This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I speak outside what is recognized as the border between "reason" and "insanity". But I consider it a measure of my humanity to be written off by the living graves of a billion murdered lives. And I'm not ashamed of my recurring dreams about me and a gun and a different species (hint: starts with "h" and rhymes with "Neuman's") of carnage strewn about the stockyards, the factories and farms. Still I know as well as anyone that it does less good than harm to be this honest with a conscience eased by lies. But you cannot deny that meat is still murder. Dairy is still rape. And I'm still as stupid as anyone, but I know my mistakes. I have recognized one form of oppression, now I recognize the rest. And life's too short to make another's shorter-(animal liberation now!).
Lyrics submitted by PLANES
Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder song meanings
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Great version of a great song,
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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This is the band that has indirectly made me veggetarian. I was on their site, saw a link to another site, clicked it, read it all and it all made sense and I realized how sick meat really is.
Vegan theme song, yo! I love this song, it's what helped me give up dairy and eggs (I was already veggie). It's about how we put human lives above all others, and spelling out what we do to animals in 'human terms' ('meat is still murder. Dairy is still rape.) If we did to humans what we do to animals, we would be put away.
what I don't get is what Descartes has to do with it.. I know he was philosophic and shit.. but was he like pro-meat or something?
Descartes disected animals (Could have expiremented on them, I can't remeber), he beleived that the brain fluids of animals contained their "spirit" and when they would die, the spirit would live on. I'm pretty sure the tilte of the song has to do with his disections and possible expirementations.
The full title of this song is 'Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder'.
Rene Descartes was a 17th century philosopher who postulated that animals are merely biological machines who cannot suffer or feel pain, and that any reaction they might have is purely mechanical. Descartes is at least partly responsible for the prevalence of this view at at the time. As a result vivisection was carried out without anaesthetic for many years, and indeed is still carried out today.
Descartes famously nailed his wife's dog to the wall by its paws to dissect it, hence "Nailind Descartes to the wall"
yeah this song made me vegetarian and then vegan aswell(even though ive slackened off and am now back to vegetarianism but "I'm still as stupid as anyone but i know my mistakes") great song and great band
Hey! Leave the Nazis outta this! Vegans be damned but no Nazi bashing on my watch!
For those of you who don't know (I just figured this out, too), the line "Me and a gun and a different species" references the song "Me and a Gun" by Tori Amos, which is about rape. It really comes together when you consider the straightforward, spell-it-out blunt lyrics, "Meat is still murder / Dairy is still rape."
This is a fantastic song, easily one of the best from the album!
Wow if you guy's became vegan because of a song you're easily influenced. You're no worse than the German people falling for Nazi propaganda
How can you compare showing compassion to animals and trying to stop the suffering of them to Germans who killed Jews? That is quite possibly the most ridiculous comment I have ever read! The reason why most people like the people above and me included have been so influenced by these songs are because we have been force fed lies from the generations before us that we need meat and diary in our diet to survive and be healthy. The fact we have had our eyes opened and been open minded to the possibility of a animal free diet shows that we are open minded....you on the other hand who believe that doing research and being open to other lifestyles (through influence of people we look up to) is a bad thing? I feel sorry for you....but more importantly I feel sorry for the animals that suffer due to your ignorance!
Logically speaking, Mother Teresa was also "no worse" than Germans falling for Nazism. What you likely mean to say is "no better than ...". Example: Your writing is "no worse" than the typical shit people post on the Internet, and your opinion is "no better". We care a lot!
Golly, you don't even know these people. You don't know how much thought they put into changing their lifestyle. This song could have just brought the issue to their attention, and they could have done a lot of thinking about it. You didn't even bother to ask them, either! <br /> AND you really think the Germans were just tricked into murdering millions of people? I'm sure a lot of those people didn't even know what was happening until it was too late. And once they did know and did have the balls to protest it, they were shipped off with the Jews and slaughtered as well. Do you know anything about German culture at all? "German" doesn't equal "Nazi". You're not even a troll. You're just ignorant, epicmikenomore.
This comment is about 2 1/2 years old, so "epic mike," I hope you're still not a colossal ignoramus. As someone else said, Propagandhi (among other bands/people) brought the issue to my attention. I became vegan because of the environmental destruction caused by factory farming, the torturous conditions the animals endure from birth to death, which is far worse than you can imagine, and the health benefits of a plant based diet (as well as avoiding the unhealthy, pathogen ridden meat/dairy products). And hey, if you knew anything about basic human anatomy/biology, you'd know that humans function optimally i.e. getting rid of waste, avoiding diseases as herbivores. Everything about us is a classic herbivore, from our jaw, to our intestines, to our weak HCl. This could all be summed up with, "hey mike patton fan, you're an ignorant tool."