bobby drives all alone
to the park by the creek
and he meets up with jan
passed the bill, shakes her hand
jan got home after ten
woke her dad, went to bed
woke up cold in the night
from a voice in her head
who are you
i guess it's what we do
to be new
what a scheme
i guess that's what she means
in your dreams
bobby wakes up at noon
locks himself in his room
used the belt on his back
hit it hard, made it crack
he got high later on
picks up jan, drives her home
she dont talk but she knows
why the boy's fever rose
who are you
i guess it's what we do
to be new
what a scheme
i guess that's what she means
in your dreams
to the park by the creek
and he meets up with jan
passed the bill, shakes her hand
woke her dad, went to bed
woke up cold in the night
from a voice in her head
who are you
i guess it's what we do
to be new
what a scheme
i guess that's what she means
in your dreams
locks himself in his room
used the belt on his back
hit it hard, made it crack
picks up jan, drives her home
she dont talk but she knows
why the boy's fever rose
i guess it's what we do
to be new
what a scheme
i guess that's what she means
in your dreams
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
In the song New, off his second album, Rules, Alex G delves into the story of a boy named Bobby and a girl named Jan. There's another response under this song about Jan helping Bobby's addiction, but I believe the opposite is true.
I think the story goes as follows: Jan meets up with Bobby at the park, and he passes a (dollar) bill to her in exchange for drugs. Jan and Bobby then split for the night, going their separate ways.
Jan gets home, wakes her father (for a night job?), then goes to bed. In the middle of the night, she wakes up out of guilt. A voice in her head speculates on who she has become now, in this era of her life, selling drugs to her peers for money, and she rationalizes with it, telling herself this is what people do to become "new," or move away from the past. The voice retaliates, chalking up dealing to a "scheme," and insinuating further that the guilt she felt was from a dream.
My current theory is that Bobby thinks of himself as a failure– hence the whipping he gives himself– and he uses drugs as a way to escape reality.
Bobby gets high and picks up Jan. The nature of their relationship is left ambiguous, and he likely picked her up for a refill or a sesh and dropped her off at home, but the idea of them being romantically involved seems interesting to me.
Jan doesn't speak during the car ride out of guilt for the deepening addiction that Bobby is developing. She can see how it affects him. The song finishes off by repeating the verse where she speaks with her consciousness, but it addresses who Bobby is becoming this time rather than Jan.
In the song, New (From the album "Rules", find it on youtube), it says, "Bobby drives all alone, to the park by the creek and he meets up with Jan passed the bill, shakes her hand" basically telling the beginning of the story, of a person named Bobby who meets up with a girl, Jan, fast forward a bit, and it talks about how Bobby got high and whipped his back with a belt, and hurt it, bad, as the song says "Made it crack" anyways, it says that Jan knew why his fever rose, So my guess about the lyrics is that Bobby tries to overdose and does inflict selfharm onto himself, but Jan met him through a bill, and decided to try to help him maybe?
[Edit: updated lyrics]