Whether its about drugs or about Cantrell giving Staley a message to quit drugs, here's what it means to me:
I hate my job with a passion, and for the most part I hate a lot of my life. I'm not happy with where I live or what I do and I've become incredibly reclusive and introverted and have sunk into a bit of a depression and have lots of problems with anxiety. A lot of people kind of laugh at my feelings and tell me "you and everyone else buddy!" but I take it more seriously and I feel that I am not blind to it like they are. I dream that I might one day pull out of this and make something better for myself. To get a more indepth interpretation, read on.
In the first verse, it goes "Its alright, there comes a time, got no patience to search for peace of mind". To me and in my situation, it represents my increasingly antisocial attitude and how I find it difficult to find the better qualities in people. I've becoming more and more cynical.
Then: "Laying low, want to take it slow, no more hiding or disguising truths I've sold". Recently I've been hiding and keeping to myself, not really talking to people or interacting unless I have to. But I've been gradually been being more frank with people when I do interact with them, no more sugar coating things or telling them what they want to hear. I'm blatantly obvious with them even if it is rude or something.
The chorus: "Everyday something hits me all so cold, find me sitting by myself, no excuses that I know" It seems to me that every day its just blow after blow by people who don't care about me and it has driven me into my own little private world. To me excuses there are no excuses other than the fact that life is cruel and there is no escaping it.
"Its ok, had a bad day, hands are bruised from breaking rocks all day." "Drained and blue, I bleed for you, you think its funny but you're drowning in it too." I work hard day in and day out to earn my keep and I don't like it, I despise it and I am miserable doing it. Enough so that I'm emotionally and spiritually drained and becoming depressed. When I try to talk to anyone about it I get no sympathy, its almost a joke to people because supposedly everyone is like me. But I feel like I'm more in touch with my inner being than most people are with themselves and am able to understand how I feel and the severity of it better than others. There is a George Carlin joke that represents this well: "You hate your job? There's a support group for that, its called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar." I don't think its funny.
The final verse: "You my friend, I will defend, and if we change well I love you any way." To me this is kind of like my wife speaking to me, I feel like she is the only person who really understands how I feel and what I'm going through. And if I decide to make a major life change she will be there to support me 100%.
So that is pretty much the meaning of the song to me. The beauty about most music and especially Alice in Chains songs is that you can interpret them any way. Just because the lyrics say one thing doesn't mean they don't mean something else.
Hello,
This reply is addressing the personal side of your comment as opposed to the song. And I realize it's over a year and a half old, but I felt the need to reply to it and I can only hope you don't mind. For what it's worth, I understand exactly how you feel. The frustration. If fact, I probably couldn't have worded it any better. I believe we are what is referred to as "Sensitive" people (something I consider a good quality, while the general public consider it a weakness). I take...
Hello,
This reply is addressing the personal side of your comment as opposed to the song. And I realize it's over a year and a half old, but I felt the need to reply to it and I can only hope you don't mind. For what it's worth, I understand exactly how you feel. The frustration. If fact, I probably couldn't have worded it any better. I believe we are what is referred to as "Sensitive" people (something I consider a good quality, while the general public consider it a weakness). I take that to mean that we have easy access to our feelings. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. Sensitive people who live in the world of reality. We are, or at least were, compassionate and empathetic towards people but that is disappearing at a rapid rate. When you try to discuss this with others, they either respond to you as if you were discussing something as meaningless as having a splinter in your finger OR they claim they have the same feelings, as if we are talking about something measureable, like arthritis. The more we tell them they don't quite have the picture, the more they say "Oh sure we do. It happens to everybody". Well no, in fact it doesn't. There is a place inside all of us which is a very dark and lonely place and they haven't see it because if they had, they would know it and understand what your talking about and wouldn't make light of your feelings. We get to the point that we just want to retire from the world of the living. We don't want to die but we don't want to join in with the living either. I think everyone has an illusion of what their lives are supposed to be and an even bigger illusion about most of the people in their lives. And when we think things are going as they should, life shows her sense of humor and throws one thing after another at the unsuspecting. My husband passed away unexpectedly 12 years ago. I completely fell apart, but I knew I had people in my corner who would watch my back and walk me through this unbelievably brutal time in my life. When I turned around, nobody was there. I truly thought they loved and cared about me. My friends. They didn't or they would have been there, as I was for them countless times. I never expected anything in return from them but I didn't expect to be abandoned either. These aren't the people I knew. Are they? Well as it turned out, they aren't the people I knew them to be. A lot of things weren't. People only show us what they want us to see of them and we only see what we choose to see. That applies to pretty much everything in life. I tell you this story because that was my moment of clarity. That moment of clarity can be set off by any number of events, big or small. It's the realization that in reality, your life wasn't the same as you perceived it to be. One thing becomes crystal clear and then another and another. And It can be really tough, even overwhelming to suddenly see things as they really are. It seems a crisis or tragedy can snap you back to reality really quick and you best be holding on tight because that ride, with perfect vision, is going to be a really rough one. And it remains painful because you have become disillusioned. And that's a very difficult state, if not an impossible one, in which to live in for any length of time.
