Lyrics for Everybody Wants to Rule the World as interpreted by numb

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Lyrics
Welcome to your life
There's no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you acting on your best behavior
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Everybody wants to rule the world

It's my own design
It's my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the most
Of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world

There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you
So glad we've almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world

I can't stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the world
Say that you'll never never never never need it
One headline why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world

All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world

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munkeyarse
01-25-2002

Rated 0 
best song ever, reminds me of that movie ending...wheres theres popcorn coming from the sky?

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brianta69
04-20-2002

Rated 0 
the movie you are thinking of is called real genius with val kilmer. good 80's movie, humerous val kilmer in it.

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Louis Burdett
04-25-2002

Rated 0 
Better at the introduction to some british movie that shows newsreel footage of all the major events in england 1985-1991. Peters Friends or something, wasn't it ?

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stump522
05-12-2002

Rated 0 
its it sort of pathetic that a song is best know because it was in the ending of a movie? That seems to take all credibility away from the artist

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ucfgirlie
05-25-2002

Rated 0 
lol, it was in promos for the west wing before it first aired, too.....more credibility taken away from the artist? :)

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Emanual200
06-09-2002

Rated 0 
it was in the beginning of Dennis Miller Live too...but who cares what people know it from. it's an awesome song and everyone knows it's by tears for fears

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not_blonde
07-03-2002

Rated 0 
i know this song from the album. haha. but yeah..it's a good song. well first i knew it from the radio..but yeah. everyone wants to rule the world, it's true.

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shauncreaney
07-21-2002

Rated 0 
please people, we are supposed to comment on the song's meaning, not where we have most recently heard the pleasant melody. as for myself, this is a condemnation or even better, a veritable diatribe against the sickening stench of avaricious capitalism. your greed sickens me as you have turned your back on the natural world instead searching for the easiest way to make some greenbacks..sick-ass americans, nothing lasts forever, not even your money or your lives. john wayne is dead, and he will never be thawed out. he can't buy immortality. read the poem ozymandius. it describes that even the most powerful and opulent still die and all their material wealth cannot sustain their puny memory. so much for your fiscal dollar. haha

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drummer4514
07-25-2002

Rated 0 
I would have to agree with the statement that nothing does last forever, it all goes away in a quick second, sometimes u get to enjoy the fine and fun things in life, while in other situations you dont. I think that is what the song is about

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silentknight
09-25-2002

Rated 0 
To the bombastic bitch-ass, aka SHAUNCREANEY.....with all candor, i won't deny that i actually do concur with the message of the song and even with some of what your self-inflated ego had to needlessly inject into the "analysis," which was, "the most powerful and opulent still die and all their material wealth...." True, money is nothing more than ink on paper and opulence in the end amounts to zero. The only true wealth is what we carry around in our heads and hearts. However, it is not in the least a sin to aspire to material wealth and material success. Au contraire, you beaver. Needless to say, you're antiamerican....you're against free enterprise or what you call "capitalism." You're probably just flat out against freedom. And to put it accurately, you're a very, woefully, incorrigibly misguided individual who thinks he/she sees it how it is. NOT SO. so where exactly are you coming from hmm? I wonder how the world would revolve if fools steeped in grandiloquence (i.e., you) were to ever claim the global throne.

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shauncreaney
03-11-2003

Rated 0 
to the silent knight, i stab at thee. you shall be silenced as i quell thy flickering soul. thou wanted an interpretation and thou shall receive. i only offer my pretentious hand once. who gave you carte blanche to analyse my psyche? you think you're saving a life? you're already dead. you, me, him, everybody, we're all dead. a pox on you and you're sententious harangue. conscience, you dare speak to me of conscience? only when you have realized the full gravity of choice shall you dare question my judgement. insult, the last resort of a fading half-wit

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shauncreaney
03-11-2003

Rated 0 
to retaliate, calling me misguided, incorrigible and a fool, among others, is fair. one thing persists. i do see it 'as it is.' i have the most profound perspicacity to date. you are blinded by your ostensible 'freedom' and your spurious hopes for a better life. how can you question my integrity and insights when you have only construed some electronic text? what does it represent to you? is it a mellifluous melody or a dramatic dialogue aimed at your heart. perish ye heathen and dispense with thy pontification.

