Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Border line
Dead inside
I don't mind
Falling to pieces
Count me in, violent
Let's begin feeding the sickness
How do I simplify?
Dislocate the enemy's on the way
Show me what it's like
To dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight
Full of fear
Ever clear
I'll be here fighting forever
Curious, venomous
You'll find me
Climbing to heaven
Never mind turn back time
You'll be fine
I will get left behind
Show me what it's like
To dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight
Holding on too tight
Breathe the breath of life
So I can leave this world behind
It only hurts just once
They're only broken bones
Hide the hate inside
Oh
(Forever, one I'll be fine)
Show me what it's like
To dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight
Holding on too tight
Breathe the breath of life
So I can leave this world behind
Dead inside
I don't mind
Falling to pieces
Count me in, violent
Let's begin feeding the sickness
How do I simplify?
Dislocate the enemy's on the way
Show me what it's like
To dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight
Full of fear
Ever clear
I'll be here fighting forever
Curious, venomous
You'll find me
Climbing to heaven
Never mind turn back time
You'll be fine
I will get left behind
Show me what it's like
To dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight
Holding on too tight
Breathe the breath of life
So I can leave this world behind
It only hurts just once
They're only broken bones
Hide the hate inside
Oh
(Forever, one I'll be fine)
Show me what it's like
To dream in black and white
So I can leave this world tonight
Holding on too tight
Breathe the breath of life
So I can leave this world behind
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Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
This song is about borderline personality disorder (which I have). For example:
the title "unknown soldier" - with borderline personalty disorder there is usually a confusion about identity and not knowing anything about ones self, this can manifest itself as constantly shifting values and beliefs.
The word "borderline" is the first line in the whole song.
"dead inside" - people with borderline personality disorder often feel dead inside, empty and hollow. Self-injury is commonly used to not only makes ones self "feel alive" but also to deal with unwanted stimuli and emotions.
"count me in, violent, lets begin, feeding the sickness" - Borderline personality disorder is often accompanied by uncontrollable anger, which can sometimes turn into a psychotic episode where one loses control over their actions.
"show me what it's like, to dream in black and white, so I can leave this world tonight" - another term for borderline personality disorder is "extreme black and white thinking" (or emotional dysregulation disorder). There is no grey area, for example friends are either your best friends ever or you never want to talk to them again, and there is no in between.
"so I can leave this world behind" - statistically, 8-10% of borderline complete suicide.
"It only hurts just once, They're only broken bones, Hide the hate inside" - Borderline personality disorder is usually accompanied by self-injury (not just cutting, any self-injury inflicted), this is often used for several reasons. 1)to combat the feeling of being dead inside, making one feel alive. 2)people with borderline personality disorder often feel worthless and self hate, this leads to engaging in self-destructive activities 3)to leave a state of dissociation. In dissociation, one often views themselves in the third person or has lapses in reality, for example ill be helping my mom make dinner and ill just reach down and grab the heating coil in the over SEVERLY burning my hand, but then "snap" im back to the moment right before i open the oven, it actually never happened (me grabbing the heating coil in the oven), but there is no way to determine whether im dissociating or not. This leads me to question whether what im experiencing at any given moment is actually reality or another dissociation.
I so agree with you, that's really what this song is about for sure. I had a "girlfriend" I while ago with Borderline and it's really sad how painful life can be for them I really feel for those with borderline, But its really hard for other people/me to to be able to understand them fully and adept after them:( <br /> Anyway it never worked out so now she hates me and never want to see me again hehe.. :/<br /> <br /> Good written you! +
I agree completely that the main there is BPD. I'm wondering if the author had a person in their life with BPD. I have an ex son-in-law that had it, and my soon to be ex wife has a milder form of it. The black and white thinking is very predominant. It's as if they are in a fantasy - and so "dream in black and white" is fitting. One week I'm a terrible husband and father, the next day I'm wonderful and can do no wrong. It's a dream world.<br /> <br /> The uncontrollable rage is another one that jumps out in the song, and also episodes of wanting to do self-harm.<br /> <br /> To me, the "Unknown Soldier" is the person fighting to gain some control over the enemy in their mind. If they even fight it, as few with BPD seek out treatment.<br /> <br /> I'm very glad that you apparently have recognized it and I assume you have gotten treatment. Best of luck to you!
