Tangled In The Great Escape

I think this song is about a friend who is considering suicide ("I know you're tortured within") and it's affecting other people's lives. The person is trying to get out of the "labyrinth of suffering" through suicide.

"Constant recovery" means that it will get better

The comforter is convincing the one comtemplating suicide that they can forget and leave behind their bad life without suicide in a way that would be better for everyone: "So bury what you are outside Brother promise you won’t leave me"

The friend is trying to comfort the one with suicide thoughts but fails: "But I’ll never wander my friend I let you down and I started to run Never meant to be your pain Oh my god What have I become"

The comforter once again apologizes for bringing them into the great escape and gives up on trying to get out, accepting the labyrinth: "Can I just have the great escape I never meant to hurt nobody I never meant to hurt you, no I only meant to do this to myself The great escape Let me out of this"

I just read the book "Looking for Alaska" by John Green and I feel like the book and this song deal with the same concepts-the labyrinth of suffering. This is a great song and I also suggest the book.

For me this song is about suicide/depression/addiction. I personally have spent years trying to break free from self harm and depression. I first heard this song while I had just gotten clean and it really spoke to my addictions.

Will somebody believe this is suicide? Am I the only one that thinks that You should stay alive? I became the shame that you backed Up on the ropes to yourself and hide. And so I scream, "mayday I'm in trouble, send somebody on the double." Scratching at the floor inside my mind.

As a person that was suicidal this stanza was very chilling. Some of these lines have been said to me in an effort for other people to help me.

I never meant to hurt nobody. I never meant to hurt you. No, no, no. No, yeah. I only meant to do this to myself, To myself, to myself...

This shows that the only person they were trying to hurt was themselves. Very rarely do addicts do it to hurt others.

What I love the most about music is that its all open to interpretation. While for me this song is clearly about addiction, others may see it differently and I love that.

I think this song is about Mike. Vic's part is from Mikes point of view about when Vic would self harm. Jason's part is telling him that he is sorry and that he "only meant to do this to myself" I never meant to hurt nobody. I never meant to hurt you. No, no, no. No, yeah. I only meant to do this to myself, To myself, to myself... How emotional this song is makes me think that. if you listen to it a like 5:00 you hear Jason's voice break a little

Alright, so this is really long, and I’m sorry, but I really just had to get my two-cents in here. I have Borderline Personality Disorder, and I really relate to this song, ergo, I feel it’s about the struggle with BPD. Here’s why:

[Tl;dr: I feel like Jason sort of describes having BPD and Vic is the friend or family member trying to save Jason from killing himself.]

So, the song starts out with Jason saying, “Don't you say you had a part of it. I guess we'll never know. Oh would you say that had a part of it. Well I guess we'll never know.” With BPD, we over analyze everything (for example, me with this song), get over offended, worry too much over what people think of us, etc. People without BPD usually feel like it’s their fault they offended or upset someone with it. We are (usually) very suicidal people, so it doesn’t take much to push us over the depression bridge. Jason is sort of saying, “It isn’t your fault I’m suicidal. I mean, sure you upset me, but I’m fucked up. So in a way you didn’t, but you still did. It’s complicated. ‘I guess we’ll never know.’”

“Constant recovery. I see you choke and it takes my breath away.” This shows Vic watching, say, Jason struggle with BPD. He’s watching him slowly kill himself, and he knows there’s nothing he can do to save him. It’s hard to watch. Especially since ‘Jason’ is in an uphill battle with himself. He’s always trying to get better, but he’s really going nowhere. There’s always relapses and all that fun stuff.

“When all is good, we close our eyes.” Meaning, you try to enjoy it for a second and take it for granted that for once, you don’t want to slip your own throat, while hoping you stay that way. “They all accept the lie.” This could be either/or. One, being everyone accepts the, “I’m okay,” lie that every depressed person portrays rather well. Two, being the, “Oh, I just have Bipolar Disorder,” lie which most people suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder usually say, just because we feel our disorder is sort of bullshit, and easy to laugh at, and frankly just afraid of judgement. (Trust me.)

“So bury what you want outside.” Saying, lay everything out on the table; get rid of all the shit that is going on inside your head. Just let it all out. Stop suppressing it. You aren’t doing anyone any favors. “Brother, promise you won't leave it.” Is ‘Jason’s desperate reassurance of ‘Vic’s trust; don’t leave me. I need you to be my friend. I trust you. Don’t walk away from me, please. (With BPD, we are very afraid – paranoid even – of people leaving us, especially unexpectedly.

