Put on your war paint

You are a brick tied to me that's dragging me down
Strike a match and I'll burn you to the ground
We are the jack-o-lanterns in july setting fire to the sky
Here, here comes this rising tide, so come on

Put on your war paint

Cross walks and crossed hearts and hope-to-dies
Silver clouds with grey linings

So we can take the world back from a heart attack
One maniac at a time we will take it back
You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start
So dance alone to the beat of your heart

Hey, young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix
Wearing our vintage misery
No, I think it looked a little better on me
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix

Bring home the boys and scrap, scrap metal the tanks
Get hitched, make a career out of robbing banks
Because the world is just a teller and we are wearing black masks
"You broke our spirit," says the note we pass

So we can take the world back from a heart attack
One maniac at a time we will take it back
You know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start
So dance alone to the beat of your heart

Hey, young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix
Wearing our vintage misery
No, I think it looked a little better on me
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix

Put on your war paint

The war is won, before it's begun
Release the doves, surrender love

The war is won, before it's begun
Release the doves, surrender love

The war is won, before it's begun
Release the doves, surrender love

The war is won, before it's begun (wave the white flag, wave the white flag, ooh!)
Release the doves, surrender love (wave the white flag, wave the white flag, ooh!)

Hey, young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix
Wearing our vintage misery
No, I think it looked a little better on me
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix

Hey, young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix

Put on your war paint


Lyrics submitted by bondoge, edited by elmcee, TS-

The Phoenix Lyrics as written by Joseph Trohman Andrew Hurley

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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The Phoenix song meanings
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12 Comments

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  • +19
    General Comment

    This is the "battle cry" of the album. Telling the younger generation that what they call music (i.e. rock and roll) isn't music at all.

    This is the head on the pike to serve as a warning to all. They are saying that the world is falling apart around us and the younger generation that were given the "torch" of rock to protest and disrupt aren't living up to their responsibilities. It's also the tough love lesson to those same misguided "young bloods".

    Kind of saying, "Hey Beiber! You fucking suck! Now let me show you how to be a rock musician you pussy!"

    "Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time running out?" Is a sarcastic line basically saying, "We need to get working at changing the world now or we lose our chance."

    "I'm gonna change you like a remix. Then raise you like a phoenix." is where they say, "We're going to show you how to do this. Take your musical queues and put meaning into them, and then it's up to you to carry the torch properly." It's the Kung Fu master using the young student's moves against him.

    Look at it in the context of the rest of the songs (except the last one, which is the other bookend where the torch is passed): Perfect example is "Just One Yesterday". Musically this is calling out to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" which is shallow song about a jilted lover telling her ex how much he'll miss her. Fall Out Boy "remixes" it and then raises it to give it a deeper and more complex meaning, but still keeping in the same "jilted lover" vein. I mean holy crap: "And now I'm here to give you all my love, so I can watch your face as I take it all away." Brutal to say the least, and this is the warning in "The Phoenix"

    naungaon April 27, 2013   Link

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