Midlife Crisis

Mike Patton is notorious for bullshitting reporters. I don't believe the Madonna thing at all.

Midlife Crisis is about a child's father who lusts for his youth and abandons the family and then that child grows up and has a Midlife crisis himself. The whole time he's going through it, he remembers the pain of being selfishly abandoned by his own father and is both sickened by the pain he's causing as well as with the sudden sympathy and renewed anger towards his father who left so many years ago for the same reasons.

The song is riddled with double-meanings.

A lot of times, men going through a Midlife crisis feel as though they've wasted their youth and potential and have regrets. They suddenly feel "weighed down" by the burdens of family and want to be young again.

"Suck ingenuity down through the family tree"

Refers to that sense of having wasted potential to pass it on to the kids. It also refers to the "passing on" of the crisis itself from father to son.

"Your menstruating heart doesn't bleed enough for two"

Another dual meaning:

1. it refers the anger he felt as a child at his father expressing sorrow but leaving anyway...like saying "I'm sorry I have to do this, kid" and walking out the door.
2. it refers to his own understanding of the emotional hemorrhaging he is causing his family and realizing that he's going to abandon them anyway.

Now read the rest of the lyrics and you'll understand.

Here's a quote from Mike Patton: "The song is based on a lot of observation and a lot of speculation. But in sort of a pointed way its kind of about Madonna...I think it was a particular time where I was being bombarded with her image on TV and in magazines and her whole schtick kind of speaks to me in that way...like she's going through some sort of problem. It seems she's getting a bit desperate."

I don't get a masturbation vibe out of this song at all.

Jesus. Alice in Chains don't write every song about drugs, and Faith No More don't write every song about masturbation!

What an interesting band concept that would be, though...

This is on GTA:San Andreas. Awesome.

Yeah, this is on San Andreas, on Radio X.

Mmmm. Radio stations.

The child abuse theory seems to fit better than some of the others. It was on San Andreas because the song came out in the early 90's-late 80's and that's supposedly the years San Andreas was based off.

Yes its quite simple, that one reference clearly supports your theory, despite being contrary to the meaning given by the writer of the lyrics himself. Quite simple indeed.

this song is awesome and for some reason they put it in san andreas?!?!

I dunno about the Madonna thing (but the quote can be found at http://www.fnm.com/faq/ (hit CTRL+F and type in 'Madonna')), but this part seems to support that:

"You're perfect yes, it's true But without me you're only you"

Seems to say 'without your fame and your fans, you're just a schmuck like the rest of us'

Beautifully and subtlely written poem basically describing being used by someone you love. Signing up for their problems (inheriting, or being sucked into a family tree) by being with that person in a relationship, giving his/her life up for that person and getting nothing in return.

Two dynamics are represented in the song, first the narrator is used up, then the narrator gives up. Second, the person the song is about only thinks of themselves so they never understand why or how the other person feels empty from all the giving.

So number one has to figure out to stay or to go

"You're perfect, yes its true" (yeah you have everything you want) but without me you are only you (what do you really have in the end) Your menstruating heart It ain't bleedin' enough for two (you only have enough love for yourself)

so, hense, it's a midlife crisis, by the time you found out you are with a person who sucks the life out of you, you've pretty much had all the life sucked out already, so now what do you do?