Fall Out Boy: I've Got All This Ringing In My Ears and None On My Fingers Meaning

I've Got All This Ringing In My Ears and None On My Fingers Lyrics

You’re a canary, I’m a coal mine
Cause sorrow is just all the rage
Take one for the team
You all know what I mean

And I’m so sorry, but not really
Tell the boys where to find my body
New York eyes, Chicago thighs
Pushed up the window to...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 13th 2008 !⃝

   I think this song is about a relationship where the guy loves the girl but isn't in love with her anymore.
   
   "You’re a canary, I’m a coal mine
   Cause sorrow is just all the rage" - the canary and the coal mine.. If the coal mine is poisonous, the canary dies. It shows him bringing her down because she needs him so much.
   
   "Take one for the team
   You all know what I mean" - him not wanting to break it off, because it will hurt her so much, therefore he is 'taking one for the team'.
   
   "And I’m so sorry, but not really
   Tell the boys where to find my body" - he's sorry for feeling this way, but not really as he has fallen out of love with her. He will tell her where the body is, but is telling her to tell the boys, as that is who he really wants to know.
   
   "New York eyes, Chicago thighs
   Pushed up the window to kiss you off" - remembering how beautiful she is. 'pushed up the window...' making an effort to kiss her, but by adding the 'off' at the end, signals the end of the relationship/him being in love with her.
   
   "The truth hurts worse than anything I could bring myself to do to you
   The truth hurts worse than anything I could bring myself to do to you" - telling her the truth (that he isn't in love with her), is worse than anything he could physically do, such as cheat on her etc.
   
   "Do you remember the way I held your hand?
   Under the lamp post and ran home
   This way so many times
   I could close my eyes" - makes me think of childhood sweethearts, and he is remembering the god times, when the relationship was innocent and exciting.
   
   just my take on it =]

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 6th 2007 !⃝

   I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with cheating, I think he has a wife/girlfriend/fiance (but probably just girlfriend) and the entire song is just him realizing that he doesn't love her like he thought he did and has no way of telling her.
   In the lyrics
   You’re a canary, I’m a coal mine
   Cause sorrow is just all the rage
   He's sayin she tells it how it is and he doesn't ever let anything out.
   Take one for the team
   You all know what I mean. I think the meaning of this is that he's going to probably stay with her because he can't let her down. When he says I'm so sorry but not really, he's saying that he's sorry for not loving her but there's nothing he can do cause that's how he feels about it.
   In the corus he keeps saying The truth hurts worse than anything I can bring myself to do to you, because he can't tell her he doesn't love her, if it was that he was cheating it wouldn't make sense for him to say it because the truth is worse than what it is, if it was cheating then the act would be worse than the truth.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 25th 2007 !⃝

   I think he did something wrong and can't bring himself to tell his wife/fiance/girlfriend/you name it about it.
   
   This song sounds like it should be on broadway, don't you think?
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 18th 2016 !⃝

   My favourite line in the song is "You're a canary, I'm a coalmine".My Interpretation is that she shows everybody how beautiful she is, for example by being really nice to everybody or always making herself pretty with makeup and nice cloathing. He on the other hand is a bit shy and hides his inner beauty. People have to earn his trust before he is able to show them what a great guy he really is.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 3rd 2010 !⃝

   I think he used a girl("You're a canary, I'm a coal mine") and is feeling very guilty about it("Tell the boys where to find my body").
   
   "New York eyes, Chicago thighs"-the girl. "The truth hurts worse than anything I could bring myself to do to you"-admitting to himself that he did her wrong.
   
   "Do you remember the way I held your hand? Under the lamp post and ran home"-and example that he was not serious about her. "This way so many times"-This happened more than once.
   
   So, to me, its easy to see that the song is about him being guilty about something he did to a girl(like dating her or something because he was told to or pressured to). Plain and simple. (:
   
   Hope I made sense!! -Momo
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 25th 2008 !⃝

   About the whole 'he wasn't married/engaged/whatever' at the time.. The lyrics aren't necessarily about what was happening to him at that exact time, or even about him at all. It's called imagination.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 22nd 2008 !⃝

   I think you need to keep in mind that pete wasn't married or engaged when he wrote this, so there's no need for the whole girlfriend/fiance/wife thing.
   
   anyway. If you know about how Pete kept breaking up and getting back with Jeanae for the longest time, this makes some sense, even though these lyrics are really hard to figure out.
   
   I think the song is about being tired of running in circles and wanting to just move on.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 9th 2008 !⃝

   Well the first line you're a canary in a coal mine. I think refers back to when they used canaries to test coal mines for poison by if they died then the coal mine had poison in the air. So I'm guessing that the girl is testing him about something.
9. ilovepaparoach

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 29th 2007 !⃝

   He did something wrong that he feels like will make his fiance mad, and he doesn't think that he can face her, so he leaves.
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 16th 2007 !⃝

    It seems as though the main character in this song is maybe engaged?
    
    But he cheated and he feels like he can't tell his fiance because the "Truth is worse than anything I could bring myself to do to you."
    
    He's ashamed and worried that she won't have him after he's done this to her, so he leaves.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)