If I could tear you from the ceiling
And guarantee source divine
Rid you of possessions fleeting
Remain your funny valentine

Don't go and leave me
And please don't drive me blind
Don't go and leave me
And please drive me blind

If I could tear you from the ceiling
I know the best have tried
I'd fill your every breath with meaning
And find the place we both could hide

Don't go and leave me
And please don't drive me blind
Don't go and leave me
And please drive me blind

You don't believe me
But you do this every time
Please don't drive me blind
Please don't drive me blind

I know we're broken
I know we're broken
I know we're broken

If I could tear you from the ceiling
I'd freeze us both in time
And find a brand new way of seeing
Your eyes forever glued to mine.

Don't go and leave me
And please don't drive me blind
Don't go and leave me
And please drive me blind
Please don't drive me blind [Repeats]

I know I broke it
I know I broke it
I know I broke it


Lyrics submitted by Mrs.Molko

Blind Lyrics as written by Stefan Olsdal Brian Molko

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Blind song meanings
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65 Comments

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  • +3
    General Comment

    I LOVE this song - so emotional. I think the lyrics are brilliant especially "your eyes forever glued to mine" it's so intense and haunting. I suppose this is about unrequited love?

    ashtray girlon March 01, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    I agree with you It's about a guy/girl trying to convince his/her partner not to leave

    My third favorite placebo song it's just amazing

    Zerovermarson March 14, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    It's about masturbation in part. "If I could tear you from the ceiling..." is actually literal; Young guys are known to put posters of hot girls on their ceilings over their beds to (masturbate, and then) fall asleep to. The narrator is simply wishing that his poster-girl is a real woman, because he is very attracted to her and convinced that if she were real he could give her all that she needs. Also note the "Please don't drive me blind." lyrics, as they refer to masturbation yet again, as the narrator pleads not to be alone in his efforts of affection and sexual desire.

    vivalapandabearon September 19, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    "If I could tear you from the ceiling, And guarantee a source divine, Rid you off possessions fleeting, Remain your funny valentine."

    He wants to bring this person down to earth so he can give them something more then their material possessions, he wants to rid them of their materialistic nature, even if he has to do it with this person thinking he is just their ‘funny valentine’

    "If I could tear you from the ceiling I know the best have tried I'd fill your every breath with meaning And find the place we both could hide"

    He knows it will be difficult to bring this person down to earth but if he could he’d teach them to feel/think and be truthful to themselves and others and not censored as they are because of their materialistic way of life. After this he promises to stay by this person and protect them.

    “You don't believe me, but you do this every time”

    This person doesn’t believe that they are materialistic and the person doesn’t realise they’ve hurt so many people because of the way they treat/manipulate people.

    “I know we're broken”

    Their friendship is deteriorating and they both realise that the relationship is ’broken’.

    “If I could tear you from the ceiling, I'd freeze us both in time, Find a brand new way of seeing.. Your eyes forever glued to mine.”

    If he could stop everything for a moment and make this person see things from his perspective .Or in accordance with the metaphor make them can see this problem/situation all through his eyes ‘your eyes forever glued to mine’.

    “Don't go and leave me, And please don't drive me blind”

    He doesn’t want the person to go because if they do he will be left with nowhere to go and not know what direction to go in so he’ll be ‘blind’ in a sense. But he doesn’t want to keep following this person because they’ll manipulate him and make him ‘blind’ because his views on everything will be glossed over by this persons selfish lifestyle. So it’s a lose-lose situation.

    “I know I broke it” He is the one that made this friendship break, because he spoke up and told this person what they really were and they couldn’t handle it

    ... well thats how i see it. comments?

    revolton April 26, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    100% agree with Lady nausea: *

    I love this song soooo much. I can relate to it, especially during this time in my life. Anyways, I think it's saying, how this guy loves this girl so much and he's asking her to not leave him cause without her, he'd be a wreck. They have problems and maybe she's thinking of leaving him cause she can't deal with it anymore but he's hoping that she'll stay with him and they can work it out. He also wishes that he was the only one in the world that she's in love with and she'll forever be in love with him. (Your eyes forever glued to mine)

    either member of a relationship is on the ceiling, because seh/he too good for the other member.. but the other try to pull back for itself, altough he/she knows, that it's over but he/she has afraid of the dark space that remain after she/he, so afraid of being blind. he/she screwed up this love with something wrong behavior, but he/she want her/him back..

    "your eyes forever glue to mine" BIG words :) typical overromanticated phrase from the mouth of an almost-ex (nearly throwed) lover.

    however, this song is so emotionally, yes. and sad.. or shamefull.

    gonsoz42on July 03, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    it's a bit like passive aggressive. he's deeply in love with someone who can't love him back, because he/she has way too many things inside his/her head. way too much suffering, you know. can't find him space inside their bleeding heart. so like, he wants to throw the person off the ceiling meaning he wants him/her to break the barrier and the walls that are trying to keep him away. he wants to remain the person's funny valentine.. because that's a memory from the first days, when they were happy together, he hangs on to that memory. but he thinks the person's gonna leave him, and that for him would be the end.. or blindness. and he's blinded himself to anything but this relationship, since he's so in love with the person, and the person's blind to anything but his/her suffering. he tries to convince himself he's tried anything to make the person feel well again, and he wants to fill the person every breath with meaning.. so that he/she can find some purpose in life, something to live for. and that line just makes me want to marry him, for god's sake :) and he wants to find them a place to hide from everyone/everything that's causing his/her suffering, and a place to start over, and be happy again. yep, these two lines make me want to marry him, aaaawww :) but the person doesn't believe anything he's saying, and doesn't realize how bad he wants this relationship to work, and keeps destroying his/herself. he knows the person's broken inside, but he still wants to try. he wants to freeze them both in time back when they were happy and nothing else would matter. and he wants to give up the blindness and make her see things a different way, the way HE sees them.

    jesus, I wanna marry him.

    jubarbosaon August 30, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    it's " And please don't drive me blind" not "And please drive me blind" and the last lyric is either "I know You broke it" or "I know you're broken" Not I know we're broken.

