| AFI – The Interview Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Forgot to add about the first stanza...it links to the last...someone is dying, "Will you play it too?" is reference to assisted suicide. Whoever is dying is dying slowly and painfully, which could be argued is the perspective of the next stanza's "crawling cross this cracked expansion..." or even the whole rest of the song. At times, I feel the song DOES move in and out of perspective of the two people...the person dying and the person watching the other dying - JB | |
| AFI – The Interview Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This is very clearly a song about religion and one's connection. "What david calls servant and Master. Will you play it too?" - Is a reference to God. It is subtle, because one doesn't think of God as a "servant," but think of how many things God is asked to do on behalf of His followers in the Bible. He provides food, He heals and provides both succor and refuge. God is many things in the Bible, including servant to those He leads. This, then, makes sense when he says, "Will you play it, too?" I.E. Will you play God? "As this displacement begs for water..." - Displacement means to be moved, or shifted. It also means to be lost. The reference to water indicates the person is in hell...and the water imagery is cleverly continued with the "Swimming, bathing, drowning in sorrow..." Quite possibly this is a hint of a reference to Jonas' "hell." Contrary to belief, the Bible is quite clear that "hell" is individual. It's not a burning, fiery pit (my own personal belief is that life here on earth is "hell"). The second stanza...where he's crawling across the "cracked expansion" this is a reference to religion and it's teaching altogether...it is the feeling of one who is in a desert of need. Crawling is a form of supplication. The cracked expansion is not just the lack of nurishment that religion feed's its followers, but also the lack of stability and the literal "cracks" in it's reasoning and actions....hence being "buried" by its "sand of pure intentions" those who are desperately "wanting someone to follow." The narrator has given religion a chance: "For a change, I'll refrain from hiding all of me from you." The result is less than optimal, "Pray for rain" (remember, he's in a "desert"...maybe of his own pain? "Rain" would be a relief and nourishment) "lose your name" (lose your identity). "And watch all your dreams fall through" (the loss of hope). Again, a part of the chance the narrator is giving religion, "I fall upon my knees, come crashing." The fact that he isn't dropping to his knees voluntarily tells you something...he has been brought to this point out of desperation. It is his last resort, the last thing he can think of to get the relief, answers, nourishment, he needs. I personally think it's relief and answers by the last stanza of the song, which is what convinces most the song is about relationships. It is not. It's about religion and death and loss...as most songs on this Album are. "I flee to, I flee to decemberunderground. As you exhale, I breathe in and sink into, The water underground, And I grow pale without you." December is a desolate time of year, it is the heart of winter when all living, green and growing things have died. This stanza isn't about relationships, it is about the death of a loved one. As s/he exhales (i.e. dies, this is the last breath of a dying person), the narrator "breathes in" (i.e. continues to exist and live...albeit in hell). "And I grow pale, without you." - Self explanatory, the narrator, living without a loved one, is a shadow, a ghost of what he/she was. He misses that person and is "pale" (i.e. sick, mourning, despondent) without him/her. |
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| AFI – The Interview Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This is very clearly a song about religion and one's connection. "What david calls servant and Master. Will you play it too?" - Is a reference to God. It is subtle, because one doesn't think of God as a "servant," but think of how many things God is asked to do on behalf of His followers in the Bible. He provides food, He heals and provides both succor and refuge. God is many things in the Bible, including servant to those He leads. This, then, makes sense when he says, "Will you play it, too?" I.E. Will you play God? "As this displacement begs for water..." - Displacement means to be moved, or shifted. It also means to be lost. The reference to water indicates the person is in hell...and the water imagery is cleverly continued with the "Swimming, bathing, drowning in sorrow..." Quite possibly this is a hint of a reference to Jonas' "hell." Contrary to belief, the Bible is quite clear that "hell" is individual. It's not a burning, fiery pit (my own personal belief is that life here on earth is "hell"). The second stanza...where he's crawling across the "cracked expansion" this is a reference to religion and it's teaching altogether...it is the feeling of one who is in a desert of need. Crawling is a form of supplication. The cracked expansion is not just the lack of nurishment that religion feed's its followers, but also the lack of stability and the literal "cracks" in it's reasoning and actions....hence being "buried" by its "sand of pure intentions" those who are desperately "wanting someone to follow." The narrator has given religion a chance: "For a change, I'll refrain from hiding all of me from you." The result is less than optimal, "Pray for rain" (remember, he's in a "desert"...maybe of his own pain? "Rain" would be a relief and nourishment) "lose your name" (lose your identity). "And watch all your dreams fall through" (the loss of hope). Again, a part of the chance the narrator is giving religion, "I fall upon my knees, come crashing." The fact that he isn't dropping to his knees voluntarily tells you something...he has been brought to this point out of desperation. It is his last resort, the last thing he can think of to get the relief, answers, nourishment, he needs. I personally think it's relief and answers by the last stanza of the song, which is what convinces most the song is about relationships. It is not. It's about religion and death and loss...as most songs on this Album are. "I flee to, I flee to decemberunderground. As you exhale, I breathe in and sink into, The water underground, And I grow pale without you." December is a desolate time of year, it is the heart of winter when all living, green and growing things have died. This stanza isn't about relationships, it is about the death of a loved one. As s/he exhales (i.e. dies, this is the last breath of a dying person), the narrator "breathes in" (i.e. continues to exist and live...albeit in hell). "And I grow pale, without you." - Self explanatory, the narrator, living without a loved one, is a shadow, a ghost of what he/she was. He misses that person and is "pale" (i.e. sick, mourning, despondent) without him/her. |
