Also I forgot, notice the whole foot, shoe, sock imagery that is similar between Regina's song and Plath's poem

what does the bit about her socks mean?? i dont get it, but the impression i get from this song is her and a young lover secretly "rebelling "against the boring 9 to 5 office life of regular city people, and where you'd assume that they were "sex crazed", i think she just wants to be young and free, and stay innocent, also i think they commit suicide as they have no place in society, it all sounds quite up beat and positive at first, but when you look into it, you see that they are really quite despairing, no job, no one cares about them, nothing seems to go right, so why not commit suicide

tigersroamfree I think you take songs too literally. I find this song represents suicide too, but maybe a love/hate thing going on. I dunno, but I love this song. Very nice and soothing.

But it's probably about death, if not suicide.

Although the part that goes deadadeadadeadadeada (etc. etc.) sounds kind of like Daddy daddy daddy daddy, that's what I thought she was saying at first... (I just bought Soviet Kitsch and can't stop listening to it...)

i'm with lloydre on this one. i am a HUGE fan of plath- but the first time i listened to this, i thought nothing of it but suicide... but then, after reading the lyrics, this song is for sure plath-related.

i absolutely love it.

I know it doesnt have anthing to do with the song, but when she says Walk-a walk-a walk-a it made me think of fozzie Bear from the muppets, you know,"wauka wauka"....yeah

this song might be about getting high
and then just sitting around in bed all day
and everyone thinks you're lazy and sex crazed
because you spend all day in bed with your lover
but you're so cool cause you get high and everythings alright

i kind of see this as a couple and the girl is kind of thinking she can't be perfect enough for the adults to be happy with her, so she and her boyfriend will go to bed and use carbon monoxide to kill themselves, and even after they're gone, the adults won't think anything of it and will just say they're being lazy and sex crazed and what can we say? they're teenagers but they will still be cooler than the adults even though they're dead.

I simply think this is a song about a person who obviously is planning to take her own life, but her daddy can't see where she's heading at, he's got the impression she's trying to act cool instead of feeling bad, therefor the lines "come on daddy" like "can't you realise?"

I have always thought that this song was about 2 lovers who were like Romeo + Juliet and no one approved of their romance. "Cause we don’t have a job to keep
They’ll just say that we’re being lazy
Sex crazy, sex cra-zazy"

And I always thought that the "c'mon daddy" part was like her asking for her fathers forgiveness for them being together and for their eventual death together. But I'm not positive part on either or these interpretations.

Hmm...
After reading all of these interpretations and relistening ot the song about a hundred times, I really don't think it's got too much to do with actual suicide.
From what I take of it the lines about the socks imply that the narrator worries about little things (getting his/her socks on right), and disregards what's important (the carbon monoxide). Pretty much the same for the second and third verses; he/she is concerned about this other person, and they're so caught up in themselves (or each other) that they're ignorant of everything else.

Not too sure about the "Come on Daddy" part though.

Ah, I just read something on the forum that I perfectly agree with:

'no no no. its not about suicide its about love. youth. happiness. the idea of carbon monoxide and daddy are just non sequiturs, metaphors if you will. ideas that distract from life. in death, they are more free. the song is about happy hazy existance, and how love gives you that feeling, but so does death (incidentally through CO poisoning). its definitely a good (positive) song."

Lol comixkid08, I was listening to this song in the car with my boyfriend and when that part came on I told him it was a song about Fozzie Bear, and he was all like ,"Are you serious?!" Hahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks of Muppets during this song.

And that's my contribution to this discussion, lol.

I don't know what Regina meant here, but for me, this is a song about the beauty of returning to the Father, to the dead land from where we've come from...

It's beautiful to live, especially when we get our socks/songs ok. But it must even more beautiful to die and get back again to the angels that made us company in the beyond. So, come on Daddy, it's also "come on dead-a". It's the same, for death is life in a new world.

We're still cool, oh, so very cool, when we're

"Dead-a, dead-a, dead-a, dead-a,"

When we're with our true Dad!

But Dad also comes throughout life!

