Foo Fighters – The Pretender

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  Song Meaning:It's a protest against the police state and the elite political class and government employee overclass. the emperor has no clothes. he's the pretender.

  Flag kanzeion May 04, 2013   Link

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  Song Meaning:It's a protest song. He's singing about the Iraq war, and how politicians lie to the people, and how he sees through the facade.
  
  The first stanza ("keep you in the dark...And so it all began") he's singing directly to the American people. "They" refers to politicians, who "keep you in the dark" and "pretend".
  
  In the first verse, "skeletons" refers to American troops. They're skeletons because they're already dead; it's just a matter of time before they're killed. The next line "Sing as their bones go marching in...again" refers to the fact that this isn't the first time troops have invaded. It's a reference to the Gulf War, obviously, but he could also be making a statement about the USA's grand history of invading other countries, e.g. Vietnam, Korea.
  
  "The need you buried deep" refers to the alleged WMDs in Iraq; the "need" being the cause for invasion. The next line, about secrets, refers to the secret that there were no WMDs, and that Bush was hiding the fact.
  
  The prechorus (Spinning infinity, boy...same old story") refers to the fact that this invasion [of Iraq] has happened in the past many times. It's basically making the same point as "again" in the first verse.
  
  In the chorus, he starts referring to himself, personally. He says he's "not like the others", basically, that he can't be fooled as easily, that he sees through the politicians' lies. This is the most ambiguous part of the song--he could be referring to anything: a sociopath, his own delusional mind, even possibly the illuminati (though Grohl is hardly a conspiracy theorist)--but in the context of the rest of the song, I think it's clear that "the pretender" is Bush / Cheney, and all other lying politicians.
  
  In the second verse, he talks about being a sellout: "I'm just another soul for sale", and then about being "out of print" or unavailable. Maybe he's talking about how he used to be a sellout, but no longer? I don't know; I don't know enough about Grohl's history to answer that.
  
  In the bridge ("I'm the voice inside your head....Yeah, who are you?") he starts talking macho; no more of this passive "the wheel is spinning me" crap. He talks about how he's inside the pretender (ie Bush) and how he's going to "bring you to your knees". The "I'm what's left, I'm what's right" line at first means that he's everywhere, that lots of people think the same thing, but it's a double-entendre: it also refers to the political left and political right.
  
  When he starts singing "who are you?" I at first thought that he was unsure of who the pretender is, and he's wondering about the identity. It's actually a rhetorical question, though; he's saying:"who are you to do this to my country?" Grohl knows perfectly well who the "pretender" is, he's just hopping mad.
  
  Then more chorus, and outro.
  
  I know this is the obvious interpretation, but I'm fairly sure it's how the song was intended. It makes the most sense this way.

  Flag kobe107on January 20, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I don't care what this song means, but it sounds soooo good!

  Flagged arlesgirl7on January 16, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I love this song, though I wasn't sure what the meaning was. Reading others' comments helped me understand it better.

  Flagged HappyLeo7on November 03, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:Maybe I am way off, but I can see "the pretender" as himself. "who are you?" refering to the fact that people often pretend to be what they arn't so that they empress peers and also to cover up secrets (which is mentioned). And we convince ourselves that this is our true selves "pleading ignorance". that would also make alot of sense with "I'm the voice inside your head You refuse to hear I'm the face that you have to face Mirrored in your stare". Like I said, I could be off, but that is just what it said to me personally. That is the great thing about this song, it speaks different things to different people. God Bless You!

  Flag MuzicAngelon July 29, 2012   Link

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  Song Meaning:the song is about courtney love and her tweaked out mind oh yah all those people up there were heroin heads not tweaks

  Flagged jarroidon June 24, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:To me this can and probably is political, but what i love about it is that it can apply to anyone, and anything. Anyone who is miss treated, or unproportionately appreciated can relate to this. It doesn't need to be about government, although it can. It can be about people that take advantage of you, friends, family, work, school, whatever. To me, it's about people who keep you around just when it's convenient to them, and the rest of the time it's like you don't exist. This song is just a way of saying you may be able to treat other people like that, and they may be blissfully ignorant about the way they are being treated, but i'm not going to let you treat me like that anymore. Who gave YOU the right to mistreat ME like that. Now you've got to watch out, because one day you're going to call me up out of the blue and need me, and i'm going to laugh. After everything i've done for you and everything you've done TO me, why would i help you? Now you've got to find another puppet to manipulate. "What if i say i'm not just another one your plays?"

  Flag ME68on May 15, 2012   Link

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  Song Meaning:In a 2007 interview with XFM, frontman Dave Grohl stopped short of explaining the meaning behind "The Pretender", but alluded its roots go to current political unrest. Grohl noted,
  "That's the thing with lyrics, you never want to give away specifics, because it's nice for people to have their own idea or interpretation of the song. But, you know, everyone's been fucked over before and I think a lot of people feel fucked over right now and they're not getting what they were promised, and so something to do with that."
  Grohl also told XFM "The Pretender" was not initially planned for the album and happened really quickly.
  "That song didn't happen until later on in the session. We didn't go into making the record with that song and it happened after we recorded a lot of stuff. Up until that point, I didn't know if we had a good opening song or not. So after we recorded it, I thought, 'oh this is perfect, we have the song to open the record,' and it just became everybody's favorite song. ... It's the type of song that I look forward to opening shows with and it came together really easily. We put that song together in, I don't know, a day, whereas a lot of the other songs we worked on for weeks."

  Flag lolguy23on May 13, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's absolutely political.

  Flag Plottoberryon May 04, 2012   Link

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    I don't believe so, but I can see why you came to that conclusion...especially with both political parties being one and the same, minus the desire to tax the hell out of hard-working citizens. Great band and a good song, regardless of its intended meaning...

    Flag UseSomeoneElseon May 07, 2012  
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  General Comment:awsome song GO FOO FIGHTERS YEAH! 0FT0

  Flagged randomkiddon March 22, 2012   Link

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