AFI: Miss Murder Meaning
Song Released: 2006
Miss Murder Lyrics
Hey Miss Murder can I?
Make beauty stay if I,
Take my life?
Whoa-oh-ohh
With just a look they shook
And heavens bowed before him.
Simply a look can break your heart.
The stars that pierce the sky;
He left them...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:The lucifer angle - imho - is dead on.
Take mitlon's 'paradise lost' and lay it over the lyrics and you get a nearly line-by-line fit. This may be a completely unintentional product of the band's intent, but it appears undeniable. Note that I will refer to lucifer as satan, as the former is a misnomer: satan (translated from hebrew, the personification of adversity) only carries a personal name in islam - "iblis." the name lucifer is derived from judaic/old testament prophetic scriptures referring to king darius of persia, under whom the original tribes of israel suffered. New testament writers and later christian theologians inferred lucifer into satan to provide a literal counterpoint to jesus, presented as the personification of good.
"hey miss murder can i... Make beauty stay if i/take my life?"
the chorus seems to address eve, traditionally considered the murderess of mankind, or more specifically, of mankind's natural communion with divinity. In genesis lore, eve is the only human to interface with satan and thus is simultaneously the fountainhead of all creation and the personification of mortality and mortal hubris. Satan tempted eve with the promise of eternal beauty and ultimate wisdom. The chorus may be asking eve if that promise proved valid after all.
"with just a look they shook
and heavens bowed before him.
Simply a look can break your heart.
The stars that pierce the sky;
he left them all behind.
We’re left to wonder why
he left us all behind."
this appears to be the clearest inference to satan offered by "miss murder." the angels and archangels are often referred to - in apocryphal texts as well as in pl - as stars or as the regents of the stars. Per milton, satan begins as a prince of heaven, and thus all the 'stars' would in fact bow before him; the book of jubilees (apocrypha) indicate that angels of lesser rank do prostrate themselves before their superior angels as well as before god.
"dreams of his crash won’t pass
or how they all adored him.
Beauty will last when spiraled down."
after the war in heaven detailed by milton, the warrior-angels loyal to the archangel michael and to god, though they'd won, did mourn the loss of their brother and prince. After his fall, satan is popularly acknowledged to be the only angel of those fallen to retain his beauty. Milton disagrees on this point.
"the stars that mystify
he left them all behind.
And how his children cry
he left us all behind."
satan has always had metaphoric or allegoric children. Prior to his fall, his children were the angels beneath him... Those who were entrusted by god to his care; and after his fall satan's children, per milton, are sin and death.
"what's the hook, the twist
within this verbose mystery?
I would gladly bet my life upon it.
That the ghost you love, your ray of light
will fizzle out without hope."
the speaker here may be now addressing satan, challenging the unlimate wisdom of the devil's choice. The first two lines seem to be asking, after all the words written about the fall, what was the point? Will satan's gambit ever pay off? If this is the case, the last three lines answer the first two: the speaker would "bet his life" that satan is doomed to failure... That his light and spirit will slowly die away, "without hope" of redemption.
"we're the empty set just floating through, wrapped in skin,
ever searching for what we were promised.
Reaching for the golden ring we never let go,
who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it."
now the speaker may be addressing his (our) own mortality, and our literal unworthiness to reattain what we'd lost in eden for the efforts of satan and the ingenuousness of eve.
Again, this is all probably not what davey havok and afi intended. Nonetheless, it appears to fit well enough to acknowledge it as - at least - a valid literary interpretation.
In lesser hands, these lyrics would probably be gibberish, or at least easily interpretable. But by the body of their work afi prove themselves to be literate and skilled artists. Such a lyric reaction to milton and genesis lore is well within their grasp.
-uziel twentyone
www.Gk-sanctuary.Com -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I think when he says it he's really talking about selling himself for beauty. It's like you have to choose between 2 lives. You can have your family, friends, things of that nature, or you can live the life of a star. Can I stay a star if I sacrafice my life for it? "...make this beauty stay if I take my life?" Everyone was left to wonder why this person made the decision to sacrafice his life for beauty. He sings about how fame is only temporary, that his ray of light will fizzle out, and that people are just all searching for what we were promised. Everyone is told that they can have things that they really can never have and people are lost in life, trying to acquire things that will never really exist for them. The golden ring symbolizing what we're all trying to accomplish, but in reality why do we deserve it over anyone else? we're no one.
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:First off a little insight in the bible Lucifer before he fell was called "The Bringer of Light", he was also the most beautiful angel. Now miss murder may or may not be the grim reaper that I am unsure about but the rest is pretty clear.
