Belle & Sebastian - Nobody's Empire Lyrics

I love this band

who is not into this great song?

Two years ago i had the worst time in my life. A person i really loved was in the hospital and i had to stay next to her every day, and when it was time to go home i listened to this everynight while crying. Somehow it brought me happiness and confort so it made me feel calm. Today i listen to this again, with tears in my eyes, realizing how music can help you go through bad times.

Strange to be thankful to a higher power for ending suffering that it caused.

The girl with SA80 assault rifle does not fit the video.

Musically it's far from what I like most by B&S but the lyrics are awesome (as most of their songs). Another great storytelling.

Brilliant ending

Gloriously uplifting and sentimental - one of their very best

This might be weird but I just thought it could be helpful. All the words that were flashed
are listed down here:

Senses

Child 

Past 

Madness 

Hell

Song 

Ambition 

Business 

Waiting room 

Companionship 

Stumble 

Mother 

Emancipation

I kind of thought there was a hidden message like the war is not peace, we are all one. we belong mother nature, something like that

The last good song this band made... RIP B&S

熟豚のBGMだ

"Laying on my bed, I was reading French." Even this frist gave me chills...

I don't know what it is about this song the reduces me to tears, but those first couple of verses get me every time.

These are artists. Poets. This song makes my spirit soar. We listen to B&S in our home. When my 4 year old sings this tune absentmindedly it makes me feel there are beautiful things in the world.

This song...
I have been a fan since 1998.
Suffering from sensory overload due to my autism I was laying bed, facing the wall, feeling like a burden. I didn't know I was autistic, I got diagnosed at 35.
The journey from 1998 to 2015. Getting stronger and then being a father. And my own father, who lifted me up, gets cancer and dies. Still, you need to be strong and be ok.
(but your not ok)(you are ok)
I used to listen to this song on repeat during that time, when he was dying. If she hadn't been there... She fought for my daughters rights, my daughter is autistic also, in a country that care less and less about the autistic. The right-wing winds were flowing over Europe.

The song ends with "leave that vision of hell to the dying".

Im here agin

Im here agin. xx

A song (poem?) of how to grow up healthy and emotionally your child—

Despite the leftism/liberalism in the lyrics, the melody and arrangement is simply awesome!

lmao shut the fuck up

Yeahhhhhh

A particularly beautiful song on a patchy album. The clip though.. OMG what happened there?

Saw them yesterday in Cleveland. God bless them and their wonderful music!

What the fuck is that face at (1:23). Why is the boy so ugly. If u get the moment just right u can see his ugly ass face

So fucking good. Band in excellent form here.

Where they get the most beautiful people on earth? I will always be in love with the lady with the bullpup.

I live in England now, God damn this makes me nostalgic for Glasgow.... Beautiful song....

this song is retarded I cannot express my hate for this song with anything. this song is just bad. the persons voice is trash. and I do no want to see a transgender retard sitting there with its ugly face looking at me (1:01).

the intro piano is the same as Marx and Engels, check it out and you'll see what I mean.

Brilliant song annoying video

They soften my hard edges. Poetry , thanks a millionxx

Although accomplished I think this song pales in comparison to much of their earlier work. It feels too calculated and unnatural and the video is awfully contrived (especially the girl singing in place of Mr Murdoch). It still beats almost all other music being produced by a mile but I'm afraid for me, something is not quite right here.

Almost everyday I listen to this song when I commute

LOVE THIS SONG! HAS A DEEP MEANING FOR ME! KEEP IT UP!

The only one I like from this album

Always brings me to tears

Fell in love with B&S in 1997 when I first heard If You're Feeling Sinister and love them just as much today. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance is probably my favourite album after Sinister and they're a band that I feel have grown along with me.

Top tune this

ama nasıl güzellll

This song is a treasure, nuanced and spirit-lifting. Another gem from my favorite band!

When I was in hell.

Listening to my personal choice of Xmas songs on youtube site this year I discovered new bands like belle and Sebastian and yeah yeahs yeah as a result one good thing come out of Xmas.

This song is a treasure! The way he enunciates is unmatched. They opened with this song in Portland a couple of years ago, and even newcomers to the band knew instantly they were watching masters.

eu amo muito essa música

It's like they were being born again

hobbitta the song is literally about that. Murdoch is singing about his physical recovery from illness and his religious awakening through Christianity.

The blonde girl is beautiful

One of my favourite bands ever!

229 people made a mistake!

the intro reminds me so much of their older song "Marx & Engels"

It sounds like a little bit ABBA😀

I LOVE this song! Great video. Always makes me a little teary when I listen to the song for some reason.

It's an amazing song. It describes a part of my life.
It ussualy makes me cry. I love it.

It makes me love everyone, more ❤️

i love this song, it brings so much joy and memories!

There is misery in all I hear and see from the people on TV. After their tea when life begins again, they'll be happier than me.

This song jumps out and into my heart not just because it reminds me of Belle & Sebastian’s effortless talent to create beautiful new songs that sound like they’ve been with us for ages, but also because it’s one of the most direct, probing and honest things Stuart Murdoch has ever written - puts me in mind of “The Model,” one of my favorites.

Lying on my side you were half awake and your face was tired and crumpled.

If I had a camera I’d snap you now cos there’s beauty in every stumble.

We are out of practice, we’re out of sight.

On the edge of nobody’s empire.

