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Drop that get up
Take it to the streets better lock that kid up
Face full of teeth when you hock that spit up
Pacing the beat like a beast
Rocking the block on repeat
Speak from the cut like a rush of blood
Paint red on the sleeves of the ones you love
Lay the sick ones down and the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
I shiver and shake the warm air cold
I'm alone on my own
In every mistake I dig this hole
Through my skin and bones
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
I sweat through the sheet as daylight fades
As I waste away
It traps me inside mistakes I've made
That's the price I pay
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
I drop to the floor like I did before
Stop watching I'm coughing I can't be more
What I want and what I need are a constant war
Like a well full of poison or a rotten core
The blood goes thin, the fever stings
And I shake from the hell that the habits bring
Lay the sick ones down, the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
I'm getting back what I gave
I'm getting back what I gave
Take it to the streets better lock that kid up
Face full of teeth when you hock that spit up
Pacing the beat like a beast
Rocking the block on repeat
Speak from the cut like a rush of blood
Paint red on the sleeves of the ones you love
Lay the sick ones down and the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
I shiver and shake the warm air cold
I'm alone on my own
In every mistake I dig this hole
Through my skin and bones
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
I sweat through the sheet as daylight fades
As I waste away
It traps me inside mistakes I've made
That's the price I pay
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
I drop to the floor like I did before
Stop watching I'm coughing I can't be more
What I want and what I need are a constant war
Like a well full of poison or a rotten core
The blood goes thin, the fever stings
And I shake from the hell that the habits bring
Lay the sick ones down, the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
I'm getting back what I gave
I'm getting back what I gave
Lyrics submitted by MusicFREAK20
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"Drop that get up
Take it to the streets better lock that kid up
Face full of teeth when you hock that spit up
Pacing the beat like a beast
Rocking the block on repeat
Speak from the cut like a rush of blood
Paint red on the sleeves of the ones you love
Lay the sick ones down and the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing"
Mike is describing a selfish/violent man and his actions using a metaphorical language
"I shiver and shake the warm air cold
I'm alone on my own
In every mistake I dig this hole
Through my skin and bones
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed"
The bad behavior has led this man to dig his grave, but he's trying to change (late is better than never).
"With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave"
Blackbirds are all the consequences of the bad things that this man has done in the past.
However, he's trying to change, to emerge from the underground (digging OUT the grave).
But "blackbirds" are very close to him and are having their effects (causing pain in the man). He is getting back what he gave (he created pain, and now takes it back).
So i really don't understand why everyone hated Minutes to midnight & A Thousand Suns. They were different but still good in my point of view. They made it very clear in When They Come For Me that they will do what they feel when mike says "I'm not a robot, I'm not a monkey. I will not dance even if the beat's funky" and against the mainstream. LP isn't a band to make a statement or decision like that then not stand behind it. Mike is a genius in the industry, Chester has the voice of an angel and the band completes them. Blackbirds to me at first had religious meaning but after the third time listening to it and knowing that LP doesn't usually write songs about that lead me to think it was different. @sukirose had a good point. If you herd the Hybrid Theory EP the song titled Carousel, was obviously about addiction and Crawling and Place For My Head were about the same. It wouldn't surprise me if that's what it was about. Didn't one of their friends die in the past? When they were Xero? Anyway I put in my 25 cents. You guys cleared up somethings for me I hope I did the same.
maybe it has nothing to do with MTM?
i think they took care of that problem in when they come for me.
What its about someone who is sick.
i mean, really, its plain obvious.
I sweat through the sheet as daylight fades
As I waste away
I shiver and shake the warm air cold
I'm alone on my own
In every mistake I dig this hole
Through my skin and bones
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
He knows hes gonna die, so hes digging his own grave.
Drop that get up
Take it to the streets better lock that kid up
^ This could mean that the dealer should go to jail for messing up lives.
Speak from the cut like a rush of blood
Paint red on the sleeves of the ones you love
^ Drugs destroys families. It severes relationships. It breaks apart what was thought to be indestructable.
Lay the sick ones down and the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
^ You're as good as dead if you start on heroin.
It's harder starting over
Than never to have changed
^ It's harder to break the habit than to resist the temptation in the first place.
With blackbirds following me
I'm digging out my grave
They close in swallowing me
The pain it comes in waves
I'm getting back what I gave
^ This works because, by taking drugs, you are technically digging out your own grave. Some can also cause you to hallucinate, hence the feeling of being swallowed by the blackbirds. The pain could come from trying to come off the drug as your body pines away for it (particularly heroin).
I sweat through the sheet as daylight fades
As I waste away
It traps me inside mistakes I've made
That's the price I pay
^ The first two lines definitely talk about trying to break the habit of drugs to me. This feeling of pining away for the chemical constantly reminds the narrator of the mistake they made in taking the drug in the first place, which is described in the next two lines.
I drop to the floor like I did before
Stop watching I'm coughing I can't be more
What I want and what I need are a constant war
Like a well full of poison or a rotten core
The blood goes thin, the fever stings
And I shake from the hell that the habits bring
Lay the sick ones down, the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
This could also be about the side effects of coming off a drug, but it could also be about an overdose.
Chester took drugs when he was younger - could this be him talking about it?
Let me know what you guys think.
you know guilt from what he's done in the past/doing/about to do.
not so much about MTM.
to me it's like.. It's hard to explain..but I will try =)
He's done some terrible things (in his eyes, and possibly in others)in the past.
And it's all finally catching up with him (getting back what i gave)
and instead of using the 'black-cloud of guilt' metaphor he used Blackbirds, which i personally think is a really nice personification of guilt.
alot of the things he explains feel like guilt to me, Hot sweats, shivering in the warm air, 'It traps me inside mistakes I've made', etc. it's destroying him (falling to the floor)
And he's trying to make a change 'burying' the 'old' Chester (digging his grave metaphor and 'Lay the sick ones down, the bells will ring
Put pennies on the eyes, let the dead men sing
') and starting all over again, 'It's harder starting over Than never to have changed'
that's just my feeling though.
every one's entitled to hear things differently and interpret it all differently.