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No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free
No one knows what it's like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you
No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through
But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free
When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool
And if I swallow anything evil
Put you're finger down my throat
And if I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear you're coat
No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies
But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free
No one knows what it's like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you
No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through
But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free
When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool
And if I swallow anything evil
Put you're finger down my throat
And if I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear you're coat
No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
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This song is a person telling off one/both of their parents, probably as an adult struggling to cope with the realties of life. In lyrical and chord structure, this song has melancholy overtones, so I am convinced that the "blue eyes" do not describe color, but a perpetual state of depression. Childhood was endless lonely hours, silent in their pain and woe while everybody else lashes out with no regard, the child is fated to telling only lies--to gain some sort of acceptance or positive attention. That dreams "aren't as empty" admits there are few, but that there is even less conscience remaining is truly tragic, as the person is morally and spiritually beaten. The last two, more upbeat verses, express the anger about the mental manipulation as well as the "tough love" examples parents like to brag about, and finally the fury of having had to rely on those parents for survival.
Sad to hear that somebody's Mom would say this song was written about them. Of course, it's sad to say my interpretation is a bit personal, too.
But the thing is, this man doesn't want to be this way. "My dreams aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be". He aspires to be a better person, but simply isn't strong enough. Because of this, he became even more bitter, thus the blue (sad) eyes.
He is referring to the fact that the only way to show his love anymore for this person/world, is by not unleashing his vengeance upon them.
If he's using the word vengeance then that means this person/world has caused him grievance and maybe he loved this person/world in the past, which may be why he is not exacting his retribution to them now.
I think it is just the usual "blue" meaining "being sad", poetic way to say "the pressures of my job get me down, but I cannot let on, I have to keep up my image".
Great lyrics can mean different things to different people, without a direct specific meaning.[like Stairway to Heaven?]
Wiki: ""Behind Blue Eyes" is sung from the point of view of the main villain of Lifehouse, Jumbo. The lyrics are a first-person lament from Jumbo, who is always angry and full of angst because of all the pressure and temptation that surrounds him"
So "Who" is Jumbo? Is Jumbo "The Who"? Who are YOU? {sorry, getting creative here]
"Jumbo controls the grid"
But of course, Jumbo's lament could be Townsend expressing something of himself, lets as Whofreak777
PS from fussyprick - grammar error in lyric above it says "let me wear YOU'RE coat" should be "let me wear YOUR coat", or it means "let me wear YOU ARE coat".
[I don't have the album lyric here - is it the same?]
1. No one knows what its like, to be the bad man- speaks for itself; aggressive narcissism
2. To be the sad man- traumatic childhood is almost universal, and if they weren't cunning and vicious their essentially pathetic nature would be revealed- bad kitten with no claws
3 behind blue eyes- symbolic associated with beauty which people automatically equivocate with "goodness" -a seductive facade. It's glibness, charm.
4 no one knows what its like to be hated- tend to piss people off.
5 to be fated to telling only lies- Oh what a tangled web we weave.... PATHOLOGICAL! they gotta cover there asses to obscure their mischief from society.
6 But my dreams they aren't as empty- they are still human beings, and are most often extremely intelligent though lacking in ambition
7 As my conscience seems to be- TEXTBOOK! lack of empathy
8 I have hours only lonely- incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them.
9 my love is vengeance thats never free- again with the ANGER, they hate the world and feel entitled. Never free implies the great karmic cost of lashing out at the world
10No one knows what it's like to feel these feelings like I do and I blame you- Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society.
11No one bites back as hard, On their anger, None of my pain and woe can show through- chronic irritability
12 if my fist clenches crack it open before i use it and lose my cool- Impulsivity, irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults
13 If I smile tell me some bad news before i laugh and act like a fool- shallow emotional affect
14 If I swallow anything evil, put your finger down my throat- frequent and severe drug and alcohol abuse and addiction
15 If I shiver please give me a blanket, keep me warm let me wear your coat- parasitic lifestyle. go steal your own fucking coat you scab!
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes"
Considering the melancholy tone of the intro, the listener immediately is compelled to empathize. When he proclaims, "no one knows what it's like," the audiance (or regular human being) want's to open themselves to better understand, which is the intention of the entire song and is further alluded to toward the end.
