Lyrics for Numb as interpreted by ruben

Numb Lyrics
I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless
Lost under the surface
I don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure
Of walking in your shoes
[Caught in the undertow
/Just caught in the undertow]
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
[Caught in the undertow
/Just caught in the undertow]
I've
Become so numb
I can't feel you there
Become so tired
So much more aware
I'm becoming this
All I want to do
Is be more like me
And be less like you
Can't you see that you're smothering me
Holding too tightly
Afraid to lose control
'Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you
[Caught in the undertow
/Just caught in the undertow]
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
[Caught in the undertow
/Just caught in the undertow]
I've
Become so numb
I can't feel you there
Become so tired
So much more aware
I'm becoming this
All I want to do
Is be more like me
And be less like you
But I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me
With someone disappointed in you
I've
Become so numb
I can't feel you there
Become so tired
So much more aware
I'm becoming this
All I want to do
Is be more like me
And be less like you
I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Is everything what you want me to be
I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Is everything what you want me to be

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Blaquwint
06-18-2005

Rated 0 
i agree with most of you about the expectations. i think the song is sybolizing what curruption can do to a young mind, and the curruption i'm talking about is all and any kinds of persuation and minipulation that is out there all you need is someone telling you "you have done a good job" and than expecting more and better the next time. but i'm talking about all kinds of curruption wether good or bad. to a young persons mind all they want is to make their parents happy and live up to their parents standards and what not but young kids can be pushed to far at an early age and they start to feel like what they have accoplished and done wasn't good enough for anyone especially themselves. this is a song feeling that young persons mind and how where ever they go and whatever they do they feel alone and numb because in their eyes them themselves is not good enough to anyone. these are the people like me who become depressed and loose faith in everything because of how society looks down upon the ones who are lost and unsure of where to go and what to do. this song is one of the best linkin park song that has a clear symbolizing aspect of how feelings are showed or at least i think so but than again most of their songs are pretty much like that.

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bluemoondaisy
07-16-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with what y'all were saying before. This song is one of my personal favourites for Linkin Park.

I think its about being in a situation where someone else's beliefs, views, ideas, etc are being forced upon you and the expectations is to conform accordingly. However, trying to be yourself and be what someone else *wants* you to be tends to prove difficult, especially when your character is much stronger and resilient than you think.

It starts off ...
"I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless
Lost under the surface
I don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure
Of walking in your shoes"

indicating that the persona did indeed try to be what that other person wanted them to be... Then later realized that in trying to make that other person happy, they've managed to gradually lose pieces of themself along the way. As it continues, the realization and acknowledgement of that... along with the conflict in one's mind between doing what makes you happy and what makes someone else happy places you under pressure..

The chorus emphasizes that.. and the person just finds the whole situation tiring because you can't be two people at once; live up to two sets of expectations simultaneously... At the end, he decides that he's going to start living up to his own expectations, goals, what makes him happy... regardless of the consequences... make his own trial and error and be happy rather than be told all his mistakes before its done... and how to do it.

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poeticXchicka
07-25-2005

Rated 0 
I would also like to say, as MethMeth did, this song reminds me of my mother.... When she went back to work, she was a stay-at-home-mom ever since I was a year and a half, I was ten at the time she went back, she really didn't see me much at all, and to be honest, I avoided her at all costs because she got the 4-12 afternoon shift, and she had daycare at 5 yet some days, she never did leave that when she went back to work, she was generally very cranky and blew up at us a lot. Once she quit, two years later, she realized I wasn't the sweet little girl I was then, for I had helped my dad practically raise my younger sisters while she was gone, I basically had to try to fill in the hole she was leaving them with, a strong/hard task for a ten year old girl, as I couldn't really keep my loss in mind, and this obviously made me tougher, and it gave me a weary side, and well, she didn't like that... she still doesn't to this day. I do almost resent her for this... around the time she went back to work, my parents almost got a divorce as well, so that was hard to deal with, money was tight, and I heard all about it... I'm not trying to say it was the worst thing on the planet, but it was very hard for me at the age of ten to deal with, and to top it all off, I was going through puberty early, so I also had those issues to deal with... and I promised myself to not turn out like her, "to be more like me and be less like you" and I told every boyfriend I've had since then that if I turn out like my mom to shoot me.... I don't take pride in this, but I felt I had to be two totally different people around my parents. Around my mom, I had to try my dammedest to be the naive girl I once was, and around my dad, I could be myself, yet I had to also adjust to stepping down from the parent spot afterwards, and let me tell you, after you did it for two years at such a young age, that's a hard task... This song, really does kind of describe how I feel toward my mother, though I am by no means, proud of what my relationship [or lack of] with my mom has become...

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romancebleedsaway
08-24-2005

Rated 0 
this song is telling everyone who makes you feel as if you're a burndon that you can't handle it and that nothing really matters n.e more.

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alike127
10-09-2005

Rated 0 
I think this song is about depression and self harm. Watch the s arms really closely in the video...

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LettingYouGo
12-05-2005

Rated 0 
he/she can't take it anymore, and ending up not giving a damn

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Aeetos
12-08-2005

Rated 0 
I'm at college now and I've never felt more alone before in my life. I broke up with my gf over 7 months ago and I still feel like shit so much that it's like everytime I go out I'm wearing a mask just so that those back home that do care about me can think that I'm happy here. I do that primarily because they hold such high expectations and because I don't wanna see them in pain over my failings. So on the outside a stranger would look at me like I'm a nice fine normal person where in the inside it's lke life has no meaning to me. If it weren't for those few precious people who did still care I would've killed myself a long time ago. But after awhile it's like I wish they didn't so that I could just be me and give up. But I guess I'm starting to realize now that, like the song says, it's time to stop letting them live my life for me and to take control whether for better or worst.