"can I make beauty stay if I take my life" - can I make Lucifer stay if I give you my soul.
"With just a look they shook And heavens bowed before him Simply a look can break your heart." - He was so beautiful he would break your heart with just one look.
"The stars that pierce the sky; He left them all behind. We’re left to wonder why He left us all behind" - This is His fall from grace ... and they all were left to wonder why he choose to rebel.
"Dreams of his crash won’t pass Or how they all adored him. Beauty will last when spiraled down" - Up in heaven they adored Lucifer and they can't forget his about his fall/crash. Even though he has fallen he is still beautiful.
"That the ghost you love, your ray of light Will fizzle out without hope." - ray of light --- reference to Lucifer --- also without hope he loses his angelic halo...?
"Ever searching for what we were promised. Reaching for the golden ring we never let go, Who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it." He is searching for redemption like God promised mankind but angels can't be redeemed. The golden ring refers to the halo even though they (the fallen ones) reach for it they (heavens army) will never let them enter again. -
I am a long time afi fan and I know Dave never goes into specifics for the meaning of his songs. He wouldn't write a song that was that straight forward and literal where it's something like hitler or cobain. That would just be mundane. He prefers ambiguous and open ended statements that could be left up to interpretation. He wants for the song to mean whatever the listener wants it to mean. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
My interpretation of miss murder and Decemberunderground as a whole would be that all of the glory of the world fades and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. It's like trying to hold onto smoke. Fame, just like our mortal lives are temporary. You are beautiful now but beauty fades. Afi are on top of the world now (2006) but how long before we move on to the next new band and our ray of light Davey fizzles out. It's inevitable. Nothing gold can stay. -
This song is a story about a man falling in love with a woman and the man leaves his friends behind to go find out who she is. ( he left us all behind) but the woman he fell in love with denies his feelings towards her, breaking the mans heart via giving the woman he fell in love with but broke his heart the nick name miss murder. This song isn't about Satan, pay more attention and you'll notice right away.
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Not sure if this is mentioned or care about anymore, but you can interpret it from whatever angle you are in, but this is a song about selling his soul to satan. "Miss Murder" or he is referrering to other stars and celebrities that did it this way to gain fame ,fortune, lust which is representative of the rabbits or he could be speaking through his disires and sins. Maybe he was offered a renewal of his contract with the crossroad demon or satan to stay alive and not killed. They do this in their songs like send messages to the world and everybody, also they even speak in tongue, spells, etc.
This is conspiracy stuff and I have no proof, but people claims that they sell their souls for rock n roll to gain money and fame.
Who knows maybe Davey did this and is futhering the satan agenda through his own style.
Speculating, we can't assume everybody or the charming one is the good guy. Food for thought.
I was an avid idolizer of davey, and loved him too, but sometimes you can't be to sure about anything when random people really sell their souls through sacrifices and blood sacrifices to deities and gods. And we can't take everything one says as truth including davey. He says he's atheist, vegan, and all this stuff, but if he's talking about religious and sins in his music, it kinda contradicts his claims. So I don't know.
After ten years and I'm way younger then davey. I know he don't give two fucks about me or anybody that loves him.
His music projects and attracts anybody's soul resembling him.
This is how It works and gives people false hope and delusions of greater all the while you will never get a chance to befriend an meet the guy ever in your life. -
Wow all wrong....well I believe....its about witchcraft. And selling something(the ring) or something of value to a demon for beauty or purity. It mixes with the biblical view and everything.
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when i hear this song i think of Nazi Germany. and how Hitler was miss murder,and in his mind he was trying to make beauty stay alive. at the end of the war after his death, he left all of his followers behind. i understand that this more than likely isnt right, but i think that the golden ring was how he wanted the world to look. if the world was perfect, then it would be golden. my laptop is almost dead so i cant continue. if you would like to tell me im wrong i am willing to listen. email me at loganbre@hotmail.com
thanks! -
It's about memories after death. There's a girl he loves, but she died before her time. Now he plans on killing himself to meet her in death. When he says
"Hey Miss Murder can I...
Hey Miss Murder can I...
Make beauty stay if I
Take my life?"