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bloodybitch
06-21-2003

Rated 0 
As for knowing the song from a tv show taking away from the credibility, I think it says a lot that this song IS still recognized, it's almost timeless. Especially to be associated with such a respectable show as West Wing..now if it was Roseanne or some other crap it would be different.

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leaffan1389
05-18-2004

Rated 0 
what does it matter what show it would be associated with? It's an amazing song. Tears for fears was combating the yuppie-attitude of the time. They were serenading all of us with their messages of 'theres something better than this'.

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Adamsmasher
06-07-2004

Rated 0 
I think this song is about every single one of us. We all have that part of us to want to make it to the top or in some how control the environment that we live in. I believe that this desire shows no prejudice, from the poorest with few belongings to the rich with the power that their mony gives them. It seems that we all want power and want to get ahead. From runnig to get ahead of next guy in a food line, to a country making "strategic" decisions inorder to take advantage of a lesser neighbor country. If given the chance I think we would all want to rule the world. I think this song is all about the darker part of humanity that is always trying to getting ahead of your fellow man. And for the record. I do not think that absolutlly every body is like this, just most of us. Great song

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butterflykiss84
06-11-2004

Rated 0 
I just love the opening line to the song. That's all I have to say. That one line just can make you ponder for hours. That's what good lyrics make you do :]

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monkeymoogle
12-21-2004

Rated 0 
This song appears to be about falsifying the world and ourselves, but that the truth will become known anyways.

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flamountainbiker
03-17-2005

Rated 0 
What this song means to me. We are here. So we should make the best of it. Everybody wants to rule the world means to me, that everybody has their own opinion. But what is it going to take for us to be able to listen to each other? Value each and every persons opinion without criticizing each other? There is no 'right' or 'wrong', but 'what works' and 'what doesn't work'. Oh... and listen to my band. SOL3 http://www.sealevelracing.com/sol3/sol3.html
Thanks,
Dave

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Oorakhhye
06-07-2005

Rated 0 
As far as the argument between Shauncreany and Silentknight goes, I would have to side with SilentKnight. I know using extremely underused words in this day in age may make you seem a lot smarter and more knowledgable than those around you, but it finally comes down to the general idea you want to get across. Among that mountain of needless words you put together, you basically said "fuck capitalism" and "fuck the United states". You also stated that this is exactly what Tears for Fears is stating. Ok, well it may make sense...sure we live in a capitalistic world. And at the time this song came out, capitalism was fighting communism. You're stating that capitalism was what tears for fears was speaking out against. Now if this is true...if you agree with these men, you would indeed be setting yourself up for agreeing with your newly created hypocrits. Because, only through a capitolistic world, could a group like tears for fears make millions of dollars through the number of albums they sold. And they sure as hell made a lot of money, speaking their mind, in the free western world....hey, can you tell me how many famous russian singers came out of 80's from the Soviet Union? That's what i thought....it's marketing...people want to feel unique, either by memorizing the dictionary (like yourself), or by joining some cause, this usually exists within fanatic youths from 18 - 26...so, groups will make music that will appeal to their idealistic principals (in order to put some money in the pockets). Now, even though i feel that in a way, tears for fears did such a thing (if i was to agree with your inturpretation of the song)...I don't care...you know why? Because even though they're working hard to agree with the fanatic youth of the time...they end up suprising even themselves with the philosophical symbolism they create (even though it was done to make a buck). I think the same thing can go for bands nowadays....like System of a Down...even though they're against a lot of the thigns you are.....the men are millionaires....are they hypocrits? Nahh......Business men? Hell yeah!!....The extreme populice of the capitol world. Let's see if you could speak your mind living in your "Utopian anti-capitolistic" world. There were a lot of men that had the same dreams as you did.....they go by the names of Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin and Vladamir Lenin....the last two ended up being responcible by ordering the deaths of more than 20 million people during their eras.....now you think about it....maybe, if you put the dictionary and bong down...get off your lazy ass, stop repeating what your other lazy friends say because they don't want to get a job...and do something for yourself, you won't have to pretend to be "unique" by reciting Webster and Shakespeare online and actually do something for yourself...