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rockermybaby
12-20-2005

Rated 0 
linkin park is the only band i can listen over and over again...they r the only band in my cd player 4 close 2 a year
2 me,this song is abt ppl tellin u wat shit u have 2 do...
n time after time u kind of get 2 NUMB of the shit they sayin even they r scoldind u of wateva...u kinda dun care anymore
n u just wann live ur life 4 urself...

ain't this talkin abt me..

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Red_Left_Hand
12-21-2005

Rated 0 
Hm.....bears more than a suspicious resemblance to Crawling.

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bonky109
12-24-2005

Rated 0 
its about parents!
you do your best but they always want better
they dont want you to go into a liberal arts school or some little college or no college at all.
you have to get into a UC school!!! grrr

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darksideC
12-29-2005

Rated 0 
Linkin Park is fuckin gay. They are rich famous but whine all day about how much their life suck. BOO-HOO!!! Life sucks when you cant choose which Ferrari to drive in.

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darksideC
12-29-2005

Rated 0 
By the way, Chester Bennington was fucked in the ass when he was a kid. Have u heard of "Chester the Molester?" I can imagine that whiny faggot gettin a puppy stuck in his anus.

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darksideC
12-29-2005

Rated 0 
By the way, Chester Bennington was fucked in the ass when he was a kid. Have u heard of "Chester the Molester?" I can imagine that whiny faggot gettin a puppy stuck in his anus.

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XslipknotX90
12-31-2005

Rated 0 
The line that allways gets me os "I want to be less like you, and more like me." This song is about figuring out that you can't please everyone and having to be your own person. Also i love the video with that girl ...SHE IS SO HOTT!

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spydamonkey
01-11-2006

Rated 0 
To become numb means that they feel they no longer have control of their own life and that it is run by other people.

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MyBleedingHeart06
01-14-2006

Rated 0 
The first line explains it all:"I'm tired of being what you want me to be." This line is what the whole song is about, right? Linkin Park kick ass, and this song is so addicting, I can listen to it forever...

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zackmassaro21
01-30-2006

Rated 0 
Numb is pretty much about a person not meeting expectations of another(parents!) thru out the song he is saying how u should just let him b himself. and he cant b what u want him 2 b.

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dark_n_depressed
02-02-2006

Rated 0 
i think this is 1 of my favourite LP songs!!! i love it!!!!!!! thats all there is to it!!

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gambel626626
02-03-2006

Rated 0 
i also agree with dark n depressed that this song is just plainly the best it also has the best beat ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ROCK ON 4 LIFE

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forgottentears666
02-20-2006

Rated 0 
okay, all i have to say is that it's great that people can relate to a song absolutely wonderful really, the only thing is that Linkin Park is VERY straight forward which is both a blessing and a curse. it allows for people to have imediate acess to what the song is about, the problem, there is basically only one very basic idea to the song, only one interpretation and applys only to one general problem or idea, if the song had more depth, more obsure lyrics or metaphors or something, anything, it could and likely would be applied to a multitude of problems or ideas. though i will say that this particular problem of not living up to someone's expectations is one that most people will experience in their lives, if they haven't already.
Thanks for your time.

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Pretty_in_Pink19
02-23-2006

Rated 0 
I like this song because it perfectly describes my role in highschool: the overachiever, always trying to impress my family, and those around me. I cared so much about my "princess/perfect daughter" image that nobody saw that I was really numb inside. Now I am 19, and I'm suppose to know what I'm doing with my life, and I have no idea. I'm not sure what I am suppose to be, because all my life I have been told by my parents what they want me to be. I wish I could have a good relationship with them, and just talk to them, but I can't. These lines particularly hit me: 'Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you. My parents whole vision of me fell apart in front of them, they had no idea.

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guitarista_727
02-24-2006

Rated 0 
Revolves around individuality and how people expect you to be the same as they are. Pretty nice song to end the album.

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Overcontemplative
03-06-2006

Rated 0 
I think that this is a religious song.

The first verse: "I'm tired of being what you want me to be" is like you feel like that everything you want to do is considered a sin and you're tired of it. And compared to the other saints around you, you're "feeling so faithless" and "lost under the surface". You don't know you would succeed in satisfying everyone when you're "put under the pressure of walking in [the Saint's] shoes.

The second verse describes the way that you feel smothered when God's hand is closing around you, trying to mold you into the perfect person. It feels as though He's afraid to lose control. And everything that He had planned you had "has fallen apart right in front of [Him]" .You're just not the right fit for His plans. Everything you try to do to fix what you had done is just "another mistake to [Him]" andf you're wasting time trying to fix everything and it's just too much.
You feel like you're "caught in the undertow" because you're just okay enough to not need to be saved, yet just lost enough to be hurting.

After all these things you've been through you feel so numb, numb enough not feel God's grace anymore. You're so tired of living like this and you're aware that you have to change. You're becoming the sins you are commiting, but in the end all you want to do is differentiate between you and Him.

You might fail now and you know this. And you know that all the saints around you were also failures too.

Supporting my views: The numb video takes place in a church. They play in a church, but the girl is too late to find God in the end.

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romodavid
03-11-2006

Rated 0 
hmm i never thought but thats really good.....

LOVE LP......

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mannequin*
03-12-2006

Rated 0 
Numb is a feeling of... whatever.. you know, you just don't care anymore.. nothing is worth of you and those things.. adore the song...

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