Blue October: Into the Ocean Meaning
Into the Ocean Lyrics
That sank when I fell overboard
My ship would leave the country
But I'd rather swim ashore
Without a life vest I'd be stuck again
Wish I was much more masculine
Maybe then I could learn to swim
Like 'fourteen miles...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:i've read a lot of interpretations that make perfect sense, but i interpreted this song well before i visited this website. maybe this is why i love this song so much, because i see it the way i want to.
I think this song is a huge metaphor. Like, the ocean is a metaphor for his problems (i'm sinking to the bottom of my everything that freaks me out) and all of his problems and issues, including the loss of his love, are just taking over him. He's drowning in his ocean of issues.
so during a lot of the song, he's comparing fighting his issues to trying not to drown (my legs and arms are broken down with envy for the solid ground)
but what i love about this song, is that there is a point where he just lets go, and accepts things the way they are. (i thought of just your face, relaxed and floated into space)
this song speaks to me like no other. my favorite song in the world. its absolutely poetic. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Has anyone thought about the possibility of this song being about someone who was afraid to let go of their inhibitions, to love someone completely? The depth of our heart is like an ocean. We can either plunge into it full force or bobble on the surface treading water. We each want the security of knowing our hearts will be protected (i.e.: the lighthouse, the Coast Guard), yet none of us have that assurance. Hard times can be like a hurricane. Is our love for each other strong enough to endure the fury of life? When one of us gets caught up in the storm and starts to sink, is the love of our partner strong enough to pull us back up to the surface? Would we do the same for them?
Perhaps when the song says “into the ocean, end it all.” he is ending all his doubts and fears regarding loving completely and tells them goodbye.
“Midnight’s late reminder of the loss of her, the one I love. My will to quickly end it all, set front row in my need to fall.” Could be interpreted to mean, he could not live without her and wants to end all of his doubts regarding his love for her.. His first thought is to just jump, fall, and plunge deep into love. Bring on the hurricane, because together we can weather any storm. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I think there are many more layers to this song than most have touched on in their ideas of how this song can be interpreted.
To start with, I think the character in the song didn't just simply allude to him jumping overboard to commit suicide, but also that he jumped overboard into the relationship in the first place, ie,
Now waking to the sun
I calculate what I had done
Like jumping from the bow (yeah)
Just to prove I knew how (yeah)
The speaker jumped into the relationship before he was truly ready and was over his head, just as he found himself when he jumped overboard. It is this relationship he is seen fighting against in the video, where it is represented by a "Moby Dick" type whale - it is something he wants desperately, but can't seem to capture, and perhaps will be destroyed by.
The voice singing "Into the Ocean, end it all", represented in the video by three ghastly-looking ballet dancers, is clearly an allusion to the Sirens in Greek Mythology, who would lure sailors to their deaths. They might also represent the Furies or even the Fates, all female characters that had the ability to control the course of men's lives, and even drive them to their deaths.
This is just my interpretation of the song. I find it to be one of the most intriguing songs to be written in a long time, and as a previous writer stated, a good song can be interpreted on many levels, and this song indeed lends to varied interpretations. -
This song is about a man that started a relationship that could not be...He loved someone that was not meant for him and now it is coming to an end.
This is about a married man with children that had a lover who he fell inlove with, and now he is a the crossroads, does he leave his life that he has always known and go with the one he is inlove with? Or does he stay with his old live. "I want to swim away but dont know how" is the battle that he is having within him self. He wishes he could go but knows that he needs to stay so he wishes that he could end it all.
I know this interpretation because I am the wife that found out and he is the husband that sang this song and cried uncontrollably as he wept over his decision to stay with me.
I won??? he is with me but his heart is not here so what kind of win is that??
I am the one screaming now "into the ocean end it all"
I know he thinks of just her face! -
My interpretation of this song is...
To me this song is not just a song if you know what i mean. This song is the writers feelings all pouring out about when he had experienced with his wife and the ocean. It wasn't his greatest experience but, it was an experience that he wanted to be heard not just sung but, heard in a way that meant something to him not anyone else. I really think that he didn't care who liked the song or didn't i just think that he put it out because it meant something to him. A song it not a song if it does not have a meaning behind it. A song to me is something that means something. I think Blue October did a perfect interpretation for this song and I give them 100 times thumbs up for making a song that means something to them and means something to us the fans!
Also I think so many people like this song because not all of us had the greatest experiences in life either. -
Man loses his wife and contimplates Suicide. Video shows seat next to man with "for my wife" on it.
