| Muse – Unintended Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Like Michangelina said, the song is a reference to Heart of Darkness, by Conrad. The title was the first tip-off (the Intended in HoD), but there are lots of other little things. First of all, the second line he says: "choice to live my lie extended". In Heart of Darkness, Kurtz lives to be really, really old. So they're might be some connection there. Second, when Bellamy says "inquisitions" I feel like that's a HoD reference. In HoD, Kurtz was basically an allegory for the Catholic church: he invaded and conquered "savages" and basically converted them into his little cult. I see "inquisition" as referring to the Spanish inquisition, Bellamy's little nod to the "Catholic church is a dick" theme in Heart of Darkness. Also, "life I had before" refers to Kurtz's previous life in England, with his "Intended". The "mending" could refer to Marlow lying to the Intended to make her happy. In HoD, our teacher told us that the two lovers, the intended and the African queen, represented the two different sides of the Church. The Intended was the noble, pure goals of Catholicism, ie to save all of the unenlightened savages, whereas the African queen represented the ugly reality of the Church, a big, violent cult. When Bellamy sings about "...the one who challenged // all my dreams and all my balance" I imagine that he's singing about the African queen, the one who sort of destroyed his noble ideas of saving the savages. "She [the African queen] could never be as good as you [the Intended]" |
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| Foo Fighters – The Pretender Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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It's a protest song. He's singing about the Iraq war, and how politicians lie to the people, and how he sees through the facade. The first stanza ("keep you in the dark...And so it all began") he's singing directly to the American people. "They" refers to politicians, who "keep you in the dark" and "pretend". In the first verse, "skeletons" refers to American troops. They're skeletons because they're already dead; it's just a matter of time before they're killed. The next line "Sing as their bones go marching in...again" refers to the fact that this isn't the first time troops have invaded. It's a reference to the Gulf War, obviously, but he could also be making a statement about the USA's grand history of invading other countries, e.g. Vietnam, Korea. "The need you buried deep" refers to the alleged WMDs in Iraq; the "need" being the cause for invasion. The next line, about secrets, refers to the secret that there were no WMDs, and that Bush was hiding the fact. The prechorus (Spinning infinity, boy...same old story") refers to the fact that this invasion [of Iraq] has happened in the past many times. It's basically making the same point as "again" in the first verse. In the chorus, he starts referring to himself, personally. He says he's "not like the others", basically, that he can't be fooled as easily, that he sees through the politicians' lies. This is the most ambiguous part of the song--he could be referring to anything: a sociopath, his own delusional mind, even possibly the illuminati (though Grohl is hardly a conspiracy theorist)--but in the context of the rest of the song, I think it's clear that "the pretender" is Bush / Cheney, and all other lying politicians. In the second verse, he talks about being a sellout: "I'm just another soul for sale", and then about being "out of print" or unavailable. Maybe he's talking about how he used to be a sellout, but no longer? I don't know; I don't know enough about Grohl's history to answer that. In the bridge ("I'm the voice inside your head....Yeah, who are you?") he starts talking macho; no more of this passive "the wheel is spinning me" crap. He talks about how he's inside the pretender (ie Bush) and how he's going to "bring you to your knees". The "I'm what's left, I'm what's right" line at first means that he's everywhere, that lots of people think the same thing, but it's a double-entendre: it also refers to the political left and political right. When he starts singing "who are you?" I at first thought that he was unsure of who the pretender is, and he's wondering about the identity. It's actually a rhetorical question, though; he's saying:"who are you to do this to my country?" Grohl knows perfectly well who the "pretender" is, he's just hopping mad. Then more chorus, and outro. I know this is the obvious interpretation, but I'm fairly sure it's how the song was intended. It makes the most sense this way. |
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