Dashboard Confessional: Before the Lobotomy Meaning
Before the Lobotomy Lyrics
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from
Singing
I can hear them singing
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched...
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I wrote this interpretation for a request and I think this is a very meaningful song and very beautiful, one of my faves from 21st Century Breakdown however also very complex so here it goes.
Billie Joe said that this was the cross between a good time and disaster. The song is from the point of view of both characters - they both sing at different times. It starts with Gloria. ¡Viva la Gloria! ended with Christian asking her to tell him her story, so she does. She is dreaming of being from a different time. She can hear her family singing when the rain washed away these dreams. A death has made her very sad. "Hearts are washed in misery, drenched in gasoline." She says that the laughter has left her and the world.
It is still Gloria for the next 4 lines as well. I think the Lobotomy is a symbol for the 21st Century, (Billie got the idea from the story of a man who got one recently). She says that life was better before this happened, and she has lost her memories of the better times before the end of the century.
Now Christian sings with his rage. These times make him sick and sad. "When the sky is falling down it burned your dreams into the ground." This symbolizes that if the sky did fall, dreams would be ruined.
Gloria says that "Christian's lesson's what he's been sold." She wants to, "Remember to learn to forget. Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes." She wants to forget the times when she used to go out and be destructive and focus on her fight.
Christian comes in again and he is contradicting himself. "I'm not stoned I'm just fucked up. I got so high I can't stand up." He denies and the confirms that he uses drugs to get through these problems. "I'm not cursed cause I've been blessed," - this is what he's been sold, that the Church can help him. He continues saying that he and Gloria are both lost in the confusion, like refugees. "The brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from..." The song finishes how it ends, meaning that Christian does not feel the sadness of the past like Gloria does. He feels anger instead. -
I need to know what this is about. I don't think anyone cares about the request I put. Someone help!
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