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Boy On A String Lyrics
The marionetter has your number
Pulling your arms and legs till you can't stand on your own
Dragging your conscience on the stage
and your heart gets rearranged
and you cannot tell your mentor from your Maker
Look at the crowds bleeding with laughter
Over the way you entertain at beckon call
They don't see behind the lights, or the painted backgrounds
They just like to see you fall
But you don't really mind
Cause you're just wasting time
You can't feel anything
You're a boy on a string
I feel a sadness like Gapetto
watching the life that he created run away
Seeing the puppeteer's intrusion,
and holding the remains of puppets that had rotted away
One day the curtain will not open
And all of the crowds will go away
Sometimes those strings will choke you, but until that day
But you don't really mind
Cause you're just wasting time
You can't feel anything
You're a boy on a string
Pulling your arms and legs till you can't stand on your own
Dragging your conscience on the stage
and your heart gets rearranged
and you cannot tell your mentor from your Maker
Look at the crowds bleeding with laughter
Over the way you entertain at beckon call
They don't see behind the lights, or the painted backgrounds
They just like to see you fall
Cause you're just wasting time
You can't feel anything
You're a boy on a string
watching the life that he created run away
Seeing the puppeteer's intrusion,
and holding the remains of puppets that had rotted away
One day the curtain will not open
And all of the crowds will go away
Sometimes those strings will choke you, but until that day
Cause you're just wasting time
You can't feel anything
You're a boy on a string
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I think this song is about how people let others control their lives. Kind of like peer pressure. People just want you to go along with the crowd sometimes, and people can pull you down into their sin. You're on a string because you just let them take control and go, and "you don't really mind, cause you're just wasting time...." It's saying that if you don't get focused, one day, "those strings will choke you." In other words, you're gonna end up in BIG trouble!!!
This song seems to be talking about (at first) a human's life on earth and how the world loves to see then fail. Then it says "but you dont really mind..." refering to the short amount of time we have on this earth compared to the time we will have in the after life. and the second vers is talking about how the creator (god) watches the pupet (human) run away to the puppeteer (devil) and the rotting (death) that follows. and finally telling one to stand firm because one day you will be out of the world.
They do a great job in reinterpreting an overused metaphor. Putting a positive spin on the metaphor helps make it all the more imperative.