I'm pretty sure I heard it as 'Once stuttered a joke of a romantic,' rather than 'Barely stuttered.'

I always found this song heart-shattering. It just reminded me of all of the broken relationships out there that won't be fixed. It also shows a lot of ulterior motives in relationships. My opinion of course.

This is possibly the most interesting song lyrically that i've ever heard. It just goes to show that there are 16 pages worth of posts on this song.
Well i would say some lyrical differences in some versions people have posted are very important. In my opinion this song is about a guy who's girlfriend (of at least some time, but not too long) was cheating on him. I say girlfriend on some time but not too long because the context of the opening stanza makes the most sense in that context.

Now as for why i say the girl has been cheating on him: for starters, the guy is clearly not a happy guy at this point, his life is "it can't be much worse" vs. "no one should ever feel like" which are too pretty bad things that might come emotionally from finding out that his girlfriend cheated on him. I believe this right here is the most difficult, interesting and crucial stanza:
"You always fold just
Before you're found out
Drink up, it's last call, last resort
But only the first mistake"
The being found out part leads me to believe that she was cheating, and right when he was about to find out, she dumped him. This move is a "last resort" because its actually a desperate move for her (I'll get to that later) and "only the first mistake" at least in his mind, because he loves her so much that he's forgiven her for everything she's done before this.

Now why is this move a "last call" or "last resort." One has to look at her motives for being in this relationship with him in the first place if she loved another guy for a while. This might lead one to believe that they're married, but i think this unlikely because of the first stanza and the fact that this seems to be a sort of almost regular thing for her (you "always" fold just..), and if they were married it would be a first. Now the reason she's probably in a relationship with him is for his money. He probably has a lot of it and ideally she'd like to marry him but have affairs with other guys, and still take his money. i know this is sort of a stretch, and there isn't really any evidence in the song for it, but that's my best explanation for this part of the song.

To reiterate my last point, "these are the lives (plural, VERY key) you'd love to lead" she would like to live this double life of cheating on this guy, but now that he almost found out and she dumped him, she can't. (So SAD!) Also, the part about showing spine "you've been saving for his mattress" again show that she's cheating on him.

The guy clearly loves her, as he's forgiven her for lots of stuff before (everything in fact) and does in fact want sympathy in the form of her having sex with him. He doesn't want to forget how her voice sounds, and he needs these words he's written about her just to get by. Her cheating has demeaned his love for her somewhat, but he was so attached to her he still needs her voice and her memory just to get by. Again, he still finds her physically very attractive and would love to have sex with her.

The last thing to explain is all this "Dance, Dance" stuff, after all, that is the name of the song!
The guy says that he's "two quarters and a heart down" because a) a heart down obviously cause he's brokenhearted and b) 2 quarters down because he just spent them on a jukebox, which is his sort of way of coping with what's just happened. This particular jukebox probably has some emotional significance to him because he probably spent some time there with her, and he's remembering how she used to dance to it, and now he's sitting there, wishing she were still there, dancing to it. He's transfixed by this idea, and that's why he repeats these lines over and over again.

This guy has had a really rough time, and Fall Out Boy does a great job of embedding a really great story in a very catchy song. They tend to do this sort of thing a lot which is why i like them so much.


"

i think it also has something to murder/suicide. "a loaded god contest, cock it and pull it."

First song I ever heard by them... Brings back memories...

this band is what the word douche bag is really all about. fall out boy ruins real music. Im sick of bands being made in an effing recording studio

1 Reply

Id like to hear what everyone else thinks this song is about! I have NO idea. So far noone has said what they think it means..your only fighting about the lyrics. we know its a great song..what does it mean though?

THIS SONG IS TERRIBLE!!!

if you like this band and thier lyrics check out my band on songmeanings
The Fall Semester

It's a bit of a stretch, but I think this song is actually a memorial to one of the most fascinating moments in human history, World War 2. It's written in the perspective of a Nazi-fanatic, and if you interpret the lyrics as coming from such you'll make a lot of connections.