He's asking if the memory of the woman he loved will be the same when he dies. He loved her, and doesn't want to forget her or who she was. In death, their memories of each other will be forever remembered. -
i believe that there are strong references from J.D. Salinger's book The Catcher in the Rye. the golden ring is a very important symbol at the end of the book, which is centered on the idea of reaching towards a goal and achieving success. throughout the book, the main character, Holden, is met with many obstacles and hardships and there is evidence to suggest that he may not feel as though he deserves to strive for his goals.
the song asks "Can I make beauty stay?" well, there are a lot of aesthetic refferences throughout the book. however, i think that the most important concept is when Holden sees the words "Fuck you" written and carved on the walls of various places, including his kid sister's school and a museumin the mummy exhibit (mummies were the preserved bodies. possibly another refference to making beauty stay or preserving it). because he sees these vulgar messages, Holden is upset that there is no place that is nice or peaceful because someone is always doing something to degrade it.
the second part of tht line "if I take my life?":
Holden considers suicide multiple times and almost attempts it once. in a visit with a former teacher of his, Mr. Antolini, Holden is told that he will probably die nobly for a cause that isn't necessarily worth dying for. there are many things throughout the book that Holden isn't satisfied with, particularly about people and the society, that he wishes he could change or escape from or even possibly try to make a statement about by making the ultimate sacrifice.
"Whats the hook, the twist within this verbose mystery?"
the definition of verbose, as supplied by a helpful commenter, is "explaining something using a lot of unnecessary words or too many words for something that can be shortened down"
perhaps this is a statement about how many people seem to think that The Catcher in the Rye has a little too many words in it to express the themes when there only needs to be a few crucial lines to express them.
i have not interpreted this line by line, but rather, by the strongest refferences i could come up with after reading The Catcher in the Rye. i know that there are other interpretations of this song and that some may be better than mine, but most of the time, we interpret something based on what it means to us. and this is what this song happens to mean to me. -
I think that the meaning of this song is in what all of your interpretations say or more immportantly that they are interpretations...what im saying is that the song means what you want it to i take the lyrics into account in mmy own way just as the next person does, for mme the song is about the life i had that i passed up for a different one and now i wounder if i give up this life can i still have the other one or is it to late...but thats just me
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I believe the song is definitely about jesus....Miss Murder is Lucifer/Satan and the verses are all about how he believes Jesus abandoned mankind and left us as "empty satchels wrapped in skin" and when our faith runs out we will all eventually follow satan "miss murder" like Eve Did in the beginning and bite the fruit that would have supposedly giving her eternal beauty....
the ray of light fizzling out = your faith in christ
reaching for golden rings or (halo)= getting into heaven
Miss murder must be satan because Lucifer is often portrayed as a woman since he was known for being the most beautiful angel -
I understand the website is about lyrical interpretation, but evidence is being left out of the interpretation. Anyone watch the music video and listen to the music?
Even from the very start, Mr. Havoc is sitting on a Victorian style chair I believe, reading a note. Judging by the expression on his face, it's not a good note. Seeing as how the note has the three rabbits...it could be a note saying someone is alive. I've spelled a lot out, let's see if anyone can figure this part out like I have. Right into "Miss Murder can i make beauty stay if i take my life". Just that alone states he wonders if the possibility of suicide will keep her at his side. A well known...thought process.
Judging the time possible time period of the chair as well as other surroundings, its safe to say the time setting is around the 14th to 15th century. This is proven to be a castle like setting later in the video.
"With just a look, they shook, and heavens bowed before him, simply a look can break your heart". Now we are looking at a setting from a third person point of view. A person is gazing upon a scene of a couple before a king and queen. "Heavens" denoted royalty at the time. They are going with the decision of their offspring. I have a hunch that a male is the narrator so to speak. While I have no proof other than Mr. Havoc being male, I believe that he's putting together a sort of family memory, a sibling bringing home a woman he wants to marry...someone whom he has strong feelings for. It's his heart being broken. Well at least the character he plays.
Now for the three rabbits. I've read some of the other explanations, but they don't feel right to me. The three identical rabbits are all chasing each other. I believe they symbolize the two males and one female. A point I'll visit down the explanation a bit.
About 1 minute into the official video, we see our singer standing up high above what I can only imagine being a courtyard; or what could be produced inside a studio.
"the stars that pierced the sky, he left them all behind, we're left to wonder why, he left us all behind". This phrase of the song has multiple meanings. This is proven by the change in labeling. It went from "them all" to "us all". This makes me believe, due to the courtyard scene. Also what helps this is the music playing at about 49 seconds in. Sounds like horses on the move, in perfect rhythm. If one has ever ridden a horse, you'll instantly recognize the sound. The stars are the people of the kingdom. That is personified by the extras in the courtyard of the video. The next phrase. It makes me think that the third person and the female of the couple are left behind with the people, all wondering why he left. In those days, if the size of the set is coincidence or not, makes me think a minor lord. The only reason to take off by horseback is territorial protection...possibly war.