@inthepretendworld Don't make me laugh. It is NOT about BPD unless in your head you happen to have the sad fortune of hearing helicopters too. <br /> <br /> It is about WAR. It is a soldier in war. <br /> <br /> Falling to Pieces - ever watched a war movie? Ever asked anyone who has the balls to fight in a war? Kill a man and you can very well fall to pieces. <br /> <br /> The line about feeding the sickness - war is a sort of sickness. <br /> <br /> Dream in black and white - sheltered fools who have never fought in a war think all it is, is black & white. They do not understand just how convoluted war is.<br /> <br /> So I can leave this world tonight - plays on the ignorance of those sheltered fools. He is asking let me see this fight, this war, as simplistically as such people do so that the conscience is clear. <br /> <br /> The rest is as it is, war. Don't drag BB into your crap.
@ash1175443 I should know better than to even try to reply to a response like yours, but I'm feeling masochistic I guess. Call it the self-harming side of the war that is my BPD...<br /> <br /> I agree with @inthepretendworld that the song is about BPD. That said, it can also be about war, because I can tell you that the two have a lot of similarities. Try reading about it. It's a hell I wouldn't wish on anyone, just like i wouldn't wish being a soldier in a war on anyone given the toll I know it takes on those who serve. @inthepretendworld didn't "drag BB into (his) crap", BB put themselves there on purpose - whether they intended to use war as a metaphor for BPD or not.<br /> <br /> Real art is art that says just enough to leave it open to interpretation, and this song is a perfect example of doing just that - and doing it in a very smart way.
@ash1175443 Check out the text below from the article at "thenewfury.com/wordpress/revisited-breaking-benjamins-modern-rock-opus-phobia/".<br /> <br /> "The strongest part of Phobia, though, is that the non-single cuts are some of the best material Breaking Benjamin will ever release. Case in point? Mid-album cut “Evil Angel”, which is a heavier track but also contains a soaring, magnificent chorus, and the undisputed best track on the album, “Unknown Soldier” – whose depiction of a soldier caught in battle is an emotionally gripping one, to be sure. However, it’s also referencing (subtly, of course, since Breaking Benjamin lyrics tend to be open to interpretation) personality disorders like bipolar and especially borderline personality disorder. Songs like these truly resonate with the common listener – especially if they know someone who’s served in battle, or has battled these disorders themselves."
@jay1114106 - don't make me LAUGH. <br /> <br /> War and BPD are similar. You don't have the balls, or the spine for that matter, to have served in the reserves never mind anything resembling a battlefield. I on the other have served on a battlefield, just as my father did & his father did & his father did. Your father & grandfather were rather likely draft dodgers. <br /> <br /> As for the link you quoted do NOT be STUPID. Nothing of the like, about bipolar, etc., was mentioned when Unknown Soldier was first released. Or in any years since. <br /> <br /> That is written in 2018, a modern reference and likely in relation to the fact Ben has mentioned he has some issues. It's a pathetic gimmick made by some slack jawed writer to sell his shit article. Nothing more, nothing less.
@jay1114106 - don't make me LAUGH. <br /> <br /> War and BPD are similar. You don't have the balls, or the spine for that matter, to have served in the reserves never mind anything resembling a battlefield. I on the other have served on a battlefield, just as my father did & his father did & his father did. Your father & grandfather were rather likely draft dodgers. <br /> <br /> As for the link you quoted do NOT be STUPID. Nothing of the like, about bipolar, etc., was mentioned when Unknown Soldier was first released. Or in any years since. <br /> <br /> That is written in 2018, a modern reference and likely in relation to the fact Ben has mentioned he has some issues. It's a pathetic gimmick made by some slack jawed writer to sell his shit article. Nothing more, nothing less.