I hope this makes sense to you. Just know there are people out there who really do understand how you feel. We may all have taken a different path to get there but we arrived at the same spot you found yourself in.
I hope you are feeling better and I wish you the best .
Although I'm probably much younger than you, I've been in the same situation at a job I really hated at point in my life where I was at a dead end and I felt very alone and disconnected from my friends and family. Your interpretation is awesome, and I totally agree that it is about hope for a better future. It brought up good memories when I would go back and forth with one of my co-workers about music, life, grief, and happiness. I would go to him with truths and feelings I wouldn't even dream of talking about with...
Although I'm probably much younger than you, I've been in the same situation at a job I really hated at point in my life where I was at a dead end and I felt very alone and disconnected from my friends and family. Your interpretation is awesome, and I totally agree that it is about hope for a better future. It brought up good memories when I would go back and forth with one of my co-workers about music, life, grief, and happiness. I would go to him with truths and feelings I wouldn't even dream of talking about with people I knew for far longer. There were a few days where we would talk about no matter how bad it may seem, we lived in the land of opportunity as free souls, and those were very uplifting moments.
It's pretty evident that this song is far too vague to be only about drugs. This song is about the difficult path to pulling yourself out of an emotional rut and the cycle of ups and downs that you encounter along the way.
"Everyday it's something hits me all so cold
Find me sittin' by myself, no excuses, then I know"
There's no excuse to get depressed and isolate yourself over trivial things that can bring you down on a daily basis because we easily trick ourselves to deny that life is an incredibly beautiful thing. Pick up the pieces because it's not as bad as you think.
I came here to post about lyrics, but couldn't stop reading you post! We all have our, "I don't know what word to put here," but we have GOT to carry on and never give up. Life is such a precious gift. I know this because I have cancer. Brain cancer. I was diagnosed near the end of '99 and had surgery in early 2000. Six weeks of radiation was soon to follow upon my recovery from surgery. I was sitting on top of the world. I had a GOOD paying job...
I came here to post about lyrics, but couldn't stop reading you post! We all have our, "I don't know what word to put here," but we have GOT to carry on and never give up. Life is such a precious gift. I know this because I have cancer. Brain cancer. I was diagnosed near the end of '99 and had surgery in early 2000. Six weeks of radiation was soon to follow upon my recovery from surgery. I was sitting on top of the world. I had a GOOD paying job and was looking to continue the beautiful gift that life had offered me. But then in 2004 I began having bouts of double vision. I relied heavily on state assistance since I was no longer able to continue with my profession. My life shattered man. I'm not an angry man, but was pretty upset. Married, (happily? I don’t know.) But in '04, and after getting disability, I endured another procedure at University of Chicago. It was a biopsy in my cerebellum. This tumor is inoperable and I know the quality of my life is cut short.
Anyhow, while doing another six weeks of radiation after the biopsy I was told that radiation can do just as much harm to another part of the body, in my head of course! That got me thinking that the radiation previously caused my current condition. But there is nothing that I can do about it. I’ve pretty much had nothing else to do in my spare time but think about the events in my life. That’s why I think life is the most precious gift. It isn’t because my quality of life is less, but what life has taught me. I am writing a journal by the way. This will be included!! Thanks for your post.
Another smoke beak…
I gotta hand it to Alice in Chains. Their music, especially with Mike Starr, is what’s really listening to. Their music has meaning. The hook to this song is at 2:26. To me, anyway it is. It is so beautifully written and performed! From the drum solos to the sound of the bass and the vocals! That’s all I have for now!!
@kc0tma I felt compelled to reply to this, just to make you aware that there are more people than you know who feel this way about life. Take the Myers Briggs personality test, you're almost certainly an INFP - Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perception. That's what I am too, and I've taken great comfort knowing how many out there see the world in this way. I've only just discovered this in the last couple of days but I feel like it could be a breakthrough in my understanding of myself and how I can progress in life. Hope you're doing better...
