Fear The Voices

On another note, the "voices" are clearly the center piece in this song and are the key to its meaning. The voices don't necessarily have to be the media. Refer to the first set of lines, once your have signed your name over, the "voices" could be the men/women in charge of the record label. At this point, that is how I read it. That opens another idea, perhaps the song is saying, if you still have choices, or in this case you ignore the voices, they will blow you away by invading your privacy and feeding it to the public as a way of getting back at you.

I'm pretty sure they're saying "If you steal our choices we'll blow you away" not "if you still have choices"

Damn good ass song and good ass vocals...FINALLY a song thats not about drugs and its still a good one

Anybody think this song is about George Bush Sr? That line about "Mr. Gardener" always caught my attention.

Could be, I kind of doubt it though. Don't ask me why.

Could be, I kind of doubt it though. Don't ask me why.

Why are the lyrics jacked up though? It doesn't repeat the 'messed up generation' part. I just wanted to say I love the falsetto 'oh, oh' parts on this song. This song has just so many different sounds, and levels. sigh Why can't people write like this anymore?

I have no clue what this song is about. I have never really looked at the lyrics until now but I think this is one of the best Alice in Chains songs

hmm, maybe, fear the media, cause they'll do you over.

I can only see this song as being about your personal space being invaded and abused. The way I read it is, once you sign to a record deal, you lose several freedoms you once had. Apparently this was the case for AIC, and when deciding whether or not to sign a record deal, they were warned by friends to reconsider, but just ignored them.

This song was originally written in 1991-1992, in the same sessions as 'Dirt', so I find it hard to believe they would write a song directly about the media. In fact 'Grind' is the only song that is clearly about the media. Fear the Voices was too early on in their career to be about that subject, unless however, they changed some of the lyrics before releasing the song on the box set, in which case this entire paragraph can go out the window.

Amongst the things this song can refer to are the requirements the band has to meet on their CD's -- record labels demanding a given amount of songs, with a limitation on how far out there the band can go artistically, as they lose choices on how they want their material to sound. All the while they have touring obligations to meet. But the one line that bothers me is the Mr. Gardener line, which basically refers to the media, giving out personal information without your consent. This song is really all over the place lyrically. Those are just my ideas on this song, maybe we should "put our heads together" and bounce off of each others' thoughts to come up with a single meaning that makes perfect sense.