Extreme Ways is one of the first songs I really noticed at the end of a film that I felt a need to go home and look up  — it was that good, and that arresting. It haunted me the whole drive home after viewing The Bourne Identity and I became a big fan of Moby after that.

On my research, I was pleased to note a Moby song was also a major component of one of my all-time favorite episodes of The X-Files:  All Things. Again with the lyrical haunting sound. I was Moby-hooked. (The Wikipedia states: The episode makes heavy use of The Sky Is Broken, a song from Moby‘s 1999 album Play, as well as a gong. The episode has been analyzed for its themes of pragmatism and feminist philosophy.)

Here’s the video of the end credit segment of The Bourne Identity, followed below by Moby’s lyrics to Extreme Ways.  It’s got a really good beat, too. Enjoy!

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Lyrics for Extreme Ways

(Song by Moby)

Extreme ways are back again
Extreme places I didn’t know
I broke everything new again
Everything that I’d owned
I threw it out the windows, came along
Extreme ways I know move apart

The colors of my sea
Perfect color me

Extreme ways that help me
That help me out late at night
Extreme places I had gone
But never seen any light
Dirty basements, dirty noise
Dirty places coming through
Extreme worlds alone
Did you ever like it then

I would stand in line for this
There’s always room in life for this

Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart

Extreme songs that told me
They helped me down every night
I didn’t have much to say
I didn’t get above the light
I closed my eyes and closed myself
And closed my world and never opened
Up to anything
That could get me along

I had to close down everything
I had to close down my mind
Too many things to cover me
Too much can make me blind
I’ve seen so much in so many places
So many heartaches, so many faces
So many dirty things
You couldn’t even believe

I would stand in line for this
It’s always good in life for this

Oh baby, oh baby
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
All day, all day
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
(Falling apart)
It’s a Monday morning, it’s everywhere
Oh no I can’t

All day, all day
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
All day, all day
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
All day, all day
Then it fell apart, it fell apart
All day, all day
Like it always does, always does…

(Songwriters: Richard Melville Hall
Extreme Ways lyrics, 2002 © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner/Chappell Music, Inc)

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