Regina Spektor - Man Of A Thousand Faces Lyrics

Been a Regina fan for more than a decade but didn't know there's an official music video for this song.

I love her brain!

The words that would explain this song are quiet like stains are. Everyone trying to unearth the meaning might as well scrub til their fingers are bleeding.

I love this

Amazing

what a beauty

Since we're all trying to throw out our interpretations, I think it's about an old man in hospice. I agree that there are drugs involved, but in my mind, he's using pain killers as he's dying.

I like to think of this as an old man who is dying, reliving and reminiscing about his life in his final quiet days. Understanding so many things he can't explain but only knows. The thousands of faces he's worn, as a boy, as a teenager, as a young man. Protecting, working, building, playing. How much he's changed throughout his life, the people in it, the challenges, and he's accepted it.


He spent his final moments acting out his daily life. Eating sugar, stealing pages and imagining without knowing how. Without any instruction. Only he did them with newfound beauty. That wonderful bliss of knowing. Of comprehending so many small truths that make all the difference in happiness.


At the end he doesn't know the moon anymore because the days have passed, he no longer belongs here. He ascends with no instruction, this time into death, not thought, without any instruction because just as no one taught him how to dream, no one taught him how to die.

💔💔💔

everytime i hear this music i remember Roger Smith of American Dad.

I’m going to kill myself tomorrow.

I totally see the dr who angle, but is anyone else getting Gabriel vibes from spn?

Lmao, I love how everyone in the comment section is either talking about doctor who or LSD 😂

Her voice is Very Very Very Very Very very beautiful.

I feel shroomed watching the video

He knows her

I know and love this man dearly... Wake up.. I'm here waiting for you.

This song is About God, god in man and god upstairs- God Realizing God... Joseph Campbell - the see'r

This song is very "The NeverEnding Story" by Michael Ende

Nice diverse range of interpretations but to me it seems to be just a homage to Joseph Campbell who wrote "the hero with the thousand faces." Campbell struggled to put together a unifying mythology. During the Great Depression, he spent five years (1929–34) living in a rented shack on some land in Woodstock, New York. She's either referring to the "Hero", Campbell or both. So many of the references in the song seem to describe Campbell's spiritual and intellectual journey, which was largely in solitude and in nature. I'm not sure about the small lump of sugar.

This song got me through a lot

Such an underrated song. This is her masterpiece. I wish everyone could "get it".

Some find God in the stars and some the rain.

I think this is a more accurate route of interpretation

rotsild family, rockfeler family,j.p. morgan familly, etc.bilderberg group,.................group 300,........................black nobles.. 12 families so called lightend iluminaties..same group of banksters,financed, ww1, russian revolution,peace in versay,financed lenin from german jail set free..crazy ww2, destruction of old powers,now radical islam,sionists,vatican...and mr hungarian famous sionist mr soros,media owner.... on world doesnt exist trilioner,or a club,of them legaly... but they are one and only,bought fed. reserves,created f.e.m.a. bank of england,german industry after two world wars,created china empire,now they are preparing to get finnaly the nuke war,and quietly leaving to fools,the job...... if they understand before is too late,till then enjoy in nice song beautiful
...

just hearing the line "eats a small lump of sugar"; it suddenly occurred to me this song's titular man of a thousand faces is none other than Rorschach.

i think it's about a man losing his memory, probably alzheimer, and tells the way the man looks the treatments, and his delusion progressing, the bookstore metaphor, its a way to describe the lucid times in his mental illness

Wow. Incredible. I wonder if she's read Watchmen cause this would fit.

http://www.spin.com/2009/06/regina-spektors-joy-ride/ suggests she may have been exposed to Watchmen the same year this song came out.

@Vaughn Hey, I was just kidding around ... no need to read TOO much into it ...

I think this song is my favorite out of all her songs.

I love ❤ the Anarcho-Bohemiana style of this Girl!

there should be music videos for 11:11 !!

For real

Especially 2.99 cent blues and rejazz

I still love this song with all my heart.

Did anyone else come here from rhyme?

me! 😁

~R.I.P~ L.Ryuzaki 😭💕

+edaciousellis wrong emoji😢

@edaciousellis Aw... So... We're gonna cry together, yeah, good idea. *hug you*😭

+Alatariël Ringëril Awwww *sniff sniff* We can both cry together... 😢

@edaciousellis Sniiiiiiiif, I'm feeling bad now...

