I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)

I think song is about Pete's depression that he went through during the writing of From Under The Cork Tree. Seven Minutes In Heaven [Atavan Halen] was.

/Joke me something awful just like kisses on the necks of "just friends"/ - A friendship wanting to be a relationship. /We're the kids who feel like dead ends/ - Feeling useless, and in your darkest hour, like you can't make anything of yourself. /And I want to be known for my hits, not just my misses/ - With all the rumors the band's had to go through, and how people pay more attention to that and their personal lives more than the music. /I took a shot and didn't even come close At trust and love and hope/ - Trying to make it through life and feeling like you've failed at everything. /And the poets are just kids who didn't make it Who never had it at all/ - The kids who basically, as said, had nothing, or wanted to take anything from life. Also maybe about Pete/others writing about how he/they feel.

/And the record won't stop skipping And the lies just won't stop slipping And besides my reputation's on the line/ - The whole fame thing. Partially self-explanatory. /We can fake it for the airwaves Force our smiles, baby, half dead/ - Pretending you're happy when you're not, and having some kind of secret you don't want to come out, or something about yourself because that'll cause more rumours. /From comparing myself to everyone else around me/ - When you're really self-conscious, you compare how you are to absolutely everyone and everything. I believe the line "Half-dead, from comparing myself to everyone else around me." is a whole line, so if it is, then that's saying how, from comparing yourself to everyone else, you've gotten yourself really down about it.

/Please put the doctor on the phone because I'm not making any sense/ - Self-explanatory?/Feeling as if you're crazy. /Blame everyone but me for this mess And my back has been breaking from this heavy heart/ - Being hurt because you care about someone too much. /We never seemed so far/ - Being at your all time low. /I'm hopelessly hopeful, that you're just hopeless enough/ - Feeling, well, helpless. /But we never had it at all./ - Speaks for itself.

That's what I got from the song, though to me, it relates on a much more personal level, as it can for anybody, I guess.

~Mew

also while we're noticing coincidences...

the line "And I want to be known for my hits, not just my misses"

is awfully similar to the boys night out song "i got punched in the nose for sticking my face in other peoples business" when they say: "I hate being famous for my hits and never for my misses "

i think the only reason i even make this comparison is because the song title is unnecessarily long and has a violent undertone, which is something boys night out has been doing for years.

and before someone replies and tells me that fall out boy is awesome and that i need to shut the fuck up, i've been listening to fall out boy since they were local. i can criticize and still enjoy it.

this song is DEFINITELY about his (pete's) overdose. he has said it in interviews, and it's also the reason why the band will never play the song live. pete said that he might breakdown if they ever play it.

here's a little bit of backround information for you guys: sometime around early 2005, pete fell into a deep depression. it hadn't gotten better. in May or June of 2005, he drove to a best buy parking lot and overdosed on pills (i think it was Ativan, but i'm not entirely sure). while he was sitting there, he was listening to Jeff Buckley's cover of the song "Hallelujah". he called his manager or something like that and said that fall out boy couldn't do the Europe tour. halfway through the conversation his speech became extremely slurred because of the pills, and so he either passed out while on the phone or he hung up. when he passed out, he was clutching a copy of Take This To Your Grave. manager guy freaked out, called pete's mom, and she either drove/ran to the best buy. they had to pump pete's stomach, and he was replaced for the european tour.

pretty much, that whole story fits in with the song.

Maybe, all of these "coincidences" are happening because emo bands all sing about the same things. I like all those bands (Boys Night Out, Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, and Underoath) but they aren't always that creative and after so many bands singing about the same thing they kind of start to run out of things to say and end up, unintentionally, regurgitating things that other bands have already said. Just a consideration for the group.

... good song though. Pete Wentz writes some really good lyrics.

And the record won't stop skipping And the lies just won't stop slipping And besides my reputation's on the line We can fake it for the airwaves Force our smiles, baby, half dead From comparing myself to everyone else around me

That seems to me to be in reference to making it in the music industry. They have made it big, and so many kids are listening to there record (The record won't stop skipping) and the person in the song is realizing that he is fabricating this personality in his songs in order to be played on the radio (the lies just keep on slipping), but he needs to keep lying because his (reputations on the line). Then it goes on to say exactly what I have been saying about faking it for the radio. He is comparing himself to everyone else around him in the music industry and it his killing him inside because that is not what he wanted from his music career, so he forces a smile and acts like he loves being famous.

this song is fucking good

agreed.

"joke me something awful" sounds quite similar to "jinx me something crazy" from tbs...anyone else notice this? they also say "number one with a bullet" in sugar we're going down, and tbs has a song called number five with a bullet. plus, the title of this song is similar to underoath's i have ten friends and a crowbar that says you ain't gonna do jack. coincidence?

maybe setitoff has some sort of a point. maybe the song is about strugling in the industry and maybe they were bing compared to other band, such as tbs and underoath. maybe?

so the thing is "joke something awful", and "jinx me something crazy" sound alike, but mean very different things "joke me something awful" means like you cant be serious, and what follows it "like kisses on the necks of just friends" and in the tbs song "think all the events through" show how different they r, and number 1 with a bullet is like an old saying about being a good shot w/ a gun, and tbs like was sarcastic w/ "number 5 with a bullet" and thats a song name not a like, so your crazy, and as for the song title, eh i dunno, u may have something there

eh.. i still don't see it.