"Jive To The Monkey" 2005 Song of the Year

The staff and I here at Jive To The Monkey have voted, and the results are in. The 2005 Song of the Year award goes to writer Jakob Dylan and recording group The Wallflowers for "We're Already There," from their "Rebel, Sweetheart" album.

It's a haunting masterpiece that uses apocalyptic and common-place imagery to say, "Look where we are. Look at what has become of our society. Look at what all of our social experiments and our money and our technological advances have done -- look at where they've brought us. We thought we'd build a tower of Babel and reach heaven. And look where we are."

Here are the lyrics:

We're Already There

Quarter moon on a city grown thick
With good advice that won't stick
From the ballrooms to the suburbs
And the abandoned mines
Atlantis may be rising but we're all out of time

Colored lights on the fire escape
bodies move behind drapes
And the light is uneven and we're safer in pairs
And we're no match for what is waiting
For each of us out there

Whistle, baby while we walk
don't say anything, do not talk
The journey is over, it is time to exhale
Wherever we were going
We're already there

It's over the turnstiles and through the guardrails
and into Washington Square
Cause no amount of nightmares would ever compare
To the thought of only silence in this ghost-filled air

Whistle, baby while we walk
Now don't say anything, do not talk
The journey is over, it's too late to prepare
Why can't you see that, baby
We're already there

Here comes your silhouette
and more pillow talk
Here comes the ticking of these clocks
They say the quickest way to end a war is just to lose
Another chamber locks and I already withdrew

Here comes the booming and the hunger of each night
Here comes the burden of might
this day was not divinely made to leave you impressed
We may become someone someday, but we haven't yet

Whistle, baby, while we walk
Now don't say anything, do not talk
The journey is over, it is time to repair
Whatever we were building
Baby, we're already there