Running Out Of Ink

Wow, a good song. It's about an artist (maybe the singer himself?) who wishes he was a great writer/painter/song writer/musician. He tries experimenting with musical styles and songs (and when he's told that it's not good he claims it's not his) and then made a huge blunder which cost him his artistic/musical career.

He can't write decent songs anymore, he can't recapture the same success that he had, he's running out of ink to write with (because he's so poor) and one day he throws his work into the river in a bag, and secretly wishes that he was the bag and is in such a hole that he could die. Depressingly funny.

Also, he used to have a girlfriend who would tell him secrets about herself, but then he used her life's details (probably embarrassing ones) as song materials because he was so short on creativity. And so his girlfriend leaves him.

Oh and he tries to make sappy love songs but he doesn't even know what love is, and the lyrics suck so he gives up, and when he tries to call his girlfriend, she calls the police and he's an alcoholic because he has no girlfriend, his friends all think he's a crap artist, and he can't write or anything, he's poor and he can't go anywhere. Wow, three posts.

I'm going to be a little less literal than the above...I think "running out of ink" is a metaphor for writer's block. And the writer's block is caused or compounded by fame, and all the expectations that go with it, and the pressure to live up to those expectations, and maybe the knowledge that people will actually hear what you're saying, so you'd better be careful. (Because when you're not it can do serious damage to a relationship!)

I think there's a bit of nostalgia for the days of being new and unestablished and "the next big thing" like the band in the first verse.

I think this song is about someone (probably Paige himself) who isn't going to be happy until he's the best (I wished that it was me), and then he soon is the best, and immediately has regrets because he kind of sold himself out and is once again wishing he were different (I wished it wasn't me).

Two small things I also liked in the song were the part where he throws the bag off the bridge and then, naturally, wishes he wouldn't have. When he says, "I wish that I could swim, I wish that I could drink", it makes me think that he's thinking of ways to get the bag back: one being to swim down and get it, two being to drink all of the water out of the lake so that he could just walk over and get the bag. I don't know if that's anywhere near the intented meaning of these lyrics, but I think it's hilarious.

I also like the play on words of something "driving a man to drink" from "drinking and driving"

I like it when Tyler says "I quit" at the beginning, though it's kind of random.