Lyrics for The Pretender as interpreted by intothegrinder2

The Pretender Lyrics
Keep you in the dark
You know they all pretend
Keep you in the dark
And so it all began

Send in your skeletons
Sing as their bones come marching in...again
They need you buried deep
The secrets that you keep are at the ready
Are you ready?
I'm finished making sense
Done pleading ignorance
That whole...defense

Spinning infinity, boy
The wheel is spinning me
It's never-ending, never-ending
Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say that I'll never surrender?

In time our soul untold
I'm just another soul for sale... oh, well
The page is out of print
We are not permanent
We're temporary, temporary
Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say that I'll never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

I'm the voice inside your head
You refuse to hear
I'm the face that you have to face
Mirrored in your stare
I'm what's left, I'm what's right
I'm the enemy
I'm the hand that will take you down
Bring you to your knees

So who are you?
Yeah, who are you?
Yeah, who are you?
Yeah, who are you?

Keep you in the dark
You know they all pretend

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say that I'll never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say that I'll never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?
(Keep you in the dark)
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
(You know they all... pretend)
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

What if I say I'm not like the others?
(Keep you in the dark)
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
(You know they all... pretend)
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

So who are you?
Yeah, who are you?
Yeah, who are you?

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Cest-La-Vie
10-08-2008

Rated 0 
I dont know if anyone else said this.. but When i hear this song i think of "One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesnt belong, can you tell which thing is not like the other by the time i finish my song"
Lol. But if you dont know where im talking about somehow, then i mean the Chorus "What if i say im not like the others"

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1 Reply
Cest-La-Vie
10-08-2008

Rated 0 
Rmmuir I just saw your comment. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Haha as i stated just a minute ago, i hear it all the time!

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OhSoInLove
10-16-2008

Rated 0 
lol i don't care if tis meant to be political =P call me narrow minded but its so much nicer and more interesting if it involves love, as is everything =) i like strider's idea. so, for me, it'll be about a couple XD politics is booooooooring XD

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musicismyeternalsun
01-04-2009

Rated 0 
the video is so exciting, and it makes complete sense if its political

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musicismyeternalsun
01-04-2009

Rated 0 
the video is so exciting, and it makes complete sense if its political

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powdersnowboy
02-01-2009

Rated 0 
I WOULD AGREE ...

So TISTA!
Just wait 14 more months, and ALL the secrets will come out. AND ALL THE HIGH TRUTH I HAVE FOUND FOR YOU and all the money you need for college and the horse ranch in Colorado comes out as well. You and I, NEVER surrender! I love your musical sensitivity. But then, it's only natural ... warriors share the same rhythms and melodies.

... and TAIA (if this is you)...
I am truly AMAZED at your incredible, logical, psych-ops prowess, as this IS my FAVORITE Foo Fighters anthem, it would make a big impression and create a massive temptation to make contact early. Your insidious drilling into my psyche is amazing. I wait eagerly to see your next attempt at subterfuge.


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Jordo013
02-04-2009

Rated 0 
I think it is about that moment when you know the serious dirt on someone, (lover or otherwise) and they call you out on something small. It is about saying "No matter how bad you think I am, I can deal with you being as bad as you are, one way or another." And, it sucks when you have to do it to yourself. For good, or ill.

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harriett1
02-08-2009

Rated -1 
in a relationship where the other person has been decietful and unfaithful, time and time again. and no matter how much this guy wants to pretend everythings perfect (as a defence- denial) he now realises he deserves better and is not about to be a victim of his partners manipulation and lies


Keep you in the dark
You know they all pretend
Keep you in the dark
And so it all began

Send in your skeletons
Sing as their bones come marching in...again
They need you buried deep
The secrets that you keep are at the ready
Are you ready?
I'm finished making sense
Done pleading ignorance
That whole...defense

Spinning infinity, boy
The wheel is spinning me
It's never-ending, never-ending
Same old story

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

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powdersnowboy
02-13-2009

Rated 0 
Hey, don't feel foolish..
That just means you have learned something new ... that you hadn't acquired earlier ... and learning is always a good thing!! I'm just gald you're learnin stuff. I'm still proud of you!
Love ya! Bobby

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powdersnowboy
02-15-2009

Rated 0 
I can’t tell Tista anything without interfering ... only that I can tell her everything, when she turns 18. She tells me who she is with her words and her pictures. That way I'll know how to help her more when I tell her who I am and we can meet each other in 2010. And then I can tell her everything she doesn't know about her bio-daddy.

