yeh this song is clearly about eating disorders and it is a really really good song...

no offence but i think most of you are completly off track with this. I find teh lyrics to be quite blunt. I doubt terhes some cyrptic message about a fat or anereic girl whos a political activist,
I can relate to this song on a personal note, atleast, when i heard it, it was liek a freind telling me off in a sort of "i love you but listen up" kinda way. teh part about doctors, geh e__e some liek at school think im mental because i have OCD and i have a different way of thinking, as all artists do. and as for the last bit, when somene is passionate about something i tend to get swept up in it and i want to help but i have my own battles i need to concentare on as does everyone~

i think this song is about a girl or guy who has serious problems and her freinds hadnt always understood or known what was going on, she tries very hard to handle t all herself and feels like she cant take it, and instaid of just doing what she has to she helps everyone who comes to her with a sob story, people around her at her school, the miss perfect queen bees, tehy totally harass her for beig different and the song is kind of saying "its going to be all right."

it may have been actually written about a girl with an eating disorder but i dont like to think of it that way, i think it could be perceived as Any serious problems at all, including my own issues, though i have nothing like an eating disorder thank-you-very-much, (sometimes people ask me if i do which is SO rude, i have low blood pressure and anemia [like millions of women who need extra iron in tehir diets] and a fast metabloism yes, but thats genetic stuff, i cnat helpp it if i gain weight so they can go shove it up their snooty -- nevermind.)
i have a chemical embalance taht makes it waaay past easy for me to stress over thinsg i shouldnt normally care at all about, abandonment and abuse issues, harassment issues with school, and even though its not an eating disorder i can obviously directly relate, so ill dub it partially righton track o.O

the end. x3

i thinks its really ironic how the song's sound is so upbeat and the lyrics are oh so sad. this is kind of off topic but here's a quote for religious people who can realate to this song "my body is my temple"

so i have to admit i had a really important moment when i first read about this song on this website. I had fallen in love with this song after a listening to it on repeat for a long car trip but hadn't really paid attention to the lyrics so when i got home i looked them up here. realizing that the song was about eating disorders completely shook me: I've struggled with various forms of EDs for a few years and when i read this song had just gotten to a slightly better place with it all. What really scared me was that i could feel so connected to a song subconsciously that was very much about the type of life i'd been living without identifying it. Was the eating disorder so much a part of me that i couldn't even hear the real meaning in the song?
The line: "cigarettes and speed for living/ sleeping pills to feel forgiven" for some reason held some of the most powerful associations for me. The idea of needing to feel forgiven was so profoundly important to me (still is) and was one aspect of recovery that none of my doctors seemed to bring up (despite the newly formed dependence on sleeping pills, ironically). I realize that I'm just rambling on about myself and that this is adding nothing to helping others to interpret the song. I guess the very cliched moral of my story is just that sometimes song writers are able to capture truths that try to overlook.

Has anyone seen the video for this song? It's kind of strange. I don't fully understand it. It shows the band playing in an apartment above a diner from a camera outside. A little ways into the song, a taxi pulls up and a second Ted Leo walks out, wearing different clothes. He goes up to the apartment and the first Ted Leo goes down to the diner to grab a bite to eat. And it shows him eating for about five seconds before the video comes to a close. I think they were just trying to add irony to it by showing him eating greasy food that you'd buy at a diner. Maybe?

god damnit i always figured this was a happy song. way to ruin the happiness. still a good song though, just viewed in a different light.

when i first heard it i was under the impression the person in the song was on a hunger strike but i dont know i havent heard it very much.

I completely agree with it being about someone with a eating disorder and they are trying to incourage that person to come out of.I love Ted Leo & The Pharmicists,this is on of my favorites.

I loved this song, and the music video is interesting in applying to the food disorder theory. In the first verse, it is just the band singing in a room. The camera is way zoomed in on the band. During the first chorus, the camera zooms out and shows that they are in a room that has windows for a wall which is facing the street. The band is seperated from the "real world" by a glass wall. Then during the second chorus , the camera zooms out even more to show that the room the band is playing is on the second floor of a building. On the first floor, there is a ....wait for it... a pizza parlor. Traffic and people are zooming by as the band performs. And right as he says "get up and be it" the third time, ted takes off his guitar and he walks down to the parlor. Then it does something really weird. It cuts back and forth between the pizza parlor and the room the band is in, where ted leo is buying pizza and playing guitar, respectively, at the same time. The last shot of the music video shows ted eating what looks to be a salad. I am to lazy as of now to analyze the movie, but I think it is pretty solid proof to the food disorder theory. You can see the movie at music.yahoo.com.

