Song Lyrics

Musically, this one has a sort of overblown, heavenly quality to it.
But lyrically, it's another story of a guy getting himself into a bad relationship
That he can't get out of.

He says, "When you fall in love with someone who doesn't love you
Someone who treats you so badly it ramifies your head
Someone who doesn't want you but won't let you go
Someone who thinks you're crazy and tells you so, over and over and over

If this happens to you, you're better off dead."
It's exaggerated, but there's a kernel of truth there for so many people.
You don't know what bad is until you feel that.
I know what I'm talking about because I was once a woman who loved too much.

I know some critic is going to think I don't know what the word ramify means, or how to use it.
Made up an alternate verb form of it here, like a made-up R&B word, like the "puppetudes" of love. Wanted to say how there would be ramifications from something
That happens to your head in this kind of a relationship.
I should've said "blamifies" or something to make it really obvious I was playing with the word, but I just didn't give a f*ck.

Randy Newman

The duration of Better off Dead is 4:03 minutes and seconds.