Lyrical Discussion

[Jenny]

With AddictedToClassic gone on a long break, I thought it would be good to resurrect lyrical discussion. I'll start with a current song that I really like:

Sugar (We're Going Down) - Fall Out Boy

Am I more than you bargained for yet

I've been dying to tell you anything you want to hear

Cause that's just who I am this week

Lie in the grass, next to the mausoleum

I'm just a notch in your bedpost

But you're just a line in a song

(A notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

Drop a heart, break a name

We're always sleeping in, and sleeping for the wrong team

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

Is this more than you bargained for yet

Oh don't mind me I'm watching you two from the closet

Wishing to be the friction in your jeans

Isn't it messed up how I'm just dying to be him

I'm just a notch in your bedpost

But you're just a line in a song

(Notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

Drop a heart, break a name

We're always sleeping in, and sleeping for the wrong team

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

Down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down (down, down)

Down, down (down, down)

We're going down, down (down, down)

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

I have no idea what it means, if anything. Any thoughts?

[Earth-Angel]

Good song choice Jenny!

Am I more than you bargained for yet

I've been dying to tell you anything you want to hear

Cause that's just who I am this week

Lie in the grass, next to the mausoleum

I'm just a notch in your bedpost

But you're just a line in a song

(A notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

The first verse says to me:

A guy is obviously very keen on dating a certain girl. He's told her he'd be better for her than the man she is/was with, he'd be everything for her. But it's all a lie, a farce, just to get in her pants. He's literally a "snake in the grass", just wanting to sleep with her, and it seems that that is all she was after too.

He may have been just another guy she's slept with, but even worse than that - all she is to him is a line in a song.

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And Sugar, we're going down swinging

I'll be your number one with a bullet

A loaded god complex, cock it and pull it

Basically, it was over even before it began. It was a one-night stand that they both knew would be nothing more than just sex. He sees getting together with her like suicide, because his fantasy will be over once it is fulfilled.

Is this more than you bargained for yet

Oh don't mind me I'm watching you two from the closet

Wishing to be the friction in your jeans

Isn't it messed up how I'm just dying to be him

Perhaps he is slightly obsessed with her exploits, the way she sleeps with other guys who are also just "a notch in her bedpost", it's lust and he can't wait to be one of those guys.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the meaning

[Shawna]

sounds to me like they had a one-night stand, and now he's obsessed. "A loaded god complex" is what stalkers are thinking - they're the end-all be-all for their victims, if they could only get their victims to see things their way.

[Jenny]

That's what I was thinking...something about a stalker, or a one-night stand who wants more, but I can't decide which.

I looked up the lyrics because I originally thought he said "I've got a loaded gun complex".

Thanks, EA and Shawna. Someone else can feel free to post lyrics to interpret as well.

[PunkAndEmoFan]

This song has meant a lot to me over time depending on what I've gone through. Right now, to me, it's about a girl who falls in love with her gay best friend and deals with it by rationalizing that if they experimented, nothing good would come of it.

