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Hands Held High Lyrics
Turn my mic up louder, I got to say something.
Lightweight step it aside, when we comin'. Feel it in your chest, the syllables get pumping. People on the street, they panic and start running. Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming. I jump on my mind, I summon the rhyme of dumping. Healing the blind, I promise to let the sun in. Sick of the dark ways, we march to the drumming. Jump when they tell us they want to see jumping. Fuck that, I want to see some fist pumping. Risk something. Take back what's yours. Say something that you know they might attack you for Cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before. Like I'm stupid standing for what I'm standing for. Like this war's really just a different brand of war. Like it doesn't cater to rich and abandon poor Like they understand you in the back of the jet, When you can't put gas in your tank, These fuckers are laughing their way To the bank and cashing a check Asking you to have compassion and have some respect For a leader so nervous in an obvious way Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day In their living room laughing like, "What did he say?" Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen In my living room watching, But I am not laughing. 'Cause when it gets tense, I know what might happen. The world is cold, and bold men take action. Have to react to get blown into fractions. 10 years old is something to see, Another kid my age drugged under a G, Taken and bound and found later under a tree, I wonder if he thought, "The next one could be me." Do you see? The soldiers that are out today. That brush the dust with bulletproof vests away. It's ironic. At times like this you pray, But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday. There's bombs in the buses, bikes, roads, Inside your market, your shops, your clothes, My dad, he's got a lot of fear I know, But enough pride inside not to let that show. My brother had a book he would hold with pride, A little red cover with a broken spine. In the back he hand wrote a quote inside, "When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die." Meanwhile, the leader just talks away Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day Both scared and angry like, "What did he say?" Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. With hands held high into a sky so blue, The ocean opens up to swallow you. (x6) |
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11-03-2009
it's amazing how one song, that everybody seems to love, can turn people against each other. the lyrics in the song hits a certain spot in everyone and they just want to express themselves, but in the end they get shut down.
Personally, i love this song. i love the lyrics and i love the whole meaning of it. if you have a problem with the meaning, take two deep breaths and listen to something else.
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09-26-2009
"10 years old is something to see,
Another kid my age drugged under a jeep,
Taken and bound and found later under a tree,
I wonder if he thought, "The next one could be me."
it has so much meaning even beyond the clear as day meaning.
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08-18-2009
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07-06-2009
The problem was never Bush, he was a puppet. I mean this guy got his MBA from Harvard because he had armies of tutors and a rich daddy to pay off the professors. That's it. The people pulling his, and every other politician's, strings are the problem. Where do politicians get most of their funding from in order to run for election - corporations. Big ones. If you don't do what's in their best interests while in office you won't get their support for the next election which will cost it for you. "Their interest" not the people's. Sorry international community but the people in our country don't pay attention to politics and what bills are being passed when and who's voting on them and why unless it's some hot topic one: gay marriage, gun restrictions, military funding (which honestly always equals the amount = $?), abortion, and you get the idea. The only real time people pay attention to politicians is during their election years and even then with all the rumors and misinformation you can't tell what's real and what's an outright lie. In our country democracy is only still working because we haven't found anything better that works and the fact that we're going to be leaving 30 thousand plus troops in Iraq (on a permanent basis) after Obama pulls the others out is just another example of how one administration is brushing away the faults of the former while still carrying on the original agenda. Here's a question. First it was the nazis, then the communists, and now the terrorists. Who will be the next reason why my country needs to have a military budget bigger than the next 14 countries combined (including Russia and China)? Because in thirty more years my country will have been in a pseudo state of war for a century and as far as I know presidential terms don't last that long.
Good song.
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06-08-2009
I think an important part of this song THAT EVERYONE IS COMPLETELY MISSING
is the positive/negative contrast.
The rap part of the song is all these bad things, terrorism, war, "kid getting drugged under the jeep", or whatever.
And LP acknowledges it all and how life isn't fair.
But then the tone shifts and goes "Amen, Amen, Amen." Amen means a confirmation, sort of "yes", in religious terms acknowledging God or the reality that a prayer exists.
We acknowledge that these bad things happen, and they will continue to happen, and there is nothing we can really do to avoid it. Hence the "stuttering leader" who could represent Bush but really any leader who can't avoid the conflicts in the world. But we can say "Amen", it happens, but we will continue to try to make the world a better place and keep faith (not to be a religious nut).
Then the last part, and the title. "Hands held high." We are a people and even when we die and are controlled by the rich and the powerful, we're still important and we can still be proud of ourselves. Even when we think we are defeated ("the ocean ... swallow you") we've really won just because we keep trying and we'll never go away.
I think the whole song is about maintaining our faith and our pride through everything that happens.
