Die By The Drop

This song alludes to traditional marriage vows: "for better or worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, 'til death do us part." So saying, I'm gonna take your for worse or better is kind of reversing the order of the vow.

if i'm a problem, then preach on brother

Wow...thanks to whoever got the lyrics on so quickly. Not sure what the lyrics mean...I don't think I've absorbed them enough. But makes me think of a relationship where the girl treats the guy like sh!t...and he knows she'll leave him soon but he's so in love...well maybe not love, more like addicted is closer to the right word, but he doesn't even care that she's killing him little by little...drop by drop. I also sense anger/revenge and maybe he wants to hurt her back, like take her down with him? Regardless of if I understand the lyrics correctly...I love the song.

This song really spoke to me the first time I heard it. It spoke of exactly what I am going through in life at the current time. I can never really know what the songwriter was intending to put out but here is my interpretation of the song. Die by the Drop is a song about watching your life pass before your eyes. It is said that as soon as we are born we start to die with every second that passes. Every tick of the clock brings us one step closer to death so our lives are finite and we have to make the most of them. The whole song's energy seems to be both reflective and frustrated at the same time regarding the fact that we are only here for so long. I'll go into the lyrics step by step: >> Let's dig a hole in the sand brother, >> A little grave we can fill together, >> I got myself a problem, >> that I've been lookin' to sell, The analogies in the entire song regarding digging their own graves and death seem to be a resignation that life hasn't been going the way they've expected it to. Instead of fully living out their lives and accomplishing all the goals they have they just feel like they are stagnating and slowly dying. This may be the 'problem' referred to in the 3rd line. >> Some people die just a little >> Sometimes you die by the drop >> Some people die in the middle >> I live just fine on the top Some people die just a little - the people who live life comfortably and securely but "die just a little" knowing they are incapable of or too afraid to really reach out for their true dreams and live. Some people die by the drop - some people die very slowly - they watch their lives flow out of themselves drop by drop. When you reflect upon your life and see you haven't really been living it to your full potential you sometimes feel like every second that passes by is another "drop" of life that leaves your being. Dying by the drop is the reflective act of seeing yourself move towards death. When you reflect upon something the time seems to go slower (watch a sink leak water drop by drop in passing and then sit down right by it and reflect upon it for a while - it seems like time will slow down and you can watch it go drop by drop) Some people die in the middle - this seems to hint upon those people who were in the "middle of something" - or those who leaped at life with both hands but met an early untimely demise. These people knew each day we were dying so they pressed their lives to the max but in the process were somehow killed in the middle of it all (think of those people who live really crazy adventure filled lives but die at 30). I live just fine on the top - Meaning I live just fine looking at it from a higher vantage point and watching/knowing that our lives are finite. Also could be a denial or non-acceptance that they are slowly dying as if said sarcastically (I live just fine on the top). >> I�m gonna take you for worse or better >> I�m gonna make you for worse or better >> I�m gonna take you for worse or better >> to my little grave Taking for worse or better is taking life as it is without trying to make it something it is not ( accepting the truth - this is the way things are) Making for worse or better is not accepting life as it is and trying to make it what you really want it to be (accepting another truth that we are in control of our lives and not at its mercy) The verse swaps between take and make so it seems like an internal argument on whether they should stop wasting energy trying to change life to make it what they want or if they should not accept the things in life they don't want and force outcomes to go their way. Taking is compromising with life and accepting it to stop frustration. Making is fighting with life and recreating it to also stop frustration. The two methods both seem plausible and it seems like this question of whether they would be happier accepting life or making life what they think is shuld be is going to go to the grave with them since the question seems to be unsolvable. >> I never said we was equal >> I never wished to be saved >> If I�m a problem then preacher >> Let�s dig a little grave I never said we was equal - the realization that life is inherently unfair. I never wished to be saved - the realization that no ( to be continued) I�m gonna take you for worse or better I�m gonna make you for worse or better I�m gonna take you for worse or better to my little grave Let�s dig a hole in the sand, brother Starve off the land for worse or better Get right down to the bottom If one goes I�ll do the other Some people die just a little Sometimes you die by the drop Some people die in the middle I live just fine on the top I�m gonna take you for worse or better I�m gonna make you for worse or better I�m gonna take you for worse or better to my little grave

For me, this song strikes me as at least a bit about love. "Let's dig...a little grave we can fill together" "I'm gonna take you for worse or better to my little grave" It's alluding to marriage vows, of course. I think it's saying the same thing-- "Until death do us part." Committing yourself to another person for life. It seems to me like it's a twisted, dark relationship, but that can either be bad (say, a failing girlfriend/boyfriend relationship) or just something that's not the traditional relationship (say, a relationship with rock n roll. Or just a really cool couple.) Either way, I love this song! This whole band is lovely.

on my first few listens after hearing the song and this verse in particular! Let�s dig a hole in the sand, brother Starve off the land for worse or better Get right down to the bottom If one goes I�ll do the other Some people die just a little Sometimes you die by the drop Some people die in the middle I live just fine on the top i thought it was about jack white speaking about bands downfalls and the lack of his downfall!

The first verse is really powerful. I think it's about everyone being in it together really, but wanting to offload their problems onto other people and make it their problem instead, even though everyones got their own problems equally. The chorus... "some people die just a little" maybe as in some people only live half a life because they're not living it to the full, "others die by the drop" might mean that people let life leave them little by little, putting less and less effort into enjoying themselves, "some people die in the middle" meaning they die indifferent, possibly just going from one thing to the next without much thought. But living on the top seems to mean being happy and possibly being superior because of it. I get a more positive thing from it than other people seem to though which is why I'm only putting this interpretation up. Readdressing the balance of equality, the next verse saying "i never said we was equal" might mean that although supposedly everyones the same, she thinks of herself as better than others and doesn't necessarily agree. When she says the preacher should dig a grave with her, considering the song references death, maybe she says if we're so equal, then we should both go out together the same, see how you feel about being equal then. Finally taking them 'for worse or for better', being non judgemental, and loving everyone the same. I'm not actually totally sure what I think they mean, just the marriage connotations might give a clue as to who the song is directed at?

I think it's about oil. Digging a hole in the sand is like digging to get oil out of the ocean. Die by the drop is like we're dying with every drop of oil we consume. And I'm gonna take you for worse or better is like I'm gonna use oil even though I know it's polluting. Let's dig a hole in the sand, brother (plunge the ground for oil) Starve off the land for worse or better (Strip the earth of its resources for our material wealth and pursuits even though we're killing it) Get right down to the bottom If one goes I'll do the other (To me this means if one dies trying to get it then replace him with another like we're all pawns)

maybe this song is about jack and karen's failing marraige. i don't want them to get a divorce but i guess they just think that is for the best. :(