It Was Mine

Don't speak. Don't say anything. They've been recording all we say for years now.

Please, sit down. May I offer you something? Anything you wish..NO NOTHING. IF YOU DON'T MIND, THIS WILL BE RECORDED... I saw you in the picture you took with them when you were with him and I took you from it and kept you for myself. WAIT FLASH TAPE'S STILL ROLLING

I love this song it's one of my favorites on crash live but I think that this song is about someone who is always never lisined to so you should give up

What I thought this song meant was more personal. I am in foster care and this always makes me think of when the police took me away. {"They've come to take me away and won't leave until I'm gone"}

And some of it is feelings of when I was put into foster care. {"What we captured got away, slipped from us."} This would be my feelings about my childhood and how it was taken away from me.

Also {"Don't speak, don't say anything. They've been recording all we say for years now."} This would mean that when my mother was drinking I wouldn't say anything because I wouldn't have wanted to leave my home. I was in foster care when I was 3 and got out when I was 4. Then I went back when I was 11. This would be DSS (DCF) having my case on file.

Obviously, this is not what the song means, I just always think of foster care when I hear this song.

I always picture a mental asylum when I hear this song. It would make a great video in my opinion.

I like the mental asylum interpretation, but I've always felt that you could put sort of a Bonnie and Clyde theme to most of Crash Love. If you're going under the assumptions that this is another concept album from AFI, and that it's about 2 criminals in love, then this makes a very fitting close to the normal album (Though the deluxe is far superior), as it suggests an interrogation. I always imagine two characters talking over the phone right before one of them knows he or she is to be captured and interrogated about their partner. It may not be the meaning, it may not be an interpretation you agree with, but I personally like to think of this song that way.

I read in an interview with Davey how he said something about a couple songs, for the first time in their career as AFI, that there were a few political themes on the new record. He had also stated about how fucked up and polluted all forms of art and media have become these days. Now to me, this is one of those songs dealing with either/or of the above. He could be speaking of the government, or the media.

When I listen to this song, I can't help but just think of George Orwell's "1984" and this song being in that cultural setting.

If you've read "1984" then

"Don't speak don't say anything They've been recording all we say for years now" sort of makes sense in that regard. This lyric makes a lot of sense to me as well:

"What we captured got away, slipped from us"

    he could be talking about their freedom.

And as for "You won't see them right away" explains maybe how "Big Brother" or the government, watches and listens to every move made and every word said. And you won't see them until you've broken the law in some aspect (or in "1984"s case, even said a codeword or phrase that may be deemed as a 'threat'). And the lyrics:

"They've come to take me away and won't leave until I'm gone" further verifies this point, as the government have come to take him away and will not leave without arresting him for whatever offense he has committed.

Also the lyric:

"Don't feel, don't love anything Love attracts all those who taint the cherished Don't try to, to change anything Nothing pure can ever stay"

    could be from the perspective of the government telling everyone not to love, because it "attracts all those who taint the cherished" and they want everyone to stay the same and not "to change anything". Also, "Nothing pure can ever stay" could be the government's way of expressing how they want everyone to be the same as well.

And finally, "They'll say relax, you'll be fine" and "All we love goes away" is the government as such in 1984, and even in today's society, the government telling us that everything will be fine and not to worry. When somebody does something wrong, they go to jail, or are taken away from "All they love".

Sorry for the HUGE post, it's just my spin on the possible meaning of the song.

this is about their relationship with interscope and the loss of control over their musical style:

What we captured got away (we were making our real music, true to ourselves)

They've been recording all we say (we can't say anything because interscope is listening)

You won't see them right away, but you'll hear them singing (fans don't see that interscope has such control, they still see us as the face, but these songs aren't us, this is interscope singing)

They've come to take me away (interscope is slowly removing us from our own music to get the profit making style sold)

Nothing pure can ever stay (our music was pure, it was us, it was mine)

• The lyrics listed don't repeat the ending chorus, but the song ends with Davey singing "and won't leave until I'm gone....... I'm gone." this is the album closer, the end, the adulteration of their music is complete and they have been removed from it.