Voltaire - The Man Upstairs Lyrics

i am the person upstairs - i paid less to climb an extra flight of stairs and there's no one above me. i'm smart and you're dumb d8)

reasonable people are sleeping. i may be a little stoned and my shoes are sopping wet. on the plus side, i finally figured out how to juggle bowling balls. shoes go in the dryer at this late hour.

i know this pain

About halfway into the song i realized.... Wait i AM the man upstairs in my Apt. building... Does my neighbor want me dead?

Probably yess

This song reminds me of coralline.. like a darker version of coralline with insane neighbours in a rundown apartment building.

Me every night in my apt going crazy bc the man upstairs

Somewhere near house 777

I know this song's totally literal, but it's fun reading fan theories in the comments.

I lobe this song. I have had some neighbors just like this guy

"Good night's rest" would have sounded better at the end.

Take everything upstairs... (weee fun... 😐... no back breaking) and then...

I'm kind of the guy upstairs expect i'm more the weird girl next door who wakes up at 9pm, sings strange and varied music to lunch time and slams doors, talks o dogs and mice is only seen when she is dragging food back to her den.

Hello from Hellas!Keep up the good work.This song is awesome.

Is there a clean version of this song?

Voltaire's upstairs neighbor and mine need to get together and get married. I swear that woman is Godfuckingzilla and rampages on Tokyo (which is apparently also upstairs) every few hours.... Sadly, I own a six foot spear and dream of a world where I can simply shove it through the ceiling and impale her foot.... preferably without a jail sentence. But until then, I'm moving to an apartment outside of the ghetto that actually has insulation.

What kínd of music would you call this genius?

hehehe we don't have upstairs :)))) so it must be the same level

I dedicate this song to my upstairs neighbor who woke me up on sunday, my only day off banging around every 5 mins fpr an hpur and a half

Disgusting loud neighbours are the worst, I don't know how they can't see themselves as a bother to the people around them

By the title and Voltaire’s track record, could have sworn this was gonna be about God. But the joke is that it’s literally about the man upstairs.

He is talking about his own self ,Metaphorically Being inside his head.

@Amy King
In a concert in Moscow he said:
"People think the song is about God! It's not! It's about the fucking guy who lived on the floor above me! That guy almost made me lose my head. Anyways, here's a song about losing your head..."

But what I do like about his music is that it's really interpretive.

@John Fraire I like to think it's about a man losing his sanity, and the guy upstairs is meant to be both a symbol of God, and also of the Mind's super-ego, his sleeping all day and obnoxious behavior reminiscent of God. The guy downstairs is the Id, as well as the Devil, ranting psychotic deranged ideas. The guy in between them is the Ego, having to balance these two opposite forces and failing.

@The Honorable Reverend Addison Bortion
Well, Voltaire's music is very interpretive, so you're not wrong in interpreting it that way.

pls, we need an instrumental version

So was he ever murdered?

"And i'm surrounded by lunatics who don't
even need a moon"

I absolutely love that line.

I'm pretty sure my downstairs neighbor feels this way about me. I have no idea why. But when I'm trying to be quiet. At 1:00am every morning. I drop something. I don't mean to. It's always an accident. And I'm sure my poor down stairs neighbor wants me dead. Even though I've never met them.

every song is like an edgar allen poe story. I LOVE IT!

13 people juggle bowling balls, but they are not very good at it

I love this song. I dunno why i just love it.

it's black friday

I know I'm looking WAY too deep into a song literally just about a terrible neighbour Voltaire once had, but what if the man upstairs is the same guy as from The Chosen, and the person the singer is is the same one as from Ex-Lover's Lovers? I know I'm looking too hard into this, but it's a possibility I think is cool.

Masterpiece.

Been a fan of Voltaire for years. Love his old and new album

My D&D group played this as a "theme" for the DM, I couldn't help but giggle inside as I was listening. The party found a mimic the next day who wouldn't leave them alone and when they finally kill it out of annoyance, a goblin stole a trinket off then and ran off.
Don't worry, they got something awesome for being sort of good sports about the whole thing.

That's smart. I should propose that to my dungeon master

Never gets old. Probably my favourite of V's canon

...I also don't understand how anyone who actually listens to this song's lyrics thinks it's about God

Tricia Fitzgerald "The Man Upstairs" is another way of referring to Lord Xenu.

People can find god/Jesus in toast.

Mr Person So who lives across the hall?

