Linkin Park: Hands Held High Meaning
Hands Held High Lyrics
Light weights step aside when we come in
Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running
Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump on...
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"Turn my mike up louder I got to say something
Light weights step to the side when we come in
Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running
Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump in my mind and summon the rhyme, I'm dumping"
- This first part could mean that people are scared of the truth. It also summons people to voice their opinions and worries.
"Healing the blind I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways we march to the drum and
Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping
Fuck that I wanna see some fists pumping"
- Theyre saying that theyre sick of people doing things without thought and doing whatever the politicians and the media are telling us to do. They say at the end that they wanna see some fists pumping, which means that they want to see someone standing up for what they believe in and protesting.
"Risk something, take back what's yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for cause I'm sick of being treated like I have before
Like it's stupid standing for what I'm standing for"
- Theyre saying that you should take a risk and voice your opinion and stand up for what you truly believe in. -
I honestly think that the line in the song that says; "A little red cover with a broken spine" is making reference to Mao Tse-tung's "Little Red Book". I like Linkin Park but when lyrics like this are put into songs it is disturbing. The farther we get from Chairman Mao's unbelievable "communist" brutality the more the younger generation thinks he,Che,Castro, Hitler, etc., are cool! It is sickening! They need to do some in-depth history review before revering such beasts of the world.
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"Brush the dust off the bulletproof vest away"
Refers to the sandy conditions in Iraq. When youre hit, you fall and kick up sand. Its meant to say these guys just have to get up and brush it off and keep on, and no one is there to help them
"In times like this we pray but a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday"
Means everyone looks to pray for salvation from war, but the holy shrines are disappearing and being bombed.
"When the rich wage war its the poor who die"
Means rich politicians can wage war, but its the lower and middle class that go to fight, not the rich sons
As far as the president talking on TV
At first, we all laughed at how much of an idiot Bush sounded with broken sentences and "Bush-isms", but once the wars started, and he went on his "Axis of evil" kick pissing everyone off, the country was in disbelief that he was saying these things -
This song is about the war in iraq and the economy and we should stand up for whats right and not just do as they say (jump when they tell us they want to see jumping ---- that i want to see some fist pumping) Also how the rich dont understand what is like to struggle fianchaly. THat the rich dont struggle in when it comes to war but middle class and lower struggle to pay taxes.
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that are some great thoughts both on LP's side and all the interpretations here.
the passage about the brother's little red book is one of my all time favorites.
and its also one i want to highlight a little more:
The book has a broken spine and i think its a very important point because although mao might have said some wise things he should not be taken as a role model because of his ethics and actions + he also waged wars with the poorer population suffering search for GREAT LEAP FORWARD and CULTURAL REVOLUTION.
and one final quote by mao zedong:"People who try to commit suicide — don't attempt to save them! . . . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people.
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this song is definitely making fun of the government and of people in general. where the song says "with hands held high up to a sky so blue as the ocean opens up to swallow you" it's making fun of people saying that they are just standing there with their hands in the air totally unaware of the huge ocean beneath them that's about to destroy them. So, the entire song, in short, is saying how manipulatve the government is and how the public blindly follows.
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First of all to the one that says "freedom isn't free" and "protests won't stop terrorists"-you are a complete idiot! stop puking up the same old shit that every politican says to calm the masses. How about you actually think instead of blindly following people that you don't even understand-because the ones you follow are the real terrorists.
yeah-your welcome for my wisdom -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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These are just a few arguments with what the first guy said.
1. Amen, amen, amen, etc. I disagree that this is sarcasm. There is no reason to believe that just because the song is dealing with government issues that "Amen" would be sarcasm because of "seperation of church and state."
2. "With hands held high to a sky so blue, the ocean opens up to swollow you," I agree this has to do with death, but in a more obvious reason. The "ocean" symbolizes the sky and heaven. Picture someone looking up at the sky with his "hands held high" waiting for soemthing, when the sky opens up and the person transcends to heaven. -
Biopower, you divided the verses up in correctly.
"It's Ironic,
In times like this you pray,
but a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday."
this specific part is commenting on the pointlessness of prayer in times of war.
All Gods (except the olympians, who aren't very popular nowadays) are peaceful, we created war, not the gods.
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I was wondering if the line "with hands held high into a sky so blue, the ocean opens up to swallow you" could be a reference to some other classic writer or writing, given that a quote by Sartre was already introduced.
I originally thought it would be something form Moby Dick because the imagery I got from it, a person standing (possibly alone) looking at the sky with hands held high are most likely praising a deity, and the ocean opening up and swallowing them (key word)made me think that the literal ocean need not have been meant, but the whale- moby dick.
With this historical/literary context in mind (which I didn't dig too deep into) I can see how the rest of the lyrics would not have to solely apply to just the current war. The final two and most repeated lines of the song could be perceived two-fold, the literal imagery, and the meaning.
The meaning as it can be interpreted as turning over trust to a higher power as the world changes, submitting/giving up while changs take place and the foreshadowing of the song takes place. -
This is a powerful song, now with Linkin Park we are really talking rather than some B.S. "pimping" sounds about girls, money, drugs etc.
Still, I'm not satisfied with most of the interpretation here.
Few things I want to point out:
1) Everyone is talking about how "dragged under a jeep" is talking about a 10-year-old Iraqi boy. I just want to point out the original word of the song is actually "DRUGGED under a jeep". There's no doubt about it, check out the official lyrics, or listen to the song carefully about how Mike pronounce it. This further confuses what that verse what trying to say. If someone had figure it out, please let me know.
2) The reference to "a little red cover with a broken spine" could be referring to anything, but I tend to say it's referring to "The Little Red Book". Just my speculation, Mike is Asian(although he's Japanese and I don't know yet if he has a Chinese brother), and Mr. Hahn in the band is actually from China. This particular line could be written by any member in the band. The quote, however, is NOT from Mao or Marx or any communist. I just can't believe how hard it is for somebody to do a little research on their own. It's from a 1951 play called "The Devil and the Good Lord" written by a French named Jean-Paul Sartre. -
"The bomb blew the mosque up yesterday" in my opinion, is when a mosque was destroyed in Iraq because of a US air strike against militants. They believed the militants were hiding in the mosque (of course they didn't know it was a mosque at the time...) so they ordered an air strike only to find out later, there were no militants there. THANKFULLY it was empty (meaning no civilians inside...) so no one was killed, but this action did spark anger in Saudi Arabia, who in turn increased fuel prices as compensation, when the US president didn't apologize...
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Yea I agree wit most of the interpretations just not sure bout the red book (Gideon's bibles are blue in s.a.) but I think when it says "brush the dust from bullet proof vests away" it means they have these vests to supposedly protect themselves but they aren't using them and they collect dust. Then "its ironic at times like this we pray when a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday" I'm a christian but I think its still wrong to pray for protection when you are the one blowing up the place (And people) that others go to for spiritual strength
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I believe the "the book he would hold with a little red cover with a broken spine" is talking about a bible. It is quite common that "Gideons" a group of christians who distribute free bibles hand out small red bibles to students, "Red: for in-school distribution to Middle/High school students". these guys were founded in 1899.
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