I see the song as being written by a guy who is in love with somebody who is still trapped by their parents' expectations. Perhaps that person is grown now, and they don't even consider their parents expectations to be holding them back, since they've adopted those expectations as their own.
The word "parents" is never mentioned, of course, but parents are obliquely referred to several times... most directly in the first line. "On the day that you were born, they built an empire off a scream." This is referring to the parents dreaming, even with the baby's first emergent breaths, of the amazing things their baby will grow up and do. So many parents do this... living vicariously through their children, and hoping their children will grow up to accomplish great things.
"Endlessly they'll set you free. Give you reason to believe." This is something that parents do... but oftentimes with an unspoken undercurrent of "as long as you do it to the best of your ability and are successful!" Again, these lines are about the parents and their expectations. The net effect is to make the child feel partly obliged, partly empowered... to go to do whatever great things they are destined for. But looking at it another way, these statements of freedom and belief are actually part of the walls of parental expectations... and self expectations... that are hemming in the person who is the subject of the song-writer's love.
The last half of each verse, and the chorus, is the song-writer's attempt to bring out the individual in his love interest, and to teach them how to shed those parental/self expectations which he perceives as entrapping. He's telling her he will be her special k (a street drug that makes you feel like you're flying and free). He is trying to teach her how to let go of her inhibitions, how to truly love without reservation (this is the thing that is referenced when he says that "Everything I want is free"... true, unreserved love, and freedom itself.
God I love this song. I could keep writing... there's so much content here, packed into a few words. But I'll shut up now.
I see the song as being written by a guy who is in love with somebody who is still trapped by their parents' expectations. Perhaps that person is grown now, and they don't even consider their parents expectations to be holding them back, since they've adopted those expectations as their own.
The word "parents" is never mentioned, of course, but parents are obliquely referred to several times... most directly in the first line. "On the day that you were born, they built an empire off a scream." This is referring to the parents dreaming, even with the baby's first emergent breaths, of the amazing things their baby will grow up and do. So many parents do this... living vicariously through their children, and hoping their children will grow up to accomplish great things.
"Endlessly they'll set you free. Give you reason to believe." This is something that parents do... but oftentimes with an unspoken undercurrent of "as long as you do it to the best of your ability and are successful!" Again, these lines are about the parents and their expectations. The net effect is to make the child feel partly obliged, partly empowered... to go to do whatever great things they are destined for. But looking at it another way, these statements of freedom and belief are actually part of the walls of parental expectations... and self expectations... that are hemming in the person who is the subject of the song-writer's love.
The last half of each verse, and the chorus, is the song-writer's attempt to bring out the individual in his love interest, and to teach them how to shed those parental/self expectations which he perceives as entrapping. He's telling her he will be her special k (a street drug that makes you feel like you're flying and free). He is trying to teach her how to let go of her inhibitions, how to truly love without reservation (this is the thing that is referenced when he says that "Everything I want is free"... true, unreserved love, and freedom itself.
God I love this song. I could keep writing... there's so much content here, packed into a few words. But I'll shut up now.