Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs

I feel like newborn
And I feel like a newborn
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
I feel so real

Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember - yeah

I don't believe in
I don't believe in your sanctity your prophecy
I don't believe in
I don't believe in sanctity or hypocrisy
Can everyone agree that no one should be left alone
Can everyone agree that they should not be left alone
And I feel like a newborn
And I feel like a newborn (kicking and screaming)

Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember - yeah

Hey dad what do you think about your son now?
Hey dad what do you think about your son now?

Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember
Could you take my picture
Cause I won't remember - yeah



Lyrics submitted by jstalilwyrd

Track duration: 06:04

"Take a Picture" as written by Richard Michael Patrick

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Take A Picture song meanings
Add your thoughts

88 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment:Lyrics have at least two meanings. The first is the intended meaning of the songwriter. I think there's a lot of evidence that meaning is about Richard Patrick getting drunk on a plane, stripping and having it photographed and sent to his father, with a sub-text of what it means to be famous.

    But the second meaning of a lyric is what it means to the person who values the song. Sometimes that second meaning is close to the intended meaning. But sometimes this personal meaning goes off in another direction. A lot of poets and songwriters insist that personal meanings are as important as original intended meaning.

    I find a lot of posts at this site are actually people sharing their personal meaning, even if they don't distinguish between the two meanings. Here's my personal meaning for this song.

    When I hear this song or watch the video, I experience intense nostalgia. I don't mean just remembering some period in the past fondly. I'm talking an existential connection between the me of the present moment and a time of my life that is gone where I experience a deep spiritual and emotional nexus that combines both remembering what what was real and intense loss because it no longer is real and is no longer experienced and not fully remembered. This, for me, is both soul piercing sadness and elevating joy at the same time. I very much want to feel this but it also very much hurts to feel it.

    Three things really activate this intense state. Scent, music and images. For instance the smell of cut grass on a hot day takes me right back to my teenage years while not taking me fully enough back, thus I have this experience.

    The music of this song, now over a decade later, has this powerful effect on me. It's like a magic spell activating the time period when my adult sons were teenagers and we were evolving from them liking my music to me liking theirs. But the words, for me, have a personal meaning that is all about this nostalgia.

    You see when that past was present I was "Awake" to it, My skin was "bare" to it, even belonging to it, being "theirs," all that was around me including the other people who were there. Here's something weird about this experience. It doesn't matter if back then it was a good or bad experience, it didn't matter if what was happening to me was due to others' scorn or hypocrisy or sanctity. I was awake to it all and now I'm not. Then it was "real" and I was "newborn" into that reality, but now it's gone.

    So what I needed to make it somehow real now is a picture, a storing of the moment, because "I won't remember" it fully, it will be lost fully. Thus I will have this nostalgia.

    A lot of nostalgia like this for me is a mix of either when I was a child/youth, in which a vital part of my life was relating to my parents, or when my children were young, in which a vital part of my lfie was relating as a parent. Either way the refrain "Hey dad what do you think of your son now" captures all that, both of them, even though I'm a woman. The entire experience includes the then and the now and what would my dad then think now of me his daughter and what do I now think now about my son(s) then.

    So that's my personal meaning of the song. I think it is congruent with the original meaning about a specific moment in Richard Patrick's life, because I think he also realized the same existential nexus between that specific moment and the rest of his existence afterwards. But even if it's just my personal meaning, it's still my personal meaning.
    Flag LibWingofLibWingon May 14, 2012   Link
  • +2
    Memory:To me, this song represents the time in your life when you realize it's time to grow up and get on with your life. You decide to rid yourself of the past and move on to something new. "Awake on my airplane/I feel so real" is that feeling you get when your whole perspective on life has changed. Then my favorite part "Could you take my picture, cause I won't remember.." I love hearing it. I remember the first time I heard this song, almost two years during my sophomore year. I was having the worse year of my life. I was miserable and crying all the time because of a guy (who turned out to be the hugest, funniest waste of time ever) and I felt to insecure like everyone hated me. And then.. things started changing for me. I met new people who actually cared about me. I realized I had to get over him, and he wasn't that amazing. I remember feeling more relaxed, and not scared anymore. I didn't realize it then, but it really was the first time in a year that I'd actually felt happy. Since I heard this song around that time, and it described exactly how I felt, whenever I play this song, it's like I'm instantly taken back to that time. I remember it as the time that I started getting rid of the old naive me and becoming who I am now. The chorus to me means that you know these times aren't going to matter ten years from now. For me, that time is high school. Haha. It's like saying, "take my picture, because I'm happy right now and I have to care about anything," and you know things aren't going to be like this one day. It's about living in the moment and appreciating everything in life :)
    Flag taylorlovesnumber19on April 03, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:Song makes me wanna get high.
    Flag LoveAngelMusicon February 13, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:haha, funny how this is partly aimed at a father for not approving of his son's career choice - a father with TWO pretty successful sons in showbiz - Richard's brother Robert played the T1000 in Terminator 2, Jonnhy Cash's dad in Walk the Line and a bumch more; Richard was only like the lead guitarist for a band called Nine Inch Nails, oh, and I think he had a band called Filter... what do you think about your sons now dad??
    Flag b4modelon October 17, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song could be about killing children and i would STILL love it.
    Flag twentyfiveon February 28, 2010   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:This song is about( or could be about ) someone who has finally found success as a rock star..Although he has found success, we can tell by the author that he was " left alone " as a child and although he is now successful, (even has his own personal airplane), the fact that he was alone as a child is still painful to him..


