Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs

I feel like a newborn

Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
I feel so real

Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah

I don't believe in
I don't believe in
Your sanctity
Your privacy
I don't believe in
I don't believe in
Sanctity
A hypocrisy

Could everyone agree that
No one should be left alone?
And I feel like a newborn

Kicking and screaming

Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah

Hey, Dad
What do you think about your son now?
Ah, hey, Dad
What do you think about your son now?

Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Could you wanna take my picture?
'Cause I won't remember
Yeah

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Lyrics submitted by jstalilwyrd

Take A Picture Lyrics as written by Richard Michael Patrick

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

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Take A Picture song meanings

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General Comment
Lyrics have at least two meanings. The first is the intended meaning of the songwriter. I think there's a lot of evidence that meaning is about Richard Patrick getting drunk on a plane, stripping and having it photographed and sent to his father, with a sub-text of what it means to be famous.

But the second meaning of a lyric is what it means to the person who values the song. Sometimes that second meaning is close to the intended meaning. But sometimes this personal meaning goes off in another direction. A lot of poets and songwriters insist that personal meanings are as important as original intended meaning.

I find a lot of posts at this site are actually people sharing their personal meaning, even if they don't distinguish between the two meanings. Here's my personal meaning for this song.

When I hear this song or watch the video, I experience intense nostalgia. I don't mean just remembering some period in the past fondly. I'm talking an existential connection between the me of the present moment and a time of my life that is gone where I experience a deep spiritual and emotional nexus that combines both remembering what what was real and intense loss because it no longer is real and is no longer experienced and not fully remembered. This, for me, is both soul piercing sadness and elevating joy at the same time. I very much want to feel this but it also very much hurts to feel it.

Three things really activate this intense state. Scent, music and images. For instance the smell of cut grass on a hot day takes me right back to my teenage years while not taking me fully enough back, thus I have this experience.

The music of this song, now over a decade later, has this powerful effect on me. It's like a magic spell activating the time period when my adult sons were teenagers and we were evolving from them liking my music to me liking theirs. But the words, for me, have a personal meaning that is all about this nostalgia.

You see when that past was present I was "Awake" to it, My skin was "bare" to it, even belonging to it, being "theirs," all that was around me including the other people who were there. Here's something weird about this experience. It doesn't matter if back then it was a good or bad experience, it didn't matter if what was happening to me was due to others' scorn or hypocrisy or sanctity. I was awake to it all and now I'm not. Then it was "real" and I was "newborn" into that reality, but now it's gone.

So what I needed to make it somehow real now is a picture, a storing of the moment, because "I won't remember" it fully, it will be lost fully. Thus I will have this nostalgia.

A lot of nostalgia like this for me is a mix of either when I was a child/youth, in which a vital part of my life was relating to my parents, or when my children were young, in which a vital part of my lfie was relating as a parent. Either way the refrain "Hey dad what do you think of your son now" captures all that, both of them, even though I'm a woman. The entire experience includes the then and the now and what would my dad then think now of me his daughter and what do I now think now about my son(s) then.

So that's my personal meaning of the song. I think it is congruent with the original meaning about a specific moment in Richard Patrick's life, because I think he also realized the same existential nexus between that specific moment and the rest of his existence afterwards. But even if it's just my personal meaning, it's still my personal meaning.

Lyrics have at least two meanings. The first is the intended meaning of the songwriter. I think there's a lot of evidence that meaning is about Richard Patrick getting drunk on a plane, stripping and having it photographed and sent to his father, with a sub-text of what it means to be famous. But the second meaning of a lyric is what it means to the person who values the song. Sometimes that second meaning is close to the intended meaning. But sometimes this personal meaning goes off in another direction. A lot of poets and songwriters insist that personal meanings are as important as original intended meaning. I find a lot of posts at this site are actually people sharing their personal meaning, even if they don't distinguish between the two meanings. Here's my personal meaning for this song. When I hear this song or watch the video, I experience intense nostalgia. I don't mean just remembering some period in the past fondly. I'm talking an existential connection between the me of the present moment and a time of my life that is gone where I experience a deep spiritual and emotional nexus that combines both remembering what what was real and intense loss because it no longer is real and is no longer experienced and not fully remembered. This, for me, is both soul piercing sadness and elevating joy at the same time. I very much want to feel this but it also very much hurts to feel it. Three things really activate this intense state. Scent, music and images. For instance the smell of cut grass on a hot day takes me right back to my teenage years while not taking me fully enough back, thus I have this experience. The music of this song, now over a decade later, has this powerful effect on me. It's like a magic spell activating the time period when my adult sons were teenagers and we were evolving from them liking my music to me liking theirs. But the words, for me, have a personal meaning that is all about this nostalgia. You see when that past was present I was "Awake" to it, My skin was "bare" to it, even belonging to it, being "theirs," all that was around me including the other people who were there. Here's something weird about this experience. It doesn't matter if back then it was a good or bad experience, it didn't matter if what was happening to me was due to others' scorn or hypocrisy or sanctity. I was awake to it all and now I'm not. Then it was "real" and I was "newborn" into that reality, but now it's gone. So what I needed to make it somehow real now is a picture, a storing of the moment, because "I won't remember" it fully, it will be lost fully. Thus I will have this nostalgia. A lot of nostalgia like this for me is a mix of either when I was a child/youth, in which a vital part of my life was relating to my parents, or when my children were young, in which a vital part of my lfie was relating as a parent. Either way the refrain "Hey dad what do you think of your son now" captures all that, both of them, even though I'm a woman. The entire experience includes the then and the now and what would my dad then think now of me his daughter and what do I now think now about my son(s) then. So that's my personal meaning of the song. I think it is congruent with the original meaning about a specific moment in Richard Patrick's life, because I think he also realized the same existential nexus between that specific moment and the rest of his existence afterwards. But even if it's just my personal meaning, it's still my personal meaning.