@Alatariël Ringëril :( I just watched that episode again.... I'm gonna cry again...

R.I.P L.

This song is about LSD. It's so obvious. He eats an acid sugar cube, smiles at the moon because he knows what's coming next. He slips into a quiet ascension and trips. Sometimes on acid you feel compulsive which is why he scrubs 'till his fingers are bleeding

+Lucija Gaspari that's what i think is so beautiful about this song. Reading through the comments, it seems like everyone has their own interpretation. I don't know of very many artists that can pull off something so openly ambiguous. Kind of like how the interpretations of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds are each starkly unique (though I think the modern consensus is that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is indeed about LSD, but I think you get my point) ReSpekt ftw!!!

@Lucija Gaspari Well, my experiences with LSD made me feel as though the state of mind i was in exceeded all religion :) But I agree with you nonetheless  

I feel like the song has to be about something deeper than "once a guy did drugs."

Don't get me wrong! Art it however you interpret it, but I always look into things way too deeply lol.

@Jackson Catlett I don't know, Regina has said in interviews that many of her songs don't make sense or don't really have a meaning, however, this one in particular reminds me of LSD. Acid can be pretty deep.

Kalaiarasan Sekar ....found a path to OR a likeness........🎹✌️

Valar Dohaeris

This song is very Leonard Cohen

+Dasha Shapovalova I definitely see this song (well, the lyrics especially) being Cohen-esque. It has that poetic vibe to it.

Scrub until your fingers start bleeding,

"Man Of A Thousand Faces"

The man of a thousand faces
Sits down at the table
Eats a small lump of sugar
And smiles at the moon like he knows her
And begins his quiet ascension
Without anyone's sturdy instruction
To a place of no religion
Has found a path to our alikeness

His words are quiet like stains are
On a table cloth washed in a river
Stains that are trying to cover, for each other
Or at least blend in with the pattern
Good is better than perfect
Scrub til your fingers are bleeding
And I'm crying for things that I tell others to do without crying

He used to go to his favorite bookstores
And rip out his favorite pages
And stuff them into his breast pocket
And the moon to him was a stranger
Now he sits down at the table
Right next to the window
And begins his quiet ascension
Without anyone's sturdy instruction
To a place of no religion
Has found a path to our alikeness
And eats a small lump of sugar
And smiles at the moon like he knows her

sokka & yue

Je ne connaissais pas du tout . j'adore.

"eats a small lump of sugar" , "begins his quiet ascension" , "has found a path to our alikeness"

LSD :)

.....found a path to, OR a likeness.......🎹✌️

i love how everyone is relating this song to doctor who omg

The man of a thousand faces
Sits down at the table
Eats a small lump of sugar
And smiles at the moon like he knows her
And begins his quiet ascension
Without anyone's sturdy instruction
To a place of no religion
Has found a path to our alikeness

His words are quiet like stains are
On a table cloth washed in a river
Stains that are trying to cover, for each other
Or at least blend in with the pattern
Good is better than perfect
Scrub til your fingers are bleeding
And I'm crying for things that I tell others to do without crying

He used to go to his favorite bookstores
And rip out his favorite pages
And stuff them into his breast pocket
And the moon to him was a stranger
Now he sits down at the table
Right next to the window
And begins his quiet ascension
Without anyone's sturdy instruction
To a place of no religion
Has found a path to our alikeness
And eats a small lump of sugar
And smiles at the moon like he knows her

I particularly LOVE the line that says "To a place of NO RELIGION"! I cry that line!

Magical song indeed

This song reminds me of Gabriel everytime.

She is one of the best artists I have ever heard!!!!!

*Doctor Who theme songs plays*

@Olivia Oob I heard Red Dwarf

I think this song is about a man that feels he has to be something different for everyone he knows, he's never himself and wears a thousand faces, He's lost because he doesn't know who he really is because he's always being what other people want him to be. He feels everyone is a stranger, even the moon. Everyone is kept at a distance and he feels lost and alone because of it. The small lump of sugar, moon, and "quiet ascension" are obviously drug references.

+dearfatee Hey remember that time when you O.D.ed? -That Time, Regina Spektor
Also, Daniel Cowman. Just saying...