@kc0tma I felt compelled to reply to this, just to make you aware that there are more people than you know who feel this way about life. Take the Myers Briggs personality test, you're almost certainly an INFP - Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perception. That's what I am too, and I've taken great comfort knowing how many out there see the world in this way. I've only just discovered this in the last couple of days but I feel like it could be a breakthrough in my understanding of myself and how I can progress in life. Hope you're doing better since this post was made, and the best of luck to you.
@kc0tma I actually didn't realize this post was your personal life experience relating to this. I actually read it as you giving us more detail to translate what each line in the song is actually saying. If so, great work. Makes the song make so much more sense now. If not, sorry that you're having such a tough time in life.
@kc0tma I actually didn't realize this post was your personal life experience relating to this. I actually read it as you giving us more detail to translate what each line in the song is actually saying. If so, great work. Makes the song make so much more sense now. If not, sorry that you're having such a tough time in life.
I heard this song more than you think and just today I came here to brainstorm with myself about the meaning of the lyrics.
I heard this song more than you think and just today I came here to brainstorm with myself about the meaning of the lyrics.
I feel exactly the same, eventhough I'm 23 (and from Brazil, hello world), I can assure you that I feel the same way.
I feel exactly the same, eventhough I'm 23 (and from Brazil, hello world), I can assure you that I feel the same way.
I'm gonna take this quote with me for my life, because I relate to this so much and made me think and learn about myself (crazy shit, really, a comment in a website...): "Sensitive" people (something I consider a good quality, while the general public consider it a weakness). I take that to mean that we have easy access to our feelings. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. Sensitive people who live in the world of reality"
I don't even know if I'll return to this post or if you guys are going to see this, but thank you.
@kc0tma I don't care how old this comment is, you're just trying to leech your 15 minutes by pretending you don't know any history of the band. get a life and a get s grip. no one buys your "personal" take. fucking scumbag.
@kc0tma I don't care how old this comment is, you're just trying to leech your 15 minutes by pretending you don't know any history of the band. get a life and a get s grip. no one buys your "personal" take. fucking scumbag.
Whether its about drugs or about Cantrell giving Staley a message to quit drugs, here's what it means to me:
I hate my job with a passion, and for the most part I hate a lot of my life. I'm not happy with where I live or what I do and I've become incredibly reclusive and introverted and have sunk into a bit of a depression and have lots of problems with anxiety. A lot of people kind of laugh at my feelings and tell me "you and everyone else buddy!" but I take it more seriously and I feel that I am not blind to it like they are. I dream that I might one day pull out of this and make something better for myself. To get a more indepth interpretation, read on.
In the first verse, it goes "Its alright, there comes a time, got no patience to search for peace of mind". To me and in my situation, it represents my increasingly antisocial attitude and how I find it difficult to find the better qualities in people. I've becoming more and more cynical.
Then: "Laying low, want to take it slow, no more hiding or disguising truths I've sold". Recently I've been hiding and keeping to myself, not really talking to people or interacting unless I have to. But I've been gradually been being more frank with people when I do interact with them, no more sugar coating things or telling them what they want to hear. I'm blatantly obvious with them even if it is rude or something.
The chorus: "Everyday something hits me all so cold, find me sitting by myself, no excuses that I know" It seems to me that every day its just blow after blow by people who don't care about me and it has driven me into my own little private world. To me excuses there are no excuses other than the fact that life is cruel and there is no escaping it.
"Its ok, had a bad day, hands are bruised from breaking rocks all day." "Drained and blue, I bleed for you, you think its funny but you're drowning in it too." I work hard day in and day out to earn my keep and I don't like it, I despise it and I am miserable doing it. Enough so that I'm emotionally and spiritually drained and becoming depressed. When I try to talk to anyone about it I get no sympathy, its almost a joke to people because supposedly everyone is like me. But I feel like I'm more in touch with my inner being than most people are with themselves and am able to understand how I feel and the severity of it better than others. There is a George Carlin joke that represents this well: "You hate your job? There's a support group for that, its called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar." I don't think its funny.
The final verse: "You my friend, I will defend, and if we change well I love you any way." To me this is kind of like my wife speaking to me, I feel like she is the only person who really understands how I feel and what I'm going through. And if I decide to make a major life change she will be there to support me 100%.
So that is pretty much the meaning of the song to me. The beauty about most music and especially Alice in Chains songs is that you can interpret them any way. Just because the lyrics say one thing doesn't mean they don't mean something else.