“I know you're tortured within. Your eyes look hungry again.” After ‘Jason’ recovers from self-harm, ‘Vic’ watches as he continues degrading inside and wanting to hurt himself, or finally kill himself. “But I'll never wander, my friend.” Meaning, I’d be happier dead. (No more suffering. No more ‘wandering’, looking for a better way out.)

“Well, somebody believed in this suicide.” Self-explanatory. (People with BPD usually have attempted suicide once, and a large amount have actually succeeded.) “Am I the only one that thinks that you should stay alive? Oh, I became the train as you backed up on the ropes, to arm yourself and lie.” Basically the friend struggling, begging for ‘Jason’ to hang on.

“So, I scream, ‘Mayday. I'm in trouble. Send somebody on the double.’” We need someone to pull us out of this depression, because clearly, we can’t do this alone.

“Scratching at the floor inside my mind” Having BPD, you lose your mind a little. You have so many useless emotions flying around, and the only one standing out is, you guessed it, depression. Almost like a cat scratching your brand new furniture. It’s really damn annoying and unnerving. “They all accept the lie.” (Refer to paragraph 5)

“So bury what you want outside.” (Refer to paragraph 6.) “Brother, please don't be afraid of,” Friends and loved ones tend to try to distance themselves from us, because we’re depressing and hard to be around. Though, now that I think about it, it’s more of a beg for accepting suicide, rather the frantic, “OMG NO BB PLZ STEI ALIV IT GITS BETTER,” horse shit.

“I know you're tortured within. Your eyes look hungry again. But I'll never wander, my friend.” (Refer to paragraph 7.)

“I let you down, and started to run. Never meant to be your pain. What have I become?” Loved ones tend to feel like they’ve let us down, and as previously mentioned, distance themselves.

“Show me, show me the way back. Show me the way back now.” Self-explanatory; plead for help.

“I know you're tortured within. Your eyes look hungry again. But I'll never wander, my friend. No, I'll never wander again.” (Refer to paragraph 7.)

“Not what I want. Not what I need. Can I just have one more day? Just to make it through the day.” ‘Jason’ sort of begs ‘Vic’ to let him at least self-harm, because it makes it easier to “get through the day.” “You're tangled in the great escape.” ‘Great escape’ = suicide.

“I never meant to hurt nobody, no no, yeah. I never meant to hurt you, no no no no. I only meant to do this to myself, to myself, to myself. Great escape. I was lost, yeah. Baby, I was lost, yeah.” Basically what every self-harmer says; I’m only doing this to myself. It’s easy to get lost in the ‘great escape’ of self-harm and suicide. Even drugs. Any addiction at that. And it is the hardest thing to kick. It’s too easy to just slip deeper and deeper into it. After all, you are just harming yourself, aren’t you? (Selfishly disregards loved ones’ feelings.)

I interpreted it to relate to drug abuse. I think Jason Butler's "persona" is moreso the one doing the drugs, while Vic's is more watching from the outside.

"Will somebody believe this is suicide?" This refers to the fact that a lot of hard drugs are going to kill you if you use them long enough / too much. While it's not suicide in the way hanging yourself or something similar is, they're still killing themselves.

"They all accept the lie" refers to the addict tricking the people around them into believing that they're fine / don't have a problem, while one person notices it and tries to help. I think this can also relate to "Am I the only one that thinks that you should stay alive?" because these other people know, they just don't see it as a problem.

Being "tortured within" is the reason they turned to drugs. "Your eyes look hungry again" is them wanting whatever it is they're addicted to while the following line ("but I'll never wander my friend") is the person who's trying to help saying that they're not going to let them / isn't going to leave so they can make sure they don't give in.

If we look at Vic as being the one helping, "I let you down and I started to run. Never meant to be your pain, what have I become?" can refer to him letting them down in the way where they somehow got a hold of the drugs while he was trying to help them. "Never meant to be your pain" could refer to him watching as his friend goes through withdrawal or him letting him get the drugs. If you look at the former, "I let you down" could also mean that he was the one who gave them to him because he couldn't stand seeing him like that. If you don't look at Vic as the one helping, it could also be the person who's trying to recover giving in.

"It's not what I want, but now it's what I need" is self-explanatory for the post part. He doesn't want to continue doing drugs, but he's addicted and "needs" them.

"Can I have one more taste? Just to make it through the day." He's bargaining with whoever is trying to help him recover.

"I never meant to hurt nobody / I never meant to hurt you." and "I only meant to do this to myself." is him realizing the effect his addiction had on the people around him.