Just a comment on the "bourgeois social angels" thing.

Bourgeois is usually used to refer to the rich, or upper-class, more often than middle class. So, I think that line refers to the people you see on TV, like Paris Hilton, and the other stick-thin stars on TV, along with the fashion designers and tabloid writers. They say "Thin is in! Thin is in!", and this message is repeated constantly...

So, I think the line is talking about that. How society tells people to get thinner and thinner.

What a ridiculous world we live in. ^_^

ted leo, please have my babies.

"But don't forget what it really means to
hunger strike,
When you don't really need to
Some are dying for the cause, but that don't make it yours."

This makes me kind of think of like people in lesser econonmically developed countries who are starving..
i mean maybe the "hunger strike" part makes it more political because i guess they're not striking so to say, but that's just what i thought of at first read, just because it's kind of like an in-your-face, 'well some are dying of starvation so why are you when you have the chance not to?' kind of thing

Fionar2001 is pretty much on-target. I mean, of course there are going to be personal interpretations here and there--- but as someone who has suffered from both bulimia and anorexia, I agree for the most part on everything based on personal experience- NOT reading or "societal assumptions."
Here's my take on it>

As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm but ohh,
I was cold,

>Basically, you have an eating disorder and your body can’t keep warm. Your nails are always purple and you are always shivering, even when it’s 100 degrees outside. Your body grows hair in an attempt to maintain a healthy temperature. You don’t just feel cold physically, but also emotionally.

and though I must have looked a half a person,
to tell the tale in my own version,
It was only then that I felt whole.

> This is where I take a leap of faith and believe that Ted Leo is a recovered anorexic/bulimic…or he is at least writing from the perspective of one. As someone who is personally “recovered” (although I do not believe anyone fully recovers), you are constantly looking back and reflecting upon that person that you “once were.” You want it so bad, yet the smarter, recovered YOU, knows better. You know you “must have looked a half a person,” but in your opinion, the voices tell you that you want nothing more than to be that person again. Sure, you look back on the anorexic you as a sick you, but also as the you that was good/better/more perfect. Recovery can only go so far. You still, even when “better,” feel as if you were “happier,” or “more whole” when you were at a lower weight, no matter what that weight is. You still hear the voices telling you that, even if you are forcing yourself to eat and you can maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle.

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it!

I understand how everybody sees this as the anorexic’s “get up and be it” meaning “get up and start dieting, etc.”…But I personally disagree with this viewpoint. If we’re taking the stance that Teddy is singing from the viewpoint of a recovered anorexic/bulimic, this line takes on a whole new meaning. “get up and be it” means get away from this awful disease, stop worrying about it and letting it control your life. You want to be beautiful? Get up and really be beautiful. Beauty isn’t your eating disorder. I also imagine a bulimic leaning over the toilet or crying on the floor of the shower- is this beauty? Obviously not, yet why does a bulimic spend hours and hours doing these horrific, disgustingly shameful acts. THIS is not beautiful, and yet you’re doing it for beauty? Get up and be beautiful. Live free from your eating disorder-or try to-which leads me to the next part…

Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.
I know how hard you try.
I see it in your eyes.

>>This is where Ted amazes me. It is very rare that a person only suffers from one form of an eating disorder (only anorexia, only bulimia)… and this part of the song takes on double meanings. The smallest goal can be to a) not eat, or b) not binge and purge. Bulimics don’t want to be throwing up their food, and they are always always always making promises to themselves that they are never going to do it again. No matter how many times this happens, or however hard they “try,” they still find themselves making the same mistakes, repeating the cycle. The self-control part is the constant pressure not to eat anything to make up for what one considers to be “overeating.” The “I can see it in your eyes” is an obvious reference the fact that your eyes are either glossy when you are undernourished, or bloodshot when you have been throwing up. As much as you would want to hide your eating problems…. Everybody else can see right through you physically. Another way to look at this is that when a person knows you well, you can’t lie to them. You can’t hide your eating disorder or persuade others to live in denial. The people who really care about you know when you are lying to them. They can “see it in your eyes.”

Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive.

