Rum to Whiskey

this song reminds me of an incident. a girl i was seeing got drunk and was pretty much taken advantage of by some lousy asshole. nothing too serious, but a lot of her friends did some bad shit with a bunch of jerk offs. listen to the lyrics i mean it saying "bang bang he put her down" then it mentions that he mustve been sorry, afterall he hated sin. then the whole thing about the beer on her breath, and crying, etc. gosh, awful isnt it?

i agree. mostly i think it's just about regret like you were getting at before. i kind get the idea that he was just doing it because he was upset and he "took her down too." anyway, fantastic band, fantastic song.

i think its maybe switching between two different girls.

relating them to Rum and Whiskey.

kinda the idea of leaving a long time partner for a really good looking girl, but shes only a one night stand/fling/cheating on her etccc

I assume that switching from "rum to whiskey" meant crossing over from innocence to sin. Rum is a party drink, something you drink when you're having fun. Whiskey is harder, you can drink it straight. It's more of something to drown your sorrows in or get really wasted.

It seems to me that everyone is placing the blame on the girl in the relationship, but I personally feel that the blame is on the guy in this and it actually sounds to me a lot different then the above explanations. I agree that rum to whiskey is saying from an innocent drink to a hard drink, but I wonder what drove the man to this, is it possibly suspicion? When I think "bang, bang" I immediately think of things that make a bang, for example guns. Thefore "Bang, Bang, He put her down" is saying he killed her. That means this song is about a man who makes a mistake and destroys the only decent thing in his life and then moves on to another girl and destroys her. Maybe not killing the girl, but possibly breaking her or doing something else, feeling remorse for what he has done and being sad, but then doing it again.

dont sound like anyones putting the blame on the girl to me. i mean she sure as hell didnt deserve to be killed but it was a shitty thing she did. they guy who messed with her deserved to get his ass beat tho

I dont think the song is about anyone ACTUALLY getting shot or murdered, it think the "bang- bang" bit is symbolic (plus i've also seen it written 'And then', as in "and then he put her down") But whatever, im not here to argue the lyrics. The song is definately about a guy who loses this great girl and really regrets it. He switches from rum to whiskey because when your trying to get drunk, Whiskey gets the job done. The whole "rum to whiskey" thing is to sort of let you know that the situation got bad.

Plus that bit about "do you remember the beer on her breath/ your hands on the hem of her dress/ crying" is pure fucking poetry. Ive been there exactly.

Does it mean anything that this song is followed by I'll come running? Like this song is his regret, his night of drinking and then I'll come running is his depression after a night of drinking. That's just how I see it.

I think its about the guilt of bringing someone that you care about down with you. I interpret this to be about a guy that has many issues. Maybe an alcoholic? He cares about this girl very much. He does not want to bring her down the wrong path with him. He will feel guilty for ruining her life and keeping her from being happy. He has weak moments where he wants to see her. He might give in and it makes him feel worse.