According to me and several people I asked, this song is about someone who is a drug addict and is about to die. "How long is this gonna take us?" means he is trying to beat his addiction but "hope is crashing." He can' operate on a day-to-day basis without drugs("Tired of all the vacillations/Halcion come take me under.") And I think the word 'under' in that line signifies a lack of control. A possible theory is that "Shotgun" is about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, since before his death, the two were about to divorce.
According to me and several people I asked, this song is about someone who is a drug addict and is about to die. "How long is this gonna take us?" means he is trying to beat his addiction but "hope is crashing." He can' operate on a day-to-day basis without drugs("Tired of all the vacillations/Halcion come take me under.") And I think the word 'under' in that line signifies a lack of control. A possible theory is that "Shotgun" is about Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, since before his death, the two were about to divorce.