The Offspring – Hammerhead

Know something about this song or lyrics? Add it to our wiki.
Send "Hammerhead" Ringtone to Cell

I am the one
Camouflage and guns
Risk my life
To keep my people from harm
Authority
Vested in me
I sacrifice
With my brothers in arms

Through this doorway
What's on the other side?
Never knowing
Exactly what I'll find
Locked and loaded
Voices screaming
Let's go!
Come on do it!
Here we go..

I'll take a life that others may live
Oh that's just the way it goes
I shut my eyes, it hammers in my head
Where it'll end
Nobody knows

I'll take a life that ten others may live
Oh that's just the way it goes
It's playing over and over in my head
Where it'll end
Nobody knows

Stay the course
Reasonable force
I believe I serve a greater good
Smoke and dust
Enemies are crushed
Nothing left
Where a man once stood

Through this doorway
What's on the other side?
Never knowing
Exactly what I'll find
Locked and loaded
Voices screaming
Let's go!
But I'm just doing what I'm told..

I'll take a life that others may live
Oh that's just the way it goes
I shut my eyes, it hammers in my head
Where it'll end
Nobody knows

I'll take this life that ten others may live
Oh that's just the way it goes
It's playing over and over in my head
Where it begins and where it'll end
Nobody knows

Bang bang, it hammers in my head

though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me
Locked and loaded, gonna find my truth
Now I'm busting through
All hell breaks loose
And you can all hide behind your desks now
And you can cry, "teacher come help me!"
Through you all, my aim is true

Send "Hammerhead" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by yeahnabro

Track duration: 04:38


Hammerhead song meanings
Add your thoughts

62 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    My Interpretation:It is about a school shooting, but I think the first two parts show the cause being PTSD from being a soldier taking lives and unable to cope with it. For me, that makes it flow perfectly.
    Flag Soyon July 11, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I don't know if someone has already said this recently because I read the first 10 or so comments and decided to throw my two cents in. The song is about school shcoting like many of you have said but the military illusion in the first part of the song is to show the mindset of some of these people that go out and do the shootings. On top of that it shows how the over glorification of the military and their mindset in this country (America) can spawn such dellusions in the younger people and they can use this as a justification (in their minds) to go out and kill the innocent students.
    While not as straight forward as Come Out and Play, this song still does a fantastic job at shedding light on the problem of school shootings and, in my oppinion, is even better because it goes into one of the mindsets that a person undertaking this act can experience.
    Flag DIYlobotomyon September 28, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i don't know why everyone is going on about Iraq. couldn't this song apply to any war in history?
    "broters in arms", "i take a life, so the others might life," and "let's go." nothing in this song really connects it just to the war in Iraq.
    Flag rockandroll21on September 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i always thought it was about a soldier going through post- traumatic stress "I shut my eyes it hammers in my head." and then at the end when he says teacher come help me it could be a religious teacher of the people the soldier fought. it doesnt seem to be about school shootings.
    Flag dkbrtcon May 12, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I believe this song could be sending the message that things arent always as they seem. And things may seem better than they actually are. The reason i feel this way is because the beginning of the song gives off the sense that the song is about a solider or marine or something like that, but by the end of the song you find that what you thought was a song about a heroic solider, is actually just about some maniac shooting up a school. this is just how i feel.
    Flag ThirtySecondsToLinkinParkon November 26, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I'm still debating whether or not it is about a soldier or a school shooter myself. When I first heard the song I thought soldier, but now after listening to it more and more I am starting to see how it looks more and more like a school shooter. The part where he goes, "I'll take a life that others may live." I see that as how a school shooter will take away the life that someone could have potentially lived if it hadn't been cut short.

    Even though Dexter says it is about a school shooting, I am still debating because the single was released with a military insignia so it's almost like they're deliberately trying to throw us a curve ball; especially since they had a contest for making your own music video, I'm sure they wanted to see everyone's different interpretations.

    Sources=Wiki
    Flag cameltan78on April 16, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Yeah I Can Imagine
    Flag Tailsfan2009on August 11, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Can you imagine going into an Offspring concert and rocking out with this song?
    Flag ToolShed1997on July 15, 2009   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:This song is NOT about a god damn school shooting. Watch the music video; read the lyrics other than the last stanza. It simply details some of the horrors soldiers have to go through. You have to really skew this to get that this is the mind of someone who shoots up a school.

    "I am the one / Camouflage and guns / Risk my life / to keep my people from harm" - Is this what goes on through the mind of someone who shoots up a school? I think not.
    "Stay the Course / Reasonable Force" - Famous mantra from the Bush administration
    "I believe I serve a greater good" - thoughts of a soldier
    "But I'm just doing what I'm told..." - soldier having to follow questionable orders
    Flag MetalNickon May 09, 2009   Link
    • 3 Replies
  • 0
    General Comment:wlyn, you got most of it but i dont think shooters are pushed to the limit by bullies. I think its the stress put on kids by teachers but the students get blamed for it. "oh these kids were tormented by the jocks" When really its the teachers and parents who tell these kids that if they fail here, they will fail in life.
    Flag derelixon April 02, 2009   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

Back to top
explain