AWOLNATION: Sail Meaning
Song Released: 2011
Sail Lyrics
This is how i show my love
Made it in my mind because
Blame it on my ADD baby
This is how an angel dies
Blame it on my own sick pride
Blame it on my ADD baby
SAIL!
SAIL!
SAIL!
SAIL!
SAIL!
Maybe i should cry for help...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I see this song as an attempt to escape from the normal. When the artist says that he is a different breed, and that you should blame it on his ADD, it makes me think that he is looking for a reason to validate why he feels so different from everyone else about a way something is.
He is being pulled in to the light (the normal by) by the aliens (the people who share the idea that he does not agree with) while trying to escape (hold on to his own way of thinking).
In the end, the man decides to convert his opinion over to the norm. This is shown when he walks into the light at the end of the music video. He SAIL's with the idea that everyone has been trying to convince him of. You can not sail against the wind or the current ever. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Common Behaviors and Problems of Adult ADD / ADHD taken from WebMD (dot) com
Anxiety
Chronic boredom
Chronic lateness and forgetfulness
Depression
Difficulty concentrating when reading
Difficulty controlling anger
Employment problems
Impulsiveness
Low frustration tolerance
Low self-esteem
Mood swings
Poor organization skills
Procrastination
Relationship problems
Substance abuse or addiction
For me that’s how an “alien” ( or No ADD familiar) would face an adult with ADD. Just like an “obsessed fellow” with extraterrestrial phobia. It is really weird to live with ADD simply coz you can SAIL all day long in millions of thoughts and feelings being unable to function as the rest expect from you. You are just floating in your mind like if you Sail in the open sea… without the sense of time.. without control of your SELF or your emotions, unable to do what you HAVE TO DO.
“Maybe I'm a different breed”… at least that’s how it feels. And it is damn tough when you realize that in a world of John Waynes you are an Indian.
“Maybe I should cry for help - Maybe I should kill myself” that’s how an Adult with ADD problem understands Shakespeare's “to be or not to be”…
Sail with me into the dark… “walk a mile in my shoes” It feels so lonely from where I’m seeing that world. SAIL with me…. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:When I first Heard this song, I had a much different interpretation of it than others. The line that stuck out in this song for me was blame it on my add. I think people are taking this a little to literal. Artist like to display their feelings in a way that can be perceived by their listeners in their own situation. It seems to be that he is struggling with something and people are denying the fact that he's feeling that way. I don't think that people are understanding it so they are 'blaming it on his add' or 'blaming it on his own sick pride' the fact that they are denying his emotions and blaming it on everything else instead of accepting the fact that he is not perfect and is actually struggling with something that is not normal is driving him over the edge to the point where he is crying for help but sense people are so in denial he decides the only way to get rid of his problems are to kill him self.
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This song, from my pov, is a person with AD(H)D finally bursting and letting someone know everything about his mental space. Some of the lines are things people say to him; "maybe I'm a different breed", "maybe in not listening", and some are things he says to himself; "maybe I should cry for help", "maybe I should kill myself". Repeating SAIL is a way of letting his mind spit out all his suppressed feelings by letting his mind 'sail' and saying a bunch of things, also because the song writer didn't want to write a bunch of internalized symptoms of AD(H)D.
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He dove into the everlasting flame of life that he was supposed to be guardian of after billions of years of watching to help save humanity and found that the threat against humanity was a distraction and now he cannot return to his post and the flame was left unguarded and the punishment for that is madness and death.
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I read a lot of these people's interpretations and only found one guy that got it right. The song is about wanting to escape the Cabal, the Illuminati, Satanists that everyone who makes it in Hollywood and music have to sell their soul to. But there is no escape. That's why he's wearing red shoes, do research about the red shoes and you'll see. And that's why he has drawings on the wall and he zones in on the Illuminati drawing of the all seeing eye and the other drawing of just one eye,like all the photos of all the celebrities covering one eye. Symbolism is everything to them. He sold his soul to make it and he's talking about it in code. What he could blame it on might be his shame for doing it in the first place, and not knowing what to do about it now, but there's nothing you can do about it. That's why he says maybe I should kill myself, he's talking about escaping it. He knows there's no escape besides death of course. And he can't talk about it blatantly or they will 'suicide' him like they do with all the celebrities that tried to talk about it. This song is full of hints about it.
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It is sad that humans do not use their imaginations anymore! I deal with this on a daily basis. We have to have a text book explanation for us to understand and believe in any mysterious event. This song takes me to the stars and beyond!
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As an American who has been through the mental health process to "make myself well" I find a deep and heartfelt meaning in the song. The first time I heard this song I was laying on a bed with my es closed just after a counseling session where my therapist had just recommended medication to help "solve my problems". I'd been on medication before and felt it had suppressed my inner self ("maybe I should cry for help... maybe I should kill myself...").
The song seemed to me like his inner self communicating with his outward consciousness. I saw it as follows:
SAIL!
(This line always a plea from the inner to the conscious mind to let it be free)
This is how I show my love
I made it in my mind because...