The man upstairs part is kinda a big hint

In a song... that's describing bad neighbors... in an apartment setting...?
Reiterate: Listen to the lyrics...

This is my favorite song from this album

Anyone know where to find the original version of this?? I haven't heard it in like 10 yrs!

I do. you can only find it on the demo tape. I still have it and have most of it digitized, but I do not have his permission to share it.

You want this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_Canem_Demos

The Man Upstairs is not on the Cave Canem demos. The version you may be thinking of is the Heavy Drama mix by Kerry Smith that was released on a Cleopatra compilation, if I'm not mistaken.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Unquiet-Grave-III-Unearthing-The-Underground/release/669121

On a cd or a mixed tape I own ...In all Actuality...That is truth.

*I'm The Man Upstairs*: I keep people awake with my telepathy when I want and listen to loud music and so on....kill that man upstairs!

Glad to see I'm not alone.. We need a thorough support system for dealing with noisy upstairs neighbors. Also folks don't read too much into this song, pretty sure it's not about God or multiple personalities.

+mluso1234 Knowing full well that he's quite literal about it being about neighbors, I find this song useful to describe my migraines. :D

I always thought "The Man Upstairs" is God and he wants the idea put to rest.

+Justwannalogon I'm pretty sure this is based on a tenant he actually lived with once.

It is 2:51am, and my upstairs neighbor just starting vacuuming, prompting this song to go through my head...

Patricia Fitzgerald I think you need to get someone to kill that man upstairs
(I am referring to the song, I do not support the act of murder)

Remilia Scarlet: Sakuya, (sounding like Voltaire) please, murder PlushTrap upstairs

My life right now... About to go upstairs and get really scary in a minute..

their are 666 likes on this vid.... i don't want to like it and ruin how perfect it is

wtf is this shit, all i wanted was a non ridiculous reading of Voltaire, i got you. fucking dip shit.

+seth426  Different Voltaire. This is the awesome one.

I suddenly empathize with the guy from The Tell-Talke Heart listening to this. He had to do it. Guy was driving him f*ing crazy.

I never took the song too literal I always thought it was a song of schizophrenia saying kill the man in my head basically

Brandon Mitchell that's a way better explanation than all the different religious ones

Well you can argue that many people who claim to “hear” god often do so because of schizophrenia

Brandon Mitchell I agree with you

I don't know about everyone else but what i got from this song is that hes talking about a mental illness in his head? hearing things etc like a split personality or scitzo i'm not sure but thats what i got from because it reminds me of my dads case any :D

+Marcus Graham So... never lived in an apartment complex, then? Because this song (especially the part about juggling bowling balls) is almost literally my life right now.

@baronvonsatan Nah I havn't idk i just got something different from it :D

Pretty sure it's just about some fuck who won't shut up.

The Lair of Voltaire.  You got a badass username!

I had a sudden realization.
HowToBasic is the man upstairs.

+Christopher Urso No fuck mojo, that little dutch peice of shit.

+Abraxian Absolution don't know but it sounds to me like god is the man upstairs

Thank you man, you must the only who understands me

Nah, HowToBasic is the man downstairs.

I used to live in Seattle and the guy upstairs would stomp around around and yell all the time. I used to CRANK this song up. lol

+Eat Carbs I lived in Seattle and my upstairs neighbor vacuumed twice a day, at the same time each day. They also dropped a lot of stuff, and had a baby.

omg! It's worse for me since I work the graveyard shift. 

This is a really fun song to listen to when you have insomnia

Reminds me of Edgar A. Poe

@icey melon Right?!

+Merrin Guthrie memories of good ol' man

Nice beat.....

Hahahahahaha

...what to do when "the man upstairs" is your own bloody imagination, though? Can't get a good night's sleep to save my life unless I'm drunk off my arse...

I know something that will make you want to go right to sleep...Play the game Dark Souls.

the man upstairs the machu pichu and the lady across the hall dont like this song

Blaring this while living above someone.