"Dreams of his crash, won't pass, oh how they all adored him, beauty will last, when spiraled, down". If we follow what the evidence presents, the young prince (I suppose it fits for the moment) led the war or defense of territory. The prince couldn't see his loss. The people loved what he was doing. He was leaving it all behind to keep it safe. The beauty part could be deciphered a few different ways. One could be how the people seen him at the time. Princes were primped a bit to look a certain way. If they had good memory of him, it would last a while no matter the outcome of the conflict. It could also be interpreted as the princes memory of the one he wished to prove himself to, and his people he wished to protect.
"The stars that mystified, he left them all behind, and how his children cried, he left us all, behind". Another reference to stars, his people. It is made quite apparent that the prince and his bride had at least two children who were old enough to know what was happening. Yet another reference to "us" being left behind. Now it seems that Mr. Havoc is taking the view of the other man yet again. It seems he felt abandoned as well, even to the point of keeping the princes wife company and helping with the family. At this point, it would appear that Mr. Havoc is playing the part of the brother, helping the brother prince take care of his family while he is trying to take care of the territory and its people.
"What's the hook, the twist within this verbose mystery, i would gladly bet my life upon it. That the ghost you love, your ray of light will fizzle out without hope." The first sentence I believe is brought back to our time, mayhap as a message to someone special in his life at that current time. It would appear in the next set of lines that the "ghost" would be the prince, for he has not returned apparently. Her memory is all she has left of him, and she still has hope that is draining day by day that he will return...or will he? The point is here if there's no hope, she won't love the prince anymore. How many of us can say that without hope, who wants to go on trying? This leaves the scope of the lyrics however. I have more thoughts about this line specifically, just no proof anywhere in the video.
"We're the empty set just through and through wrapped in skin, ever searching for what we were promised. Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go. Who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it?" Ah, the climax of the song. The empty set, not satisfied with how things went (I have much insight about this, just no solid proof) means the prince and his bride. At this point it's somewhat cloudy if the prince ever made it back or if he really did perish on the battlefield. What was promised was life with each other. It almost suggests that these three, yes three, as signified by the three rabbits always chasing each other, are wondering who would get the girl in this eternal battle. It does suggest Mr. Havoc believes in reincarnation, as well as some of the memories from that persons past life. The lyrics are strongly suggestive of that, as well as the smug look upon his face in the video. "Reaching for that golden ring we'd never let go" has a dual meaning as well. Two things (of many) were made as a "golden ring" in that time. Although I didn't research before saying this *slaps wrist*, I believe that line means wedding rings in today and quite possibly the crown in that time. In that time, at some points, a golden crown was meant as a link between royal husband and wife. Another possibility is that it speaks of the golden ring of success. In that time frame, I believe it means the crown. In this time frame...I believe it means a success in marriage. This is also backed up by the final phrase, "who would ever let us put our filthy hands upon it". It seems to say that "filthy" really means "unroyal", or possibly father was royalty and mother was common and seen unfit for the crown. It could possibly mean the wife was not royalty and it wasn't wanted that a commoner was to rise to royalty.
There are a few phrases that I'm sure I don't have right, but if you look at the titles and lyrics as well as music from some of AFI's other songs, you'll see that Mr. Havoc seems to speak from a third person and sometimes second point of view. If this is the case, then it would back up the reincarnation claim, and he has possibly found the wife in this time. That much is pure conjecture, but if the shoe fits...
I've read a lot of Hitler on here. I'm sorry but that's totally wrong. I do see where he puts off the vibe in body language and some in video. It's an attempt to mislead, and keep people guessing. I know next to nothing of the man, but seriously doubt he would mean to appear as a dictator to his fans. Ludicrous. Absolute ludicrous. -
This is a quote by Davey:
"I'm an extremist, I have to deal with my own extreme personality, and I walk the fine line of wanting to die and wanting to be the ruler of it all"
I think the song exemplifies this -
As for the video, definitely a Nazi theme there. the circle of rabbits on the album cover reminded me of the swastika. Davey is Hitler, and the woman is Miss Murder, aka murder itself. she sends him the piece of paper with the "swastika" of rabbits, and idea for the holocaust. when he goes to his people, he sees her coming for him... etc whtever im outta ideas
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I think this song is about someone in love with somebody else who is beautiful and mysterious. The person knows that their lover is dangerous but can't stop loving them and would take their own life to keep their lover young and beautiful forever (the lover being Miss Murder).
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I think the songs just about a well man killing himself over a woman, her beauty captivated him they shined with the stars and she broke his heart.
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