Just breathe in the air But don’t be afraid There's a time for us to make Sense of all this pain Sense of all this pain
Mama, mama, mama, mama Mama don't let loose Before you get tied Just let the chains loose Before you really really really really Really let loose Of all the faded chains
Numbness on my brain, babe Yeah, numbness on my brain Yeah, numbness on my brain Yeah, numbness on my brain
Picture this life embracing Living life, reminisce, take your time No secret for a long while Here comes mother nature's child
Numbness on the brain Numbness on the brain Oh, rain Yeah, numbness on the brain Yeah, numbness on the brain
Strange times are coming Hope, yeah you got your bags all there Oh, you got your cupboard all stocked up You got your pride just rare, ready
Numbness on my brain, babe Yeah, numbness on my brain Yeah, numbness on my brain Yeah, numbness on my brain
Oh yeah, oh yeah So these are my days, my days, my days So these are my crimes So these are my crimes So these are my crimes (numbness on my brain) I lived and I die I loved and I fall (numbness on my brain) I fall and I cry I laughed and I loved (yeah numbness on my brain) I loved and I lost Till the victory is ours (yeah numbness on my brain) The snakes in the grass Yeah numbness on my brain Yeah numbness on my brain Yeah numbness on my brain
Like a number of songs on the album, this was musically an improvised jam recorded in one take. The band forgot about it and it was only later when the engineer went back through the tapes and said that he'd found this really good track that it was included on the album. Guitarist Nick McCabe explained to BBC DJ Steve Lamacq: "Me and Si, at the end of the second set of sessions in Richmond got a whiteboard in and had a look at what we had and we got like 35. The guy that engineered it got 64 or 65 so we started scouring the hard disk to see what we had and tucked away was this thing that we later remembered playing very late at night and it's probably my favorite tune on the record actually because it's the least considered and it's had the least work done to it but it's somehow truer for it I think really and I think Richard's vocal on that is probably one of my favorite things that he has ever done. It gets me. I keep joking about it. I can't listen to that after six o'clock at night because it just depresses me too much. (Laughter)"
Frontman Richard Ashcroft told Steve Lamacq that, "there's nothing really deep and meaningful about the lyrics."