If we live by books and we live by hope,

does that make us targets for gunfire?

aye had some good days to this track

They came to Atlanta recently and it was lovely. Love you guys, you cheer me up every day I listen to your wonderful music.

I bet they sounded great. I haven't seen them in almost 20 years but it was in ATL. Maybe they will appear in ATL (or somewhere nearby) again soon. They are so wonderful to see live. I agree. People mistake the quality of most things European for their dark quality with its popularity with General American audiences often. I miss them so... Oh -- Please COME BACK TO AMERICA, BELLE & SEBASTIAN! They are A-MA-ZING!

Is the best song!!!!!

Who is the beautiful girl that is singing along? Love this song so much. This is one of those songs you dont get tired of hearing over and over again.

Intro reminds me of Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now"...

Great song! Part of the melody reminds me of an earlier Regina Spektor song, however, which is not necessarily a bad thing...

Amei sua música :)

i can't believe how good this song is. it's lovely

God, what a beautiful song and video to go with it. It's like a music video version of a Richard Linklater movie. And who is that gorgeous girl???

I don't know why but the moment the music starts I get really emotional and I just start tearing up, every single time, I love Belle and Sebastian, their music always moves me to my core, past or present they are amazing

Who is that beautiful lady?

doble nueve!! rock en lima..

This song made me weep because I've experienced that personally. There was this girl in the ward with me when I was having MRI's and electroshock that gave me a purpose driven life. I never saw her again. They court committed me while I was in there, and I spent six months in a state run institution before being taken to a residential center for six months. I read novels until I got sick of reading. I got off of that death bed to face another I've gotten up from.

one of my all time favorite songs.

Lying on my bed I was reading French
With the light too bright for my senses
From this hiding place, life was way too much
It was loud and rough round the edges

So I faced the wall when an old man called
Out of dreams that I would die there
But a sight unseen, you were pulling strings
And you had a different idea

[Verse 2]
I was like a child, I was light as straw
When my father lifted me up there
Took me to a place where they checked my body
My soul was floating in thin air

I clung to the bed, and I clung to the past
And I clung to the welcome darkness
But at the end of the night there’s a green green light
It’s the quiet before the madness

[Chorus 1]
There was a girl that sang like the chime of a bell
And she put out her arm and she touched me when I was in hell
When I was in hell

[Verse 3]
Someone sang a song and I sang along
Cause I knew the words from my childhood
Intellect, ambition they fell away
They locked me up for my own good

But I didn’t mind cause the silence was kind
And you spoke to me in whispers
There was the sound of the wind in the cold cold dawn
And the quiet hum of business

[Chorus 2]
Let me dangle a while in this waiting room
I don’t need to go, I don’t need to know what you're doing
Know what you're doing

[Verse 4]
Lying on my side you were half awake
And your face was tired and crumpled
If I had a camera I’d snap you now
Cause there’s beauty in every stumble

We are out of practice we're out of sight
On the edge of nobody’s empire
If we live by books and we live by hope
Does that make us targets for gunfire?


[Verse 5]
Now I look at you you’re a mother of two
You’re a quiet revolution
Marching with the crowd singing dirty and loud
For the people’s emancipation

Did I do OK, did I pave the way?
Was I strong when you were wanting?
I was tied to the yoke with a decent bloke
Who was stern but never daunting

[Chorus 3]
And he told me to push and he made me feel well
And he told me to leave that vision of hell to the dying
Hell to the dying

Representando os BR que gostam de música boa.

A beautiful pop song about someone's desperately hard times and resurrection; soulful and declamatory. Genius.

It's the first time Stuart describes his whole life...

It's been two years and this song is still one of my favorites. I understood so, so many things about B&S from these lyrics!

A song about growing up. About fighting with all your limitations and faults.

this is fucking amazing ..

This song could save lives.

I had no noticed that the blonde girl is the Mister Darcy's sister :3

Great song

80's sound

What's her name, google searsh not find her face.

Tamzin Merchant.

This song brings nostalgic emotions and I don't know why. Think I'll have a good cry.

Another great song guys :)

Man this song is so beautiful

Does anybody know the full cast of this video? Mainly the man wearing the braces and the half-gold hat on the left side of his head. Feel like I've seen him in something else before.

he's called William Watt that time from Edinburgh University

Thank you :)

https://www.facebook.com/william.watt.798 yes I'm a stalker

Belle and sebastian what a concept 😂

Is no one gonna talk about the fact that the boy in the thumbnail looks like Matty B ???

I am from brazil i cant understand anything is she saying but i frickin love it

Love the song... does anybody thinks this video is really stupid?

Isn't she Georgiana Darcy?

This song is talking about a civil war o some like this? somebody knows?

It's about Stuart himself. When he was young he fell very ill and could not get out of his house for years. After this he had to became over all his difficulties through music, music helped him to heal.

I have added this song to the list of treasures received from Belle and Sebastian. They opened with this song last year in Portland - what a professional, melodic band!

Youtube took me here, so glad they did.

Donovan voice

B&S always come up with one genius song per album, and this is it. Think Stars of Track and Field, or I Fought in a War. One of my favorite bands of all time.

the smith

I'm so happy I discovered this, because I was just about done with modern musicians. If you can call them that... beautiful song, incredible video. Simple, effective, powerful.

Yay. Shy

what is the name of the boy that appears with the girl? help is for homework please jeje