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| AFI – The Interview Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
This is very clearly a song about religion and one's connection. "What david calls servant and Master. Will you play it too?" - Is a reference to God. It is subtle, because one doesn't think of God as a "servant," but think of how many things God is asked to do on behalf of His followers in the Bible. He provides food, He heals and provides both succor and refuge. God is many things in the Bible, including servant to those He leads. This, then, makes sense when he says, "Will you play it, too?" I.E. Will you play God? "As this displacement begs for water..." - Displacement means to be moved, or shifted. It also means to be lost. The reference to water indicates the person is in hell...and the water imagery is cleverly continued with the "Swimming, bathing, drowning in sorrow..." Quite possibly this is a hint of a reference to Jonas' "hell." Contrary to belief, the Bible is quite clear that "hell" is individual. It's not a burning, fiery pit (my own personal belief is that life here on earth is "hell"). The second stanza...where he's crawling across the "cracked expansion" this is a reference to religion and it's teaching altogether...it is the feeling of one who is in a desert of need. Crawling is a form of supplication. The cracked expansion is not just the lack of nurishment that religion feed's its followers, but also the lack of stability and the literal "cracks" in it's reasoning and actions....hence being "buried" by its "sand of pure intentions" those who are desperately "wanting someone to follow." The narrator has given religion a chance: "For a change, I'll refrain from hiding all of me from you." The result is less than optimal, "Pray for rain" (remember, he's in a "desert"...maybe of his own pain? "Rain" would be a relief and nourishment) "lose your name" (lose your identity). "And watch all your dreams fall through" (the loss of hope). Again, a part of the chance the narrator is giving religion, "I fall upon my knees, come crashing." The fact that he isn't dropping to his knees voluntarily tells you something...he has been brought to this point out of desperation. It is his last resort, the last thing he can think of to get the relief, answers, nourishment, he needs. I personally think it's relief and answers by the last stanza of the song, which is what convinces most the song is about relationships. It is not. It's about religion and death and loss...as most songs on this Album are. "I flee to, I flee to decemberunderground. As you exhale, I breathe in and sink into, The water underground, And I grow pale without you." December is a desolate time of year, it is the heart of winter when all living, green and growing things have died. This stanza isn't about relationships, it is about the death of a loved one. As s/he exhales (i.e. dies, this is the last breath of a dying person), the narrator "breathes in" (i.e. continues to exist and live...albeit in hell). "And I grow pale, without you." - Self explanatory, the narrator, living without a loved one, is a shadow, a ghost of what he/she was. He misses that person and is "pale" (i.e. sick, mourning, despondent) without him/her. |
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| AFI – The Interview Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| AFI – The Interview Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Foster the People – Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think that the two main interpretations are both correct: that it is a fantasy or that is about a disturbed kid pre-shooting spree (it IS an interpretation after all). But I lean to the latter. There is too much about the song that points to the ironic and to the disturbing for me (especially having worked with teenage abuse victims, sociopaths and sex offenders). The sing-songy, catchy mood and sound of the song is totally in keeping with the distancing seen by kids suffering from abuse (and also under a chemical influence - "fun things" in the box in the closet was likely drugs and other sorts of unsavory "adult" items). It is also typical of a sociopath, who has no real emotion and kills to feel the one thing he/she can feel (the terror of his/her victims, which brings temporary pleasure). The refrain is indicative of that sort of hunting pleasure. The stalking, the imagining, the waiting. The first stanza of him hunting, watching the bar and not sure what he's going to do, but feeling good and all powerful because he IS the decider of their fates is eery in its reality. The "packed on ice" lyric can be two things for me, which I thought was pretty simple. He's got "dinner" ready and it's "packed on ice." ROBERT is "dinner" he's going to "serve" his father what he's been waiting for a long time to do. "Packed on ice" is him, how he feels. He's cool. He's cold. He's detached. And he's waiting. It can also mean what he's actually "packing" as in the gun (weapons are often called heat, but sometimes the act of using them is "icing" someone). The last little part of that, I think, is you hearing his thoughts and then him repeating his father's last words as he (the father) realizes that his son has a gun pointed at him: "You must have lost your wits, yeah." |
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