Reason:

LibWingofLibWingon May 14, 2012 Link
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@LibWingofLibWing

Yes, in the post i felt like you captured the meaning on the song perfectly. While reading you're post i was baffled you literally took the toughs out of my head

Underearthon February 21, 2013

Eloquently said!

suicideblondon September 05, 2013

That is awesome. I couldn't have said it better.

april10080on March 02, 2014

I was going to write my own meaning but I don't need to. You did it.

@nthonyon June 26, 2014

@LibWingofLibWing Amazingly put

mike101035on January 18, 2017

@LibWingofLibWing I have never agreed to an interpretation of any literary artwork as much as I have about this. Thank you for sharing. Particularly the lines, "both piercing sadness and elevating joy." To me, this is a very spiritual song and closely captures those same feelings you get at a church event; when all your emotions are on overdrive and all you can do is let yourself go in that moment. It also echoes a sense of understanding that there are billions of other moments waiting for us to experience in our own personal life. It was the same feeling I had as a teenager when I first heard this song, but I couldn't understand it now that I am a bit older and in that same sense I feel like a newborn letting yourself go in that moment. In my opinion, this song is a masterpiece, more so than a 90s radio hit song.

Counterclockwerkon February 08, 2018

@LibWingofLibWing I'm fully with you on that one. The original meaning is irrelevant to me. There's such a sense of nostalgia and sadness but it's beautiful at the same time. Personally this reminds me of early 2000s when a lot was going on in my life and I was having a very emotional and manic time. I was flying back and forth between London and New York for work while in a hypomanic state (undiagnosed bipolar at that time). The talk of 'awake on my airplane' brings back definite memories of the couple of hours before landing in New York the second time immensely excited as I'd decided to move there on a whim. Excited but also massively agitated - made liveable my partying and drinking with some new friends. Once I came down from the mania I became massively depressed and wondered what the hell I was thinking. Flew back to London and spent a few years getting my life back together. So this song means all that! I came here to post this and see what the song meant to others after listening to the song for the first time in years. I'm very happy to hear you have similar happy/sad feelings about it. 

stuart1069on April 11, 2018

@LibWingofLibWing this is basically how I feel as well. I think about all of the times I had with friends as a kid and when I was younger. All the times we got high together and tripped. Some things I will never forget and this song helps me to live out those memories in my everyday life. All the memories you hold close to your heart and the happiness that good memories can bring. Such as memories of loved ones who are no longer with us and good times with friends where there was no responsibility or worry.

cail112338on November 07, 2021

@LibWingofLibWing this is basically how I feel as well. I think about all of the times I had with friends as a kid and when I was younger. All the times we got high together and tripped. Some things I will never forget and this song helps me to live out those memories in my everyday life. All the memories you hold close to your heart and the happiness that good memories can bring. Such as memories of loved ones who are no longer with us and good times with friends where there was no responsibility or worry.

cail112338on November 07, 2021

@LibWingofLibWing I see you wrote this 11 years ago. I love you style of writing, your sense of putting the person back as a teen, smelling the cutting grass and the feeling of nostalgia that came over me from your interpretation of the song. Thank you.

DNice70on June 24, 2023

@LibWingofLibWing signed up again just to upvote this response, I know the bands intentional meaning is the first one but it's your second bit so much for me! Awesome in depth review of the track

rstarkon June 29, 2023