The Flaming Lips are known for their lush, multi-layered arrangements, spacey lyrics and bizarre song titles. They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which typically feature animal suits, puppets, streamers, video projections and complex stage light configurations.
In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die". In 2006, Oklahoma City named a street Flaming Lips Alley in their honor.
The group recorded several albums and EPs for Restless Records in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers, they scored a #9 hit on the Billboard Alternative charts (and #55 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart) in 1994 with "She Don't Use Jelly". Although it would be their only hit single, the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability with sonically majestic albums such as 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, 1999's The Soft Bulletin, 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and 2006's At War with the Mystics. The Flaming Lips' 12th studio album, Embryonic, was released in October of 2009. A complete cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was released in May 2010. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, their collaborative album which features artists like Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Nick Cave and Erykah Badu, was released on Record Store Day, April 2012.
Their next studio album, tentatively titled The Terror, will be released in January 2013.
Their song "Do You Realize??" is the official State Rock Song of Oklahoma.
www.flaminglips.com
Slow Motion
The Flaming Lips Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You know that time
Is going slower?
It takes a year
To make a day
And I'm feeling like a float
In a Macy's Day Parade
Or like a boat
On the ocean
I'm drifting, rowing slow
Motion
It takes a year
To make a day
Hey, come on over
You know that time
Is going slower?
It takes a year
To make a day
And I'm feeling like a float
In a Macy's Day Parade
Or like a boat
On the ocean
I'm drifting, rowing slow
Motion
Motion
Motion
The Flaming Lips explore the concept of time in their song Slow Motion, as they portray the feeling of time moving more slowly than normal. The opening line is an invitation to someone, urging them to come over, while also acknowledging the strange phenomenon of time seeming to slow down. The repetition of the line "You know that time/ Is going slower?" emphasizes the surreal feeling of time passing differently than expected.
The band creates vivid imagery through similes as they compare the feeling of slow motion to being a float in a Macy's Day Parade or a boat on the ocean, floating and drifting. These images depict a sense of being swept along by an external force, with little agency to control one's pace or direction. The repetition of the line "It takes a year/ To make a day" punctuates the feeling of time crawling along, stretching out each moment to feel endless.
Overall, the lyrics of Slow Motion convey a sense of being adrift in time, watching the world move around you at a pace that feels unnaturally slow, ultimately giving the feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Hey, come on over
Invitation for someone to join in
You know that time
Acknowledgment of the concept of time
Is going slower?
Questioning the pace of time
It takes a year
Expressing how slowly time is moving
To make a day
Highlighting the distortion of time
And I'm feeling like a float
Feeling like being part of an event that moves slowly
In a Macy's Day Parade
Metaphorical description of feeling like part of a slow-moving event
Or like a boat
Alternative metaphor for slowness
On the ocean
Continuation of the metaphor
I'm drifting, rowing slow
Feeling a sense of aimlessness and slow-motion movement
Motion
Reiteration of the central theme of the song
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: WAYNE COYNE, STEVEN DROZD, MICHAEL IVINS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jeff Bissonnette
"Feelin' like a float in the Macy's Day parade" - a line that is ALWAYS stuck in my head
Mark Kromann
im glad i found this. i think it helps balance the overall mood of the soft bulletin. this shouldve been on all versions Warner! gotta be one of the best songs on there!
doctordave
This is a great song and i'm super annoyed that i've been listening to the US release for so many years without knowing about it!
John Doe
32,000 views nearly as I write this, From arguably the best album of the 1990s, from one of the best bands the US has ever produced.
Lord help us!
PeckiePeck
That guitar at the end is sublime.
RoyalBlue22
I wish they would put this song on the US itunes
Finnbarrs Film Fun
Best song ever written!
Huw Donoghue
Better than whatever the stones and the beatles could ever acheive, they have unwitted the masters!
Flint
Outwitted! 😂
Flint
I must have been drunk/high or just plain sleepy 🙂👍