Tranquilize

FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN CONFUSED ABOUT THIS SONG, OR CAN’T SEEM TO GRASP THE MEANING, READ BELOW:

Here you go. I have spent an unbelievable amount of time analyzing this, and I truly think I have unlocked the code.

Time it tells living in my home town, Wedding bells they begin easy

It’s so easy to falsely think you’re in love. When you’re in that crazy stage of dating someone, it’s so easy to imagine yourself spending the rest of your life with them and marrying them (wedding bells.) They come easy.

Live it down, baby don’t talk that much, Baby knows, but baby don’t tease me

The girl he loves is shy and inexperienced, but not stupid. She still knows he likes her. He doesn’t want to be “teased” by her, and led to believe she feels the same way when he doesn’t.

In the park we could go walking, Drown in the dark or we could go sailing On the sea

The relationship could go terribly wrong or be a forever harmonious, peaceful thing, such as sailing on the sea. He knows this.

Always here, always on time Close call, was it love or was it just easy

This summed up in the line “Was it love or was it just easy?” These days, people are so scared they aren’t going to find the one, so tired of looking, or so desperate that they take whatever comes along. It may not be “love” but it’s easy, so they settle for it, and give up their higher aspirations. She was there, and he was there, so thus, it happened.

Money talks when people need shoes and socks

This woman he loves might actually only be with him for his money. Money talks, and she needs shoes and socks (a metaphor for material goods.)

Steady boys, I'm thinking she needs me

He initially thought that she was using him, and was weary, but now he’s starting to think that she actually needs him, and is scared to believe that…

I was just sipping on something sweet I don’t need political process

Everyone else might think it won’t work, or they aren’t really in love, just because their relationship isn’t conventional. He is sippin on something sweet (love), so he can‘t see the faults in the relationship anyway. There might be things wrong, but at the same time, he doesn’t need a tried and true” process” to tell him that he is in love.

I got this feeling that they‘re gonna break down the door I got this feeling they they’re gonna come back for more See I was thinking that I lost my mind But it’s been getting to me all this time And it don’t stop dragging me down

By “they” he means his old demons… maybe bad habits, maybe doubt and fear… He was thinking that he lost his mind, when throughout his life he was filled with worry and paranoia, but now, he realized that his mind Is working perfectly fine, in giving him these thoughts. It just won’t stop nagging him, but now he knows it’s justified in doing so.

Silently reflection turns my world to stone Patiently correction leaves us all alone And sometimes I’m a travel man But tonight this engine's failing

He has an epiphany. In one sudden moment, his world turns to stone, and he realizes that she doesn’t love him. Through reflection, he realizes the relationship isn’t at all what he thought… He wants to leave her, and he never usually has trouble leaving women (he’s a travel man.) “Tonight this engine’s failing“, means that he can’t bring himself to leave her though, even if it is all a farce and she is using him. He loves her too much.

*I still hear the children playing

Kick the can, kick the can, skip and blackjack Steal a car and ring a round-rosey, Rock and roll, candyland, boogeyman, Run away and give me your sneakers*

He remembers his messed up childhood, and wonders if that’s why his life is the way it is today. Things were horrible and rough, and it haunts him everyday. He looks for the love in her that he never has received before.

Acid rain, when Abel looked up at Cain We began the weeping and wailing A hurried high from pestilence, pills and pride, It’s a shame, we could of gone sailing But heaven knows, Heaven knows everything Tranquilize

He looks back on what he was taught, and wonders if this path of in his life (and the rest of the world’s) misery and anger started from Abel and Cain. He killed his brother out of violence, and his parents wept and wailed for their dead son. Thus, we are all meant to be violent, angry, depressed and sad. Because of this predisposed misery, we all seek temporary, quick highs to escape the sadness. We sometimes achieve these from pestilence, pills, and pride.

By It’s a shame, we could have gone sailing, he means that we all could choose to “sail” and go down the road of happiness, yet we never do. More specifically, he and his lover could have “gone sailing” (been truthful, happy and peaceful), yet their misery prevented them from doing so.