lmfao at the people who think this is about smoking cigarettes. that's hilarious.
as a former heroin addict, this song is 100% about heroin and life in the heroin underground, which is an extremely scary, dirty, yet alluring and seductive thing.
downtown (short for downtown brown) is slang for heroin, as it's usually bought downtown.
particles aching, the sickness when you don't have heroin makes you feel like every particle in your body is hurting so fucking bad.
take a shot and hide, I mean that's pretty obvious, you shoot up your dope and go hide away from others so nobody asks why you're nodding and because heroin makes most people not want to be around others, it's very secretive and isolated.
subway slamdance, well slam is a term we use to describe when you inject the heroin into your vein. I kinda feel like this is sort of a metaphor for when you are hiding in public shooting up while standing, and you kinda fidget around which may be where he came up with "slamdance". not sure but it makes sense to me.
stale mattress, again very obvious. lots of heavy drug users or drug houses have this dirty stale mattress on the floor that you nod out on. or it could even mean how when you're sick and sweating like crazy and it makes your mattress all stale and gross.
I could literally break this entire song down. he alludes to the life of a heroin addict, the drug, the places you hang out, people you hang out with... it's a really amazing piece of art.
Even in the music video, the woman who has brown hair (brown alluding to heroin) keeps telling him to come to her, and no matter what he cannot grasp her (chasing the dragon). it shows all these people telling him they need him to pay his bills, but he has no money because heroin took it all. he's strapped to the chair and the brown haired lady (which is heroin) is taking his money from him and making him into a slave. then at the very end the other person who made him into a slave is not only heroin, but himself. which is EXTREMELY true and real, because it's not just the drug's fault, it's our fault for hurting so bad that we needed heroin to help us. then he stands up and tries to catch the heroin lady one more time and ends up flying through the window which I think means dying.
I agree with a good majority of your interpretation of the song, as well as the music video (which is easily my favorite music video of all time).
I agree with a good majority of your interpretation of the song, as well as the music video (which is easily my favorite music video of all time).
To expound a bit on the video: the Ogre, whose cyanotic (a symptom of low blood-oxygenation; suffocation -- as well as blue's association with sadness) head is wrapped, seems to be experiencing all of the external stimuli of the world around him, which generally consists of binding/fettering traditions, institutions and constructs whose ultimate aim/goal seems to be control (i.e. economic/financial, government, religious [marriage], etc.). Control, or perceived control, seems to be...
To expound a bit on the video: the Ogre, whose cyanotic (a symptom of low blood-oxygenation; suffocation -- as well as blue's association with sadness) head is wrapped, seems to be experiencing all of the external stimuli of the world around him, which generally consists of binding/fettering traditions, institutions and constructs whose ultimate aim/goal seems to be control (i.e. economic/financial, government, religious [marriage], etc.). Control, or perceived control, seems to be the idea, here, as the "internal Ogre" is clearly shown restrained; he's strapped to a chair and is at the hands of two disguised "doctors" (medical, medication, medicine, etc. -- which is also to illustrate the kind of blind trust/faith we put into the hands of complete strangers, who are associated with medicine or who allegedly "know better" at how we are to "better" ourselves/make ourselves feel better: "control").
You can see how unenthusiastic "blue Ogre" is, and how sympathetic the brown-haired woman appears to be: so while the external world chases after him, he chases her, to escape: from what is around him, from what is within him or both.
Meanwhile, the Ogre who is strapped to the chair ("internal Ogre" - or, rather, how he perceives himself) looks to be the part of him that's receiving/desires self-medication. He is clearly in pain, injured and undergoing a type of "surgery" or operation that is meant to alleviate these ailments.
Once the masks are removed from the two "surgeons", we see that, in a way, he's taken responsibility for what he's doing to himself, in tandem with the brunette woman (who is also inside of him, now).
Rather than medicate/aid himself, he's been contributing to his own torture/torment and injuries. Ultimately, the "aid" of the brown haired woman leads to a quicker death (permanence), via a temporary solution: chasing the allure of perceived relief or solace.
