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. Biopower

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   May 31st 2007 !⃝

   I seriously do not understand why this song needs interpretation, but it has been requested, so I will do one, anyways…
   
   This song is about the war on terror, and is a call for peace.
   
   ”Turn my mic up louder,
   I got to say somethin.
   Lightweights steppin' aside,
   when we comin.
   Feel it in your chest,
   the syllables get pumpin.”
   I believe this has no hidden meaning, it means just what he says.
   
   ”People on the street,
   they panic and start running.”
   self-explanatory...
   
   ”Words on loose leaf,
   sheet complete coming.
   I jump on my mind,
   I summon the rhyme of dumping.”
   This verse is open to a wide variety of interpretations, really. You would have to ask the band themselves what this means. It could be about a bill that went through Congress, but I doubt that…
   
   ”Feeling the blind,
   I promise to let the sun in.
   Sick of the dark ways,
   we march to the drumming.”
   I’m sick of how we love war drums.
   
   ”Jump when they tell us
   they want to see jumping.”
   We blindly do what our leaders tell us.
   
   ”Fuck that, I want to
   see some fist pumping.”
   Fuck that, I want to see some protest, for peace.
   
   ”Risk something.
   Take back what's yours”
   Who gives a shit if you might be arrested, it’s for peace!
   
   ”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.”
   Saying anything bad about the war is “undermining the troops”
   
   ”Like this war is really just
   a different brand of war.
   Like it doesn't cater to the rich
   and an abandoned the poor.”
   This war is no different from all the rest. It is just to make the military-industrial complex happy.
   
   ”Like they understand you
   in the back of the jet,
   When you can't put gas in your tank.
   These fuckers are laughing their way
   to the bank and cashing their cheque
   asking you to have compassion and to have some respect.”
   Pretty self-explanatory. He’s saying that we are a plutocracy.
   
   ”For a leader so nervous
   in an obvious way
   Stuttering and mumbling
   for nightly news to replay
   and the rest of the world
   watching at the end of the day
   in the living room laughing
   like what did he say?”
   About how our president is lying to us, and thus stuttering, and making “Bushisms” (for lack of a better word.)
   
   ”Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen”
   This is sarcastic. Separation of church and state.
   
   ”In my living room watching,
   But I am not laughing.
   'Cause when it gets tense,
   I know what might happen.”
   I’m not laughing at the president. Not because I respect him, but because he is making mistakes that could lead to all-out war.
   
   ”The world is cold,
   The bold men take action.
   Have to react,
   To getting blown into fractions.”
   9/11…
   
   ”10 years old is something to see,
   Another kid my age dragged under a jeep,
   Taken and bound and found later under a tree,
   I wonder if he even thought the next one could be me.
   Do you see?”
   Torture, because the enemy uses guerilla tactics…but it’s kept secret, you see? (of course you don’t see it! It’s a secret!)
   
   ”The soldiers that are out today.
   That brush the dust with bulletproof vests away.
   It's ironic.”
   It’s ironic that they think they are fighting for justice, because the “enemy” never did anything to us…
   
   “At times like this you pray,
   But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday.
   There's bombs in the buses, bikes, roads,
   inside your markets,your shops, your clothes”
   pretty self-explanatory…
   
   ”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.”
   I also assumed this was self-explanatory…There’s no hidden meaning here. The book is the Bible. Possibly, an acquaintance’s brother died in the “War on Terror,” thus the inspiration.
   
   …
   
   …
   
   ”With Hands Held High
   into a sky so blue
   as the ocean opens up
   to swallow you.”
   Ah, now I see why you wanted an interpretation for these lyrics…This should prove difficult…let’s see…This is repeated several times, which is significant. It is also sung in a light tone, which is significant as well. So, based on those two things, and the lyrics themselves, of course, we can assume that it is about a very significant event that will change your life.
   It could be about death. You are holding your hands high, saying, “Why, God, why?” The ocean could be the graveyard, swallowing you by putting you to rest…Another death interpretation: the guy he is reffering to is literally falling into the ocean, and holding his hands high, grasping, as he falls…it could be whatever you make it to be. Songs like this are what make music great. They are open to artistic interpretation.
   
   
   I hope that helps, this was a little bit of a toughie!
2. MRO1989

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   May 17th 2007 !⃝

   Mike is rapping about the soldiers in Iraq, George Bush, etc. Very powerful song.
   
   What do you guys think?

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