| Alice in Chains – Don't Follow Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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This song is about suicide, regardless of the reasons for the act. It is not about heroine addiction. Yes Jerry wrote it, and sounds more like Lane’s life, but that changes nothing. If you will, follow my train of thought: “Hey, I ain't never coming home.” I have decided to end my life. “Hey, I'll just wander my own road.” I am so lost and alone. And have run out of hope. My misery has pushed everyone I care for so far away. But I don’t want to tell you my decision yet. You’ll understand once I am gone. (or perhaps it’s a sort-of filler lyric) Hey-hey, I can't meet you here tomorrow - no, no. - By tomorrow, I will be dead. Say goodbye don't follow. Misery so hollow. Don’t take my suicide as something to consider for yourself. Don’t romanticize my, your own or anyone else’s dark struggles: if it draws you in, you’ll find there is no sweet spot or silver lining to internal darkness. The attraction is real, the reality is fake. So you’re left with nothing. "Hey you, you're livin' life full throttle." I have no clue what this means. Maybe referring back to “Don’t do what I am about to because you’re life is going well.” "Hey you, pass me down that bottle, yeah..." OK, I’ve made up mind my, hand me the bottle of pills to kill myself. Or… He’s found some comfort among others who also want to die – let’s take a swig of booze and get this over with. The pills are taken, it’s just a matter of time now. Now he’s entering a state of transformation: aware and existing between living and dead. "Hey-hey you, you can't shake me round now." He’s now remembering the first time he went through that transition - …being born. Opposite direction but similar experience. So he is now telling his mother (not in person), he’s not in her womb, or dependent on her, so he is free and a bit bitter about the past. "I get so lost and don't know how, yeah..." Being a sensitive soul, the bitterness shifts to an attempt at explaining to her that he did try over and over, but always ended up in a living hell. "It hurts to care, I'm goin' now." He realizes that he dropped his guard, so he is starting to feel sadness, reflect on regret and guilt for the pain he will cause others. “OK, enough. I AM doing to die. So one last time: goodbye.” *** The song tone changes, indicating that he’s now shifting from “looking back” and saying goodbye to looking forward at what’s to come. "Well I forgot my woman, lost my friends Things I've done and where I've been," His identity and any relation to what he knows as life are now gone. "Sleep in sweat - the mirror's cold - Seen my face? It's growin' old -" His body is reacting to the drugs – cold sweats. Looking in a mirror, he gets a chilling view of a dying face. Or he’s sick of being reminded of his life, which is strongest when looking at himself in the mirror. "Scared to death, no reason why" No more misery, depression, or agony, so why be scared? And… it is a play on words: Why be ‘scared to death’ when he has already insured that he will get to death very soon anyways. "Do whatever to get me by," He’ll grab any distraction to avoid experiencing the horrors the poison he took is causing… until he is dead. So he chooses to: "Think about the things I've said Read the page its cold and dead" But reflecting on anything he has said is pointless: he can’t address who he said them to, or adjust to how people react, because now there is not enough time before he is dead. "An' take me home! Yeah! Take me home! Oh-oh... take me home Take me home, yeah. Take me home. Yeah, oh." Home is resolve, relief, comfort. And he has felt dead for so long, being dead will be like home to him than living another day. He’s now feeling hopeful and optimistic. Leaving the body, the relief of the pain feels so good. "Say goodbye. Don't follow." One final time, reminding others not to do what he has now done. Follow that into the song Swing On This (the next song on that album). Death is over. The song is more upbeat. He’s confronted with feeling his family and friends' desire for him to come back to life (…said come home), but he still wants to die (heading towards what home is for him.) He hears a voice that says you have a choice, but he knows he can’t go back, only choose how fast he heads home. Or I am completely wrong and all of that was just my weird mind getting too creatively over-active. |
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