Lyric discussion by twilightwrath 

This song is about a father and his sons relationship. The son hates the old man because the old man has no self respect and so was unable to raise the boy with the perspective of self respect. Due to this, the son has a horrible life and blames his father. The father is proud and wont accept his son outgrowing him, thus the conflict of wills, ultimately leading to the sons self sabotage.

this is along the lines of what I thought too..

That's the relationship James had with his father.

@twilightwrath I would disagree (unless he confirmed it in real life). The "old man" in the song is himself, not his father ("That old man here is me") and also he's the boy he is singing about ("What I've felt" etc). Maybe he's singing to his father, but I would lean more to the possibility that he is singing to young version of himself and he cannot forgive himself for obedience or he's singing to society for wanting him to be someone he's not inside.

  • didn't mentioned him,
  • parent's have control of their children to certain age, this just doesn't add up with: "Throughout his life the same He’s battled constantly This fight he cannot win" - that would point more to the society.
  • If you have any thoughts/conclusions please add them, that's just my opinion.

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