10 Years: Wasteland Meaning
Wasteland Lyrics
Crouched over
You were not there
Living in fear
But signs were not really that scarce
Obvious tears
And I will not
Hide you through this
I want you to help
Please see
The bleeding heart perched on...
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I think these lyrics and the music video show how people are able to live through something terrible and then learning to live through it and adapt...
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its about body piercing and tatoos , the writer is focused on youth and thier obsession. wasteland is what the body becomes. he writes from a parents point of view. he can not attack the trade of the business directly. he cries out with love to a ingnorant kid. one day you will know, self inflicted his perdition
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I look out side the box when I liston to this song. I love it. I cant look at it in an addiction point of view...but I can look at it in other points that I can not say. But I can say this that it reminds me of a time were brutal war was at large. And thats what I like about it. No im not any kind of army person. But serivel is what it consist of. liston to the lyrics more clearly and you will see what I mean. In other words death. I wish to meet Jesse and find out his real point of veiw on the songs he wrote. and the true meaning he has to offer...It might be different then what he tells us. But also I like the comment above me too. it could be the past or it could be the future we shall never know.
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I love looking at 10 Years songs poetically rather than for meaning. They produce some of the most genuinely poetic songs in terms of structure than almost any other band I've listened to. A lot of their wordplay is subtle and they use my favorite poetic device frequently: assonance. They also use slant rhymes and some of their songs, especially earlier ones, seem like they were consciously written in meter.
Wasteland has a lot of good poetry in it, although it isn't there best from my formalist standpoint. Like "The bleeding heart perched on my shirt" and "ignore remorse" are amazing uses of alliteration. Most people say some snakes slither sideways, but it takes real talent to put alliteration in the middle of words. They use assonance, too, which is also another subtle form of wordplay: "this time you tried" is an example.
The best part is "heave the silver hollow sliver...eventually you'll one day know." Silver hollow sliver alone is a two-level alliteration. Which is just a "wow" to me. Silver Sliver--layer one. SiLver HoLLow SLiver--layer two. It also uses slant rhyme--turn and tremble, be judgmental. That couples with assonance-be judgementAL ignorant to All the symbOLs. And the best meter is there:
HEAVE the SIL-ver HOL-low SLI-ver
PASS-ing through AN-oth-ER victm
TURN and TREM-ble BE judge-MENTAL
IGNOR-ant to ALL the SYM-bols
BLIND a FACE with BEAU-ty PASTE
EVEN-tually you'll ONE day KNOW
That is iambic tetrameter, if I'm not mistaken. Not pentameter, because there isn't the whole five-syllable thing, but there are four.
And you thought you only heard iambic tetrameter in college literature class.
Let me tell you, I don't hear any iambic tetrameter in my 3000-level literature class.
If I sound pretentious, I'm sorry. I am a literature glutton and when I find classic elements in songs I get really excited. Like, this-is-why-I'm-an-English-major excited.
I think it is about heroin. I never watched the music video, so I don't have that bias, but it refers to "silver hollow sliver" which is code for heroin needle. It's like me listening to "Losing" by Hurt and not realizing it was about heroin until I looked up lyrics and saw "silver spoon oblivion." In rock music, silver=typically symbolic of heroin paraphernalia while gold=typically symbolic of heroin itself. -
My Interpretation to this song is about religion all religion teaches about love and respect and yet there is still a war and Catholic being so judgmental when they see a Muslim they see them as a terrorist,They see a Jew they them as a greedy bastard,
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This song talks about Brad Referno, the Lead singer's cousin, who died due to his drug addiction. It talks about reaching out for help, from someone who knows they have more potential, but are confused. Reaching out to someone, anyone, who will listen and not walk away, but most likely failed...
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(( THIS IS AN ORIGINAL MESSAGE FROM BRIAN THE DRUMMER OF 10 YEARS. HOPE THIS CLEARS EVERYTHING UP. EVEN THOUGH THIS IS THE MEANING. MAKE THE SONG MEAN WHAT YOU WANT IT TO MEAN))
hey there. Wasteland actually was originally written about drug use but we didn't want to create a video based on that when we could make one that was more touching to social issues but still relate to overcoming something......
thanks so much for all the support
Brian -
Hey what about having a abortion????
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Oh my,
I really don't see why people have to be so rude about a song meaning. It's not like you wrote the song, and therefore you don't have the right in the first place to be mean about it.
The song has multiple meanings, obviously. It's an interchangable song, of many different meanings and emotions, and that may be one of the reasons this song is such an amazing song.
My proof comes with the fact that there are actually 3 different music videos for this song.
And it's okay if the song touches you in a different way. For me, it definitely made me more aware of people suffering under poverty, unfair persecutions, and addictions.
I say, we stop arguing about what a song means, OVER THE INTERNET, and we make a difference in the world. Like this truly inspirational band is trying so hard to do.
think I'm an idiot, or think I'm right?
sweet.
Either way, I'm alright with your decision.
I personally like this song so much, I'm making a flash animation for it. I might post it on my art website.
~Daniikinz
(Daniikinz.deviantart.com) -
He's trying to get a messed up kid on track, but the kid just won't listen to him, and lives a miserable existence. His teachers and his parents crown his life hopeless and say that he will never amount to anything. He is the only one who tries to get this kids life in order before he ends up ruining it.
One more note he says heave the silver hollow sliver. Heave means to thrust forward; silver obviously means a knife; and sliver means slash.
The kid eventually wants his own life as he can't suffer the burden of his own existence anymore. "self inflicted, his perdition" perdition meaning ruining,damnation, loss of ones soul. I think in this case wasteland means the kids life..it is a wasteland and he is neglected.
"should i, could i" - he's thinking to himself...and wondering if he could go through with suicide
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I talked to Jesse for a few hours in Flint Michigan after a show and he told me...."Wasteland and Focus (from Division) were about his cousin Brad Renfro" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Renfro) He died from drugs and it was the "hollywood scene" that sucked him in and killed him. Yes it was Brads fault to an extention but Jesse got to see what the movie/celebrity thing was all about and took him over like any addiction and beat him. But he also continued..."but I also know that many other struggle from addiction and I want people to connect and get their own interpretaions from The Autumn Effect. That's why Division process was differet. I was sick of people asking me what this song or that song was about so I made Divison with more simple lyrics. But people can still take what they want from the lyric."
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I think this song is about what the future would be like if we keep doing the things we do to destroy the world. (Drugs, violence, global warming etc.)
"Crouched, over
You were not there, living in fear..."
"Hide in cold sweat, quivering lips..."
"Naming a kid, living wasteland."
I think this means that our children's children would be living in a wasteland because of what we did before they were born. It may not seem so scary to us, but we were never living in fear like they will be. -
I laughed when I read the comment about it being based on war.
I myself, kicked drug addiction. It's definitely about heroin addiction. Any other heroin addict would agree if they read the lyrics.
"Die, withdraw, hide in cold sweats." Withdraw, you want to DIE. Cold sweats are one of many withdraw symptoms.
"Heave the silver hollow sliver piercing through another victim/Ignorant to all the symbols/Blind the face with beauty paste eventually you'll one day know."
First, obviously about injection and trying to hide the addiction, which always becomes apparent after so long, there's no hiding it (eventually you'll one day know.)
My .02 -
/ I guess that answers it. / To the person that said 10 years' name was derived from the lead singer's 10 year addiction to heroin, Jesse is not the original singer. The band was originally formed in 1999 with singer Mike Underdown.
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