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powdersnowboy
02-16-2009

Rated 0 
...as you wish...

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nick073
04-22-2009

Rated -2 
Its about a
a Guy he found cheat with his wife
and he snaps and takes them on
then the wife trys to explain and thats where you get the line
"never ending same old story"
or
Its about a letter to the Prezident
about a man who is sick of what he is doing in office and that
"he is not like the other,he is not just another play,Prez is the pretender,and the man wont surendeder"

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Mirandaballin
04-25-2009

Rated 0 
To me its about a person that has some seret, that they have been holdng in an want to realese it....
Or maybe hes been acting like something hes not so he can be with everyone else an know hes trying to tell who he really is an isnt going to pretend anymore, because we all die anyways...lol not sure

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abkenwood
06-05-2009

Rated 0 
im not quite sure, but i think t has something to do with how hes saying is that who ever hes talking to is not in control and that they arent what they say they are... kinda like a bully. but this song is the reason that i fell in love with the foo fighters. now im one of their biggedt fans

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Mr Dan
07-07-2009

Rated +1 
I would have to say this song depicts a world in which people are all being treated under rule and being told what to believe, how to behave and what to do with their lives. Through Marketing, Through Governments etc.


"What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays"
Everyone is treated as a puppet. Told what to do and directed. See above paragraph.

This song is basically saying that he is not like the others. He is a rebel. Unique. We are not puppets on a string and we will not be told what to do why these authoritative figures.

Its my interpretation. I can not see any associations with Love.

ooop. Just read the above. songofthedeafgirl has got it aswell!

Anyway, Brilliant song and its not the real meaning that counts I guess! Its your interpretation! Thank Goodness for Postmodernism! :D

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Mr Dan
07-21-2009

Rated +1 
Not every song is about Love or Drugs you know...

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Astralwolf
07-23-2009

Rated 0 
I love this song...my favorite by them.

I don't think it matters if you look at it politically, personally, discovering your true identity, etc...I think the underlying theme is just be yourself. Don't let anybody change (or make you change) who you really are for their own liking (or anything similar). You can look at it politically and say they all are pretenders and that he wont surrender (the video shows that pretty well).

Anyways, it shows the riot police show up one by one as the song goes on. Then they go in to attack after they said they wouldn't change to favor whoever (the president, the government, the police, odin, whoever.) They remain themselves, and by remaining themsevles...in the end they won.

Not exactly a deep interpretation. But that seems to be the underlying theme

"I'm not going to change for anybody for any reason, I'll remain who I truelly am"

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ronathon01
08-06-2009

Rated 0 
I don't think this song is about the President but actualy
about the world leaders. How they minipulate the world in
making it what they want. Its been going on for hundreds
if not thousands of years. Its definatly not about a
relationship. The video definatly shows that. I think
its a message to the world. Keep both Eyes open... ;)

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Spearemint
08-11-2009

Rated 0 
You can insert quite a few meanings. The political one is really interesting, the romantic one is a really widespread meaning, and the bullying one could fit too.

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ThesaintST1
09-01-2009

Rated 0 
This is 100% a political (or maybe anti-political song). Emotionally charged and most likely about the mis-leading of the 'Allied' governments, in particular at the USA, into the wars overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's also pissed off about the mainstream that were so dumb enough to swallow the lies.

If you look at the video too, there is a lot of representation: The line of guards charging after him - The establishment.

Look at the wall of red paint. The blood of the young soldiers that died for the 'just cause'. Blood on the establishment as it explodes all over the guards.

In the lyrics, the left and right bit simply means that no matter who gets voted in, you still get fed the lies with which they want you to believe.

Simply he's pissed off with the system, the mainstream and in particular, that which led to the wars. He ain't anyone's fool.

I f'kin love this song.. it made the hairs stand on the back of my neck when I heard it but also add the video to it and it's really chilling - especially the wall of blood exploding..

Possibly the best Foo Fighters tune ever!!!!

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blessbabe
09-13-2009

Rated 0 
This is screaming 'political song'. I don't understand how anyone can say this was written about a relationship! I can relate to the song in terms of friends that have been 'pretenders' and I feel like I'm the only one who knows what they're playing at and will not fall for it. But that's my relation to the song, not the songwriters meaning. This is absolutely a song directed at the US government and nothing else.

