I'm feelin' rough I'm feelin' raw I'm in the prime of my life
Let's make some music make some money find some models for wives
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars

This is our decision to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?

Forget about our mothers and our friends
We were fated to pretend.

I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
Yeah I'll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone

But there is really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten. life can always start up anew
The models will have children, we'll get a divorce,
We'll find some more models, everything must run its course

We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
We were fated to pretend

Yeah yeah yeah



Lyrics submitted by lieswithinus

Track duration: 04:21

"Time to Pretend" as written by Ben Goldwasser Andrew Vanwyngarden

Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC

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Time to Pretend song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:What people have said is pretty much it. I feel that my life is gradually moving away from a fantasy and becoming more "normal" with the usual things: car, study, job, relationships, a mortgage, marriage, a family and I'm pretty sure that I.T. is the right line of work for me but sometimes it feels like a "placeholder" to put there until something better comes along. Like I'm pretending that those things are the ultimate objectives in life because people say they are. When I become involved with those things there's definitely a sense of "time to pretend." Were we really fated to pretend?
    Flag MartyHon April 29, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think the point of this song is about how the dream of living the rockstar lifestyle is similar to the way children use their imagination and play games and pretend to be a dinosaur, or a soldier or whatever to pass the time and make life more interesting. Adults grow up and wish they were rockstars in the same way.
    Flag ROFLYSSTon July 16, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:MGMT said

    "We wrote Time to Pretend our senior year of college, and the music was inspired by a praying mantis we had in our house. She laid eggs and it died, and we laid the egg case on this kinda model pirate ship on the mantle piece, and the eggs hatched and all these baby praying mantises were climbing up the rigging of the ship, and it was pretty crazy...uhm so the music was inspired by our praying mantis that liked to dance to the Clash {laugh} and the lyrics are just about us imagining being rock stars....and yeah, fantasy rock star life."

    No mystery anymore.
    Flagged JalopyGoFaron June 06, 2012   Link
  • +2
    Song Meaning:Feel as though this song is about how the general concept of free will does not actually exist in modern day society. This song begins in the mindset of a young rebel, whose dream is not an odd one at becoming famous and living the life a celebrity. A dream life where it seems as though one is free to do anything in life, but the song brings the point that this so called "dream life" is a life which has already been planned and set. The song then compares the problem to a typical "office job" type of life where it is the same routine, of going to work everyday. By making this comparison the songs over all meaning can be interpreted as even a with a "dream life" one will still fall into the basics of an everyday routine much like that of working in an office, and from the beginning of life, no matter the choices one makes, everyone in society is born with the fate of living a pretend life that is not chosen for them.
    Flagged liferollson37on April 23, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It's about living in the current state of things, in the world we have built up around us, and how fake and superficial everything has become.... the way we think; our relationships with each other; our lives. Maybe once you realize truth and love are being sucked from the world, there's not much to do but live fast and die young....we are fated to pretend!
    Flag stratmoson March 22, 2012   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:somewhere along our childhood we start pretending and forget that we're pretending.
    pretending we are "adults" or pretending to be a "professional" or a "policeman" and so on.
    we forget that we are essentially pretending. it's another ego structure. maybe it's how the ego forms.
    "growing up" just means pretending permanently.
    how depressing.
    STOP PRETENDING!
    Flag Aloysius1979on December 07, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:we were fated to pretend - our purpose is to make magic, act, perform, channel creativity. To do this we must give up everything else. Family, simple comforts, boredom, freedom. Once the choice is made, there is no going back - "everything must run its course".

    I wonder if, "i'll move to Paris shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars", could be a reference to Morrison and Dionysus (God of ritual madness and ecstasy) It's a philosophy - all out living, a trade off, die young, the 27 club. I wonder if "fuck with the stars" could be read as "fuck with the Gods".

    "Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew" - Dionysus is a diety associated with the life-death-rebirth cycle. If you live the lifestyle, if you give yourself up to performance over anything, if you allow yourself to be influenced by spirts through performance ritaul, you will die young BUT you will be reborn. This is the idea that many artists believe in.

    "We'll choke on our vomit and that will be the end" Choking on vomit, the end, Morrison.

    The surface meaning could be it. Rock stars living hard, having fun, and dying young. I get the sense there is a bit more to it though. Obviously not as deep as morrison chose to go, but certainly a reference to the idea.

    Flag Ijusthitabongon October 05, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The beauty of this song is it can be interpreted perfectly to YOUR life, but if you'd like to understand the "true meaning" that the author was writing. If you'd like to understand what the author meant look at it this way:
    He's explaining his life at that moment, putting the prizes of fame, models, drug effects, etc. into three words : Time to Pretend
    At the end he reminisces about something that we can also relate, being young. In the end he's telling the listener to live their own life, and to not strive for his because in the end he'll follow the same rockstar routine which is something we're better off without .
    Flagged Simsethon September 22, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:A rockstars life, what they go through, though we feel its all great and its what we all wanna grow up to be its not, you might get a model for a wife but its not true love and you'll end up divorcing, your death is depressing, live fast die young, hurrying through life without stopping to smell the roses. The part where he list everything hes going to miss, living a rockstars life isn't easy but yet everyone wants to grow up to be one.
    Flag Blarglefargon July 18, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think it's the beauty of music. there is no right. there is no wrong. there is only interpretation. speaks to so many different people in so many different ways.

    you can chase after the ideals...the things you've been conditionted to believe you NEED in life in order to find happiness -- "Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives
    " -- ...you can blindly pursue more and more and more...always thinking that this time it will be different...this time it will fill that void of emptiness...

    but it won't. it never does. more is never the answer...but we're all happy to PRETEND that it is the answer...because we've been indoctrinated to believe in that. and...even though we all know better..."it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?" how do you go about challenging what you've always 'known'?

    when it's all about more...we miss the point. we forget to live, because we're always looking to be somewhere other than right where we are. we miss the good stuff:

    "I'll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
    I'll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
    I'll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
    Yeah, I'll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent alone"

    but that's alright. we can still pretend that everything is going to work out. and it usually does...even if it's not in the way that we'd hoped it would.
    Flag mentaLHangoveron June 11, 2011   Link

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