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i for one dont interpet this song as a suicide song and those who do are just looking at the words instead of listening to this song. and about being able to make it through the storm finding something to keep you strong enough to endure the storm (like a lover). also to just be okay with life and (let the rain come down) being able to feel your feelings and hard times and deal with it and be okay with it knowing the calmness that comes after a storm. my opinion of course :)
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Does anyone know what it means when they say "my will to quickly end it all sat front row in my need to fall"?
I'm more wondering about the second part of that, so the 'my will sat front row in my need to fall' -
i think its about a man whos lover died so he tries to kill hiself and regrets the desicison. but soon remembers his lover and lets hiself die.
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There are many ways of looking at this particular song, which makes this a very well written song. I look at it as a man having a dream, "It's midnight's late reminder of..." of an attempt at suicide. The story doesn't start there, though.
The main character of this song has fallen in love, and lost her and has spiraled into a depression, "Let the waves up take me down." and he doesn't know how to deal with the pain, "I want to swim away but don't know how,"
Back to this dream he has of suicide. This dream gives him the idea that a way to drown his pain is to drown himself. He is tempted by the serpents, a beautiful singing creature in mythology, singing "Into the Ocean, end it all." Basically, they are convincing him to drown away his pain by suicide. -
i have thought this whole time that this song was about being addicted to some kind of drug. and losing everything he loved and because= into the ocean (drug use) end it all=he loses everything he loves and i wanna swim away but dont know how= i wanna quit but i dont know how im addicted bittersweetness
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Justin is bipolar.
I think the ocean represents his feelings and emotions and how he feels like he's fallen into the ocean is like him not being ablle to contol his feelings and what he does so he's stuck in a whirlwind.
When you look at parts of the lyric like "I'm sinking to the bottom of my everything thaty freaks me out." It makes think about him haveing to face an issue he can't deal with and blowing up, which also corrisponds to him saying "now wakeing to the sun, I calculate what I had done." Kind of like he made a mistake when he was angry and now realizes it. -
Almost as though he has created a heavy life for himself that he's beginning to struggle with. His life is like a sea of whatever he's created it to be, and he's drowning in it (to tread water is easy for a bit, but surely gets hard after a while). At the moment wanting to swim away from his current problems, dreaming of solid ground. Freaking out about possibly failing at his life.
Wishing he was much more masculine, masculine inferring symbolic strength. His life vest reference being maybe something solid or something he's comfortable with, a lover probably.
'When it rains, it pours'. Being inundated with lots of stress or problems.
"Where is the coastguard I need something for protection"/ Hes living his life with no shelter, no one to filter out the bad or hard parts. Bit off more than he could chew in hindsight, but doesn't want to fail himself.
"Let the rain come down,...hurricane..etc" Sometimes it feels appropriate to simmer in your own pathetic thoughts and you don't want to feel happy, (weird human nature, lol).
"Midnights last reminder of his love" He drove his true love away for some reason, and is regretting it, but he's feeling sentimental about it...everything's worse when your tired,(namely midnight). -
you know when you see those movies where when the persons depressed about something right well i think that the writer went into a relationship to soon and his true love was not ready to go in a relationship yet and she broke his heart by braking up with him and he realized that being that depressed is like drowning and while he's drowning and he thinks of her its like hes all relaxed and floating in space.
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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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The lyrics convey the first-person account of a "normal boy" who has fallen or jumped off the bow of a ship and the thoughts that pass through the boy's mind as he loses the will to keep afloat by treading water. His final thought is of his beloved as he eventually concedes to drowning
In the final verse the song takes on a deeper meaning as the lyrics reveal that the initial story of the boy drowning was just a dream spurred by feelings of grief over the loss of a loved one, presumably the woman whose face gave him comfort as he imagined he was drowning. The dream is referred to lyrically as "Midnight's late reminder of the loss of her, the one I love." The song then indicates that he wishes, like in the dream, that he could slip "into the ocean, end it all." -
As the one two above stated about getting clean, and rebirth, I agree here, since water (and sometimes fire) are very commonly used to symbolized birth, rebirth, or cleansing, and "My ship would leave the country But I'd rather swim ashore" is stating that his old friends (druggies) were going to so something ("leave the country", would represent abandoning the country, by doing something highly illegal) and he jumped, not wanting to be involved, and without help for his quitting the addiction, he feels like he is drowning, "rather swim ashore" would at the same time represent leaving the cleansing water onto the dirt of shore, but since he can't get to there (find some other source of drugs)he is forced to stay clean (and the "thought of just your face, relaxed and floated into space" would be the admittance that there is also a girl involved)
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