Panic! At The Disco: The Ballad of Mona Lisa Meaning
Song Released: 2011
The Ballad of Mona Lisa Lyrics
He starts to notice empty bottles of gin
And takes a moment to assess the sin
She's paid for
A lonely speaker in a conversation
Her words are swimming through his ears again
There's nothing...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I think that "She paints her fingers with a close precision" could just mean that she is not upset and broken down about the death (she is not shaking or sobbing) which implied that she shows no remorse for killing him. She is drinking to repress her guilty conscience.
In the next section I think that "there's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you've paid for" may have been the last words that she said to him before killing him.
Then the chorus could be him asking her what she meant when she said that. He is implying that she is heartless when he says she will "run this town" (as in she will do anything whether moral or amoral to gain something). Then he says how he wants revenge by saying "I'd pay to see you frown".
Then he goes on to talk about how she does not want to be alone again and she is desperate to find a new man quickly. "Another dollar another day" could be him calling her a gold-digger/slut and trying to move onto the next man she sees as a source of money (the man she is talking to at the funeral). The next few lines could mean that she will not tell the next man she is turning to about the murder because no one would take her in if they knew what she had done.
He then searches for a way to catch her but nobody sees him apart from the child and he gets the child to get the note out of his pocket and show just what she has done. This could imply that he had his suspicions that she would do that before the murder but was angry when he saw that nobody had found the note.
The repetition of the line "there's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you've paid for" at the end, to me, shows how he is happy that she is paying for what she did and that there is a great sense of triumph due to the irony of the line (she said it to him before he died and now he can do the same to her).
The whole Mona Lisa connection could be about how she is putting on a mask to cover up her sins just like the Mona Lisa has a slight smile on her face yet shows sadness in her eyes.
This is just my interpretation of the song but, then again, the fact that there can be several reasonable interpretations of the meaning of the song is what makes it art, right? -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:The hardest part of interpreting the song is finding out the context in which the lines are sung. I feel that there are 4 different members of this story: the Narrator, Mona Lisa, a man who is most likely a very close friend of Mona Lisa, and a client.
I'll start analyzing the lines from the beginning
"She paints her fingers with a close precision, he starts to notice empty bottles of gin, he takes a moment to assess the sins she's paid for" this is relatively obvious. a woman, mona lisa, has suddenly begun to drink a lot and get all dressed up before going out somewhere. A man of unknown relation to her starts to notice these things, and he wonders what they mean. These lines are said by the narrator.
"A lonely speaker in a conversation" This shows that he tries to talk to her about it, but she's being very stubborn and won't say much, making him the only one saying anything. Again said by the narrator.
"Her words are spinning through his ears again: Theres Nothing Wrong With Just A Taste Of What You Payed For" in this line, mona lisa seems to have finally given in and said something of use. The first part is the narrator, but the second part is clearly a quote said by mona lisa directed towards the man in the story. This leads the listener to believe that she is a prostitute; she dresses up nicely, drinks a lot, and gives people what they payed for. It leads to no other logical conclusion
"Say what you mean! Tell me i'm right, and let the sun rain down on me! Give me a sign, I want to believe!" These are the first lines in the song which the man says himself. He is asking her, probably desperately and emotionally, to tell him exactly what she's talking about without being so unclear and mysterious. The sun naturally represents enlightening or a gaining of knowledge, so he's asking her to tell him the truth. He then says give me a sign i want to believe, which is possibly a way of saying "i think you're a whore based on what ur acting like right now. just tell me the truth. if you aren't then i want to believe that you're a good person"
"Whoa Mona Lisa, you're guaranteed to run this town." The man shows that if she were a prostitute she would become the main event of the town because she is most likely an outgoing, beautiful, and mysterious woman. She would become the town's secret obsession, and the man knows it, so he tries to warn her not to go through with prostitution.
"Whoa Mona Lisa, I'd pay to see you frown" The painting The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is famous because of Mona Lisa's smile; it appears that she has some kind of dark mysterious secret, and people always wonder what it is. The man in the song makes a reference to this, by saying that instead of paying her for sex he would pay her to end her secrets and wipe that smug, mysterious smile off her face.