    " Awake on My Airplane "..." My ", meaning his own personal airplane ",a staple of suucess in society.

    "My skin is bare, my skin is theirs" <~~~Although he is successful, he ultimately still belongs to the record label..

    " feel like a newborn " <~~~~~His newly found success is a " new " to life to him...A newborn with a new adventure..

    "Could you take my picture
    'Cause I won't remember" <~~~~~~~He knows this new found success as a rock star will probably be over quickly. Most rock stars careers are filled with drugs, alcohol and forgotton experiences..He's asking someone to " take a picture " because after this new career comes and goes, " he won't remember "


    "I don't believe in, I don't believe in
    Your sanctity " <~~~~This is addressed to his father. He's basically saying, " You weren't so perfect "

    Which is proven by the next statement,

    " Could everyone agree that
    No one should be left alone " <~~~~~~~Apparantly his Father was not around and left him alone as a child.


    Flag JeffinNewportBeachon January 31, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:To me, this song has two meanings. The first, and more obvious being a story about someone (i.e. Richard Patrick) getting drunk and making a scene on an airplane....as said by many already. But to me personally, the song is about making choices and decisions in life that ultimately make you reborn (I feel like a newborn) and the airplane being another analogy for this works too! The refrain of the song to me represents not caring at all about the past, and getting someone else to "take a picture" for you so you can if you ever wanted to
    Flag Shoegazer155on January 11, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:hmm, i was always told that this song was about how his dad didn't want/approve of his career choice. (music)

    hence "hey, dad what do you think about your son now"

    but it could have multiple meanings. .
    Flag MusicFreak22on October 23, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:My interpretation is that this is reflective of his becoming an adult and breaking free from the influence of his parents...

    "Awake on my airplane, awake on my airplane"
    - Airplane refers to his journey through life. He is awake now because he is breaking away from his childhood becoming a man...

    "My skin is bare, my skin is theirs"
    - his skin is bare because he is vulnerable, it is 'theirs' because he has not been thinking for himself .. as in a child..

    "I feel like a newborn"
    - this is referring to his life realizations - that which seems so obvious now because he is awakening

    Awake on my airplane
    Awake on my airplane
    "I feel so real"
    - Finally thinking for himself

    "Could you take my picture
    'Cause I won't remember"
    - this could be referring to the grip that his parents have on him and how he may be getting sucked into their thoughts and their needs when he is with them.

    "I don't believe in, I don't believe in
    Your sanctity
    Your prophecy
    I don't believe in I don't believe in
    Sanctity - a hypocrisy"
    - this could be his sudden epiphany regarding his parents and how he was raised. Specifically, their expectations of him. This could be part of his awakening - that he just realized this about his parents.

    "Could everyone agree that
    No one should be left alone
    Could everyone agree that
    They should not be left alone"
    - This could mean that he is saying that he still doesn't want to be left alone even though he has come to a disagreement with his parents..that he maybe expects them to not agree with him, that maybe during his childhood he never had a voice, but now that he does, he is fearful they will disown him.

    'And I feel like a newborn
    And I feel like a newborn
    Kicking and screaming'
    - Now it is changing to his realization that he is now disobedient - thus the term 'kicking and screaming' - not agreeing with his parents and what he has always known he 'should be'

    "Ah, hey dad what do you think about your son now
    Aw, hey dad what do you think about your son now"
    -this is self explanatory given the above interpretations

    "Could you take my picture
    'Cause I won't remember"
    - In this last lyric - as the song evolved, he has no intention of speaking up to his dad, therefore, he needs a picture so he can remember his strength.
    Flag YouDrummeron September 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Best line:

    Could everyone agree that no one should be left alone?

    So good, makes me feel hopeful, and this song is just a happy in the moment kind of song. And the idea of taking a picture to remember that you did feel happy at one time in your life. It kind of gives you something to hold on to.
    Flag Taaahmmon September 12, 2009   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

Back to top
explain