    Anyways I think This song is about a guy who is trying to keep a girl from leaving him. The girl sounds like shes emotional unstable, but the guy still willing to fight for her. "If I could tear you from the ceiling" Lyric sounds like she is fighting some kind demons.(like drugs depression etc) the guy wants to help her through it. "Please don't drive me blind" Saying don't lie and hold things in , let him in not push him away .

    aliberk777on March 11, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Well, I personally think that this song is not necessarily about drug addiction. There are a lot of addictions and although it most likely is about drugs (you guys convinced me^^) I still think that it also could be about a person who is differently addicted, not to substances like alcohol or cocaine or whatever, but maybe to self injury or self destruction.

    I somehow got the impression that the person the narrator is talking to suffers from a mental illness, maybe clinic depression, eating disorders, maybe bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder or whatever, it doesn´t really matter because all these illnesses can include symptoms like self injury, suicidal tendencies, apathy etc. So I imagined that the person is seriously ill and lying in a hospital or in the psychiatric ward, maybe because of a suicide attempt that failed, maybe because the person doesn´t care enough for his/her own life so that he/she had to be brought to hospital. The person is in a state of apathy and numbness and all he/she does is staring at the ceiling. That´s where the narrator comes in, who cares very deeply for this person because he/she means everything to him. So in my opinion the whole "tear you from the ceiling" thing could mean that the narrator wants the person to react to him, to make him/her look away from the ceiling. "The best have tried" is directed at the psychologists and doctors who have tried to heal the person and probably failed (because you can´t heal someone who doesn´t want to be healed). So the narrator knows that the situation is really serious and that he is about to lose the person he loves the most, so he begs her/him to stay because without her/him there would be no light in his life (the whole "blind" concept) and he promises to make everything better, he tells his lover/friend that he will protect him/her and make him/her see everything in a new way, a better way, that everything their life together will be meaningful, that they can be happy together.

    The "I know I broke it" can have many meanings, but in my interpretation it is based on the frailty that persons who are suffering from a mental illness such as depression often possess, so that even a little mistake or an inconsiderate comment from a beloved person can make everything extremely worse or even drive the person to suicide. So maybe the narrator did something that caused the person to turn away from him and fall into self destruction.

    But as I already mentioned this is only my personal way of interpreting this song, I don´t think that the lyrics were written with that picture in mind =)

    layla-xdon October 26, 2010   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    I believe this song is about narcissistic couple when one(girl) is abuser and another is co-dependent narcissist craving her while understanding that something's wrong with her.

    If I could tear you from the ceiling - the girl has a grandiose sense of self-worth And guarantee source divine - the boy understands that the only thing that will make her stay is an unlimited source of the narcissistic supply Rid you out of possessions fleeting - the boy sees what condition she is in, she's obsessed with hoarding some vain stuff (like golden watches or jewellery) Remain your funny valentine - this connotes Taste in men, it's a common for narcissist to abuse their victims with silent treatments on special days like St.Valentine or New Year's Eve

    Don't go and leave me - narcs use abandonment as a weapon Please don't drive me blind - to drive blind - it's the kidnapper tactic to drive the victim around with a bag on the head, so she doesn't understand where she is and can't call for the help. In this context the girl confuses him about what state is their relationship is, and then leaves him

    I know we're broken - the boy understands that they are both have a personality disorder there's reference to self-help books in Blue American, or take the cover of the Holocaust which is also about narcissism and oedipal complex,

    and then he dreams of escape like (this is my very personal opinion) Marcello dreamt of escaping with Anna in The Conformist/Il conformista, or like Deckard and Rachael have escaped in the Blade Runner.

    If I could tear you from the ceiling I know the best have tried - he understands that likely she has tried to be in relationship many times 'cause no normal person will tolerate the abuse and gaslighting, and there are a lot of others who were charmed with her

    I'd fill your every breath with meaning And find the place we both could hide - theme of escape

    Then comes the theme of blindness(which is also used in films I mentioned), and starting to see clearly, it's because those people are like the people in the Plato's cave, who are acting in the shadow play

    And find a brand new way of seeing Your eyes forever glued to mine.

    2good2bon February 28, 2015   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    I think the song is from the perspective of a fan who's in love with their star.

    'If I could tear you from the ceiling' refers to a poster or a higher place that the other person is standing on.

    They know they don't have anything materialistic to offer that might attract them, so they want to show them how much they love them by making their life meaningful through loving them.

    'And find a place we both could hide' might refer to having that 'star' only for themselves. They want to possess that person so that no one else can take him/her from them.

    After all, they know the ' best have tried', and there's competition.

    So they want to have that one moment in time that lasts forever when the person they're in love with can't escape them anymore and they become the only thing in their star's life: 'Your eyes forever glued to mine'.

    Ironically, the listener knows that the protagonist is already blind.

    They are too naive to accept that they can't be the savior of their star no matter how much they highlight: 'I know you're broken'.

    They won't be able to fix them.

    At least not in the way they want to.

    Maybe it would help to take their loved one out of their routine with all the superficial materialistic things and to give them a new sense of meaning.

    It's kind of noble IF the protagonist would do it only out of love for the other person without personal gain.

    But the hint of the obsessive tendencies with 'Your eyes forever glued to mine' is just too strong.

    StoriesinSongs.comon January 16, 2020   Link

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