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Whoops
Lyrics: John Popper
Music: John Popper

Have you ever seen an atom
Little bits of everything floating by
Take a good look at them
Collectively they compose all you see including your eye

Brilliant puzzle
A living Rubix Cube we think we can figure out and solve
But we're just monkeys
Scratching our heads trying to open our ears
To a chord that just won't seem to resolve

And we call it wisdom
Yes intellect in our truest sense of the word
You see for us security means a harmony
According to only what we have heard
And this alone and nothing less
Will ease our heart and our mind
In the hopes that in feeling free we'll reach paradise
On that hilltop we're still trying to find

But the possibility exists no matter how scary it may seem
That paradise was once the world and it wasn't just a dream
The earth was our heaven and we didn't know there were rules for us to break
And maybe now we'll find out too late what a clever hell we can make

Whoops
Whoops
Taheeka-haka-Whoops
Whoops

In this corner
Weighing in at almost every weight imaginable...
Life, and all that surrounds it
And in this corner
Weighing in at well, not really very much of anything;
A very sound and user friendly idea
On finally bringing that pesky mountain to Mohammed
Gentlemen at the sound of the harmonica solo you may come out fighting

Take a look at the horizon
Quiet and still
You know there used to be bison
Gentlemen you may fire at will
They say this land won't go to waste
But you gotta wonder how
You know we're chopping down the air we breathe
As fodder for the cow

That's right so we can eat well
Yes and starve to death
And say there's nothing we can do
Because we really don't want to do a goddamn thing
Look I'm shrugging and so are you
We can imagine the straightest of lines
But our fingers can't control the pen
And it's this frustration that yields relief
As we say we're just mortal men
And that means we get to torture a chimpanze
And infect him with disease
Because he screams just like a human child
While we study his desperate pleas

But the possibility exists no matter how scary it may seem
That paradise was once the world and it wasn't just a dream
The earth was our heaven and we didn't know there were rules for us to break
And maybe now we'll find out too late what a clever hell we can make

Whoops
Aw, whoops
Aw, whoops

While we're on the subject you know my conscience hurts (whoops)
And it will not go away (whoops)
So please concoct me some pill I can take (whoops)
While I think of something clever to say (whoops)
So I can look in my mirror made of polished glass (whoops)
And find no need to cringe (whoops)
And forget that sinking feeling I'm a dinosaur (whoops)
Out on his drunken last binge (whoops)

...from fossil to fossil (whoops)
Dust to dust (whoops)
I'll see you all in the earthly crust (whoops)

Whoops (a-daisy)
Whoops (a-daisy)
Whoops
Whoops
Whoops

© 1993 Blues Traveler Pub. Corp.

First release: Save His Soul
Released: 04/06/1993
Earliest time played: 05/23/1991
Last time played: 12/31/2007
Playing frequency:
  135 plays (see all shows)
  7.89% of shows in the database
  8.76% of shows since debut
  Detailed statistics
Song information:
  When played live, the refrain of "Whoops" is repeated by the audience toward the end of the song, when John begins to sing the last verse. There is more information on this in the official FAQ.

Other recordings of "Whoops":
  Blues for the Mitten State, 1993
  Sweet Pain and...Blues, 1995

A living Rubix Cube we think we can figure out and solve
The Rubik's (not Rubix) Cube, invented by Ernö Rubik, is a nine-by-nine cube with different colors on each face. The object is to twist the faces of the cube until each side is of a solid color. Given that there are 43,252,003,274,489,000 possible configurations, it is not surprising that it is often used to describe extremely difficult-to-solve problems.
finally bringing that pesky mountain to Mohammed
This is a common misquotation of a passage from Francis Bacon's essay "On Boldness". The passage reads:
"Mahomet made the people believe that he would call an hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers, for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill. So these men, when they have promised great matters, and failed most shamefully, yet (if they have the perfection of boldness) they will but slight it over, and make a turn, and no more ado."
"Bringing the mountain to Mohammed" has since taken on the metaphorical meaning of "doing the impossible".
Gentlemen at the sound of the harmonica solo you may come out fighting
The previous stanza is an extended metaphor of the introduction of a boxing match, where the announcer presents the boxers in their individual corners, and then indicates that they should come out fighting when the bell rings. The original line, from John's solo shows, referred to a guitar solo instead of a harmonica solo.
And that means we get to torture a chimpanzee/And infect him with disease/Because he screams just like a human child/While we study his desperate pleas
The previous four lines were the inspiration for this entire song; John was watching a episode of NOVA on PBS about how monkeys are used to test new vaccines for diseases.
...from fossil to fossil/Dust to dust
Evocative of the line "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" from the Book of Common Prayer. The line is based on a line from the Bible, the book of Genesis, chapter 3 verse 19: "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."