Place the ash on their foreheads
An impression to embed
Born-Again before teething
Collect tears from their weeping

Oh hiding them under the seafoam
Package them like a cheap gift
You’re nesting under the corridor

Place the ash on their foreheads
An impression to embed
Born-Again before teething
Collect tears from their weeping

Oh hiding them under the seafoam
Package them like a cheap gift
You’re nesting under the corridor

Adolescent fiance
I’m just flesh to give away


Lyrics submitted by thrwmyhrtawy.

Pale Flesh Lyrics as written by Ethan Kath Alice Glass

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Pale Flesh song meanings
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5 Comments

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  • +2
    My Interpretation

    Yo pienso que esta canción es acerca de la sociedad patriarcal y cómo trata a las mujeres como meros objetos (prostitutas, tráfico de personas, etc) al tiempo que todos nos damos golpes de pecho y estamos conformes con eso, incluso algunas mujeres.

    También, siento que trata de como el capitalismo nos usa hasta que ya no le servimos más y entonces nos convertimos en carne podrida que puede tirar

    For me, the song is about how patriarcal society turns women to gifts or to flesh that can throw away (whores, smuggling, etc.), while officialy all of us go to the church and pray for they using our doble morality

    Also, with this song, I feel myself like flesh waiting for the capitalism to give me a job and wage until i'll get old and then he will throws me away as rotten meat

    =D

    Cornamuzzaon February 16, 2013   Link
  • +2
    My Interpretation

    I interpret this song as being closely linked to thoughts about religion. "Place ash on their forehead" probably refers to the Christian practice performed during Ash Wednesday. "Born-Again before teething" sounds like baptising a child, to me, only the song's music makes it all sound dark.

    "Hiding under the seafoam, package them like a cheap gift," sounds like the moment when the singer's true feelings about this are revealed. I think it refers to the thousands and thousands of people being taught a belief without them choosing it-- something the singer does not approve of.

    "Adolecent fiancee"-- although fiancee means being engaged to someone, it can also translate to "being given away to someone" at an early age. "I'm just flesh to give away"-- "I'm just a number," or a pawn. To 'them', whoever they are, the singer feels as if they're not even perceived as a person, but as a tool.

    soularcheron November 19, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    When Alice sings:

    "Adolescent fiance I'm just flesh to give away" after 1:40 and even before she says something what is not in the lyrics, and I think its "it gives you", after,

    I hear(1:40+) adolescent the under skin, I want(or 'I am a') just a(?) flesh to give away them After 2:00 there are other words.. where I hear something about eternal suffering. :0 Sick as fuck.

    xSheyon January 03, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I feel like when Alice says "Born again before teething" she is talking about kids having to be forced to grow up from a young age or having to go through traumatic things at a young age that make them see the world differently from how they might've seen it if they didn't go through what they had to go through. That's js me tho.

    obvbellaon November 30, 2022   Link
  • -1
    My Interpretation

    I get the sense that this is about adults abusing the power of authority they have over children ("Born again before teething, collect tears from their weeping").

    When the narrator grows up, she still feels as though people do not view her as a human being ("I'm just flesh to give away").

    arielpinkon December 26, 2012   Link

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