Playlist for BS Neighbors:
01. When you're evil - Voltaire
02. Under my wheels - Alice Cooper
03. Bitch is back - L.A. Guns
04. Astonishing panorama of the end times - Marilyn Manson
05. Painkiller album - Judas Priest
06. Do you want to touch me? (Oh yeah!) - Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
07. (Obligatory) One Step Closer - Linkin Park
08. Anti-Social - Anthrax
09. Ballroom blitz - Sweet
10. Hanger 18 - Megadeth
11. Bruce Lee vs the Kiss Army - Guttermouth
12. Too drunk to fuck - Dead Kennedys
13. Pretty much anything Rammstein
14. Get the fuck out - Skid Row
15. Annoying Song - Butthole Surfers
16. Animal Alpha - Bundy
17. Die mother fucker die - Dope
18. Nailed to the gun - Fight
19. She loves my cock - Jackyl
20. Mr. Machoman - Lords of Acid
Bonus Track: Death Death Death Death, Devil Devil Evil Evil Song - Voltaire

And Anarchy in Bedrock by Green Jello, just for giggles.

Ask me about my playlist for self-righteous religious nuts who also try to convert me or get me to agree to go to church....

ABOVE, BELOW AND TO THE LEFT AND RIGHT WITH THE WORLD'S THINNEST INSULATION, FLOORS AND WALLS!

Rilriia Kilurden, also throw in Dirtiest Song That Ain't (With a note to sing in the missing words just to creep them out!) if it's a known fact at least one of them is overly religious or not! LOL! Also, can I have the anti-religious play list!?!

Plenty of uses for it in my town! LOL! Had one person try to convert me/get me to go to their church while paying my bill behind her group at the local diner! I told her, "No, I am a hummus loving, dick mutilating, money hungry Jew!" She tried again! I told her, "I just said no, did your 'God' make you dumb as well as deaf!?! I said I was a dick mutilating, money hungry, heathen! Do I need to get the holy water and wash your ears out!?!" She had none of it and tried again and this time I told the truth! "Look lady, the first two times I was lying and I am actually a flat earth squashing, religion destroying, science loving, satanic, witch, that could destroy your world in two words but I am NOT in the mood tonight and my only god is our lord and master the Flying Spaghetti Monster ~RAMEN! NOW, FOR THE LAST TIME, PLEASE GET THE DAMNED COTTON OUTTA YOUR EARS, STOP FLAUNTING YOUR GHOST STORIES AT ME AND THE LITTLE ONES AND GO ON YOUR MERRY WAY BECAUSE IF YOU DO COME AT ME AGAIN WITH YOUR RELIGIOUS CRAP I SHALL LITERALLY DEFICATE ON THE BIBLE IN YOUR BAG EVEN IF IT'S SO CHEAP IT"S NOT WORTH THE TOILET PAPER IT'S WASTING NOR THE OXYGEN FROM ALL THE FALLEN TREES USED TO MAKE THESE WORKS OF FICTION! GOOD NIGHT! MAY THE SATANIC POWERS OF SCIENCE SAVE YOUR LIFE ONE DAY AND SAVE YOU FROM YOUR DELUSIONS!"

Mel Thorn I do the same thing, hilarious

I identify with this song so much. Our upstairs neighbor is crazy and vacuums his room all the time to keep the voices away.

YOU HEARD HIM BOYS!!!!!!! LET'S GO KILL THAT MAN UPSTAIRS!!!!!!!!! I'LL BRING THE CHAINSAW!!!!!!! XD

TO drown him in of course!

You're going to drown him in toothpaste?

Well yes, what else would I do with it?

ill bring duct tape and banana .

+sewagedweller
I don't think I want to know what the banana's for...

Love that chorus :) A nice thing to blast in your apartment when the guy upstairs is being a dick and not letting you sleep :)

I remember another version (Heavy Drama) where can I find it? Was awesome.

Am I drunk or does it sound like god is the one upstairs? Leak=reain Noises=lighning vaccum=tornados. Guy downstairs is crazy=devil. I would say if Christianity was this house it would be like this. Humanity in the middle amonst demons and lost souls. Mend control is also something that is promised but nothing is good anyway :) Either I am really tired and drunk or that made freaking sense!

Though, uh, considering the lyrics in this song, especially the "Please - KILL that man upstairs"... little hard to see a want to align it to something talking about god

Sometimes when I talk to ateist about god they say "Pest is gone, I killed it" and similar thing. If God really doing the really really evil things and the really really good things wouldn't the world be kind of an easier place to live if the bad things was gone. Boring but easier. Some people have really bad things happening to them time and time again, some of them would if they only could make that part vanish. It is like reading the book series The Farseer by Robin Hobb (not her real name). In the end you want nothing good for the author, who in this world is God sense she wrote it.

@Catten FK Hard to say. If bad things never happened or nothing was ever difficult, animal and plant species (including our own) would never have evolved or continue to, and things would probably come to a stand still. In order to have good there has to be relative bad, and vice verse.