(this is a personal interpretation)

WheneverRegina mentions "daddy," I don't think she is speaking of her father, but her lover. I actually never even thought about her father until you mentioned it.

I think this song is all about sex. Sad but it's Regina. But I can't figure out all the symbolism here. A gas mask is protection against CO2 (carbon monoxide) which could result to sleep (death). But "if [you] don't have[ [your] socks on right, they slide right off of your feet as you walk." I know what Regina is saying but I don't know if these are two dfferent things or if Regina is just talking about the same thing but using different symbols.

i think, after reading the Plath poem that it is definitely inspired by the writing but it is not merely a "remake" of the poem but an allusion. I think the song tells the stories of three deaths due to carbon monoxide: first, a teenage girl in a war torn country during some kind of raid or something (could be WWII, maybe Russia, i don't know), second, two lovers escaping their lives through suicide, third, a daughter finding her father dead in his house, i think an elderly man just because i like thinking that there is a range of ages represented and because there is a noticeable absence of a mother.

I like the holocaust interpretation, hadn't considered that before.
Before that I always thought it was about a girl and guy who are infatuated by eachother, and they've realised that they wouldn't be missed by society if they were gone. They make a suicide attempt with carbon monoxide in their bed, joking about how cool they will be and how their worries will all be gone and people will assume they are just being lazy, but I don't think they actually wish to die, only test who would notice their disappearance from life. They really want to know that their family would at least miss them (daddy), but it's not the case and they slip away unnoticed...

I always though the "come on daddy" sounded sexual, but I never thought of suicide. I thought it was talking about smoking, and thats why they died. trying to do things right, they kept messing up, i guess by smoking, they commited suicide in a way? I dunno!

the truth is i don't have a clue of what this song's about. i think it doesn't make much sense, so after posting this, i'll read what u guys wrote.

the only thing i get is the "getting the socks right" thing. i believe it means that if you don't do the things right, you'll face the consecuences later on ("they slide right off of my feet as i walk").


anyway, i looooove the part in which it makes reference to our society. "soon we'll go to sleep. no-one will notice we've gone cause we don't have our jobs to keep..". i love it. she's saying that since they aren't like "important people", productive to this world, they're worth nothing so no one give a shit if they're gone or not.
i love it.

it's about a woman waho was madly infatuated with a man who her family, especially her father, did not approve of. she wants to die with him so that they could forever live perfectly together without he family trying to tear them apart.

i love this song. i have had an experience like this before in real life. this song always makes me so emotional. it's beautiful. i sing and play it too but i wish i could could be as amazing as regina!!!

I am not sure that I have anything to add, but I might as well contribute my interpretation.

I believe this song is about those who cannot handle the corporate, fast-moving, and cold society in which they live. They are struggling with the everyday problems and are simply trying to keep up with the industrial world that is churning out "carbon monoxide" (which is useful and deadly). They cannot get their "socks on right", but have to keep walking. The only thing they can do is to keep on walking, even as they lose their footing. However, the fact is that the lovers in this story are slowly dying. They are too caught up in the logistics of everyday life, of struggling with the everyday deadly gas of carbon monoxide, that they lose their happiness... their will to live... their gas masks. And, what happens? These supposedly lazy people, these rejects of a harsh society, commit suicide.

This Remined Me Of Assia Wevill And Sylvia Plath. Assia Wevill Killed Herself And Her Daughter In A Similar Way To Sylvia. I Don't Know...Random Guess =s

Usually the interpretations of her songs on this site are reasonable, but you guys are all wrong. I only saw one person that got it close to right.
Watching Survival Guide to Soviet Kitsch definetley helps clear up the meaning of this song. It has NOTHING to do with suicide.