"Am I more than you bargained for yet?" refers to how she's afraid her new feelings will be too much for the friendship to bear, as though she's asking hesitantly if it's wrong. "I've been dying to tell you anything you want to hear" refers to how she tells him she only loves him as a friend because she doesn't want to scare him off. "'Cause that's just who I am this week" refers to how the deep friendship she always feels for him occasionally develops lust alongside it, which always goes away and comes back yet isn't constant (friendship one week, lust the next). "Lie in the grass, next to the mausoleum" - To "lie" with somebody is often used as a euphemism for sex, and a mausoleum is used for burial. That said, she is acknowledging that to make any more than a friendship of the situation could very well kill the friendship or come close to it; the "mausoleum" could also represent regret, bitterness, or guilt she would feel if anything came of her feelings and went wrong. "I'm just a notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song" refers to what might happen outside their friendship if they did have an encounter - while she'd probably just be an experimental incident to him (a "notch in [his] bedpost"), he'd mean much more to her ("a line in [her] song"). "Drop a heart, break a name" represents her current lose-lose situation; her heart is being "dropped" knowing they can't be together, but at the same time, one of the reasons they're such good friends is that she trusts him in part because he's gay and if he wasn't, he'd be losing part of his identity that endeared him to her in the first place ("break[ing]" his "name"). "We're always sleeping in and sleeping for the wrong team" is an obvious allusion to his orientation (while not morally wrong, he is on "the wrong team" if she wants to be with him) and more significantly her misplaced feelings for him. "We're going down, down in an earlier round / And sugar, we're going down swinging" - She had no idea she'd fall in love with him, let alone this fast; to "go down swinging" means to keep fighting for a cause despite obvious futility (perhaps she continues to flirt and make her feelings known?). "I'll be your number one with a bullet" alludes to her extremely close friendship with him - he really is her "number one with a bullet," the best friend she always goes to for advice etc. - something she doesn't want to lose. "A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it" seems to symbolize she knows she is wrong in believing they could ever be together or that she could change him - she knows she isn't God - so she wants to be rid of the feelings ("cock it and pull it" as though shooting them down; this line could also mean the feelings are hurting her). "Is this more than you bargained for yet?" refers to the fact that, although he's okay with her flirting, she doesn't want to cross a line and tries to be cautious about it. "Oh, don't mind me, I'm watching you two from the closet, wishing to be the friction in your jeans" - This is a reference to the way she jokes around with the guy ("don't mind me" is meant to sound sarcastic and silly) about her feelings under the guise of only loving him as a friend. This could also be a metaphor for how wrong/dirty she thinks her feelings are (as if she's somehow betraying him by falling for him despite his orientation), because watching someone from a closet has a very creepy, stalkerlike aura about it. "Isn't it messed up, how I'm just dying to be him?" is a continuation of the sarcastic/joking motif -- as in, "Isn't it funny?" Finally, the echoing of "Take aim at myself, take back what you said" over the final choruses seems to symbolize her, and perhaps his, reconciliation with her feelings.

[Skuff]

This reminds me of something I did in English class earlier this year.

Every day, when we walk in the room (I have English 1st period) we have a journal prompt to write. Well, one day, a few months ago, one of them was something about music connecting with your life. Well, it originally was going to be short, maybe a page, about "Soul Finger" reminding me of the good times of marching band and something else. Well, I start raving on about how I love analyzing the lyrics of songs. One that I talked about was "Mine's Not A High Horse" by the Shins:

After that confrontation

you left me wringing my cold hands

we shared some information

we might not recover from

and I watch your convictions

melt like ice cubes in an ocean

you were so poorly cast as a malcontent

You've got em all on your side

that just leads more from doubt to slaughter

"I never knew he thought that!"

I heard you say falling out of the van

"Don't ask for his opinion

they ought to drown him in holy water"

Will you remember my reply

when your high horse dies?

We'd like to go the distance

but not a one of us is gonna

you see nobody's wise enough to turn this ancient boat around

these are the muddy waters i'm swimming in

to make a living; that I might drown

in them should come as no surprise

You want 'em all on your side

that just makes more for doubt to slaughter

"I never knew he thought that!"

I heard you say falling out of the van

"Don't ask for his opinion

they ought to drown him in holy water"

Will you remember my reply

when your high horse dies?

You've got them all on your side

that just leads more from doubt to slaughter

"I never knew he thought that!"

I heard you say falling out of the van

"Don't ask for his opinion

they ought to drown him in holy water"

Will you remember my reply

one finger parallel to the sky?

[Carl]

This is just too weird. Great soul song by the Spinners called "How Could I let You Get Away," but what bizarre opening lyrics. Any idea what's going on here? And what's up with the basketball?

Like Howdy Do, your tin soldiers, your clowns, too.

They're all laughing at you,

I'm laughing at you, too.

Like basketball, five thousand that was all,

The games you really knew.

Why couldn't I beat you?

In the middle of the room,

Got no time to count my sheep today.

How could I let you get away?

When I knew I need somebody soon.