(The inner self trying to explain its reasons for the way his mind works.)
Well Blame it on my ADD baby...
(This from the outward self rationalizing something in day to day life every time it is said)
This is how an angel dies
I blame it on my own surprise... (inner self not expecting surpression by medication)
Well Blame it on my ADD Baby...
SAILx5
Maybe I should cry for help
Maybe I should kill myself
(Inner self debating whether to fight the medication)
Well blame it on my ADD Baby...
Maybe I'm a different breed
Maybe I'm not listening
(Inner self rationalizing its own existence relating to the outward world as it fades behind the medication)
SAIL!!! (From here to the end of the song is musical expression of the dualistic struggle with the medication and the inner self begging to be set free, to SAIL)
I know it's my own interpretation but we all bring as much to art as it brings to us. After seeing the music video I would add that the frantic singer is the inner self when viewed from this frame and that the aliens removing him are the medication coming for the subconscious mind.
Just one man's opinion. -
I have ADD and this song pretty much describes the way I feel everyday, especially in school.
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Everyone has their own interpretations and the singer has said in an interview, you can take it to mean anything you want, and it will mean just that, as long as it has meaning to you personally. I have lived with ADD my whole life and suffered tremendously growing up because of it, targets were always on me because people didn't understand why I'm doing or not doing what I'm doing, and as young child everyone putting up defenses towards you when you mind is in a place of no understanding would always make you "sail" into dark places, your true friends were the ones who didn't see trouble and sailed into the dark with just simply be with you and try to understand you, but instead of trying to understand what I could not understand or get help for, I was always a victim of everyone's defensive and offensive targets towards me, you say I offend you? I was not thinkin I was, you say I hurt you? how did I do that again? Did you ask me how come I didn't hear or listen to you? I'm as shocked and confused as you!! Put your defense shields and hurt feeling or hate towards me away forever! Just sail with me though this dark and light, open more patience and understanding and stop taking everything personal towards you, so we both might understand each other. Sail with me?
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So, I have been feeling exactly like the lyrics described, and use also have ADD. What's more, I'm a female with ADD, so by fault I'm a failure to society because I'm not capable of secretary duties like a normal person. I'll always be seen as slobbish.
That's how most people with ADD and ADHD are treated, even after diagnosis. The world is geared against something out of our control. To stay focused, to not lose track of a single piece of our composition and keep our lives "in order"
I should probably point out there is a huge difference between ADD and ADHD. The artist was diagnosed with ADD, the unactive, sleepy and unfocused counterpart of hyper ADHD.
ADD always comes with depression by its side. First of all you'll never fit into society, and ADD's depression wants you to know that. To remember. So it makes the chemicals in your brain go even more funk to screw you over again.
The song is about ADD and depression cutting through his life like butter.
The artist himself said that the lyric sail was to sail away from a society where you don't fit. -
He knows more or less what his problem is perhaphs from his psychiatrist or more likely the work he's done with his psychiatrist -the wrong role model he had in his childhood. So he chooses the wrong partner or idea of partner. when this is slowly getting to him his terrified he doesn't want to accept that ( the scenes with the lights - the truth he wants to avoid but he knows he can't) he's been wrong all the time. Also he can see that other people are wrong in the same way in the choice of their partner so now that he knows he feels like an alien here. Other people still want to dream their life not live. Accepting this is very painful but it gets you to other side of mirror/ river/ planet and there aren't many people out there.
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It has to do with the fact that inside he is confident that his ADD is his fault, which is why he says " this is how an angel dies, maybe it's my own sick pride". But then goes on to say "blame it on my ADD baby". Meaning he wants to blame it on his ADD which he has most likely been told by doctors and other people but doesn't believe it and only uses it as an excuse. As for the sail part you guys pretty much nailed it. Songs gotta cool tune but not my favorite lyric wise.
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i think this song , helps him express his feelings in a way him hiself can not express. this song means alot to me because of personal reasons i dont exactly feel like explaining , because its personal . reading these comments are very relatable to my personal reason . its not about me , its about someone else . that i love/loved VERY much . anyway , back to what i was talking about .. he , he , thinks that maybe if he blames it on his A.D.D the others will understand. in a way he doesnt know how to explain . my opinion. dont have to agree.
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I think that the song is about how conspiracy theorists are really mentally twisted. If you look at the music video for this song, the main character is locking himself in his house and watching out his window as if someone was watching him. Then he goes to a poster board where he has many things linked to the Illuminati(or another fake shadowy organization). He then destroys his files and work. He then poisons himself.
What happens after that is unclear. I personally think he was rejected from heaven. You may think differently. We all have our different interpretations, and this is mine. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think this song is like a cry 4 help.. when he got in the music industry he already knew what would come out of it. Being scrutinized and controlled all the damn time. Why Do u think so many celebrities try taking their own lives? He's already in too deep to get out and he just wants to be free. He doesn't want to drag anyone else with him so he continues to scream sail as he wish he could. He's telling u to be aware.
Unfortunately most don't recognize this, and we continue to idolize people and just think of it as a catchy song to sing to.
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