” Instead, they embrace the idea that life is full of randomness, and that our own choices and actions are what really shape our destiny.

The chorus, with its call to “take heed, small talk” and warning to “don’t trust the stars,” reinforces this rejection of fate and emphasizes the importance of personal agency. Ultimately, “Don’t Trust The Stars” is a song about the power of choice and the rejection of the idea that our lives are predetermined by some external force.

Line by Line Meaning

Who cares about
Why should anyone be interested in

your mystic lies
the unverifiable things you're saying

Is it a claim to some reality
Are you asserting that it's the truth

I found myself barefoot
I was walking without shoes

on stones
on a rocky surface

I don't think
I'm pretty sure

`It was meant to be'
it wasn't predestined to happen

I don't think
I'm pretty sure

`It just had to be'
it wasn't inevitable

So how can it be pre-arranged
How could it have been predetermined

When there's no order anyway
when there's no clear structure to anything