+George T. I love how songs give different interpretations for people. You seemed very spot on about your perception of the song. with all due respect though I'm pretty sure she didn't intend the moon to seem like a stranger to him. hence why she emphasized "smiles at the moon like she knows her" even before he began his quiet ascension he was looking up at the moon as if they were good friends. I see this song as perhaps the misfortune of a person suffering from schizophrenia living in his own world conflicted by his own personalities trying to live in peace. some of his personalities may be stronger than others " I cry for things i tell others to do without crying " Perhaps this could be him talking to his own personalities trying to adapt to the world we live in. I wouldn't be surprised if Regina intended this song to have a variety of interpretations to it. she's clever like that.

Minus the drug bit, that’s me all over

I can relate

Good is better than perfect.

Tiara Schwarze-Taufiq yes

wie immer etwas für die seele.

einfach nur wunderschön ...

This woman this song !!!

I really love this song :3

reminds me of Rorschach.

love this song!

Smiles at the moon like he knows her....
OH HE KNOWS HER ALL RIGHT!!!!
Don't you, Doctor dearest?

holy fuck, i love your humor.. ♥♠

This song makes me bawl.

i dont know why but in drawn to her voice and image like a moth to a flame.i feel her music and come to tears in all she sings.godbless you regi for waking the me up emotionally 

The song is cool but the video is a brain f-er! (i dont like saying bad words xD)

Y es curioso cómo un video tan sencillo es tan agradable de observar. Es uno de mis favoritos.

Y creo que la canción habla sobre eso: lo gustos simples en una vida tan complicada. Este video y está canción son como un hermoso sueño.

No sé por qué, pero a veces está canción me hace llorar.

So touching! 

REGINA, WHY ARE YOU AMAZING?

Regina is my inspiration and what I love...If she was the Doctor's companion, I would have that be my religion, eating sugar lumps!

* heavy breathing * WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MEEEE I SHIP THEM NOW (also which doctor?)

Magic <3

:) too beautiful for words

Brilliant! 

Hirlshavylegs

This just reminds me too much of Doctor Who. Fallen loves, solitude, thousands of faces.

@Isabella Ansary want to perform this dressed as River so bad.

I just love how I come to listen, and somehow read the comments to see its on religion and Doctor Who... Im going to stop now

it's too easy to deconstruct the entire subject matter into absolute oblivion until all of reality is nothing
it makes me sad

Humanity.
That is all.

Contrary to popular belief also, satan and god are one and the same.

It's about God. The I/you relationship, Regina understands that God has no gender, in the hebrew when God refers to his face, the hebrew word is plural, it's faces, but it's it's also singular.

i love you regina 3

This should have been the song in Tennant's last episode. It really fitted his take on the tortured character.

Damn, the last episode ever should finish with this song.

Hi everyone! I know everyone hates spam, but I'm trying really hard to promote my channel, as a broke teenager I can't pay for advertising. I really love Regina, her voice and talent is phenomenal and really inspires me to make music, and I recently did a cover of man of a thousand faces, and it would mean a lot if people could check it out! :)
Thanks for reading <3

i love her.

estupenda, increible, maravillosa, autentica, hermosa, cancion! :)

maravillosa!

YES I WOULD CRY

doctor who?

Her lyrics. Her music. Her talent. Her voice. oh my god.

I jut think of L when I listen to this, but the Doctor, just... Yes.

I loved this song before, but...

Anyone here read "The Neverending Story"?
Well, I just finished and: Bastian. period.

...and i´m crying for things that i tell others to do without crying

I've always thought that this song is about a schizophrenic or bio-polar man trying to fit in with the crowd and society in general, but never being able to.

Welp,here goes my crazy idea as to what this song means...
It seems like the man of a thousand faces is Regina as she will speak of him then randomly refer to herself and how she reveals a wise and strong face to others, "and I find myself crying for things that I tell others to do without crying"but dsnt have.She then refers to him in the past tense saying,"He USE to go to his favorite book stores....and the moon to him was a stranger."Then continues onto say that he,like her,now knows the moon

what is this song about i have heard so many things about it.... i am desperate to know

Its sound like she is talking about a person who knows himself well and has made some decisions for himself knowing he can't go back. Someone who has accepted what is to come.

me too!~

regina is perfection.

"Good is better than perfect" Regina is amazing.

i think that this song is talking about God...he is a man of a thousand faces;3 gimme some thumbs if u agree ^3^

If I could thumbs up this a million times I would.

HOW have I not heard this before?!

Me me me !

To know the Man who made the moon with whom we share the sugar spoon!!!

now i really wish they use this song in an episode.