>>”Call your friends” could be a call for help, but I see it as a “call your friends” in the sense that you cannot close your world off. ED sufferers often become loners- spending time alone means there is no pressure to eat anything, or, in a bulimics case, you can binge and purge or overeat/undereat without feeling a pressure to be “normal” or do what is “expected.” Obviously. food is eating you alive. The entire concept controls every thought, every action, every dream, and every nightmare. You can’t get away from it, yet it is not like drugs- it’s not something you can give up. You NEED it to survive, and that’s what makes it so dangerous and so hard to deal with.

We went on, as we were on a mission,
latest in a Grand Tradition.
Ohh, what did we find?
It was Ego who was flying the banner,
Me and Mia, Ann and Ana, ohh,
we'd been unkind.

>>When you push everyone away, your eating disorder becomes your purpose. Your ego relies on this promise you’ve made to yourself. Your GOAL, your mission, is to lose that weight. And everyone else – your parents, friends, family members, doctors…they are just trying to stop you. “No,” you think.. you have to keep going, keep flying that banner, keep looking forward toward that goal. If you stop now, you’re giving up. Then you’ll be a failure.
When you look back on it, you realize that Mia and Anna are not so kind. They do a lot more destruction than you realize at first. They tricked you. And its too late. They’ve won- you’ve failed, in a surprisingly new sort of way.

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it!
Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.
I see it in your eyes,
I see it in your spine,
But call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten
And what's eating you alive,
Might help you to survive

>Repeat.

Even the nights that could get better.
And even the days aren't all that bad.
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing

>Recovery sucks, it can always get better. You never really feel “good.” But after a while….. you start to realize that you’re doing the right thing. After you fight it for a week, you get used to eating more and more. Little by little it gets easier.

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
To gain a little self-control
Won't anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom nor dad,
But me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Know how hard you try,
Don't you see it in my eyes?

>Nobody will leave you alone. People are always watching you 24/7. Now that you’re labeled “ED,” nobody will let you be. You feel this pressure that you HAVE to eat in front of people so they won’t fuss. You cannot be treated normally- most people end up treating or talking to your ED, not you. You want to be you again. You want to erase that stigma. You also just want them to let you do whatever you want…who cares if you’re skinny? They should just let you be happy. Even if you know they’re doing the right thing in helping you, you’re secretly mad at them. You’re getting better, but really only because you want them off your back. As soon as they start walking away, you’re planning your relapse.

Sick to death of my dependence,
Fighting food to find trancendence.
Fighting to survive.
More dead, but more alive.
Cigarettes and speed to live,
And sleeping pills to feel forgiven.
All that you contrive,
And all that you're deprived.

>You don’t want to be dependent on food or other people- you don’t want to need it, you want to get far far far away from it. If you’re eating normally, you don’t want to be dependent on others’ perceptions of what “normal eating” is. You have your own ideas. You’re fighting to survive, but you feel dead. As Anna goes away, part of you that you actually felt good about is going away too. It’s as if nobody wants you to be happy. Cigarettes, speed, etc. are ways to cope with hunger OR ways to avoid binging and purging. Something to keep you occupied- chewing gum does the same thing. Sleeping pills can be used to get off speed, but they’re also taken after someone has really bad purging episodes. You can’t stop yourself physically, so you take sleeping pills so you don’t have to live with the destruction that you are creating and you cannot stop. All that you contrive—the episodes that you have..you’re killing yourself…but you can’t stop. All that you’re deprived—the life, the love, the food, that you’re missing out on.

All the bourgeois social angels
Telling you you've got to change.
Don't have any idea.
They'll never see so clear.
But don't forget what it really means to
hunger strike,
When you don't really need to
Some are dying for the cause, but that don't make it yours.
And even the nights, they could get better

>As you recover and gain weight, others will notice. You won’t be treated as nicely in public. You won’t feel “special.” You’ll hear friends (who are skinnier than you) talk about their diets, losing weight, etc. It will make you sick, and also make you feel miserable. You know that you don’t have to change, even if you want to. You might want it, but you now KNOW that you don’t need it. These people don’t have any idea the pain that you’ve gone through, or how far you’ve really come. If you told them, they’d never see so clearly. But why are you going to tell them? You won’t, because you’re ashamed of the entire thing.
Some people hunger strike for real purposes, but then… this is all relative. Anorexics sometimes hunger strike for “purposes” only to mask their real eating disorders. Same with ED sufferers who go “vegan” only to hide the real reasons why they won’t eat particular foods. You can’t forget that hunger striking when you don’t “need to” is taking advantage of something that you’re blessed to have. What is going to happen when you really need to hunger strike? Think about the skinny people who need to diet—when they don’t! Put this against someone who really needs to diet. How do you think it makes them feel, when a size 0 girl is starving herself to be a youth 10? This comparable to hunger striking for the SMALLEST reason when there are hungry people with real needs that need to be noticed and taken care of. Will a point ever be made if you constantly blurring the lines between who needs to truly diet or who needs to truly fight for a cause?