There has to be good and bad but some people have bad experiences with other people or major injuries over and over again. Some loose their minds and becomes something that isn't in the evolutionary standpoint. Many "unstable" people target spiritual leaders. Like the monk who founded Taizé, brother Roger. A man who sheltered Jew when the nazis where everywhere in France. Aside from religion there were a very popular politician in Sweden, Anna Lind, who were murdered for the same reason. If you meant that if God was dead the world would go on I think so too. It is like when people planted trees a long way back in time, even if they died the trees still grew.

Oh I don't disagree. I have had the unfortunate displeasure of dealing with many unstable people. I agree, time will go on with or without us, but challenges can be over come with evolutionary processes.

Love this song.

please do a how to play on this video for violin.

LMFAO people reading more into this song then is there.

instrumental please :3

What is this song about?

This one is actually exactly "what it says on the tin" Voltaire used to live in an apartment and his upstairs neighbor sucked.

@Billie Parrett
Sure, you could. But that borders on "looking to much into it". For once, the song is just as simple as it seems.

This song is totally about the Zimmerman note… I won't accept any other interpretation as the correct one, even if it's from the song creator himself.

Care to explain in detail?

Zimmerman Telegram?
If so.. How is Machu Pichu involved?

@Vlad Blarg "Machu Pichu Down the stairs" Mexico is north of Peru (where machu pichu is.)

Alright, that would make sense in the way you put it, but in all honesty: "Why is that relevant to a story about a man who has shitty neighbor's in his apartment?" I understand America could easily be described as a conglomerate loud bully to the rest of the world, but how is this room for a story on Mexico, and the Zimmerman telegram specifically?

http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/all_comments?v=QjBNdK4uck4&lc=04sO7INLFJkBtP3nyG-KZFh1fvf6rOiIyO4G9_wKNJM
Scott Shields, you ask, you get it!

Well it happened, you magnificent son of a bitch. Go celebrate with some pancakes.

My friend said this song is about the man upstairs being Canada amd the man downstairs being Mexico..to be fair we were pretty fucking high.

You're*

I can't believe someone actually memorized that. Bravo sir.

say what instrument is that in the beginning? it's so creepy it's awesome!

I thank you kind sir. It's a character from a game I'm quite fond of.

Indeed, you got a good one yourself good sir.

One can only dream... But for now, I gotta say, nice profile pic. Looks epic.

One day he will understand the ways of the mahogany...

I will once I get the chance then... Good luck in your future philosophy.

Indeed.... Now, in all seriousness, if you what to know what the fuck you just read, go look up TFS Abridged Mahogany.

Hmm... Well-played.

Then I accomplished my goal.

...I don't know what the fuck I just read, but I am laughing my ass off, and also reexamining my life at the same time.

So is the song purely just about your neighbors, or are you using them as metaphors for The Devil and God, Heaven and Hell? It sounds like it to me, but I'd like to find out straight from the Master.

And not just ANY Mahogany! But Mahogany from the planet Malchior 7, where the trees are 300 feet tall and BREATHE FIRE! From these trees this comment was forged 2000 years ago, using ancient blood rituals of the Malchior people. Not only does this make this comment nigh indestructible, but it CAN BEND THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE ITSELF!!... Also, it's a very fine material. Very expensive...... Mahogany.

I do love that you post full albums online for free listening. Thank you.

Heavy drama? -_-

Gotta love the way he says ''Virgin Mary''.

You made my day with just that one sentence.

are you making a new album, cause i listened to everything

Why your songs in the game aqw
Do you have the game or are just fans
What is the album that you like from your Albums

Indeed................Mahogany.........

....Maaaaahogany.

You win the internet.

Oh shit.

I'm curious, are you using an Upright Bass in this song?

Haha this past weekend I went on a trip with my girlfriend, and she's pretty religious, and several of your agnostic songs came on (Dead, God Thinks, this). Halfway through this she said "How often does Voltaire say Allah's name?"

i shall murder that fuck upstairs for you , i am a hitman! .. jus kidding , i'm a sloth.. the rape sloth!

You seem a tad peeved, M'lord. Shall I draw the Scotch Bath with Lavender?

WTB photoshopped image (yes I'm an eunuch seeing as I can't use it myself) of Voltaire with laser beam eyes.

Silly Voltaire, you could just use noise cancelling headphones!