Plans

I know this thread is really old, so I'm wondering if people will respond, but I'm curious if anybody got the sense that I did, that Kele's 'get off your ass and be productive' message isn't what it seems, i.e. that the song is sarcastic and subversive.

The tag line of the song is, "I've got a taste for blood." This phrase is contextualized in the lines "I've got a taste for blood Leave the weak, leave the young I've got a taste for blood I'm walking out without you You will kill or be killed It's about progress I've got a taste for blood."

And I wondered whether the song wasn't an inspiring message to do something, but rather an illustration of the tragedy of the steamroller of "progress." One of Bloc Party's big topics is modernity, that is, what it is like to live in the modern world. When I listen to the song, the voice does not sound inspiring, it sounds menacing and evil.

I see it as a song about fears, that he is not planning, only dreaming, and that the world will leave him behind.

Because, I think he is a dreamer, he's in a band, often sporting a beard, he's an artist. The voice is not his, it is speaking to him. He hears a world that is telling him these things: Cut your hair, shave your beard, stop being passive and take what you want. It asks him to buy into the system, to kill or be killed by the inevitable motion of progress, and he feels like he has no choice, that he has to listen to this voice that wants him to stop dreaming, wake up, accept the world and all of its cruelty and be complicit in that system, or be crushed by it. He sees a world that is cruel, has a taste for blood, is plotting his demise, plotting his country's demise, and he feels that he's got to make plans in order to survive, to get by, and none of them work out and none of them are good enough, they are unfulfilled or escapist.

The song ends with "Kiss me, before it all gets complicated I've got a taste for blood." To me, it seems like he's asking for one more moment of dreaming and joy, one more moment without plans, before the world overwhelms him, he gives in, and he develops a taste for blood.

Am I seeing what I want to see? Did anybody else see it this way?

Quite a good song To me, the lyrics are about not chasing your dreams and/or doing something (you think is) worthwhile with your life.

The narrator's telling someone else to get off their arse, basically. The music and his vocals make it sound like the voice is kinda drifting through a haze of laziness to get to him.

"Cut your hair and shave your beard, you squandered your chances" make them sound like a layabout, or a young man who's just not got a job or something. "Stop being so laissez-faire" is a referance to the policy of the Italian liberal government 1874-1922 (woo, a use for History AS level!) which means basically non intervention, or doing nothing, which was disasterous for them. "The ravens are leaving the tower" obviously the myth that if the Tower of London has no ravens left in it, England will lose all power, just says disaster is imminent.

Then there's the lines with the narrator's intentions, sounding ruthless - "I've got a taste for blood, leave the weak" and ready to do anything to achieve their ends. But when they say "Kiss me before it all gets complicated" it's just acting without thinking about the situation much - like meeting someone and getting with them straight away without complicating things by leaving it going, though again that can be just as disasterous as laissez faire. But he feels "bogged down" by making the plans, he wants actioin, not the "all surface" plans he makes with the person he's talking to.

I think this sogn has a lot to do with how people get so caught up in their plans, and their goals, that they fall asleep and dont even realize what is the reality around them. The war analogy is interesting, bloc party makes a lot of subtle political statements... so i think it has a little bit of everything in it.

Quite simply it's a song about dragging yourself out of an apathetic state so that you can do something productive with your life.

It's also about having the mental strength to carry on when your 'big plans for big times' have been 'bogged down and distracted'.

Don't get yourself down over the events that are going on around you in the world because as much as it may seem like it at times, you're not the only one worrying.

Also, when he says "Leave the weak, leave the young," I don't think he means 'leave them alone.' I think he means 'leave them behind.'

i think this song is about feeling left out or put down just for being the person you are and 'doing your own thing' and then reinventing yourself just to fit in with the current style. I'm probably wrong but its just the feeling im getting from it. BEST SONG ON ALBUM!

This song is about empowering yourself through taking action and responsibility.

We all have plans/dreams about how we want our lives to workout. There's an expectation that it will happen 'to' us, but this song is saying that 'you' must make it happen.

I love the lyric "been training vipers to come for you, in your sleep." It's like something within you wont let you just forget about what your purpose is, it wont let settle for anything less than what you dreamed for. So it sends you these fears to shake you out of your slumber, to make you take action.

I also love the "I've got a taste for blood".... that is like this person has been woken up and is going for it. They ain't gunna stop for anything. They've realised it's all up to them. They will no longer hold themselves back by taking responsibility for the victims in their life "leave the weak, leave the young", "I'm walking out without you."

To me this song is about blazing your own trail...none of us know what lies ahead so just do what you think is right for you at the time and just stop avoiding the calling you know is true in your heart.

"stop being so laissez-faire, we're all scared of the future"

^ speachless ^