"And no one knows
What it's like to be hated
To be fated to telling only lies"
"No one knows what it's like to hated..." While he drew us in with "no one knows what it's like" in the first lines, here we are uneasy...does the typical listener know what it's like to be hated? Usually not, so we are further compelled to open our hearts.
"To be Fated to telling Only Lies..." here it becomes evident, but ever so subtley what he means...what his intentions are. No one is fated to tell lies. Lies are a choice that one makes for pure profit and benefit to that person.
"But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be"
We,(as the listener) still are accepting of his pleas and so the chorus goes unnoticed of what is actually implied...if you are hoodwinked, at least.
"I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free"
To the audiance, who are mostly niave, we can all relate to the hours that seem to trickle past within the depths of lonelieness, but the emphasis on Vengance really reveal that these hours are contrived. The hours he spends are merely ploys to decieve, again not well understood until the pick-up at the end...haha...the pick-up lies in loneLIEness...Love is Free, but not to him...it's an effort to pretend that he loves and a well constrewed one, at that.
"No one knows what it's like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you"
Woah, here we go! The terminal shift from compassion to WTF?! The epiphany from the audience, or for those who are not disillusioned to the specific narrator. It's true, no one can completely understand what others are going through, but human nature urges us to want to empathize. However, he blames us for doing so and is such a punctual way to ultimately reveal the jest of the song!
"No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through"
Just as the hours of loneLieness are so feverently contrived, now he admits that it takes a dedicated effort to conceal his exact motives...this is more revealing and personal than anything he says in the song...he is honest for just a moment...pain...deep down, concealed by playing the role of the victim, to win the trust of others...until the moment of relinquished gratification of his intent, which I will eventually get at.
"But my dreams
They aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be"
"Dreams" are especially annunciated here and for a good reason...this little instrumental intralude really speaks the transition, wouldn't ya say?
"When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool"
He asks us, (the audience) to help control his anger (something that we learn as children to control ourselves...self control which he lacks probably because of "mommy issues"). The audience becomes the scapegoat and the target of the blame and the object of resentment and vengence, all the while sustaining his wrath. He is warning that if we cannot control him in the most fearful and subserviant way, WE will suffer...if you do not open his clinched fist he will hit you with it, or use his words; it's all the same. The true victim must play a role as well...the one to inject the bad news...the "tip-toe" effect. He needs this to remain powerful and does not want to expose the dynamics of the situation although the other clearly is aware yet is only fearful, so plays the part.
"If I swallow anything evil
Put your finger down my throat
If I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear your coat"
This reminds me of another song that I can't put my finger on...the one about the hunch back and wearing a coat...that song is exactly comparative to this one! Anywho, he expresses that if he "swallows anything evil" meaning that his demons are separate from himself; "put your finger down my throat," implying that the evil he does is because you allowed it, the audience! And could not effectively irradicate the looming evil!
"If I shiver, "please" give me a blanket, keep me warm, let me wear your coat." Here is exactly where we realize that we've been bent over and screwed royally...though at first we would have offered our coat genuinely and willingly, he expects it now...the kindness...he is entitled to it!
And the monumental end...
"No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes"
Ahh. Perfecto! Describes perfectly a man without a conscience, or woman...the psychopath and borderline!
If you think one can never be 'fated' to lies - that a situation can never force someone to do bad - I ask you to look at life a bit more thoroughly. You've NEVER felt like the only alternative was to be 'bad'? There are kids every day that steal for their families, hack to take down tyrannical governments, kill to get rid of bad bad people... moral tradeoffs have to happen everywhere, and no human has never felt cornered in some way.
If you think that you've never hated or been hated, you've not lived enough. Humans are often prejudicial, and at the very least you've felt the sting of cliques in school. Humans even HATE because they disagree with your political or economic views. Some hate people of different countries. Someone somewhere hates you for some reason.
Which is not to say that humans aren't ever empathetic. I think this song, as opposed to expressing the feelings of a straight-up socio-path, express the ambiguity of humanity. If our narrator had no conscience, why would he express displeasure about his situation ('pain and woe'), showing at least a little guilt? You argue that its all for pity, but I disagree. A socio-path doesn't care about others, so he wouldn't ask people to 'crack' open his fist. He also talks about 'dreams', and i'm inclined to believe he has goals, and that they aren't 'empty' - dreams implies that he wants to change his situation.
He is a human.