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I think I know what you mean but watch what you say
'cause they'll be try to knock you down in some way
Sometimes it feels like the world is falling asleep
How do you wake someone up from inside a dream?
Your mind would wander and searched for its place in the night
Your body followed this feeling like following light
Once that your music was born it followed you 'round
And then it gave your activities meaning and let you be loud
You're sad but you smile
It not in your eyes
Your eyeballs won't change
It's the muscles around your eyes
An egg to fertilize
A pulse to stabilize
A body to deodorize
A life to scrutinize
A child to criticize
Young adults to modernize
Citizens to terrorize
Generations to desensitize
You're dreams are sweet and obsessed
And you're overworked
You're overtaken by visions of being overlooked
How disappointed would D.(ead) I.(dealistic) D.(esperate) I.(nventor) P.(ioneer) P.(hilosophers)
Be to see such power in our hands all wasted on greed
Am I a prisoner to instincts?
Or do my thoughts just live
As free and detached
As boats to the dock?
Just like when music was born
And detached from your heart
Is your free time to free minds
Or for falling apart?
Night after night
You turn out the light
You don't fall asleep right away
"Are we... are we done?"
A desk to organize
A product to advertise
A market to monopolize
Movie stars you idolize
Leaders to scandalize
Enemies to neutralize
No time to apologize
Fury to tranquilize
Weapons to synchronize
Cities to vapor-i
'cause they'll be try to knock you down in some way
Sometimes it feels like the world is falling asleep
How do you wake someone up from inside a dream?
Your mind would wander and searched for its place in the night
Your body followed this feeling like following light
Once that your music was born it followed you 'round
And then it gave your activities meaning and let you be loud
You're sad but you smile
It not in your eyes
Your eyeballs won't change
It's the muscles around your eyes
An egg to fertilize
A pulse to stabilize
A body to deodorize
A life to scrutinize
A child to criticize
Young adults to modernize
Citizens to terrorize
Generations to desensitize
You're dreams are sweet and obsessed
And you're overworked
You're overtaken by visions of being overlooked
How disappointed would D.(ead) I.(dealistic) D.(esperate) I.(nventor) P.(ioneer) P.(hilosophers)
Be to see such power in our hands all wasted on greed
Am I a prisoner to instincts?
Or do my thoughts just live
As free and detached
As boats to the dock?
Just like when music was born
And detached from your heart
Is your free time to free minds
Or for falling apart?
Night after night
You turn out the light
You don't fall asleep right away
"Are we... are we done?"
A desk to organize
A product to advertise
A market to monopolize
Movie stars you idolize
Leaders to scandalize
Enemies to neutralize
No time to apologize
Fury to tranquilize
Weapons to synchronize
Cities to vapor-i
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Further, i think the whole vibe of the song can be summed up as "is this what we call life now?"
I think I know what you mean but watch what you say
'cause they'll be trying to knock you down in some way.
Sometimes it feels like the world is falling asleep.
How do you wake someone up from inside a dream?
(Translation: It starts off like he's talking to you, the listener, but we don't know what the listener has said. The listener could have said two things: that they don't like the greedy state of the world they live in, or that they're trying to make it to the top of that world. Either way, they should watch what they say, because either statement could make enemies. The last two lines of this verse are either directed at the listener ("how do I wake you up from this wrong mentality?") or commiserating with the listener ("how do we stop this? how do we reach people and get them to change?").)
Your mind would wander and search
For its place in the night.
Your body followed this feeling like following light.
Once that your music was born it followed you 'round
and then it gave your activities meaning
and let you be loud.
(Translation: You're lost, searching for your place in the world, and this feeling (which could be ambition to make it big by society's norms, or could be the firm rejection of them and a desire for something with more meaning) has determined everything in your life up until now, given you a reason and a voice.)
You're sad but you smile.
It's not in your eyes. Your eyeballs don't change.
It's the muscles around your eyes.
(Translation: This one is complicated. Note the play on words: ize and eyes. Replace "eyes" with "ize" and it's telling you, basically, the smile isn't in your "ize." There's no happiness in the "ize"--the "ize" being explained in the next verse.)
