A Perfect Circle: The Outsider Meaning
Song Released: 2004
The Outsider Lyrics
It's just that this is not the way I'm wired.
So could you please help me understand why you've given in to all these
reckless dark desires?
You're lying to yourself again, suicidal imbecile.
Think about it.
You’re...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Well, you're pretty much right.
maynard said in a acoustic session explaining this song and he said...."I had a friend who had some chemical problems. I ended up meeting his brother and his brother was so out of touch with what he was going through....so this song is kinda sung through the perspective of the brother who doesn't understand what his loved one is going through and in a way has no compassion for what he is going through...this song is called the outsider because that brother is standing on the outside of a understanding and doesn't get it. This song is from the perspective of someone who is ignorant and doesn't have the time or patience to understand what their loved one is going through." -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I think this song is in the perspective of someone who is talking about someone they know who wants to kill themself and he belives its all an act. That they're doing it for the attention and the reaction they'll get when people hear he wants to kill himself.
"drama queen, craving fame and all it's decadence"
supports the fact that this person belives he's doing it for attention and that he's a drama queen.
think about it.. put it on a fault line"
also says that he thinks about killing himself.. Then he just doesn't, he puts it on a fault line. If he really wanted to kill himself he would get it over with already. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Whatever Maynard's true intentions, this song seems to reflect and ridicule the type of behavior associated with Histrionic Personality Disorder. In summary, an attention seeker with emotions that appear shallow and transient as well as a whole lot of other symptoms that fit lines of the song. It seems as though Maynard is in the position of someone frustrated by the disorder, whether this was his intention or not is another matter.
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I thought it was about a narcissist female partner/girlfriend. As someone who is dealing with a narcissists true self , using suicide to make him feel guilty lying behind the mask they wear, and 1 bullet at a time meaning every manipulating put down towards the victim over and over to narcissistic drama queen, picture perfect cause they always think their perfect. Lying through their teeth again as they always do
IDK I thought that before looking up the real interpretation -
The song is obviously about someone who needs to drop a doo-doo, bad, and someone is in the bathroom, and it's a single-holer. The person banging on the door, the outsider, is desperate because he just bought fancy new pants "fame and all its decadence," and, whether he's sitting down on the water hole or pleading to get inside, that brown baker is coming to town with all its hot, moist fury. The person in the bathroom is telling the outsider that he just needs another minute or two, but the outsider knows that he's lying "Lying through your teeth again," and he's begging to get in and be able to drop those bombs into the ocean, but the earth is about to quake and expose that molten hot brown lava, the "fault line." He's about to poo and he's got to run across the street to another bathroom before the bum-gun goes off in his pants "If you choose to pull the trigger... do it somewhere far away from here."
Great song about painting the bowl brown. -
I can tell you from the perspective of someone who was a hopeless addict for 7 years until I had many physiological indications that my heart and kidneys might fail soon, at which point, despite the depression and need to escape and lack of care to live my life which drove me to do hard drugs in the first place, I said to myself "I don't want to die" and "I won't die like this." I said to myself "no more" and I haven't looked back for almost 7 years now. Addiction really is like killing yourself one bullet at a time. Personally I felt like I was killing myself slowly, and I was extremely sad about it while I was addicted, but I just couldn't stop myself. I knew I had a problem but hard drugs have a way of essentially enslaving you and I was unable to afford a rehab, despite desperately wanting to get help. Addiction is an incredibly difficult thing to pull yourself out of without help, but some people have no ability to empathize with that. And it is a sad thing but society looks at addiction from an outsider's perspective with no understanding that it is incredibly hard to overcome, even when you know you have a problem and greatly regret getting yourself into that extremely deep, dark hole. At the same time after trying to emphasize with how the people closest to me must have felt, it was probably along the lines of the lyrics in "the Outsider."
On a side note:It is sad because if people would try to understand that addicts typically aren't morons who have no care for themselves or the people around them, they are people who have a disorder, then maybe we could focus more attention on, and put more funding toward, helping people afford decent rehab facilities (which most addicts can't) than funding to throw people in jail who need help. Also addicts typically don't get addicted knowingly. It usually starts as getting high on the weekends, then you think why not do some on this fine Tuesday and in a few weeks you realize that you feel terrible when you aren't on it. Addiction tends to creep up on you. Before you have any clue that you are developing an addiction, it is already too late. And don't get me wrong, those closest to addicts truly suffer, too. A few months after quitting, I was able to look at my addiction and the bigger picture and how much I hurt my family and my high school sweetheart who broke down as he broke up with me because there was nothing else he could do (after years of trying to get me to stop).
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FACT: The song, written in third person. That third person is Layne Staley‘s brother. The song is written from his perspective in dealing with Layne’s drug addiction.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think the title may hold some clues. the outsider. is a famous book by albert camus and is about existentialism which is a philosophical movement. about thinking differently its like a separate genre of philosophy. and i think bands like a perfect circle mimic this way of interpreting reality in their songs incredibly un main stream.