Anyways, this is my opinion. I could be wrong, and I probably am. But it’s a tad different than everyone else’s, so I thought I’d share it.

great song - lyrics so powerful, conveys heaps.
i agree with the connection to the eating disorders, and struggles in general.

personally, i would have to say t his song is (obviously) about common eating disorders.
but it uses personification to make the eating disorders real people; your "friends".
it is from the perspective of an eating disorder trying to convince someone that it is the right choice to make.
mia and ana are anorexia and bulimia, trying to rope new victims in.
"But don't forget what it really means to hunger strike, When you don't really need to"


"We went on, as we were on a mission,
latest in a Grand Tradition."

this suggests that mia and ana are also friends, together working to get more girls into eating disorders. "on a mission" they are very determined.
"latest in the rand tradition" maybe meaning that there are many personified mental illnesses and that they are two of many, that try to persuade people, to follow their ways.

ah well i just bought a dvd compilation of everyone on lookout records. i was not impressed with the music video for this song, but nonetheless, amazing

:D

I would just like to add that It is not about Ted (with his bulimia) Or Ann(with her anorexia), but another friend who remains nameless in the lyrics.

of course its about e.ds.

Won't anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom nor dad,
But me and Mia, Ann and Ana

with a line containing mia and ana, of course

You guys are all wrong. It's about cancer.

I agree with most of the ED interpretations that have already been posted. But I still need to add my $0.02:

"...what's eating you alive, might help you to survive."

I'm kind of surprised that no one's said this yet, really, but ED's are a coping mechanism. They are a way to deal with stress, with difficult life situations, with whatever. People wouldn't have them, and wouldn't find them so difficult to recover from, if they didn't serve some sort of purpose. So it can be simultaneously killing you/eating you alive and saving your life by giving you an avenue for dealing with...whatever.

Just a minor point: I think the "smallest goal" isn't a value judgement, but a description of the goal itself: to be small, smaller, smallest.

And the bit about the bourgeois social angels, I'd think that means the models, TV stars, and just society in general. Societal expectations are so complicated and fucked up--go to the grocery store and scan the magazine covers at the check-out; I almost guarantee you'll find the latest celeb who's gotten too thin, at least 2 perfect diets, and a recipe for some fabulous dessert your family will love! What other logical conclusion is there than to eat the dessert and then throw it up again?

I agree that the song obviously deals with eating disorders, but my slight disagreement with Fionar, in my opinion, took the names and tenses far too literally. "As I was walking through a life one morning," the first line of the song indicates that Ted Leo isn't talking about himself, but infact discussing someone else's problems with bullemia or anorexia.

i think i've read all of the comments, and i've noticed that nobody has really said anything about the song being pro-anorexic or pro-bulimic. if you've never heard of the pro-ana or pro-mia movements, there are sites all over the internet advocating anorexia and bulimia as lifestyles, with support groups and message boards telling people how to hide it, and even pictures of skinny models and people as "thinspiration." when i listen to this long, some of the lines seem anti-eating disorder and then some seem pro-ED, so i don't really know, but i'm just putting it out there.

oh and just to add, if the song really is about pro-ana and pro-mia sites, then the "friends" would definitely be the other people on the sites

I stumbled across a pro-ana/mia community a few years ago. They used Ana and Mia as code names, which seems really obvious now.

I actually pretty much agree with everyone's interpretations and the obvious ED associations, but from an ironic pro-ED point of view. The song is about the entire pro-ED community, not just one person. Just from reading the comments to this song, you see that Ana and Mia affect a ton of people.

I think the point of view changes. The verses are a person undergoing recovery and looking back on how he/she felt while it was going on, and the chorus is the community saying "come back to us." So every time a chunk of the song starts with, 'Do you believe in something beautiful?", that's the rally cry of the ED-lifestyle.