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05-20-2009
Also, I wonder if the lines at the end of the song are biblical and religious references. The background vocals are "amen, amen...". And then they start singing about hands held high and the ocean opens up to swallow you...Well, GW is an "evangelical Christian" (being a Christian myself, I'm not so sure about this). Anyhow, evangelical church services frequently involve raising one's hands to God during times of worship. And the ocean opening up could refer to the parting of the Red Sea during the time when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The Egyptians followed and were promptly swallowed by the sea. So perhaps LP is mocking all the Christian right as well as the Jihadists, both of whom are convinced that God is/was on their side while all this was going on and innocent people were the ones suffering? So it sounds, to me as if LP is mocking religious fundamentalists on one, if not both, sides...
Also, have yet to discover specifically what 10-year-old boy was drug under a jeep?! Would very much like it if somebody could shed some light on this one for me. Rings bells in the back of my mind, but not sure...
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05-20-2009
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05-11-2009
So, does anyone have an actual meaning, instead of something shitty to say about the former government? (not that it wasn't shitty..) Like, say, something LP might've said about this song, and not just... interpretation by the (anti)- fans?
Oh.. and does anyone have a possible interpretation for the last two lines? "With hands held high into the sky so blue, as the ocean opens up to swallow you"?
That's actually what I came here for, but I got to learn some political crap along the way, so I guess that's cool.
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05-09-2009
No I’m not going to say what this song meant for me cause for some reason I do not feel like getting dumped on.
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05-02-2009
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04-29-2009
Like I'm stupid standing for what I'm standing for.
Like this war's really just a different brand of war.
Like it doesn't cater to rich and abandon poor"
Every part of this song especially including the quote above I posted speaks up to me. Sometimes it feels like this song describes exactly how I feel about this friggin war
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04-19-2009
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04-16-2009
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04-05-2009
At times like this you pray,
But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday.'
That's amazing.
I agree with itsmelen. Linkin Park doesn't have a better song.
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01-18-2009
That's it. That's all I wanted to say. I've been a fan for a long time, I had a whole big long analysis.
But, really, that's it. This is the best song they've ever done.
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01-06-2009
If you want to here a good one, listen to Alice's restaurant massacre. Long it may be, but it is pure genius. And it's 10x the quality, poetry, and performance as Hands Held High.
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11-18-2008
you make yourself look so moronic by attacking the one with the conservative view (tempflux). He didnt criticize anybody, didnt express opinion, he didnt even bash the band singing a song with views which he opposes. Its amazing how fast you jump on people with conservative views, just because you think youre so right. Rager: sure the middle east supplies oil, but it is home of some of the largest terrorist organizations in existence. most of you are so brainwashed by media propaganda (don't try and deny it), that you still resort to going against your own country. I mean sure most of you dont like president Bush, but why do have to criticize your own nation? It blows my mind...
anyways from a musical standpoint I liked this song. From a political standpoint, it just fits in with the 5 million other songs opposing the war.
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10-31-2008
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10-27-2008
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10-11-2008
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09-10-2008
Shinodas father (who was born in America) was interned by the Americans during World War Two
so yeah tempflux, the U.S did a great job of 'freeing' the Japanese!
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09-10-2008
sorry, what mate?!
have a look at the lyrics for another song written by Mike Shinoda, 'Kenji';
'Ken knew what it would lead to,
Just like he guessed, the President said,
"The evil Japanese in our home country will be locked away,'
Its about the persecution of the Japanese by the Americans in WW2, Shinoda has Japanese heritage, so at some point chances are that his family were oppressed in a similar way.
I wont comment on the Iraq war, just thought id point out that rather large hole in your 'we freed japan' claim.
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08-25-2008
Yeah, its a Jean-Paul Sartre quote... which is why the lyric says he wrote a QUOTE in the back of the book!!!!!! HE WROTE A QUOTE, FROM SARTRE, IN THE BACK OF THE BOOK!!! that was just an awesome quote, props to Chinoda.
And as far as the people who hate the liberals for not allowing oil-digging in Alaska, let me give you a little information. The amount of oil that is actually in Alaska would be enough to last MAYBE three days for all of America. So, if we were to drill for oil in Alaska, America would go through its usual ritual of destroying land, spilling oil in the ocean, killing a bunch of wildlife, and leaving a bunch of machinery out in the wilderness just so that we could have three day's worth of oil. Better not spill too much! Then we'll only have two days worth of oil and a bunch of dead seals! But I'm sure Bush would be cool with it. Gotta look out for his nation, right? No matter how many more trillions of dollars of debt we end up in, gotta have that oil!
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08-11-2008
there's a reason this tour has been called this for a long time...LP has been against bush obviously for years. really it's not about JUST bush tho, for people here that think bush is a good man...wow you really need to do some research, and I dont mean your local newstations and papers...
...this country is going down, taking it's own foundation out from beneath itself thru war and the destruction of the US Constitution... revolution is coming, if you don't revolt, then you will quietly consent to complete control...
"those who trade liberty for security, deserve neither, and will lose both."
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08-08-2008
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