Cage the Elephant – Shake Me Down

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  Song Meaning:He is getting old and depressed that many of his friends and family have already died, he has long passed his glory days. he goes through flashbacks of his life and highlights and just being young and free. he goes back to a fort he went to when he was young and with his first love. He missed those days. notice thathe keeps crawling through like he's passing through stages. once the old man puts the paint on his face you can hear a flat line in the back round meaning that the mans heart has stopped beating and this is wear the music becomes more loud and chaotic meaning he's inbetween life and the after life.their is a bright light flashing in his eyes as he crawls through, depicting "the light at the end of the tunnel" and when he comes out, the music is completely peaceful, meaning that he is now in heaven, with all the people who passed away that he had missed so dearly.

  Flag mshawon March 06, 2013   Link

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  My Interpretation:I think this song is about a man trying to accept that he's dead, but he can't get over the fact that he's leaving everything behind.

  Flag FilmGeekon March 01, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:i think this song is about a relationship and how he gets depressed because its falling apart or its ended."In my past, bittersweet,There's no love between the sheets,Taste the blood, broken dreams,Lonely times indeed,With eyes cast down,Fixed upon the ground,Eyes cast down." he/she is thinking bout the past and loe between the sheets is the bed where the partner used to be taste the blood they fought alot, broken dreams was them dreaming it would work and they would be together foreer. then goes on to say i'm down and depressed but i'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun and keep my head high and rise aboe this bullshit

  Flagged goodshizon September 14, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:I think this song is about people are giving up (their eyes cast down, fixed upon the ground) but the singer (matt shultz) won't let himself think like that. he will always keep his head up even when he can't see what will happen (i keep my eyes fixed on the sun, even on a cloudy day) the sun is up, as apposed to the fixed upon the ground. The clouds will block his view, just as other things will drag him down and lead his eyes astray from what he's is heading for. (heading for the sun but the clouds are in his way)
  any ways thats just what i think

  Flag GLepon July 28, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I disagree with the Drug abuse/addiction. personally my first impression of this song was that it was about a man in the military trying to overcome his post traumatic stress disorder by seeing the good in life "Ill keep my eyes fixed on the sun" but he keeps going back to the memories of the war and the people who died "Not a lot of people left around, Who knows now, Softly laying on the ground" he also remembers the of suicide his teammates "In my life Ive seen, People walk into the sea, Just to find memories, Plagued by constant misery" he also remembers what he gave up for the military and ponders the worth of fighting for all those years."Cut my hair on a silver cloud" and "In my past, bittersweet, There's no love between the sheets, Taste the blood, broken dreams, Lonely times indeed"
  
  Just my personal interpretation :3

  Flagged Faellenon June 28, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:i saw something completely different. i didnt get much out of the lyrics but from what i saw in the music video, the guy was just passing on. and as he died his whole life flashed before his eyes.and at the end when he comes out from under the blanket and sees all those people, i think that was symbolizing the afterlife. like the pickup section at an airport. idk thats the way i saw it.

  Flag cruzzen14on March 30, 2012   Link

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• -1
  My Interpretation:Let's break this song down one stanza at a time. :) But first off, I don't think it was all about drugs. I believe it was mainly about the life you live and death. Not necessarily Matt's but people in general. I think he was trying to get a message across. I gathered my conclusion from the lyrics and the music video. I absolutley LOVE this song! Oh, and notice in beginning of the video you see a man and his wife sleeping, you never see him get out of the bed. He apears to go for a jog and find a house in the woods filled with his past memories. I think that was his life flashing before his eyes. Then at the end his wife whispers something into his ear then lights accend to the sky and everyone disapears. The women wakes up, and the man is still sleeping...he never woke up. He died.
  
  1 "Shake me down,
  Not a lot of people left around,
  Who knows now,
  Softly laying on the ground,
  Not a lot people left around"
  
  "Softly laying on the ground" as in dead. His body is laying burried somewhere. (This character in the song. People aren't there when you're dead. No one knows about your life the way you do unless you tell them. Maybe something was left untold "Who knows now"?
  
  2 "In my life, I have seen,
  People walk into the sea,
  Just to find memories,
  Plagued by constant misery,
  Their eyes cast down,
  Fixed upon the ground,
  Their eyes cast down
  
  I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun"
  
  This is pretty obvious, at least to me, that seeing "people walk into the sea, just to find memories" means people have killed them self. He has witnessed people die only wanting their past back, when they were happy, when things were easy. But he doesn't have this problem because he keeps his chin up through tough times.
  
  3 "Shake me down,
  Cut my hair on a silver cloud,
  Broken sound,
  Softly laying on the ground,
  Not a lot people left around"
  
  "Cut my hair on a silver cloud" accending into Heaven possibly? Yet his body is still "Softly laying on the ground". The Broken dreams may just be things he couldn't do because he died.
  
  4 "In my past, bittersweet,
  There's no love between the sheets,
  Taste the blood, broken dreams,
  Lonely times indeed,
  With eyes cast down,
  Fixed upon the ground,
  Eyes cast down
  
  I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun"
  
  Everyone has a story, and somewhere in that story there is something bittersweet. "No love between the sheets" as in no woman in his life, but he was married so maybe he found out that love isn't sex, it's more than that. There were "lonely times indeed" because he didn't have love, he had a wife but that doesn't mean they had L-O-V-E. "Taste blood and broken dreams" could just be dying.
  
  5 "Turn back now its time for me to let go,
  Way down had to find a place to lay low,
  Lampshade turned around into a light post"
  
  I think this is where it really makes sense it's about death. "Time for me to let go, way down had to find a place to lay low" really seems like dying and being burried. It could be also interpreted as letting go of drugs and possibly going to rehab or just away from other teptations.
  
  6 "Walk around the corner,
  Never saw it coming still,
  I try to make a move,
  It almost stopped me from belief,
  I don't wanna know the future,
  But I'm like rolling thunder"
  
  This could be how he died. A little too encrypted for me. Just something came as a shock, unbelievable.
  
  7 "Evern on a cloudy day" X7
  "I'll keep my eyes fixed on the-
  I'll keep my eyes fixed on the-
  I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun"
  
  Now I think the speaker is the woman. A cloudy day being the day her husband died. Or the man now traveling into the afterlife.
  
  All in all it's a positive msg. I love the words and the song's sound. :)

  Flag MeganMasteron January 19, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:first, i just want to say that if you watch the music video, you see the man sleeping, but you never see him wake up. I think he died in his sleep. maybe suicide but i don't think so. I think it's just about his life flashing before him right before he dies. My guess is he was always pessimistic and is just now realizing how great his life really was. I think the singer is basically saying he won't let that happen to him. Also the correct lyrics are "cut my head on a silver cloud." I take it as a reference to John the Baptist in the Bible. The fact that he says cloud make me think he is trying to say it still won't bring him down because clouds are high up, like the sun! Tell me what you think!

  Flag Pazingaon January 05, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:you guys... if you watch the music video of the song then it will make sence its not about drugs its about people that have nobody in their family left and goin back to childhood memories.. im goin to hate the day that i grow up
  

  Flag thethreebellson November 20, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:They say when you die your life flashes before your eyes. In the video this is what this man is seeing..his bittersweet life...birth, childhood, memories, connection at the end..then his own death. just my opinion. Brilliant song.

  Flag mom2fiveon October 15, 2011   Link

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