The "great escape" is how the drugs make him feel.

i definitely think this is about addiction. mostly because as a recovering heroin addict, i really understood it through that lens. i also think there are two perspectives in the song, the onlooker and the addict. people all accepting the lie that you're not using, the 'hungry eyes' of someone in deep withdrawal, 'this is not what i want but now it's what i need' and especially the idea of constant recovery. i spent most of my time in treatment still using. the back and forth dance between getting high, throwing up, taking meds to kill the withdrawal, staying clean for a few days then picking up again... having someone in my immediate family who was also on H, i can also really understand the perspective of the onlooker, and connect with both of them. also, does this song remind anyone else of the album lowcountry by envy on the coast?

Overall I think this song is about addiction. However I think there are two "perspectives" or "personas" in this song; the onlooker and the addict. I think for the first half of the song Vic is the "onlooker"; someone who is close to the addict and fears that if they keep using that they'll die. Hence the line "Am I the only one that thinks that you should stay alive?" Jason's persona, therefor, would be the addict.

However I think that their personas "switch roles" halfway through the song. Maybe after Vic's persona let Jason's down - he could've literally ran away or he could've gave in and gave the addict more of the drug because they couldn't stand seeing them in so much pain - he started becoming addicted to something himself. Though I don't think it would be drugs, but maybe alcohol. Which would be why Vic was the one screaming "I know what I want but it's now what I need", for he's trying to stay strong for Jason's persona while trying to quit his own addiction. But Jason's persona blames himself, knowing that Vic's persona wouldn't have become addicted to alcohol if it weren't for him worrying about Jason's own problem.

Another spin on the second half is Vic's persona did give Jason's persona more drugs because seeing him going through withdrawal was too much for him to handle. He blames himself and it takes an emotional toll as Vic's persona becomes torn between enabling Jason's persona and helping him be rid of this addiction. Hence the line "I know what I want" - aka to stop enabling the adict so he can recover and stop suffering - "But it's now what I need" - aka he wants to enable the addict to stop his own emotional pain, even though he doesn't want to because it would only cause them both more suffering; however, Vic's persona has some how been convinced that he needs to enable him to stop his own emotional conflict. Jason's persona notices Vic's persona's emotional turmoil and how hard the whole ordeal is on him and so he starts to regret ever dragging Vic's persona into the situation in the first place, not wanting to cause him pain in the first place.

One more take is that Vic's persona was the addict all along and that the first half of the song had Jason's persona seem like the addict because the first half Vic's persona is trying to put himself in an onlookers shoes to see how his own addiction effects everyone else around him. But by the second half of the song it is revealed that Vic is the addict, hence how he let Jason's persona down by still using and relapsing. By the end of it Vic's persona is desperate for more drugs since he's very far into withdrawal and begs for Jason's persona to get him some. Though this wouldn't make too much sense because of the ending, unless it ends up being like the beginning or Jason gave in and gave the other more drugs.

Either way it's an amazing song. One of my favorites on the album.

The way I see it, this song is about self harm and wanting to commit suicide. There are two friends (Jason Butler and Vic Fuentes, in this instance) and one of them (Jason, or at least the person he represents in the "story" the song tells) is depressed and wants to commit suicide.

To start of, there's the line, "They all accept the lie." This symbolizes being depressed, but telling your friends that everything's all right once they ask.

Next, Vic sings, "I know you're tortured within," meaning that he knows how his friend feels and understands the constant struggle he faces with himself. And in the second verse, Vic sings, "Am I the only one who thinks that you should stay alive?" This means that pretty much everyone has given up on Jason, except Vic.

Later on in the song, Jason sings, "Show me the way back home," meaning that he has gone too far with their self harm and they just want everything to feel okay again.

And, the song title, "Tangled in the Great Escape" symbolizes the feeling that the only way out of this lonely and sad state is suicide, and you're "tangled" in it because you either survive the attempt (i.e., getting your stomach pumped because of overdose, etc.) or you just can push yourself to ending your life.

Lastly, the final few lines of the song say, "Let me out of this." This means that you just can't take the depression any more, and you want to be done with it as soon as possible.

I think it is about 2 people in a heroin addiction "When all is good, we close our eyes". Also the lighter in the beginning of the song. One (let's just say the older brother) has an addiction and he uses and his younger brother grows and interest in the drug. The older brother dies "Brother, promise you won't leave me" and the younger brother grows an addiction to the drug as well. He also OD's or dies "Show me, show me the way back Show me the way back" the brother feels bad (obviously) "I never meant to hurt you, no no no no I only meant to do this to myself, to myself, to myself"

I think this is about drug addiction and possibly even specifically Jonny Craig's heroin addiction, that could be possible but not sure