Fences

Track 10 on RIOT!

Produced by

This song appears to explore the themes of public figures being followed by the media constantly. In some ways the most appropriate case would be Princess Diana who was… Read More

Jun. 12, 20071 viewer46.3K views

Português

Fences Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I'm sitting in a room
Made up of only big white walls
And in the hall
There are people looking through
The window in the door
They know exactly what we're here for
Don't look up, just let them think
There's no place else you'd rather be
You're always on display
For everyone to watch and learn from
Don't you know by now?

[Pre-Chorus]
You can't turn back
Because this road is all you'll ever have

[Chorus]
And it's obvious that you're dying, dying
Just living proof that the camera's lying
And oh, oh, open wide
'Cause this is your night so smile
'Cause you'll go out in style
You'll go out in style

[Verse 2]
If you let me, I could
I'd show you how to build your fences, set restrictions
Separate from the world
The constant battle that you hate to fight
Just blame the limelight
Don't look up, just let them think
There's no place else you'd rather be

[Pre-Chorus]
And now you can't turn back
Because this road is all you'll ever have

[Chorus]
And it's obvious that you're dying, dying
Just living proof that the camera's lying
And oh, oh, open wide
'Cause this is your night so smile

[Bridge]
Yeah, yeah, you're asking for it
With every breath that you breathe in
Just breathe it in
Yeah, yeah, well, you're just a mess
You do all this big talking
So now let's see you walk it
I said let's see you walk it
Yeah, yeah, well, you're just a mess
You do all this big talking
So now let's see you walk it
I said let's see you walk it

[Chorus]
And it's obvious that you're dying, dying
Just living proof that the camera's lying
And oh, oh, open wide
Yeah, oh, oh, open wide
Yeah, oh, oh, open wide
'Cause you'll go out in style
You'll go out in style

About

This song appears to explore the themes of public figures being followed by the media constantly.

In some ways the most appropriate case would be Princess Diana who was constantly followed by paparazzi (and indeed they indirectly led to her accident). Once divorced from Prince Charles, she faced a constant battle to stop media presence from following her. Even following her fatal crash, paparazzi swarmed around the incident and she was reported to say “leave me alone” as the photographers were removed from the scene.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Translations:

Portuguese Translation

When was this song written?

Hayley told Elle:

I wrote the lyrics to our song “Fences”, from RIOT!, across my SAT test paper.

What did Paramore say about "Fences"?

Paramore said in an interview with MOD

Fences! Well, actually, that song is kinda about the first year and a half of being on the road. It’s, uh, about the end of the first year and a half, and how I felt like, uh, especially for me personally, I was kind of pretending to be totally okay and wasn’t… wasn’t letting, um, y’know, I didn’t want my flaws to show, if I was unhappy about something I didn’t want them to know because I wanted everyone to think that I was ‘perfect’ all the time, I was fine. And um, I don’t know, this song is me talking to myself saying, like, get over it and it’s kind of, “it’s obvious that you’re dying, you’re dying”, you know… it’s… you know.

(Audience sees she’s getting a little flustered and starts applauding)