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Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what you know you should want Death Cab for Cutie – Lightness
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Instincts are misleading and many rely on their instincts to guide them, especially in aspects of how they are feeling. “Going with their gut” so to speak.

But in this case logic comes in and tells the person the singer is singing to, “Hey, you shouldn’t feel the way you’re feeling right now, your instincts are guiding you down the wrong path and they’re not telling you what you know you should want, versus what you’re going after.”

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1bda533d4f465b96f2c9a0b92e11ce78

15,624

8 years

Those same instincts that won’t reveal to you what it is that you really want also mislead you: they mix your heart and brain. Once again the theme of “heart vs. brain” is showing up.

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Default_avatar_100

667

9 years

Years later, Gib will pick up this thread in ‘I will possess your heart’, where he sings about stalking someone. Stalking and being in love share a fair amount of details.

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Sometimes I think this cycle never ends
We slide from top to bottom, then we turn and climb again Death Cab for Cutie – Expo '86
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The lines draw parallels to Helter Skelter by The Beatles:

When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and turn
And go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again

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I dug, seeking treasure
Just to wake up in an early grave Rise Against – This Is Letting Go
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“Chased the good life my whole life long. Looked back on my life, now my life’s gone.”

Chasing one thing and having your mind on one task can make you forget about how quickly life goes by. Here, digging for treasure ended up causing him to dig his own grave, ultimately waking up in it, finding his life had passed him by, to him it was early because he didn’t realize how fast time goes.

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Don't you remember when you were young?
And you wanted to set the whole world on fire Rise Against – Architects
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Strangely reminiscent of the hook to Against Me!’s “I Was A Teenage Anarchist”

Everybody wants to act crazy when they’re young, “setting the world on fire” seems to be the “paint the town” of this generation. “Setting the world on fire” also brings to mind the revolution they are advocating.

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Michael
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8 years

Used as a diss of the lyrics of ‘I Was A Teenage Anarchist’ by Against Me!

Laura Jane Grace responded and shut down Tim’s interpretation in an interview with the following statement:

“I think that the song was misinterpreted by both Tim and a lot of people. You know? For me the song, i’m not asking myself the question ‘Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?’ I’m asking the listener that question. I’m not saying i’ve forgotten that feeling in anyway. I dunno i guess i don’t understand Rise Against’s politics or the statement ‘the revolution was a lie’ seems to for a lot of people, put them up in arms. I feel like asking the question ‘Well how the fuck wasn’t it? Where’s the revolution man? What’s Rise Against’s Revolution? Is their revolution a bunch of people are gonna start coming out to their shows and make them really rich and a really big band? Because that’s been done a million fucking times before. Is their revolution that they’re gonna be poster boys for PETA, while wearing Nike shoes? ‘Cause i don’t fucking buy into it man, I think PETA’s full of shit. I think a lot of their politics are kinda opportunistic and self serving personally and at the same time that’s just my opinion and whatever.”

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402f982c45c1335b41012bd7b096eac5

131,224

8 years

Of course, if you read the Genius page on I Was a Teenage Anarchist, you’d realize that Tim (and nearly everyone else at the time) was misinterpreting those words.

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JJJ
10 years

This whole song is a response to Against Me!’s “Teenage Anarchist”. In this line he is calling out Gabel for selling out, growing up, and giving up on his dreams. Gabel is the hero who is now following rules he once disobeyed.

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Before the gleam of your taillights fading east
To find yourself a better life Death Cab for Cutie – Title and Registration
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The overall narrative of this record concerns the disintegration of a relationship between songwriter Ben Gibbard and a girlfriend who moved east to Washington, D.C from Seattle, the hometown of Death Cab for Cutie.

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19730a0df87bfb447361d357e6ce0a79

1,217

8 years

I would like to add that in Transatlanticism, his love crosses the Atlantic which is in the eastward direction from Washington.

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in a still suburban town
When every Thursday I'd brave those mountain passes
And you'd skip your early classes, and we'd learn how our bodies worked Death Cab for Cutie – We Looked Like Giants
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Ben Gibbard’s hometown is Bremerton, Washington which lies east of the Olympic mountains which are directly across from Seattle. He braved these mountains every Thursday to get some action! The things some guys will do for pussy…

I mean just look at these mountains…

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1 month

in the demo version “in a still suburban town” was replaced by “in 1994”, when Gibbard was ~18

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6 months

Bremerton is on the East side of the Olympic peninsula and requires no travel through any mountain passes to reach Seattle or any other nearby population center. The Olympics rise to the West of Bremerton.

As pointed out by another commenter, the mountain passes referenced here, to the extent they are not simply a lyrical device, would be through the Cascades, which separate the coastal region from the rest of the state and run into Canada.

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1 year

The imagery of the narrator moving through the mountain passes thematically capitalizes on the idea of them feeling small amongst these huge ridges of earth: they travel through isolated and massive landscape just to attempt a reenactment of the lands natural majesty in the confined structure of a traveling vehicle.

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Marked this as restating the line?
1 year

This is an absolutely foul take by some fuck fool. Delete everything after and including “he braved.”

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Marked this as missing something?
3 years

Can you write this more appropriate way

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Skyler
Marked this as a stretch?
6 years

Ben Gibbard was originally from Bremerton, so I’m not knocking your theory, but I’m also from Washington and I know that Ben Gibbard moved to Bellingham when he was in his early twenties, and I believe that he could very likely be speaking of his time at Western Washington University with this love interest and the aforementioned mountains are the Northern Cascades as opposed to the Olympics.

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Born into Nixon, I was raised in Hell Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
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Billie Joe was born in the era of the Nixon Administration (in 1972, to be precise). This was the time of the Vietnam War, the draft, and scandals like Watergate.

But wait, you were born into the golden age of music!

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Whose fortunate son? Rise Against – Disparity by Design
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We’re looking at you Billy Madison and Van Wilder

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De18ac6304d98328e67361c4d3c9d4c3

4,517

5 years

That’s just movies, examples should be taken from real life. Add pics on top of that.
Sounds very much like reference to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s song, as it speaks of unfair advantage of being born rich and influential.

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Dd2b652c979baa11212d2588c5dbd00a

106

6 years

I always understood it to mean that someone was lucky to have them as a son, and that the son was fortunate to have the parent. But when it comes down to reality (an example I gave in the last annotation) that yes the son is fortuate to have a father and money but if that comes at the cost of their parent being deployed or gone alot then it falls on the child to be okay even if he’s not. “Prehaps the man in the gutter is not so different from you,” People going through tough times or stuck in the gutter have to be okay when they are not like this child.

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Nick
8 years

This is possibly a reference to the Creedence Clearwater Song ‘Fortunate Son’, which is a classic anti-war song with a general ‘one size does not fit all’ message. It matches the tone of this song, so I’m inclined to believe it is in fact a reference.

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Whose daughter are you? Rise Against – Disparity by Design
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We’re looking at you, Paris and Kim

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Dd2b652c979baa11212d2588c5dbd00a

106

6 years

Actually what it means is that when parents have a hard time like say getting deployed in the military, their daughters and sons support them. Hence who’s fortanate son?

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[Intro] Rise Against – Survivor Guilt
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An excerpt from the film Catch 22

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