Let's assume this takes place in around 1943-1944, when things started going wrong for Germany:
Weighed down with words
Too overdramatic
Tonight it's "It can't get much worse"
Vs. "No one should ever feel like"

Words means the now failing "Master plan". The Fatherland is bogged down by those whom it seeks to destroy. It's too "overdramatic", or complicated. The writer of the song realises this and doesn't think things could get much worse, but cuts himself off in the last line because it's treason to think of these things.

I'm two quarters and a heart down
And I don't want to forget
How your voice sounds
These words are all I have
So I'll write them
So you need them just to get by

Simple. Everything else is starting to go wrong and this poor soldier only has the great leader's words to go by. He loves Hitler and this love propels him to go on.

Dance, dance
We're falling apart to halftime
Dance, dance
And these are the lives you'd love to lead
Dance, this is the way they'd love
If they knew how misery loved me

Halftime in this context is the year. It's the midway point of the second war and things are starting to fall apart. "dance dance" is the holocaust, and they'll continue dancing [eg, killing the wicked] until they die [And these are the lives you'd love to lead, proclaiming FOB's superiourity complex when it comes to their pro-nazi beliefs]. "dance, this is the way they'd love" starts to show how delusional the song writer is, and the last line shows that he wishes the undesirable races would understand him as he gives them their [first and] final shower.

In the end, he just repeats "dance dance dance dance". This means that he wants the listener, you and I, to continue his work and lead the great empire into the future. They sing this line almost like marching. You can also interpret the name "fall out boy" to mean "from the fall out of the old nazi empire, a new one shall arise!"

Very interesting stuff

FOB lyrics are completely meaningless.
They just suck! They write down random
crapp and try to make them selves appear smart.

The song is okay, if you don't
pay attention to the SHITTY lyrics.

Thanks.

grrrrr fall out boy have conformed. there once 'rock' music are beginning to sound alot like pop/house. i say stick with your old stuff boys and you guys will get far.

Personally I think this song is really good. not their best, but really good.
Also, I think this song is about how a guy likes a girl (like, for her body) but she's with someone else and shes not strong enought to dump him... idk

This song is so amazing

guys,listen up...
THIS.SONG.SUCKS.
ok? it sucks.
its FOB's 2nd worst song.the worst of course being Sugar We're Goin' Down.
If you want good FOB songs listen to The Patron Saints of Liars and Fakes,Sopomore Slump or Comeback of the Year,or Hum Hallelujah.
Aight?!
FOB kicks ass and they can do better than this.

I'd like to say I love Fall Out Boy's wit.
Anyways, my interpretation is a shy boy at a dance, and he dances with her, despite her having a lover. he becomes infatuated with her, and is nervous.

OKAYYYYYYY

this is what's up you ignorant mother f'ers. This song is about a desperate male stripper who is just trying to make a life on the dollar bills that are shoved down his manties. He happens to fall in love with one of his "clients" at a bachlorette party and he sings this song to himself as he's walking home in the dark.

On a deeper level,
this song represents all that is f'ed up about the world and how people will do anything for a little love. AaAaAMMMEN

Lurve,
Lili

Too bad it's not their song.

this band is so fuckin overrated it isnt funny i hate new age punk rock its turned into newage boy band!!thats why I hate FOB!!

This song is talking about a date with two very shy people going to a party or something like that where they get their groove on. Now the boy is becoming comfortable with the girl, but the girl's still too shy, and he tells her to show some backbone for him as if he's the right guy for her. Cool song. My favorite one from FOB.