"I know how hard you try
I see it in your eyes
Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive."

It actually takes a lot of coordination to pull of an ED lifestyle. It's not like they don't like food; that's why people BINGE. So people with Ana and Mia network for support. A lot of the lyrics sound supportive; WE know how hard you try, WE understand you -- that's the ED community saying KEEP BEING BEAUTIFUL.

The second-to-last verse sounds really angry; You can tell he actually disapproves of the ED lifestyle. His choice of words says "All that you contrive, and all that you're deprived." He's painting a nasty picture of what it takes to not eat, and it's obvious it's not good for you. At one point he says "Me and Mia, Ann and Ana, ooh, we'd been unkind." They're not good friends.

The last verse of the song I think is a breakaway, it's Ted Leo's thoughts. Celebrities don't live our lives, and they'll never know what it's like to be us. They have professional trainers and professional diets, and they tell us to be thin, but it's different for us than it is for them. He reminds us, even, that some people are thin beyond their control, that there are more important things than hunger that doesn't really change society. He says, just because other people are dying, doesn't mean that you have to. If you want to change society, find some other way to do it. If you're going to starve, make it meaningful.

As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm but ohh,
I was cold,

**when you have an eating disorder you are often freezing cold**

and though I must have looked a half a person,
to tell the tale in my own version,
It was only then that I felt whole.

** half a person means basically to be so thin you are only the size of half a regular person. being so skinny makes them feel complete **

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.
I know how hard you try.
I see it in your eyes.

** smallest goal - smallest amount of weight/ going a day without eating, feels like a big achievement. i think the word "fighting" is important because it shows how much an eating disorder is like a war. it feels like you have slef control if you reach a goal. **

Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive.

** what's eating you alive might help you to survive, my favourite part of the song. eating disorders literally physically eat you alive from the inside but also mentally too. but what they are saying here is that the eating disorder is helping them survive in this life when they have no control the ed gives them control**

We went on, as we were on a mission,
latest in a Grand Tradition.
Ohh, what did we find?
It was Ego who was flying the banner,
Me and Mia, Ann and Ana, ohh,
we'd been unkind.

** on a mission, obviously referring to losing weight. ego who was flying the banner means getting some self worth/ ego boost. also a reference to a banner makes us think of running and excersize. we'd been unkind just suggests how low their ego is.**

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.
I see it in your eyes,
I see it in your spine,

** spine; obviously a reference to skinnyness**

But call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten
And what's eating you alive,
Might help you to survive

Even the nights that could get better.
And even the days aren't all that bad.
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing

** even the days arn't all that bad means they are okay with how things are. and the more they are in it the more they are attatched and it feels right**

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
To gain a little self-control
Won't anybody here just let you disappear?

** feeling like everyone is getting in their way of their great dissapearing act**

Not doctors, nor your mom nor dad,
But me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Know how hard you try,
Don't you see it in my eyes?

Sick to death of my dependence,
Fighting food to find trancendence.
Fighting to survive.
More dead, but more alive.

** sick of being dependant on food? fighting food to find some kind of peace and acceptance. fighting to survive i think does not mean fighting to stay alive, it means fighting for control; another way of surviving! more dead but more alive; the closer they come to death the more they feel worthy and feeling less numb.**

Cigarettes and speed to live,
And sleeping pills to feel forgiven.
All that you contrive,
And all that you're deprived.

*cigarettes decrease hunger, basically living off cigarettes and speed. sleeping pills to feel forgiven; eating disorders often cause insomnia which means it is hard to sleep. so some people take sleeping pills to get to sleep at night, to relieve them of the pain they have experienced that day, to feel forgiven**


All the bourgeois social angels
Telling you you've got to change.
Don't have any idea.
They'll never see so clear.

**everyone is telling you to get better but they dont understand how amazing it is to see things so clearly**

But don't forget what it really means to
hunger strike,
When you don't really need to
Some are dying for the cause, but that don't make it yours.
And even the nights, they could get better

** dont forget what it means to go hungry; means youre sick and youre going to die if you dont eat. some are dying for a cause; some people are starving because they dont have food and luxuries like us, but that isnt why this person is going hungry.
even the nights they could get better - i think this is basically just saying that things could be better if they wanted it to but they are so addicted that even though it hurts them they dont want to give it up. **