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Izzy Ferret
06-15-2005

Rated 0 
Hahah you're all arguing on an internet lyric site.

I don't really know what this song is supposed to be about because...I didn't write it...but it reminds me of Berlin, Germany after the building of the Berlin Wall.

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stoolhardy
07-17-2005

Rated 0 
Honestly, I don't think this song is about anything really. Maybe it's another Tears for Fears song about primal scream therapy again. I don't think there is enough substance in the song to be an anti-capitalism song. Most of all I'd like to know what the following lines mean:

"There's a room where the light won't find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do I'll be right behind you."

Any takers on this question?

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1 Reply
stoolhardy
07-17-2005

Rated 0 
Also the similar webstite songfacts.com has a user who says that the title and lyrics were "Everybody Wants to Go to War." Still don't understand what the song means - keep in mind it came out in 1983 before the Berlin Wall fell. The song sounds like it could be talking about the meaninglessness of war with those lyrics but... hell I don't know.

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nocheapthrill
08-04-2005

Rated 0 
According to Curt Smith:

"...the concept is quite serious - it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes."

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gb85
08-31-2005

Rated 0 
Great song, always gets me thinking..
To me, it seems that "ruling the world" isn't so much referring to assuming a position of wealth or power, but perhaps DEFINING the world (more specifically, our own lives and their meanings and purposes) to the point that we're consumed by these definitions ("There's no turning back").
Where he says "It's my own design/it's my own remorse" I got the sense that he's referring to us bringing this undesirable point of "no turning back" upon our invdividual SELVES, each and every one of us.
I think the most important lines in the song (in terms of getting the main idea across) are in the beginning: lines 3-5. Here, I'm getting the feeling that "even while we sleep", all day, everyday, we're caught up in a world we've created for ourselves instead of the one set here by "mother nature", whom, as a result, were are "turning our backs" upon.
The pleading tone of the song ("Help me make the most..") drives home the final point: that this is not good, but instead RESTRICTING of our collective potential for happiness rather than enhancing it.
By becoming encompassed by our own unnatural desires, it follows that we tend to lose sight of the "finer" things in life, "freedom and pleasure".

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zebra65
01-23-2006

Rated 0 
whenever interpreting songs by openly gay performers, it's important to remember that it's very likely that their gayness informs their songwriting to some degree. I think that is the case here, and Roland Orzibal's songs are full of gay activism.
"welcome to your life, there's no turning back" - is about facing the fact that sexuality is predetermined, and there's nothing you can do to change it, or it could be about the moment of coming out, where "your life" begins, and once you decide, you can't go back.
"even while we sleep we will find you acting on your best behaviour" - speaks of deep seated behavioural conditioning that prevents closet gays from acting on their desires, even in their sleep.
"turn your back on mother nature" - is an exhortation to go against "natural" heterosexuality, or it could be an admonishment for trying to be hetero, when homo is what was given by nature
"everybody wants to rule the world" - there will always be somebody who tries to force everyone else to follow their view of the way things should be - in this case, conservatives who think being straight is the only right way to be.
"it's my own (desire), it's my own remorse" I think there's a mistake in the text - even that typed in the official lyric sheet - which occurs quite often - and the word "design" should be "desire", in which case, he means exactly that - his desire (homo, not hetero), and his problem alone to deal with the consequences of following his desire.
"help me to decide, help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure, nothing ever lasts forever" - of his wish for society to release/give him freedom to decide for himself what will make him happy and give him pleasure. Why? Because nothing lasts forever - life is short, so it should be happy.
"there's a room where the light won't find you holding hands" - of a gay couple who hide in the closet, away from the light, hoping not to be discovered
"while the walls come tumbling down - when they do I'll be right behind you" - of the slow removal of barriers to the integration and acceptance of gay people into mainstream society. When it happens, Roland will be there to support those who were hiding.
"I can't stand this indecision, married with a lack of vision" - is a direct stab at people like Elton John and George Michael, who all through the 80's vascillated about coming out of the closet, lacking the vision to believe that the world could ever accept them.

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