Hello, This reply is addressing the personal side of your comment as opposed to the song. And I realize it's over a year and a half old, but I felt the need to reply to it and I can only hope you don't mind. For what it's worth, I understand exactly how you feel. The frustration. If fact, I probably couldn't have worded it any better. I believe we are what is referred to as "Sensitive" people (something I consider a good quality, while the general public consider it a weakness). I take...
Hello, This reply is addressing the personal side of your comment as opposed to the song. And I realize it's over a year and a half old, but I felt the need to reply to it and I can only hope you don't mind. For what it's worth, I understand exactly how you feel. The frustration. If fact, I probably couldn't have worded it any better. I believe we are what is referred to as "Sensitive" people (something I consider a good quality, while the general public consider it a weakness). I take that to mean that we have easy access to our feelings. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. Sensitive people who live in the world of reality. We are, or at least were, compassionate and empathetic towards people but that is disappearing at a rapid rate. When you try to discuss this with others, they either respond to you as if you were discussing something as meaningless as having a splinter in your finger OR they claim they have the same feelings, as if we are talking about something measureable, like arthritis. The more we tell them they don't quite have the picture, the more they say "Oh sure we do. It happens to everybody". Well no, in fact it doesn't. There is a place inside all of us which is a very dark and lonely place and they haven't see it because if they had, they would know it and understand what your talking about and wouldn't make light of your feelings. We get to the point that we just want to retire from the world of the living. We don't want to die but we don't want to join in with the living either. I think everyone has an illusion of what their lives are supposed to be and an even bigger illusion about most of the people in their lives. And when we think things are going as they should, life shows her sense of humor and throws one thing after another at the unsuspecting. My husband passed away unexpectedly 12 years ago. I completely fell apart, but I knew I had people in my corner who would watch my back and walk me through this unbelievably brutal time in my life. When I turned around, nobody was there. I truly thought they loved and cared about me. My friends. They didn't or they would have been there, as I was for them countless times. I never expected anything in return from them but I didn't expect to be abandoned either. These aren't the people I knew. Are they? Well as it turned out, they aren't the people I knew them to be. A lot of things weren't. People only show us what they want us to see of them and we only see what we choose to see. That applies to pretty much everything in life. I tell you this story because that was my moment of clarity. That moment of clarity can be set off by any number of events, big or small. It's the realization that in reality, your life wasn't the same as you perceived it to be. One thing becomes crystal clear and then another and another. And It can be really tough, even overwhelming to suddenly see things as they really are. It seems a crisis or tragedy can snap you back to reality really quick and you best be holding on tight because that ride, with perfect vision, is going to be a really rough one. And it remains painful because you have become disillusioned. And that's a very difficult state, if not an impossible one, in which to live in for any length of time. I hope this makes sense to you. Just know there are people out there who really do understand how you feel. We may all have taken a different path to get there but we arrived at the same spot you found yourself in. I hope you are feeling better and I wish you the best .
Oh, I don't like that George Carlin joke either.
Although I'm probably much younger than you, I've been in the same situation at a job I really hated at point in my life where I was at a dead end and I felt very alone and disconnected from my friends and family. Your interpretation is awesome, and I totally agree that it is about hope for a better future. It brought up good memories when I would go back and forth with one of my co-workers about music, life, grief, and happiness. I would go to him with truths and feelings I wouldn't even dream of talking about with...
Although I'm probably much younger than you, I've been in the same situation at a job I really hated at point in my life where I was at a dead end and I felt very alone and disconnected from my friends and family. Your interpretation is awesome, and I totally agree that it is about hope for a better future. It brought up good memories when I would go back and forth with one of my co-workers about music, life, grief, and happiness. I would go to him with truths and feelings I wouldn't even dream of talking about with people I knew for far longer. There were a few days where we would talk about no matter how bad it may seem, we lived in the land of opportunity as free souls, and those were very uplifting moments.
It's pretty evident that this song is far too vague to be only about drugs. This song is about the difficult path to pulling yourself out of an emotional rut and the cycle of ups and downs that you encounter along the way.
"Everyday it's something hits me all so cold Find me sittin' by myself, no excuses, then I know"
There's no excuse to get depressed and isolate yourself over trivial things that can bring you down on a daily basis because we easily trick ourselves to deny that life is an incredibly beautiful thing. Pick up the pieces because it's not as bad as you think.
