Panic! At The Disco: Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks Meaning
Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks Lyrics
Because your speech is slurred enough,
That you just might swallow your tongue.
I’m sure you would want to give up the ghost,
With just a little more poise then that.
Or was it God who chokes in these...
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brendon has said that the title for this song is something that ryan's dad used to say to him: 'well, if you're not tough enough you'll just have to have nails for breakfast and tacks for snacks'. I think this song is about ryan's father and his alcoholism, as ryan has said it is about his dad.
'with the way you've been talking every word sends you a step closer to hell' - about being told by his father that his life is so awful (ergo, he drinks) and feeling like he was the one that caused him to feel like that.
'prescribed pills, to offset the shakes, to offset the pills you know you should take (it a day at a time)' - about trying to convince his father that he should stop drinking and persuading him to take medications and then other medications to counteract the effects of the first ones. He feels helpless because he'd watching his father kill himself and there's nothing he can do about it.
'thats when you st-st-stutter something profound to the support on the line' - taking the piss out of how easy it is for his father to convince the outside world that there is no problem with a few well chosen words. feeling like he's the only one who could do something but he can't because he's a kid and no one would listen to him.
to sum up: ryan's feelings and experiences with his father's alcoholism -
To me, this song is about how society doesn't want to deal with thier problems, mainly the terminally ill. A hospice is a care center for the terminally ill. The lines about stuttering and being closer to hell are the patients trying to communicate with thier family and receive love. Then come the lines perscribe pills, this is again how society doesn't want to deal with the problem.
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The song happens to be about Ryan Ross' father an alcoholic. When he was young his father had to go to a hospital for it. His mom was dead, and so basically at that time he was alone, confused and depressed. He's talking about his feelings about the subject and his father's illness.
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This song is about ryan and his alcoholic father.
The 'she' is probably someone (a nurse) who knew his dad had problems and was an alcoholic but never really did anything to help the situation.
It's just a song ryan wrote to try and express how he felt about his dad. -
This song is about Ryan's father. He died earlier this year, but this is what it used to be like for him (*tear*)
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Ryan's dad died on July 28 2006. He was an alcoholic. That's at the time he wrote these songs he didn't know his dad would die so soon. But he did know he was addicted to alcohol.
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Well actually I read in a magazine article interview with Ryan Ross that he actually wrote this song about his dad, and Camisado was written about his dad as well so haha!! Lol
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This song is about ryans dads alcholism hence" your speech is slurred enough that you just might swallow your tongue" although it does seem like it is putting some human personalities to the drugs like others have said before me.
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I think it's about addiction:
slurred speech
"should've taken it one day at a time"
talks about pills
simple. Right? -
This song, like camisado is about his father and alcoholism. It was in an article in the july issue of kerrang!
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I agree with all the above interpretations. I think the title "Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks" have to do with the drugs the person in the song is taking, but it's also kind of irony, as the phrase "I eat nails for breakfast" means being tough.
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This song has to do with pills/meds/drugs/whatever, no doubt. Brava above.
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This one is talking about the dangers of addictions how I can about this idea is the line "Prescribed pills/To offset the shakes/To offset the pills/You know you should take/It a day at a time." Simply put, addiction is just a never ending chain that may most likely ruin your life, sure it states that pills are the addiction here but I think the overall message is about any addiction.
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I think that point about "she" being the drugs is a great interpretation! I would never have thought of that!>bravo<
You've also already touched on what I thought about the 'nails' and 'tacks' being drugs. In that these things are supposed to make you better, but really theyre destoying you from the inside out.
The demo includes another verse [thats also in the album booklet]
'a pessimist? no, I just can't help it
to say what everyone else is thinking
let me state the obvious again'
That might help you with your interpetation. Also after 'to offset the shakes. To offset the pills' it says in brackets 'fix a vice with a vice'.
the whole dependancy on drugs thing?
Another plausible meaning of this song I've heard is that this is about an attention seeking hypochondriac. who is feigning mental illness.
They've been sent to the hospice after a suicide attempt and are given special attention. "a >cut< above all the rest" is a play on words.
To keep themselves there theyre faking stutters [with the way youve been talking every word gets you a step closer to hell - you're lying with every stutter.] to 'the support on the line' aka the staff and faking delusions etc.
Everyone knows they're a fake but no one will say anything except the narrator. [see the extra verse]. I assume the narrator is another carer who is just fed up with this person's act.
I know there's a lot missing from that but it does give you a little bit of an idea as to the song's meaning.
The other possibility is that this is about Ryan's father. I know that's what Camisado is about and in the interview with rolling ston ryan mentioned it wasn't the only song about his father. -
To elaborate my point further, not sure if there really are legitimate 'script nicknames, such as "nails" and "tacks" but it makes a lot of sense if certain drugs are known by these names, even if not, they are good metaphors for such. I'm also beginning to think that there is no physical "she" in the song, he's just talking about pills in human form, well documented in history as being common:
"lady heroin", "mary jane" etc
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