i got it! apologies if this is a repeat - i cant be arsed 2 read all 12 pages.
the singer is w/ his girfriend at prom, a club or something of the like - a place with drinks, music and dancing, anyway.
his girlfriend is breaking up w/ him, awkwardly so, saying she's no good with words - the singer thinks that hes even worse, and stutters out a bad joke about romance in response - he is tounge-tied, "stuck to my toungue", at a loss for words. he tries to talk to her, but can't find the words and ends up sounding much more melodramatically than he intends to.
i think "i'm 2 quarters and a heart down" is something of a video-game reference, where hearts are often what represent your health (your life force, your will to live?). it seems hes been heartbroken once already, so he's one heart down, and the quarters are also, i belive, a video game reference to arcades, where you usually pay w/ quarters in the US. my guess is the singer is speaking in his language, of the way he thinks of things.
"these words are all i have, so ill write them" sounds to me like hes a poet at heart, and this is his only way of communicating his feelings -something he feels a need to do. "you need them just to get by" sounds like a throwaway line to me... any ideas, perhaps?
i think "we're going into d-minor" is whispered because it doesnt reeeally have to do w/ the plot and theme - though it seems the music in the story changes when the chorus begins, so it may represent that.
everybody is dancing whie this drama is unfolding, meanwhile their relationship is falling apart to the half-time of the music that's playing.
he's speaking to the girl, i think, or perhaps just thinking it, when he says that "these are the lives you'd like to lead". no love, no romance, no fidelity - just dancing, booze and sex on the dancefloor.
"this is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loves me" is, i think, something of a stab at mainstream media, where tragedy pulls human interest like vultures. it is also, of course, a reference to his ongoing and previous (1 heart down) heartbreaks.
"you always fold just before you're found out" is, i think, speaking of why theyre falling apart. he was getting warmer and warmer, more and more suspicious, and at this venue, just before he found out first-hand, she bent under the pressure and admitted. she drinks up quickly in view of the stress, i suppose - it's her "last resort" against her guilt - she cheated, and she's fighting her conscience by drinking. it's "only the first mistake", accidentally letting something slip that made him suspicious enough to get her to admit - this suggests that shes done even more, and hes only waiting to find out.
"why don't you show me the little bit of spine you've been saving for his mattress, love?", is very sarcastic and ill-meant, i think. instead of owning up and admitting it, she tried to hide it, and then crumpled under pressure - shes completely spineless. at the same time, the poetic singer, uses a pun to call her a little whore without profanity.
chorus again.
now the bridge again, but with the extra line "i only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me"
it seems shes broken down, and stopped trying to convince him or herself that her infidelity was ok - and now shes tyring to make him forgive her - but he doesnt want a sympathetic pat on the back and then for her to go off w/ whoever else shes screwing - he wants her back. the fact that he says it from the sexual instead of the romantic point of view reflects pete wentz's typical ironic, dark and sarcastic way of looking at personal tragedy - instead of saying "i just want you back", he says "come back to bed". its really more of an insult than an honest statement.
chorus again.
it ends w/ "dance, dance" repeated, which i think is something of an imagery - the singing begins in the middle of the action, close up between two people w/ a dancing crowd in the background, and at the end our focus is pulled away from this particular tragedy, and we go further and further out until we only see a mass of people moving to the music, which, in a way, makes it more universal - this tragedy in this crowd is not the only one.

^ aha, it's from under the cork tree, and infinity on high. their album names;

What is FUCT? and IOH?

Ok, those who are really big fans of FOB, the others have a point. With a band like this, you can't expect it to be super deep. Just catchy and fun. I like this song, but I'm not a FOB fan as a whole. I like catchy things and grudgy crust punk as well. It's all good.

And for those ragging on FOB, get over it. Their drummer is a badass who wears Feral Edge shirts, so he's cool with me.

when pete's whispering he says "we're going into B minor" or D minor. not sure, i dont know how to play it. but i heard it in an interview once.

i heard this song like a year ago. it is fallout boys best song. kicks "sugar were goin down"s ugly ass. dont no wut its bout tho. the music video is good. pete wentz was funny lookin, adam at the end gets the kiss of his life i bet, and patrick makes a fool of himself in parts of it. i think fallout boy is an awesome band, and im a heavy metal type of person. if it wasnt for this song i wudnt have gotten all there cds.