Haemoglobin

i cant believe no one has mentioned this. its clearly about OD-ing and being rescued just in time.

yeah i get the whole racism thing, the lynching and colourblindness, but when it comes to the haemoglobin, i'm lost, perhaps it has to do with knowing that deep down where all the same, we all have haemoglobin, we need it to survive (binds with oxygen). shrugs

Racism. Haemoglobin is the same color in everyone. And by "healthy heartbeat" i think he means that a healthy heartbeat is one without hate. So if you remember that haemoglobin is in everyone, you'll be without hate for race... and therefore... hate-less, and healthy. or maybe I'm just tyring too hard.

Okay, so I disagree with the racism thing. I think it would be more obvious if it were really about that. I'll go bit by bit.

"I was hanging from a tree Unaccustomed to such violence Jesus looking down on me I'm prepared for one big silence" I think this part is the person realizing his end has come. He's powerless "hanging" from a tree which shows that he's not really in control and makes it sound like he has always been passive because he's "unaccustomed" to the violence of death because he's been so dormant himself. The Jesus part to me (considering I'm atheist) is like him being shunned again because of the "looking down", but he's okay with this big silence that he anticipates. I expect/hope for nothing in death--just to be isolated.

"How'd I ever end up here Must be through some lack of kindness And it seemed to dawn on me Haemoglobin is the key " The first two lines show again his lack of control/drive in life. He thinks others' treatment of him has lead him to his fate: powerless and alone. However, it is in the moment of his death that something "dawns" on him--haemoglobin is the key. I know people think that haemoglobin is this symbol of everyone being the same and all bleeding red but I think it is slightly more personal. To me living a vibrant, meaningful life means being vivid in yourself. The haemoglobin is the cause of a person's bright red blood so having it and bleeding red means you are alive. The vibrancy of blood isn't necessary but it shows him that you need to really live your life. (excuse any and all cliches please, it's hard to talk about living one's life in a noncliche manner) He realizes that he wants to take his life into his own hands.

"Haemoglobin is the key To a healthy heart beat" This is the chorus. I already explained the haemoglobin but again he's saying that it's the "key" to life, that life isn't worth living unless you really own it. A heart beat is unquestionable indicator of life while the haemoglobin (which indicates oxygenated blood) is what the heart pumps. You aren't really alive unless you are driven to be so. He's taking control and becoming his own person.

"At the time they cut me free I was brimming with defiance Doctors looking down on me Breaking every law of science" So here's where it gets complicated even by my standards. The "cut me free" I believe refers to the tree again. When he woke up within himself he was released which is the same as being cut down. I'm not sure if this indicates he was hanging himself or being hung at this point but it all goes back to him being aware now. I think it's more likely a metaphor for blaming others for your own predicament and problems is like hanging yourself because you're taking no responsibility. To me it's ironic that he would be saved by "them" and then feel "defiance". I think he was so passive for so long that now he is rejecting people in order to display his own will. The doctors part of this is confusing. There is a slight disjoint between the very abstract plot of the song and the medical references. I think that he is amused at his lack of will to live previously because now doctors are striving to save him. It doesn't really make sense to go against a will logically or scientifically. Why fix something that didn't want life until this very moment?

"How'd I ever end up here? A latent strain of color blindness Then it seemed to dawn on me Haemoglobin is the key" The first two lines are refer to the previous state of mind. Latent means dormant so I think that he means all people carry the ability to be inactive and passive but it only appears in some. The color blindness is back to the color of blood. Living in black and white or dull colors is boring because you don't experience things to their full potential. Again he says that "haemoglobin is the key" since it is vibrant and means life--you should live life to its fullest and enjoy/experience it all with vivid emotion and awareness.

"Now my feet don't touch the ground" Okay so I struggled a little here too. I think he means the enlightened feeling in an epiphany as striking as not truly living one's life. He is above it all and looking in on life and people, understanding his surroundings entirely. In a sense, he's risen above the noise of life to see what is actually occurring.