I came here to post about lyrics, but couldn't stop reading you post! We all have our, "I don't know what word to put here," but we have GOT to carry on and never give up. Life is such a precious gift. I know this because I have cancer. Brain cancer. I was diagnosed near the end of '99 and had surgery in early 2000. Six weeks of radiation was soon to follow upon my recovery from surgery. I was sitting on top of the world. I had a GOOD paying job...
I came here to post about lyrics, but couldn't stop reading you post! We all have our, "I don't know what word to put here," but we have GOT to carry on and never give up. Life is such a precious gift. I know this because I have cancer. Brain cancer. I was diagnosed near the end of '99 and had surgery in early 2000. Six weeks of radiation was soon to follow upon my recovery from surgery. I was sitting on top of the world. I had a GOOD paying job and was looking to continue the beautiful gift that life had offered me. But then in 2004 I began having bouts of double vision. I relied heavily on state assistance since I was no longer able to continue with my profession. My life shattered man. I'm not an angry man, but was pretty upset. Married, (happily? I don’t know.) But in '04, and after getting disability, I endured another procedure at University of Chicago. It was a biopsy in my cerebellum. This tumor is inoperable and I know the quality of my life is cut short. Anyhow, while doing another six weeks of radiation after the biopsy I was told that radiation can do just as much harm to another part of the body, in my head of course! That got me thinking that the radiation previously caused my current condition. But there is nothing that I can do about it. I’ve pretty much had nothing else to do in my spare time but think about the events in my life. That’s why I think life is the most precious gift. It isn’t because my quality of life is less, but what life has taught me. I am writing a journal by the way. This will be included!! Thanks for your post. Another smoke beak… I gotta hand it to Alice in Chains. Their music, especially with Mike Starr, is what’s really listening to. Their music has meaning. The hook to this song is at 2:26. To me, anyway it is. It is so beautifully written and performed! From the drum solos to the sound of the bass and the vocals! That’s all I have for now!!
@kc0tma I felt compelled to reply to this, just to make you aware that there are more people than you know who feel this way about life. Take the Myers Briggs personality test, you're almost certainly an INFP - Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perception. That's what I am too, and I've taken great comfort knowing how many out there see the world in this way. I've only just discovered this in the last couple of days but I feel like it could be a breakthrough in my understanding of myself and how I can progress in life. Hope you're doing better...
@kc0tma I felt compelled to reply to this, just to make you aware that there are more people than you know who feel this way about life. Take the Myers Briggs personality test, you're almost certainly an INFP - Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perception. That's what I am too, and I've taken great comfort knowing how many out there see the world in this way. I've only just discovered this in the last couple of days but I feel like it could be a breakthrough in my understanding of myself and how I can progress in life. Hope you're doing better since this post was made, and the best of luck to you.
@kc0tma I actually didn't realize this post was your personal life experience relating to this. I actually read it as you giving us more detail to translate what each line in the song is actually saying. If so, great work. Makes the song make so much more sense now. If not, sorry that you're having such a tough time in life.
@kc0tma I actually didn't realize this post was your personal life experience relating to this. I actually read it as you giving us more detail to translate what each line in the song is actually saying. If so, great work. Makes the song make so much more sense now. If not, sorry that you're having such a tough time in life.
@kc0tma @distarr60 @tcbaklash I felt the need to write something after reading all these comments.
@kc0tma @distarr60 @tcbaklash I felt the need to write something after reading all these comments.
I heard this song more than you think and just today I came here to brainstorm with myself about the meaning of the lyrics.
I heard this song more than you think and just today I came here to brainstorm with myself about the meaning of the lyrics.
I feel exactly the same, eventhough I'm 23 (and from Brazil, hello world), I can assure you that I feel the same way.
I feel exactly the same, eventhough I'm 23 (and from Brazil, hello world), I can assure you that I feel the same way.
I'm gonna take this quote with me for my life, because I relate to this so much and made me think and learn about myself (crazy shit, really, a comment in a website...): "Sensitive" people (something I consider a good quality, while the general public consider it a weakness). I take that to mean that we have easy access to our feelings. We wear our hearts on our sleeves. Sensitive people who live in the world of reality"
I don't even know if I'll return to this post or if you guys are going to see this, but thank you.
@kc0tma I don't care how old this comment is, you're just trying to leech your 15 minutes by pretending you don't know any history of the band. get a life and a get s grip. no one buys your "personal" take. fucking scumbag.
@kc0tma I don't care how old this comment is, you're just trying to leech your 15 minutes by pretending you don't know any history of the band. get a life and a get s grip. no one buys your "personal" take. fucking scumbag.