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pseuserexp
09-18-2009

Rated 0 
I'm a paranoid schizo-effective who has auditory delusions. I think that the voices in my head are real on my worst days, and I have a few skeletons in my closet that are basically thoughts that I've not allowed to come to fruition. So I thought/think that this song was directed at me. The beginning - keep you in the dark... I think that's about everyone else in the world (oh, by the way, in my head, everyone else in the world can communicate through thoughts) keeping me in the dark about the horrible things that the voices in my head say I've been through or will go through while on roofies or something like that, as a response to me keeping them in the dark about aforementioned skeletons. "And so it all began?" reference to when my delusions/secrets started up. "Sing as their bones come marching in...again; They need you buried deep; The secrets that you keep are at the ready; Are you ready?" I love to sing, my voices conspire to kill me, my secrets are obvious (because everyone else can hear my thoughts), so am I ready to live them out?

I could go on, but I just got called into work... basically I think the whole song is about me, or possibly all of the people like me in the world. Dave's into drugs and drinking like I was, so maybe there are some similarities, some shared thoughts or visions, etc. I also think that "Icky Thump" by the White Stripes is their prediction of how I will die - standing up with a gun in my mouth, pull the trigger, someone says "icky," and then my body "thumps" onto the ground.

I know, I know, you all wish you could have these lovely thoughts like me.

Just say NO!

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xionthefaintmemory
09-21-2009

Rated 0 
I LOVE this song
I think of it in a kind of political view. You could compare it to the Scientific Revolution.
The truth contradicted authoriy, so they tried to beat the ideas out of people and call believers crazy heretics. They know the truth, and they won't surrender. The curch was pretending that all of the scientific discoveries were fake. It's about that whole scenario as it repeats itself in history and government- not surrendering your beliefs

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Sunrayeyes
09-24-2009

Rated 0 
This song, even though it may be written to reflect or speak on politics, relates very much to the worl ti may not even know it's talking about, theatre. The story I get from this song is that there is this actor boy guy who likes his ladies and he is screwing around with this girl who works back stage but all the while not finishing his relations with other girls in his life, and he being an ass doesn't tend to the situation properly. Ad this girl is alright with it a first, because life is life right, but soon enough she figures everything out that he is doing and is sick of being pushed aside and treated badly. So it's kind of her break out song. I think lines like "Keep you in the dark" (backstage) "You know they all pretend" (actors pretending to be someone else, which usually roles over into their own life) Send in your skeletons (skeletons being the other past girls...)
Sing as their bones come marching in...again (...that he can't give up)
They need you buried deep
The secrets that you keep are at the ready (the secrets he keep about the girls)
Are you ready?
I'm finished making sense
Done pleading ignorance
That whole...defense (this is the girl coming to terms with whats going on, saying that she knows all the bullshit)

Spinning infinity, boy
The wheel is spinning me
It's never-ending, never-ending
Same old story (it happens all the time)

What if I say I'm not like the others? (shes backstage, they are actors)
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays (not one of your plays is kinda literal in the sense that they are acting in plays and she isn't a role in it she isn't going to be used like she is a part in a fantasy life)
You're the pretender (You're the actor)
What if I say I will never surrender? (won't give in to him)

...

In time our soul untold
I'm just another soul for sale... oh, well
The page is out of print
We are not permanent
We're temporary, temporary
Same old story

...

I'm the voice inside your head
You refuse to hear
I'm the face that you have to face
Mirrored in your stare
I'm what's left, I'm what's right
I'm the enemy
I'm the hand that will take you down
Bring you to your knees (well this whole part I feel is because the girl is sensible she kinda sticks with him, and shes around but just has removed herself from that part of his life, but is in his head as a reminder that he fucks up, even if he doesn't want to face it)

So who are you? (An actor depicting themselves from their roles can be really difficult, some get consumed and its usually the ones that don't have their personal lives together, so who are you fits in nicely because he doesn't even know who he is)
Yeah, who are you?
...

So that's the story I get from it, maybe it's the literal and totally not what they were going for but music is not only about sending a message but creating one, right?

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Xaz
09-30-2009

Rated 0 
This song is overrated, the Foo's have way better songs.

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