An egg to fertilize,
A pulse to stabilize,
A body to deodorize,
A life to scrutinize,
A child to criticize,
Young adults to modernize,
Citizens to terrorize,
Generations to desensitize.
(Translation: "Ize" is explained through examples. "Ize" is evidently all the things you do because of society's expectations. The first three are having children, work ("a pulse to stabilize" being a specific type of work, that of a doctor), and hygine--in other words, your physical appearance. The second three are results of worrying about not meeting those expectations: self scrutiny, taking it out on others (that child you had), and trying to make others match the societal norms you've been assimilated into. The last two are the effects of buying into societal expectations and forcing them on others: terrorizing other people (they, too, are going to go through that emptiness and self-scrutiny, just the same as you), and desensitizing entire generations, making them merge in an unfeeling capitalistic mass.)
Your dreams are sweet and obsessed
and you're overworked.
You're overtaken by visions of being overlooked.
How disappointed would D.(ead) I.(dealistic) D.(esperate)
I.(nventor) P.(ioneer) P.(hilosophers) be
to see such power in our hands all wasted on greed?
I am a prisoner to instincts or do my thoughts just live
as free and detached as boats to the dock?
Just like when music was born
and detached from your heart.
Is your free time to free minds or for falling apart?
(Translation: You dream of, obsess about, wanting to escape it all--but you're focused on the real world, on your job which overworks you, on your concerns about not being important to others. The lyrics continue to say the philosophers would be disappointed to see where all our potential has gone, how we waste our time and resources on greed and accumulation of material goods--it's like "Fight Club": "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need." Next the lyrics question, can I control this need to keep working, keep accumulating, keep assimilating? Is it something built into me, or are my thoughts not inherently part of who I am? The writer compares this to creating music and, once a song is completed, how it becomes its own entity, free and detached from you: perhaps thoughts are like that too. That would mean that what you've thought in the past is no longer part of you: you can change. Then it asks, so, what are you doing with your time, anyways? Are you freeing your mind--other minds as well--or are you just dwelling in your own misery?)
Night after night you turn out the light.
You don't fall asleep right away.
"Are we...are we done?"
A desk to organize,
A product to advertise,
A market to monopolize,
Movie stars to idolize,
Leaders to scandalize,
Enemies to neutralize,
No time to apologize,
Fury to tranquilize,
Weapons to synchronize,
Cities to vaporize.
(Translation: Night after night, as you're falling asleep, you feel like something is missing, hence the "are we done?" It's just like the title of their album: "Is This It?" It's a lamentation of disappointment. The end chorus builds up to show what the result of this kind of pointless life, of so many living these pointless lives, is: destruction. You go from organizing your desk, to advertising, from advertising to becoming a big-shot monopolizing the market. Next you try to climb the ladder of success, but the success in this kind of world isn't really success at all, it's just gaining more of that crap you don't need. So you idolize movie stars, try to copy them and build up to their status. Maybe you'll make it far enough to be a leader, and scandalize other leaders, pushing them back down the ladder so you reach higher to the top. What then? War--"enemies to neutralize . . . weapons to synchronize . . . cities to vaporize." In the end, the ultimate pinnacle of the greed you try to achieve is the end of the world, and yourself, hence the singer being cut off at the end.)
I think the title itself also has some wordplay: "Ize of the World," again, you can plug in "Eyes of the World" and it sounds the same but has a different meaning: how do you see the world? How does the world see you? How does it see itself? Eyes allow us to perceive. Are your eyes blind to the way the world is? Are all the eyes in the world blind to it?
Anyways, that's what I get out of it. Sorry if that was too long.
Or do my thoughts just live
As free and detached
As boats to the dock?
magnificent.
This is also my favorite Strokes song...it's so amazing when the guitar riff stops at "enemies to neutralize" building up all the tension and then comes back when Julian is screaming at "fury to tranquilize". So good
Cheers!
ps: pm me if you have any "inside info" about this song, including a source =]