Broken Boy Soldier

impetuosouls post i feel is a very good interpretation.

jack white tells us how boys grow up and start thinking they will be a man someday. your soul is the same your whole life. the only thing that changes is your brain and it tries to tell you how to be a man.

but you're just 'the same boy you've always known.'

I don't know about any of you guys, but it seems as if our dear Jack seems to have a bit of a fixation with not growing up (not unlike that Michael guy)... illustrated well in this song this Stripes song I love, "the Air Near My Fingers":

Don't you remember? You told me in December That a boy is not a man Until he makes a stand Will, I'm not a genius But maybe you'll remember this I never said I wanted to be a man

See? See? I love that song.

My take on the Racs song is that it's a guy--or a person--who is contemplating their struggle with growing up and letting go of the past,

I'm asking about it by myself... I'm through ripping myself off... I'm done ripping myself off...

Then there is the issue with debating whether or not to stay the same or become a man (...Jack?)

I'm child and man and child again... The toy broken boy soldier... The boy never gets older...

And maybe finally making a decision to get over one's self and try again,

I'm going back to school today... But I'm dropping myself off...

Anyway, apparently I talk too much...I should go now.

Yes,

Amazing, a really amazing song. I... cant... stop... listening it!

jack white seems to be exorcising his demons, from the beginning of his career/his rise to fame, etc.

"i'm done ripping myself off"

a reaction, perhaps, to the criticism he's faced from alienated fans and those who have claimed he's "sold out".

"the boy never gets older" a theme similar to the stripes' "same boy you've always known".

"whatever you say, freakoid. actually I like it too. do you think the raconteurs are even close to being as good as the white stripes? I think jack needs TOTAL control. brendan benson needs to be ditched."

No way, then it would be the stripes. Brendan benson is probably more important here then jack white is too. They made the band together cuz they didnt want total control they both had that already they wanted to split up ideas and try new stuff.

Good Song, very Zeppelin like, he reminds me of robert plant in this song.

I think this song is about growing up and fighting your way through life.

This song roolz, reminds me a lot of white stripes except the slightly different drumming style

my opinion is the same as twigs&leaves its in same boy youve always known too! yea jack has some sort of fixation on it but he sees children as innocence...and this song is about losing that innocence

maybe he realizes that as we exist in time's illusion, we are tricked into believing we "grow up". we reach certain ages and think we know things we really don't.

"Children wake up, hold your mistake up, before they turn the summer into dust.

If the children don't grow up, our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little god's causin rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust."- Arcade Fire, "Wake Up"

maybe he's not fixated on it as much as he's trying to tell us something. By going back to school, he's re-educating himself outside the government mandated education we're all stuck with. a revolution for the mind.

Wake up. The boy never gets older

great song but what instrument are they playing or effect at the begining of the track? never heard it before