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One interpretation of this song is of someone who is feeling suicidal. 'Help me if you can adjust to this, this is not the way I'm wired.' Suicidal thoughts generally come from feelings of anxiety or depression, and depression and anxiety (along with other mental illnesses) are deeply ingrained habits of thinking that are very hard to break. It is not something you can snap out of instantly; it takes time. Anyway, their habit of thinking is the way they're 'wired' and they want to adjust to a better way of seeing the world (one without depression or anxiety) but they need help from someone else, someone who will hopefully understand them. 'Help me understand why
You've given in to all these
Reckless dark desires.' The person helping them out (maybe a close friend) can't comprehend why they're thinking this way and why they could possibly want to take their own life. They also want to know why they're giving into these 'dark desires' or their habits of thinking rather than addressing them and standing up to them.
'What'll it take to get it through to you precious?' This is a powerful line, especially the use of the word 'precious' because it evokes a sense that the person who is suicidal is fragile and therefore lacking strenght, when strength is something that will help them overcome what they're going through.
'They were right about you
They were right about you'
'Disconnect and self destruct, one bullet at a time
What's your hurry, everyone will have his day to die
If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere,
Do it somewhere far away from here'
These last two lines show how this suicidal person is imagining the way that everyone else views them; they assume that everyone else is thinking they're pathetic, weak and above all irritating when in reality they have no evidence to base this on, except for their own perspective of themselves, which they feel everyone else shares. They believe that others see the suicidal person as nothing more than a vexation and would like them to be gone, so long as they don't leave a bloody mess everywhere. Again this perspective that the suicidal person has isn't based on any evidence but the way they view themselves.
'If you choose to pull the trigger, should your drama prove sincere.' One of the many really sad things about suicide is that some people use it as a cry for help, because if they're just living their life being depressed some people might just think they're simply being 'whiney'or 'ungreatful' so the suicidal persons feels they must kill themselves to prove that what they're going through is something that is really deeply affecting them. Unfortunetly, if they do kill themselves and everyone realises that they weren't just ungreatful and whiney but had a serious issue, it is obviously too late for anyone to take action and solve the problem. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
The title of the song "The Outsider" in this perspective of the song can be interpreted as the way that suicidal person feels about themself. They feel disconnected and isolated from everybody else, or even just different.
Anyway, I hope that wasn't too much reading. I love A Perfect Cirlce and Maynard is a genius with his lyrics :D
Oh, and if you ever feel like ending your life then remember to seek help immediatly and talk to someone you trust or a doctor. -
This song hits home, especially as of late. I am someone that can party & have a good time but I know when to put it away because I have a 40hr a week job & a life I'd like to live. But I found out my bf was doing perc's behind my back, something he has already had an addiction with & promised he was done with them. Well guess not. So I personally don't understand why he can't just put the drugs down, I do not have the addictive personality so I don't understand it. He is slowly killing himself (pulling the trigger) everytime he puts it into his system. And I certainly don't want him doing it around me & I do not want to be there when he goes down. So do it somewhere far away from here!
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Regardless of what Maynard's meaning or intention is behind this song, I think he left it open for people to take out of it their own personal meaning.
For me, these lyrics sum up perfectly what it is like for someone to try to live with someone who suffers from mental illness with suicidal overtones a constant threat. In my case, it was a girl I briefly dated who suffered from borderline personality disorder who was also was a cutter. She ended up moving in with me not long after we started dating due to her being evicted from her own place, broke up with me a week after she moved in, but didn't move out until 8 months later. And the entire time I had to deal with constant threats of suicide, cutting, and other forms of manipulation any time any disagreement or argument would occur, whilst I was the sole person paying the rent and bills.
So this song's lyrics speak highly to me, and anyone who wishes to say that we should be more understanding to people like that, who are wired differently to ourselves, I say until you have been in the position of dealing with people like that, you don't know what you are talking about. -
It is about anger. Can't you tell?
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Its about someone who commits suicide. Hen he says "hats your rush everyone has his day to die" hes sayoing he thinks its stupid there killing there self. Why do it if where all doomed to die anyway. When he says " do it far away from here" hes saying he doesnt want to be apart of it, he doesnt belive it and if you do kill your slef he doesnt give a shit.
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I personally think it's about somebody who is being an attention seeker and seeks fame and attention so puts on an act so i think he basically is saying put it on a fault line, stfu.
But It's easier ,to say "Someone with a self destructive behavior and the narrator just doesn't get why they want to be that way. end of story." -
this song or any of MJK creation has meaning n its stupid to talk around and find the actual thing caz all the songs some how does relate to each n every person..... talking abt this album 13th step its said to be on drugs bt if u look clearer it has lyrics that relates to greed , selfishness n so on....
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I think that his "friend" is actually himself.. The brother is all the douches in this world.
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I've got to throw in my two cents. You're all twats. This song is about America. Think about it.
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