Linkin Park: Hands Held High Meaning

Hands Held High Lyrics

Turn my mic up louder I got to say something
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...

1. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 22nd 2008 !⃝

   "When the rich wage war, it's the poor that die" is from The Devil and the Good Lord (1951, a play by French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre.
   
   Not sure if that changes peoples interpretations of the references to communism.
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 22nd 2008 !⃝

   Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
3. jpizzle

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 14th 2008 !⃝

   This is a powerful song about what is going on in our world. The bombing, the president, the war, everything. It talks about his dad and his brother. Its a very powerful song that speaks to everyone who listens to it and actually pays attention to what is being said in the song
4. LinkinPark2468

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 1st 2008 !⃝

   This is a very good song but I just wish people would just stop listening to the news all the time and do there own research because the news most of no all of the time focusing on the bad stuff the united states does but not the hundreds of thousands of things the united states does good for the world but no you never hear anything like how we GIVE food to north Korea so there citizens don't starve to death and when people say "Bush got us back into debt" well duhhhhh do you know how much money we give other country's. enough if we asked for it all back we would bankrupt the world.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 7th 2008 !⃝

   I think the thing Mike is trying to say is that
   
   1. 1st part of the song he kinda talks about Bush's mistakes but then in the 2nd changes it to say it's not just his fault and everyone makes mistakes
   
   2. He's saying the rich people started this war and the poor will be the ones to pay for their actions unless people stand up and fight against them
   
   3. The final part is saying
   With hands held high into a sky so blue as the ocean opens up to swallow you
   Idk why but for some reason the aftermath of Katrina possibly that people are raising their hands for help but in the end they die as the ocean is taking them away.
   Or some sort of redemption meaning telling Bush, various others, and the gas companies, etc. That we can still change and redeem ourselves as a people united in peace.
   
   Of course, I could be totally wrong and only Linkin Park could truly tell us what this song completely means
   
   And also, their lyrics can be interpreted to so many things that you can't name them all and that is why this song along with all the rest is so great
6. Mrgd291190

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 20th 2008 !⃝

   I agree with a lot of what's in the interpretations already here, well done all :D
   
   I tend to favor the "little red" book "with a broken spine" being the Quotations of Chairman Mao as the song seems to highlight the idea that, in any and every war, it is the proletariat who die while the bourgeoisie get away with it, despite our indignation ("What did he say?"), we effectively do nothing.
   
   I also think (might be wrong) that the couplet
   "It's ironic at times like this you pray
   But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday"
   has been incorrectly separated in the past, for my liking. I think they're saying that it's ironic that in the middle of a war between religious fundamentalists (on both sides) we try to turn to God, surely the source of the war? This (agree or not) would further support the communist interpretation of the previous lines, as Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Mao have all espoused an Atheist government as the way to avoid war.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 1st 2008 !⃝

   The first part of this song is from the POV of a soldier fighting in Iraq. The second part is POV of a boy, in Iraq. The ending is how both sides come together, and they do not like the war. "when the rich wage war its the poor who die" is a quote by _____.
8. Strahd

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 25th 2007 !⃝

   I'm in general agreement with what you've all said. I must admit that interpretation about the irony of the mosque was a new one on me. I personally love this song. I'm not sure how it could have lost their fan base. I know their new album has displeased a lot of their fans, but it's all a matter of opinion, as with all music. Minutes to Midnight was the first (and only) hard copy LP album I got, and I've also got hold of a copy of Hybrid Theory and Meteora since, and I'm loving the lyrics and meanings they all bring (note I had already heard some of their earlier stuff and loved it).
   Hands Held high is one of my faourites as it shows war to be just as stupid as the terrorism it's trying to stop. neither's right and neither's gonna stop. It's just so damn ironic.
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 17th 2007 !⃝

   Hand held high in a sky so blue, the ocean opens up to swallow you
   Hands held high - could mean protesting
   Sky so blue - could mean for a clear and pure reason
   Ocean opens up to swallow you - could mean joining the million who are protesting. The reference to water could be that water is peaceful and calm, but when stirred can release a massive amount of power and force.
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Sep 10th 2007 !⃝

    Music is art, and art is all about expressing how you feel. Alot of the songs on Linkin Park's new album are expressing various social problems and political issues that have obviously been upsetting them...i personally think it shows how much they've matured in their songwriting. Hands held high is a very powerful song that this whole world needs to listen to.
    And I believe the part where it says "10 years old it's something to see, another kid my age dragged under a jeep" is about someone actually being dragged under a jeep. Apparently it was an african-american who ended up getting caught under a jeep and was dragged until death, and the ones in the jeep let the pavement grate his body alive. There was an 8 month old baby dragged by a vehicle too, it's a horrible horrible way to die.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 17th 2007 !⃝

    I do believe this is about them protesting the war in Iraq. I really wished they could have kept their political views to themselves. I'm sure this song lost them half their fan base.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. stpdass20

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 5th 2007 !⃝

    "its ironic, at times like this we pray, but a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday"
    we pray to god for our soldiers to come home safe, while we're blowing up religious buildings across seas...overall, self-explanatory.
13. Biopower

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 4th 2007 !⃝

    I think I've figured out what the "Hands held high" part means - They're protesting, with their fists in the air.
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 1st 2007 !⃝

    This is a great song rhythm-wise but the lyrics seem to be a little step in the wrong direction for them
    
    The most important thing I see here to support this is at the end with the little red book. This is a phrase that almost always pertains to communism and as someone says up above, the quote is also from the creator of communism.
    Look at the world today. Many communist/socialist supports work on gaining support over the war and wanting peace.
    Its a clearer connection here then with saying its the bible.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 11th 2007 !⃝

    Biopower, I think you're spot-on for the first half of the song, but you lose it starting around "10 years old..."
    
    I believe that section is talking from the POV of a 10-year old in Iraq, and makes the point that America isn't the only aggressor. Also, I think you divided up the lines incorrectly.
    
    "10 years old
    It's something to see
    Another kid my age dragged under a jeep
    Taken and bound
    and found later under a tree,
    I wonder if he thought the next one could be me?
    Do you see?
    The soldiers
    They're out today they brush the dust with bulletproof vests away."
    Referring to the actions of terrorists. The line "I wonder if he thought the next one could be me?" makes the point that it could be anybody they take.
    The references to the soldiers is saying that the soldiers are out there simply brushing the dust off their vests, not really doing anything to stop the aforementioned abduction.
    
    Skip on to:
    ”My dad, he's got a lot of fear I know
    but enough pride inside not to let that show.
    My brother had a book he would hold with pride
    A little red cover with a broken spine.
    In the back he hand wrote a quote inside,
    when the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.”
    As you said, fairly self-explanatory. However, I'm much less certain about the book being the Bible. Especially seeing as "The little red book" is a term for a book of quotations by Mao Zedong ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotations_from_Chairman_Mao_Zedong ), and the quote he wrote inside is a Karl Marx quote.
    
    
    Thus, I believe he's trying to make a point for communism; i.e., "Both sides are warring, neither is doing anything, there's only one system I know of that can end war." I'm not saying he's right, just what I think he's saying.

Latest Articles

• 
  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)
• 
  Let’s Go to the Hop - Ignore That Door’s Four Bunnies and a Beatbox