I might be wrong, but I feel like this song is about a clinically depressed person.
"You don't even recognize the stranger It's you from before":
His illness has made him a completely different person, now he's sad and hopeless all the time, while back then he was 'normal'.
"There's a hole in your head At least that's what everybody's guessing It's why you're always misread It's why you sleep but you never feel rested"
People misread him, they don't know he's depressed and therefore don't understand why he does the things he does and so think "he has a hole in his head", therefore that he's dumb or a bit crazy.The part about sleeping without feeling restless is a typical symptom of depression; you always feel restless and tired, even if you sleep enough.
"Hold on to your heart Hold it high above flood waters Hold on to your heart Never let nobody drag it under Hold on to your heart Even when your body's bitter Hold on to your heart Never let nobody take it over Ever take it over
Ever take it over from you"
A lot of people think that depressed people hate others and the whole world, and maybe that's true for a few or maybe even for most depressed people, but not for all of them. Some (including me) really see beauty in people and in the world, but don't believe that they're able to be happy themselves (and therefore stay hopeless). However, I think this song is about this kind of depressed person, and the singer is basically telling him that, even if he's suffering that much and people hurt and try to bring him down, to not ever give up on his good heart, to never give up on love and humanity and to hold on to himself.
"Of the life you have lead that is always a mess"
Depressed people mostly kind of give themselves and their life up, they stop doing the things they enjoyed and don't do the stuff they should do: their life becomes a mess.
"Are you dreaming of death Are there ghosts in your chest"
He's dreaming of death, therefore he's suicidal (again a symptom of depression). The ghosts in his chest could either mean that his heart hurts (therefore emotional pain), or that he has an unexplainable pain in his chest, another symptom of depression. Depression often causes 'unexplainable' physical pains like headache or, like here, of a pain in the chest.
Then the line of holding on to his heart comes again, telling him to not let the though times turn him a cynic, mean, selfish person.
Of course everyone's free to interpret it however he/she wants, but that's what the lyrics mean to me :)
I think you're on exactly the right track. The line "I need new skin for this old skeleton of mine/because this one that I'm in has let me down once again over time" also suggests that the protagonist recognizes that he needs to break from that thought pattern before it destroys him. The previous stanza:
I think you're on exactly the right track. The line "I need new skin for this old skeleton of mine/because this one that I'm in has let me down once again over time" also suggests that the protagonist recognizes that he needs to break from that thought pattern before it destroys him. The previous stanza:
"Is it all a game of bait and switch your brains/And follow your leaders to hell
Is it all the same vein of insane /As drinking from a poisoned well"
"Is it all a game of bait and switch your brains/And follow your leaders to hell
Is it all the same vein of insane /As drinking from a poisoned well"
Also seems to suggest he's contemplating futility and his...
Also seems to suggest he's contemplating futility and his own perception, respectively. Here again, recognizing what he's become and what depression has potentially turned him into. And the chorus comes in to tell him not to give in and let it destroy him.
This stanza when read together as it should be also indicates the same themes, and may well sum up the entire song:
"It's an old episode/Of trying to put the lightening on the monster
Of the life you have lead that is always a mess"
To "put the lightning on the monster" is an allusion to reanimation, most famously the Frankenstein monster of Mary Shelley's fiction. So he's referring to present and past attempts by the protagonist to revive his life, or reclaim his happiness. And again, the chorus reminds him not to give up and let it take him over.
I might be wrong, but I feel like this song is about a clinically depressed person.
"You don't even recognize the stranger It's you from before": His illness has made him a completely different person, now he's sad and hopeless all the time, while back then he was 'normal'.
"There's a hole in your head At least that's what everybody's guessing It's why you're always misread It's why you sleep but you never feel rested"
People misread him, they don't know he's depressed and therefore don't understand why he does the things he does and so think "he has a hole in his head", therefore that he's dumb or a bit crazy.The part about sleeping without feeling restless is a typical symptom of depression; you always feel restless and tired, even if you sleep enough.
"Hold on to your heart Hold it high above flood waters Hold on to your heart Never let nobody drag it under Hold on to your heart Even when your body's bitter Hold on to your heart Never let nobody take it over Ever take it over Ever take it over from you"
A lot of people think that depressed people hate others and the whole world, and maybe that's true for a few or maybe even for most depressed people, but not for all of them. Some (including me) really see beauty in people and in the world, but don't believe that they're able to be happy themselves (and therefore stay hopeless). However, I think this song is about this kind of depressed person, and the singer is basically telling him that, even if he's suffering that much and people hurt and try to bring him down, to not ever give up on his good heart, to never give up on love and humanity and to hold on to himself.
"Of the life you have lead that is always a mess" Depressed people mostly kind of give themselves and their life up, they stop doing the things they enjoyed and don't do the stuff they should do: their life becomes a mess.
"Are you dreaming of death Are there ghosts in your chest"
He's dreaming of death, therefore he's suicidal (again a symptom of depression). The ghosts in his chest could either mean that his heart hurts (therefore emotional pain), or that he has an unexplainable pain in his chest, another symptom of depression. Depression often causes 'unexplainable' physical pains like headache or, like here, of a pain in the chest.
Then the line of holding on to his heart comes again, telling him to not let the though times turn him a cynic, mean, selfish person. Of course everyone's free to interpret it however he/she wants, but that's what the lyrics mean to me :)
I think you're on exactly the right track. The line "I need new skin for this old skeleton of mine/because this one that I'm in has let me down once again over time" also suggests that the protagonist recognizes that he needs to break from that thought pattern before it destroys him. The previous stanza:
I think you're on exactly the right track. The line "I need new skin for this old skeleton of mine/because this one that I'm in has let me down once again over time" also suggests that the protagonist recognizes that he needs to break from that thought pattern before it destroys him. The previous stanza:
"Is it all a game of bait and switch your brains/And follow your leaders to hell Is it all the same vein of insane /As drinking from a poisoned well"
"Is it all a game of bait and switch your brains/And follow your leaders to hell Is it all the same vein of insane /As drinking from a poisoned well"
Also seems to suggest he's contemplating futility and his...
Also seems to suggest he's contemplating futility and his own perception, respectively. Here again, recognizing what he's become and what depression has potentially turned him into. And the chorus comes in to tell him not to give in and let it destroy him.
This stanza when read together as it should be also indicates the same themes, and may well sum up the entire song:
"It's an old episode/Of trying to put the lightening on the monster Of the life you have lead that is always a mess"
To "put the lightning on the monster" is an allusion to reanimation, most famously the Frankenstein monster of Mary Shelley's fiction. So he's referring to present and past attempts by the protagonist to revive his life, or reclaim his happiness. And again, the chorus reminds him not to give up and let it take him over.