Take A Picture

Lyrics have at least two meanings. The first is the intended meaning of the songwriter. I think there's a lot of evidence that meaning is about Richard Patrick getting drunk on a plane, stripping and having it photographed and sent to his father, with a sub-text of what it means to be famous.

But the second meaning of a lyric is what it means to the person who values the song. Sometimes that second meaning is close to the intended meaning. But sometimes this personal meaning goes off in another direction. A lot of poets and songwriters insist that personal meanings are as important as original intended meaning.

I find a lot of posts at this site are actually people sharing their personal meaning, even if they don't distinguish between the two meanings. Here's my personal meaning for this song.

When I hear this song or watch the video, I experience intense nostalgia. I don't mean just remembering some period in the past fondly. I'm talking an existential connection between the me of the present moment and a time of my life that is gone where I experience a deep spiritual and emotional nexus that combines both remembering what what was real and intense loss because it no longer is real and is no longer experienced and not fully remembered. This, for me, is both soul piercing sadness and elevating joy at the same time. I very much want to feel this but it also very much hurts to feel it.

Three things really activate this intense state. Scent, music and images. For instance the smell of cut grass on a hot day takes me right back to my teenage years while not taking me fully enough back, thus I have this experience.

The music of this song, now over a decade later, has this powerful effect on me. It's like a magic spell activating the time period when my adult sons were teenagers and we were evolving from them liking my music to me liking theirs. But the words, for me, have a personal meaning that is all about this nostalgia.

You see when that past was present I was "Awake" to it, My skin was "bare" to it, even belonging to it, being "theirs," all that was around me including the other people who were there. Here's something weird about this experience. It doesn't matter if back then it was a good or bad experience, it didn't matter if what was happening to me was due to others' scorn or hypocrisy or sanctity. I was awake to it all and now I'm not. Then it was "real" and I was "newborn" into that reality, but now it's gone.

So what I needed to make it somehow real now is a picture, a storing of the moment, because "I won't remember" it fully, it will be lost fully. Thus I will have this nostalgia.

A lot of nostalgia like this for me is a mix of either when I was a child/youth, in which a vital part of my life was relating to my parents, or when my children were young, in which a vital part of my lfie was relating as a parent. Either way the refrain "Hey dad what do you think of your son now" captures all that, both of them, even though I'm a woman. The entire experience includes the then and the now and what would my dad then think now of me his daughter and what do I now think now about my son(s) then.

So that's my personal meaning of the song. I think it is congruent with the original meaning about a specific moment in Richard Patrick's life, because I think he also realized the same existential nexus between that specific moment and the rest of his existence afterwards. But even if it's just my personal meaning, it's still my personal meaning.

Actually folks what happened is the lead singer is afraid of flying. To calm him down one night the band got himwasted on the flight. He started dancing around and taking off his clothes acting like an idiot. One of the band members started taking pictures so he would remember what he'd done in the morning. The part where he says "hey dad, what d'ya think about your son now" refers to the fact that the band mailed the nude photos to the lead singers parents as a joke. The song was just a tribute to a fun spirited memory. (found this out at a Filter concert)

haha, funny how this is partly aimed at a father for not approving of his son's career choice - a father with TWO pretty successful sons in showbiz - Richard's brother Robert played the T1000 in Terminator 2, Jonnhy Cash's dad in Walk the Line and a bumch more; Richard was only like the lead guitarist for a band called Nine Inch Nails, oh, and I think he had a band called Filter... what do you think about your sons now dad??

To me, this song represents the time in your life when you realize it's time to grow up and get on with your life. You decide to rid yourself of the past and move on to something new. "Awake on my airplane/I feel so real" is that feeling you get when your whole perspective on life has changed. Then my favorite part "Could you take my picture, cause I won't remember.." I love hearing it. I remember the first time I heard this song, almost two years during my sophomore year. I was having the worse year of my life. I was miserable and crying all the time because of a guy (who turned out to be the hugest, funniest waste of time ever) and I felt to insecure like everyone hated me. And then.. things started changing for me. I met new people who actually cared about me. I realized I had to get over him, and he wasn't that amazing. I remember feeling more relaxed, and not scared anymore. I didn't realize it then, but it really was the first time in a year that I'd actually felt happy. Since I heard this song around that time, and it described exactly how I felt, whenever I play this song, it's like I'm instantly taken back to that time. I remember it as the time that I started getting rid of the old naive me and becoming who I am now. The chorus to me means that you know these times aren't going to matter ten years from now. For me, that time is high school. Haha. It's like saying, "take my picture, because I'm happy right now and I have to care about anything," and you know things aren't going to be like this one day. It's about living in the moment and appreciating everything in life :)

Song makes me wanna get high.

This song is about( or could be about ) someone who has finally found success as a rock star..Although he has found success, we can tell by the author that he was " left alone " as a child and although he is now successful, (even has his own personal airplane), the fact that he was alone as a child is still painful to him..

" Awake on My Airplane "..." My ", meaning his own personal airplane ",a staple of suucess in society.

"My skin is bare, my skin is theirs" <~~~Although he is successful, he ultimately still belongs to the record label..

" feel like a newborn " <~His newly found success is a " new " to life to him...A newborn with a new adventure..

"Could you take my picture 'Cause I won't remember" <~~~He knows this new found success as a rock star will probably be over quickly. Most rock stars careers are filled with drugs, alcohol and forgotton experiences..He's asking someone to " take a picture " because after this new career comes and goes, " he won't remember "

"I don't believe in, I don't believe in Your sanctity " <~~~~This is addressed to his father. He's basically saying, " You weren't so perfect "

Which is proven by the next statement,

" Could everyone agree that No one should be left alone " <~~~Apparantly his Father was not around and left him alone as a child.

I guess its just one of those songs where you just listen to it and I think the main guy (don't hate me becuase i don't know the names and stuff) maybe had problems with his father or maybe if the guy has a kid it might be just a song for his son. I really have no idea but i like the song!

His father always told him that he would never make it in the music buisnes. This song was his way of telling his dad "What do you think of your son now".

:)

I was on a cruise last year, Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas, which had an excellent GenX soundtack, and I heard this playing one day and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn't heard it in YEARS, but it was always a favorite. The song is now connected to that cruise and the wonderful time I had there with my family. I wonder sometimes what previous memory it was connected to, but I can't remember. I do remember wearing this album out though on my Pioneer CD player in my RX-7.

i thought it was about the lead singer (i forgot his name...Patrick?) once getting drunk on an airplane, and someone reporting it in the news. He then proceeded to write a song about the rigours and the burdens of being famous....perhaps...maybe....