Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American

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I'm not alone cause the TV's on yeah.
I'm not crazy cause I take the right pills everyday.
And rest, clean your conscious, clear your thoughts with speyside with your grain.
Clean your conscious, clear your thoughts with speyside.
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt.
Our hearts littering the topsoil.
Tune in and we can get the last call.
Our lives, our coal.
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt.
Our hearts littering the topsoil.
Sign up it's the picket line or the parade.
Our lives.
I'm not alone cause the TV's on yeah.
I'm not crazy cause I take the right pills everyday.
And rest, clean your conscious, clear your thoughts with speyside with your grain.
Clean your conscious, clear your thoughts with speyside.
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt.
Our hearts littering the topsoil.
Tune in and we can get the last call.
Our lives, our coal.
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt.
Our hearts littering the topsoil.
Sign up it's the picket line or the parade, our lives.
(I bled the) greed from my arm.
Won't they give it a rest now?
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt.
Our hearts littering the topsoil.
Tune in and we can get the last call.
Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt, our hearts littering the topsoil.
Sign up it's the picket line or the parade.

Send "Bleed American" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by girlypunk

Track duration: 02:48

"Bleed American" as written by James Christopher/burch Adkins

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Bleed American song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:it sure does sound like 9/11. that was actually my first thought when i heard this initially though. then i realized oh hey that happened later. love this song it's what i listen to when i work out
    Flag willowhazelon July 02, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:The song definitely is commenting specifically on the American situation. I think the song should be associated with the American Industrial Revolution. The factory workers are presented as a type of corporate solidarity for the American ethos in general. We are "the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free" (Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus). We will work for that freedom, sacrificing our own selves to build up this land. Our salt, our sweat is as sweet sugar to the asphalt. Our hearts litter the topsoil--the blood sacrifice which the land requires of us. This song is about working. Working to build up America, to build our futures by the sweat of our backs, by sacrificing our own lives. "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how" (Nietzsche).

    But what will we lose? What will we sacrifice along the way? In seeking to build a future for ourselves will we lose our very humanity and become a faceless, impersonal industrial machine? Community becomes the noise of a television in the other room. We have become a culture obsessed with a "pill mentality"--the right pill will fill the void we feel deep down inside--no need for God, no need for each other. Ignore your conscience, drown your humanity in alcohol (Speyside is a Scottish whisky), join the picket lines of the labor union protests so we can make more money. "Tune in and we can get the last call" might be a reference to workers waiting in crowds outside of factories for the chance to be one of the select few who would receive employment. [This is] Our lives. Our grain! Our coal! In forbearing the "how," will we lose sight of the "why" we live? In desperation, (I bled the) greed from my arm. Give it a rest, now.
    Flag nathanaelwarrenon November 22, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I might be the only one to get this from it, but did anything think post traumatic stress disorder?

    people are often prescribed medications for it, and other people self medicate with alcohol.

    I feel like the chorus bit is about war, whether for good reasons or not ("our lives, our coal"). And the rest is kind of about dealing with the consequences of killing other human beings for those.

    I don't feel like the song is glorifying or berating America at all. it's humanity as a whole.
    Flag elle1993on October 01, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Seems like everyone seems to think the songs bashing american society. It's easy to jump in that boat and talk about (whether you are American or not) whats wrong with the world.

    Problem with that logic is the song and album title "Bleed American."

    When you say you Bleed American it means you are a patriot. If you bleed something, it means its so a part of who you are that it practically runs through your veins. Blood has always been extremely symbolic.



    Still not positive about the meaning. It's not a very long song. But I took a different take on "Sign up the picket line or the parade"

    To me thats saying either be happy with what you have or do something to change it.
    Flag Dtelmon January 24, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:I agree with the person who said this, A Praise Chorus and The Middle are like a trilogy but I also think this song can be read as a social commentary on how freaking retarded America is right now(or at least was when this song came out but it's still largely pretty retarded if you ask me.)
    Flag Aenema91on March 14, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think this song is about the best and worst of American culture: on one hand, TV is our friend, we drown our troubles in alcohol, and we take our crazy pills; on the other, we have worked hard to earn pride in our nation, especially in times of war or in coal mines, as it were, and not always voluntarily. Possibly contrasting this glorified past with our laziness today, how we no longer "bleed American". That phrase is how I interpret "salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt/our hearts littering the topsoil". The blood that our hearts pump (containing sugar) and our sweat has been poured onto the ground for love of America.
    Flag sXe LEXXIon November 18, 2009   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:The last 60 years of American culture summed up in in 7 words:
    "Sign up, the picketline or the parade."

    Everything in American society is an either-or. Democrat or Republican? Fat or Skinny? Hot or Not? Coke or Pepsi? Patriot or Terrorist? Guilty or Innocent?

    You have to sign up to be someone. So pick your side... picketline or parade?
    Flag Latencyon February 10, 2008   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • 0
    General Comment:For me this song is about losing the will to "save" your own life. On one side he is alone and sad but instead to change this, he's looking for something that helps him trough this, without changing it. But theres some kind of rage (against him self and all the others). This looks like kind of the last punch. Without hope to change anything with that
    Flag nathycattyon February 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Can someone explain to me what "Salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt"
    means?

    Regardless, this song is amazing as well as jew in general.
    Flag milk23on December 30, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Ok, I agree that this song is about america being to controled by all the little pills that we take, and that the T.V. is what america is all about, but sone one please tell me what the chorus is about?
    Flag kInGancaptainon December 28, 2007   Link

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