"As they drag me to my feet I was filled with incoherence Theories of conspiracy The whole world wants my disappearance I'll go fighting nail and teeth You've never seen such perseverance Gonna make you scared of me Cause haemoglobin is the key" Okay, so when doctors perform life-saving procedures the patients are put under anesthesia, so to me this is referring to the doctors in the previous verse. In this moment of "incoherence" he believes these people have controlled him, something he has developed a severe distaste for in recent moments. He experiences these moments of "theories of conspiracy" in his fog post doctor scenario. I would consider myself an aware person and sometimes it feels like people would rather quiet me than listen, preferring ignorance above a compassionate, comprehensive point of view. So although these feelings are out of proportion because of the medication, they are still valid. He continues to say he won't go without a fight. Now that he is conscious, he refuses to be silenced, willing to scare people away because he is going to be whatever he wants to be and no one will force him to submit or relinquish control. He is alive now and haemoglobin is the key.

i have had a brainwave here. haemaglobin is the same colour in everyone, no matter what racem gender etc. i fink mayb brian is tryin 2 say how if yuo look deeper than the skin we see we ar ethe same. maybe, i dunno. makes kinda some sorta sanse to me anyways

In many instances, I've noticed people talking about how LSD makes you think Jesus is looking at you, and like the Ben Folds song, he was up a tree. He might've OD'd, and that explains the doctors looking down on him. Perhaps the haemoglobin reduced signifigantly and his heart went whacked. The part about his feet not touching the ground may be symbolic to the fact he's high.

I'm currently writing an english assignment on this song, and my interpretation thus far goes as such: I was hanging from a tree Unaccustomed to such violence Jesus looking down on me I'm prepared for one big silence

• he's obviously being hanged, but why he doesn't know. It's ironic that he's "unaccustomed to such violence" because whatever crime he supposedly committed must have been violent for people to hang him.

How'd I ever end up here Must be through some lack of kindness And it seemed to dawn on me Haemoglobin is the key

• by know he thinks he himself is to blame, ie: "must be through some lack of kindness" And here is wear Haemoglobin comes into play. I had no idea what Haemoglobin was, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Long story short a deficiancy of Haemoglobin can cause anaemia. What are the symptoms of anaemia? Deathly pale skin. Get it?! He realises that haemoglobin is the key to why he's up there. If he had less of it, he would be paler. He would not have been lynched, he would have a "healthy heart beat"

At the time they cut me free I was brimming with defiance Doctors looking down on me Breaking every law of science How'd I ever end up here? A latent strain of color blindness

• okay, here I think the character has actually died. He's brimming with defiance, but he's helpless to stop whatever the doctors are doing to him, which is symbolic of a lot of racism. And of course, the colour blindness line. Racism. It's also interesting to compare the "doctors looking down on me" with "jesus looking down on me"

Theories of conspiracy The whole world wants my disappearance I'll go fighting nail and teeth You've never seen such perseverance Gonna make you scared of me Cause haemoglobin is the key

• the character now feels lost, abandoned, angry and alone. The whole world hates him. At the beginning of the song he's confused and naive, now he's been turned into some twisted creature by the people who outcast him. ala "I'll go fighting nail and teeth...gotta make you scared of me" By murdering him, they turned him into what they feared in the first place.

Yeah, that was very long winded and pointless. I know I've read too much into it, but it is for an english assignment. :P

I agree with the suicide-meaning sally mentioned. The heamoglobin stands for self-injuring I guess... "Haemoglobin is the key to a healthy heart beat" -> When the blood comes out (because of the self-injuring of cause...), he feels better.

Hi everyone, loved this song for years.

I don't think the song is about suicide at all. The line "Unaccustomed to such violence" suggests to me that the person is a victim of violence from other people, not violence inflicted by themself.

Also the line " Must be through some lack of kindness" - i always thought it meant the victim is in this situation because of the bad actions of others (or lack of kindness).

But now I think, as someone else mentioned sort of, that the victim is confused and maybe naieve as to why he/she is hated. Almost like a confused child the victim assumes that he/she must have done something wrong, when in fact it is the blind hatred of people that is the problem, not the person hanging on a tree....

p.s I just realised how pretentious my username may sound. Just listened to serj's song "unthinking majority" from SOAD so i thought id be clever lol

When I listened to the lyrics, REALLY listened to them, I thought of a monkey in the wild jungle just living it's life and minding it's own business. Then, scientists came and took the monkey and used him to test things like hair dye, make up, etc. That was always my first thought. But my second thought was definitely about the Holocaust. I love this song.