Into the Ocean

The lyrics are wrong. In the second stanza, they should be:

Without a life vest, I'd be stuck again Wish I was much more masculine Maybe then I could learn to swim Like 'fourteen miles away'

Then at the beginning of the second verse they should be:

Where is the coast guard? I keep looking each direction For a spotlight, give me something I need something for protection Maybe flotsam junk will do just fine The jetsam sunk, I'm left behind I'm treading for my life believe me (How can I keep up this breathing?)

The use (correct use, I might point out) of flotsam and jetsam shows you just how much goes into one of Justin's songs. Flotsam is the debris left over after a shipwreck (Maybe he can salvage a piece of this mess and save himself?) and Jetsam is everything that was thrown off of a ship while trying to keep it afloat (In this case, he was jettisoned along with the rest and now it's all gone and only he is left).

At a Blue October show in Houston, Justin introduced this song with a story about taking a cruise. He said that one night he had gone to the bow of the ship and contemplated what would happen if he were to jump? Would anyone even notice? Then he said, "Y'all would notice." The crowd screamed so loud you'd think the walls would fall in. Then he said, "Y'all give me a reason to live." And the crowd got twice as loud. It was, without a doubt, the most amazing live performance in the history of music. I'm sure you're thinking Mozart rocked the house, or the Beatles at Shea was more impressive (and unlike The Stones at Altamont, nobody got stabbed), but I'm telling you anyone that saw Blue October that night in Houston will swear it was the greatest show ever. Toward the end of the night, Justin asked the crowd, "If you had to, could you support my weight?" The deafening response was YES!

He climbed off the stage, up on the first row (all standing) and crowd surfed clear to the back of the house where he was turned around and sent back to the stage (he never dipped once, not even a little). And when he grabbed the microphone, he explained that he hadn't done that since he was sixteen.

I'm serious, "The Best Show Ever"

~M

Everything seems to be going wrong, in his life. Bad timing of events if I had to guess…If you want to interpret this literally then yes I can see where some people are getting a suicidal vibe, but the reference to “14 miles away” leads me to believe that he is just lost and needs answers. (Well at least that is how I interpret “14 miles away”.) My guess is that he fell in love with a girl and he really wanted to be with her, but he had to tell her he that they couldn’t be together. After the fact he feels lost and broken because he regrets his choice and he feels like he can’t get her back. If I was the girl he was singing about, I would tell him that I want to be with him too, but I understand why things wouldn’t work out. And that just because he couldn’t be in a romantic relationship with me, there was still no reason to push me away. Friendship is the key to any kind of relationship and being friends can always turn into something more later on in life. And I would also tell him that I would never let him be alone; I won’t let him drown. Actually I might have him listen to the song “Whispers In the Dark” by Skillet. That’s what I’d do.

I believe...

"My will to quickly end it all So thought no end my need to fall"

Is wrong, I sounds more like...

"My will to quickly end it all Set front row in my need to fall"

Suicide

This song is absolutely beautiful. The tune, the words. It's wonderful. I think the song maens what is said. I don't think there's a whole lot of hidden meaning behind it.

-Sarah

Thanks for updating the lyrics. I still say using flotsam and jetsam is extremely clever.

~M

awesome song. Great imagery. I imagined that he used the falling into the ocean as falling into depression, drug use, whatever. Then being given a reason to live, a reason to try to swim.

This song made more sense to me after I listened to "Hate Me." Near the end, when he says;

"I calculate what I had done Like jumping from the bow (yeah) Just to prove I knew how (yeah) It's midnight's late reminder of The loss of her, the one I love My will to quickly end it all"

It seems he's regretting his choice to tell the person he loves to leave for her own good, but he knows there's no going back. He made bad choices in his life, but now he regrets them. He tries to go back

"I want to swim away but don't know how"

but he realizes that he either he pushed everyone who could help away or they left him. Now he's all alone. In the end, he realizes his hopeless fate and then just gives up.

"Let the rain of what I feel right now come down Let the rain come down

Into the ocean (goodbye) end it all (goodbye)"

It's sad in the middle when he regrets his actions, but it gets lighter towards the end as recognizes his decisions and fades away. I really like this song because of the dynamic emotions involved. It's one of my favorites.

At lollapalooza while introducing this song justin said that this was a story about a man that went on a cruise and jumped off the front but just before he hit the water he thought of everyone he was leaving behind. He suddenly regreted his decision to jump but could do nothing.

Its really self explanitory what it means... everyone at one point thinks... "What if I ended it all right now? Would people really care all that much"

I just thing the lines; "Let the rain of what I feel right now come down Let the rain come down". I like how he says rain instead of weight. You know exactly what he means, but its.. I don't know, weird?

His voice though... damn