...or maybe I'm just up my own ass about all of this... :p
lmfao at the people who think this is about smoking cigarettes. that's hilarious.
as a former heroin addict, this song is 100% about heroin and life in the heroin underground, which is an extremely scary, dirty, yet alluring and seductive thing.
downtown (short for downtown brown) is slang for heroin, as it's usually bought downtown.
particles aching, the sickness when you don't have heroin makes you feel like every particle in your body is hurting so fucking bad.
take a shot and hide, I mean that's pretty obvious, you shoot up your dope and go hide away from others so nobody asks why you're nodding and because heroin makes most people not want to be around others, it's very secretive and isolated.
subway slamdance, well slam is a term we use to describe when you inject the heroin into your vein. I kinda feel like this is sort of a metaphor for when you are hiding in public shooting up while standing, and you kinda fidget around which may be where he came up with "slamdance". not sure but it makes sense to me.
stale mattress, again very obvious. lots of heavy drug users or drug houses have this dirty stale mattress on the floor that you nod out on. or it could even mean how when you're sick and sweating like crazy and it makes your mattress all stale and gross.
I could literally break this entire song down. he alludes to the life of a heroin addict, the drug, the places you hang out, people you hang out with... it's a really amazing piece of art.
Even in the music video, the woman who has brown hair (brown alluding to heroin) keeps telling him to come to her, and no matter what he cannot grasp her (chasing the dragon). it shows all these people telling him they need him to pay his bills, but he has no money because heroin took it all. he's strapped to the chair and the brown haired lady (which is heroin) is taking his money from him and making him into a slave. then at the very end the other person who made him into a slave is not only heroin, but himself. which is EXTREMELY true and real, because it's not just the drug's fault, it's our fault for hurting so bad that we needed heroin to help us. then he stands up and tries to catch the heroin lady one more time and ends up flying through the window which I think means dying.
@sanctuary92 dying from overdose after you've become a slave, is what I meant at the very end there, when he smashes through the window
@sanctuary92 dying from overdose after you've become a slave, is what I meant at the very end there, when he smashes through the window
@sanctuary92
@sanctuary92
I agree with a good majority of your interpretation of the song, as well as the music video (which is easily my favorite music video of all time).
I agree with a good majority of your interpretation of the song, as well as the music video (which is easily my favorite music video of all time).
To expound a bit on the video: the Ogre, whose cyanotic (a symptom of low blood-oxygenation; suffocation -- as well as blue's association with sadness) head is wrapped, seems to be experiencing all of the external stimuli of the world around him, which generally consists of binding/fettering traditions, institutions and constructs whose ultimate aim/goal seems to be control (i.e. economic/financial, government, religious [marriage], etc.). Control, or perceived control, seems to be...
To expound a bit on the video: the Ogre, whose cyanotic (a symptom of low blood-oxygenation; suffocation -- as well as blue's association with sadness) head is wrapped, seems to be experiencing all of the external stimuli of the world around him, which generally consists of binding/fettering traditions, institutions and constructs whose ultimate aim/goal seems to be control (i.e. economic/financial, government, religious [marriage], etc.). Control, or perceived control, seems to be the idea, here, as the "internal Ogre" is clearly shown restrained; he's strapped to a chair and is at the hands of two disguised "doctors" (medical, medication, medicine, etc. -- which is also to illustrate the kind of blind trust/faith we put into the hands of complete strangers, who are associated with medicine or who allegedly "know better" at how we are to "better" ourselves/make ourselves feel better: "control").
You can see how unenthusiastic "blue Ogre" is, and how sympathetic the brown-haired woman appears to be: so while the external world chases after him, he chases her, to escape: from what is around him, from what is within him or both.
Meanwhile, the Ogre who is strapped to the chair ("internal Ogre" - or, rather, how he perceives himself) looks to be the part of him that's receiving/desires self-medication. He is clearly in pain, injured and undergoing a type of "surgery" or operation that is meant to alleviate these ailments.
Once the masks are removed from the two "surgeons", we see that, in a way, he's taken responsibility for what he's doing to himself, in tandem with the brunette woman (who is also inside of him, now).
Rather than medicate/aid himself, he's been contributing to his own torture/torment and injuries. Ultimately, the "aid" of the brown haired woman leads to a quicker death (permanence), via a temporary solution: chasing the allure of perceived relief or solace.
...or maybe I'm just up my own ass about all of this... :p