What do you think White Coats means?

Foxes: White Coats Meaning

Album cover for White Coats album cover

Song Released: 2012


White Coats Lyrics

As a child, my mother said to me
Don’t be afraid to lead the way you see
And it’s only you who knows
Nobody else can see

But do I chase myself into the dark?
In the thousand ways to lead me back to start
But you make it easier
To...

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  1. anonymous
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     May 25th 2018 !⃝

    My Dad has schizophrenia and he had to be committed when I was a child so this song always makes me think of him.

    "And it's only you who knows, nobody else can see" is a reference to their delusions.

    "Hunted down, their footsteps drawing near" represents paranoid ideas of being followed.

    The men in white coats are the doctors from a mental institution, who have come to commit the person. "But you just stand there and watch them hold me down".

    They're still hurt, but they're beginning to understand that they are mentally ill, and are trying to apologise to their lover for all the trouble it has caused. "I'm sorry you're in so deep". And the end is a bit hopeful too. "You will take me home one day, believe me".

  2. anonymous
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     Nov 16th 2013 !⃝

    I think the song is about a lovesick obsession that has created some sort of mental illness and serves as a metaphor for the true nature of love.She insists that love is a form of insanity and only a reciprocating love will cure it. Then the first verse comes in, talking to her mother giving her life tips that she completely ignores for this one person. She goes on to say that she thinks she may be going astray, but choses to ignore those thoughts because the person she is in love with serves as a guiding light for her. The chorus refers to "the men in white coats" coming around and her lover defeating them. The men in white coats are the orderlies at a mental hospital who are taking her away. In the end, she says her lover just watches them take her down as opposed to saving her, suggesting that her "lover" may not be a lover at all, but rather a person she has a deep and powerful unrequited love for this person who does not really feel the same way. The song tells a story of a woman being held in a mental hospital, but it actually serves as a metaphor for what falling in love with someone who doesn't love you back feels like, which is like you're going insane.


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