A Journalist Falls in Love with Death Row Inmate #16

Just the way that I saw this/related it to my life is how you can be utterly in love with someone, and sort of feel like you don't deserve them. You kind of put them on a higher pedestal than yourself, and compare yourself to everyone involved in their life or around them. Also, how you can be with someone who has done a lot of wrong to other people, but have it set in your mind that they don't/would never act that way towards you, because they love you, or you think they treat you differently than anyone else. This person makes you feel good about yourself, makes you appreciate/love yourself for once because the appearance they put on, the fact that they make you feel different and unlike the others, and the combination of you already being fond of his appearance. Perhaps it's sort of how you feel with your first love, like 'the one' thats always going to stick with you.

You fight for them, and genuinely care about them but when you finally come to realize they aren't the person you thought they were, you kind of lose it and enter an angry state, your emotions going from deeply caring about them to hating their guts and wanting the worst for them.. A normal human reaction to a lose of someone, or at least to me. But in the end, with all their flaws, and all their mistakes, you're always going to love them. Even when they treat you like crap, and you know you deserve better, regardless of the grief, or in this case 'grim' blanket they put on your life, for some reason you're always going to care deep down in side. I think he uses the title 'grim reaper prince' because these sort of situations suck the life out of you.

IDK.. JUST HOW I SEE IT AND HOW I RELATED IT TO MY RELATIONSHIP. I'm really stoned though, lulzz

can't wait to see these guys next week.

Okay I am no expert, but I think this song is about a girl with an eating disorder & maybe other problems... The title "A Journalist Falls in Love with Deathrow Inmate #16" suggests that the speaker is a journalist, and this is her story about falling in love with Death. When I first listened to this song I made the parallel of Death and a relationship. Yet as i listened further it sounds as if the journalist is in love with killing herself (in a way).

It starts off: "I was writing his story And he gave me a look He was very handsome, distractingly so and I never dreamed that he'd be my boyfriend" The idea of Death was good.. You look thinner, "feel" better, but you never thought that YOU, of all people, would turn to it. Thinking of the disorder like a disease or addiction.

Now I believe the journalist goes on, transforming Death (or the eating disorder) into a person. She is so attached its like they're in a relationship. "He wrote me letters, daily from prison That said I know I've killed a few But none of those women were you" Those little voices in your head, reminding you not to eat. She's distracted by her love. She doesnt see that Death is bad, and will be the end of her. "I couldn't speak It was over for me I found my grim reaper prince"

She continues in the second paragraph talking about all the things he did for her. Seemingly nice, he made her dinner. But it wasnt the proper food, she cant breathe, shes dying- but she feels thinner. Now her family/ friends intervene, trying to get rid of the disorder. She will never forget it. "Oh but how all the girls were jealous Cause he liked me the best Oh and I couldn't breathe It was true love indeed But now my grim prince is gone" All the girls in society strive to be this perfect "skinny" girl.The journalist is "lucky" because Death has picked her to look like that. Little do they no now she cant breathe, but at least she was "perfect". The final paragraph is her going into some kind of rehab. Her family got rid of it (killed it), and she is saying goodbye. You could also debate the last couple lines where she says "I'll see you in a while" meaning that the journalist will soon die anyway, and then she can be with her prince. That's why she says "As he breathed his last But I got rather angry I started to laugh And say now he's got what's comin' He was due his lot Oh and I couldn't see, there were tears on my cheek Goodbye my grim reaper prince" In the last paragraph. She really means that she is devastated by the loss of Death, but no one gets it. Soon enough it won't matter anymore because she'll be dead with him.

Let me know your feedback, I'd love to hear it. (: Richard is a fucking genius.

I saw them perform this the other night in Akron and it was very touching. Great song and great new album!

i thought emily wasnt in the band anymore...or is that not her singing in the background? Anyways, richard is a great song writer. Great song.

I don't believe that this song has any sort of symbolism, I do think that it is just telling a story of a journalist that falls for a "Grim Reaper Prince".

At first I thought the line of "And how all the girls were jealous line" just meant she was going kind of crazy and excusing all of the ways that people are judging her love for this man with jealousy and that it had no correlation to "He cut my lungs out" but upon further pondering I think that he actually murdered and seriously carved her lungs out and she literally could not breath and when it came to "How all the girls were jealous" she was saying all of his late girlfriends were jealous of her in death.

(I love how Richard casually just laid in "He cut my lungs out" in the mix of their date / last meal, I'm assuming.)