This song is about the dangerous toxic substance that is love. It's about how intoxicating love is and how it leaves you in a hazy state that isn't always healthy. Love is like an odorless, tasteless, colorless (invisible), silent gas, like carbon monoxide. The symptoms of low-levels of carbon monoxide exposure include: dizziness, disorientation, and fatigue. These are the feelings that may be experienced when you're falling in love and are nervous and butterflies are in the stomach, they're also the sensations you may feel before passing out or dying from too much carbon monoxide exposure. Carbon Monoxide and love may sneak into your existence without you realizing it and it they're both dangerous. You can die from carbon monoxide before even realizing you've been exposed to it. --You can fall in love without even realizing love was applicable. But once you're under it's influence, you don't care because you're not conscious, you don't feel, you're under. You're passed out or dead from the toxcity.

Her socks in this song are used as a metaphor for the circumstances surrounding her new budding relationship and her readiness for it (the boy she's walking home). She's finally got her socks on right, she's finally a big girl who can do it herself, opposed to her daddy helping her ("come on, daddy"). The "i'm so cool, i'm so cool" and "we're so cool, we're so cool" parts of this song represent the euphoric feeling and appearance, the feeling of being above others and anything else, that is obtained when you're in love or when you're on a drug. Also, it's as if they're gloating their ability to love without the use of masks, their ability to breathe in toxin freely. It makes them so cool, so cool.

"Soon we'll go to sleep" is not referring to SUICIDE, but to passing out together from the carbon monoxide; their love. Sleep is used to represent the dreamlike state of haze and simplicity you fall under when you are in hopeless love. Being dead is referring to having absolutley no worries, not living a life like everyone else, but being no long on the conscious level of everyone else because you were exposed to carbon monoxide (a love no one else can feel as you and the other person does).

"They’ll just say we’re living our whole life in bed
And we’ll be in bed but we’ll be oh so very much
Dead-a, dead-a, dead-a, dead-a, dead-a
Dead-a, dead-a, dead-a, dead-a, dead-a
Dead-a, D-dead"
This part of the song deeply speaks to me. She's referring to people judging their love, not understanding the intoxicating spell they're under. To the rest of the world, who doesn't understand their love, they see them as wasting their lives, as two people who may as well be dead. Also, when you're dead you've lost your senses. The carbon monoxide (their love) has made them senseless (you can't touch gas and carbon monoxide is a tasteless, invisible, odorless, soundless gas) and their love is all that composes their existence, therefore they are senseless. In more than one definition of the word. People think they're just wasting away together but they're so far in love that they're the equivalent of dead that carbon monoxide creates. They're dead together; they're without hesitation (without gas maks) absolutley buried in their love.

Carbon monoxide was an amazingly clever and well-thought out choice of toxins Regina chose to symbolize love and goes perfectly with this song. Carbon monoxide burns a violet flame when ignited. Violet is the color of purpose (look it up), and love gives the most significant purpose in a person's life. It is also the color of imagination and inspiration, which should always present in love. Violet is a shade of purple which is the color of good judgment (which you don't always have when falling in love; they're not wearing gas masks). It is the color of people seeking spiritual fulfillment (within eachother). It is said if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind (carbon monoxide being a gas, surrounds you. peace of mind = being dead). Purple has been used to symbolize magic and mystery (love is magical and mysterious), as well as royalty ("we're so cool, we're so cool, we're so cool") Being the combination of red and blue, the warmest and coolest colors, purple is believed to be the ideal color (the absolute ideal state to live in is surrounded by carbon monoxide [love], love is ideal).

I think it's about being with someone you love and being completely consumed by love so that you kind of slip away from the rest of the world and it doesn't even really matter. Like when she says they can just stay in bed and they just won't notice. I don't think it's literally about suicide, but rather metaphorically about removing yourself from the world around you when you're head over heels for someone. Like when she doesnt care about her socks when she's walking someone home. I love this song, it's so beautiful and Regina Spektor is such a talented lyricist.

I think it is about the what the mind goes through when it is slipping away from reality and the strange things the mind can do when not fully awake.
My dog interprets it totally differently, It means take your dog for a walk a walk a walka walk a walk a walk and she will think your so cool your so cool your so cool!

I think it is about the what the mind goes through when it is slipping away from reality and the strange things the mind can do when not fully awake.
My dog interprets it totally differently, It means take your dog for a walk a walk a walka walk a walk a walk and she will think your so cool your so cool your so cool!