"He senses something call it desperation, another dollar another day" The narrator is now telling of a NEW man, different from the first man who sings the chorus. This man is a client of mona lisa and is paying her for her services. He senses something different in her, possibly that she's only in the prostitution business in order to get money, not because she wants to be. She is desperate, and probably poor.
"And if she had the proper words to say she would tell him... But she'd have nothing left to sell him" The narrator shows that the client seems to have questioned her about her desperation and why she chose to be a prostitute. She knew exactly what she wanted to tell him, but whatever she wanted to say would have made the man decide not to hire her, so she didn't say anything. She most likely would have told the truth, leading the man to feel sorry for her and not pay for her services, or she would have insulted him, which obviously would have pushed him away too.
(Chorus again, same interpretation except at this point she seems to have gotten home from the client and the first man is singing to her again)
"Mona Lisa, wear me out. Pleased to please ya" This is spoken by the client. In all seriousness, it's probably a kind of orgasmic feeling that he's going through and he's really liking her services. She's wearing him out and he's pleased to have sex with her.
(Chorus, same interpretation) -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:i think the song is a bit of an inner struggle. Take "he" and "she" to be two sides of a person's personality. "She" being a bit of the devil, trying to coax to good in the person that "there's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you've paid for", as if tempting him to do something immoral. In the first two stanzas, it introduces the two sides, and the bottles of gin suggest the "vice" that is "her" (remember the album name is vices and virtues).
"Say what you mean, tell me I'm right" Is sort of an argument between the two sides, and the person with the two sides later goes on to say "give me a sign, I wanna believe", as if to say he doesn't know what to do or what to believe.
As for the chorus, it may imply that Mona lisa is in fact the person with this inner struggle, but on the surface she looks proud and fine "guaranteed to run this town", and always seeming happy on the outside, "I'd pay to see you frown"
"he senses something call it desperation" sort of later implies that the virtue is winning, because the vice has "nothing left to sell him", so it no longer has a hold on the person anymore.
In the end, it appears the virtue has won, and the final line is either a cry or an echo of the vice, or maybe the fact that the virtue has come to accept a part of the vice. with the final line previously said by "her", "there's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you've paid for"
that's just what i think, probably not really true.
-Panic!Fan :D -
I think that he ticked her off and so she killed him. Have you seen the music video?
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If Mona Lisa is a prospector then why did she kill Brendon in the music video? Also she tried to run away when the young girl held up the letter that said "Mary did it" why did she run if her name is Mona Lisa???????
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a young adult (22, 23) is struggling with the loss of someone, which explains the empty bottles of gin. she talks to her therapist about how much she misses this loved one, but the therapist doesn't listen because (her words are swimming through his ears again) he had never had someone die and can't find a way to sympathize. the sin she paid for was alchoholism. alchoholism due to grief not handled well.
why the therapist was mentioned is because he plays a huge role in the second verse. he gets paid to listen to her, but the desperation he uses secretly when she visits allows money to be put in his pocket.
i don't know if this made sense... it falls into place in my head anyway. -
Based off the video, I think that, after Mary kills him (she is extremely nice to everyone but still committed a murder), his spirit finds a way to communicate to a little girl (Mona Lisa), who looks sweet and young, but really is capable of running the town, possibly in a slightly evil way (the grin that spreads across her face), and also this grin hints to the line "I'd pay to see you frown".
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Okay, so my thought is probably pretty similar to some other people's. When I first heard this song, I thought it may be talking about somebody who looked and acted 'beautiful', but was actually quite nasty (This person may be Mona Lisa or the girl in the official video, 'Mary') and said/did some extremely horrid things (Like how Mary murders the narrator/ the 'man in the black coat', in the video). Like in the lyrics, it says 'I'd pay to see you frown'. I'm guess it might mean something like 'I would pay real money to show people who you really are'. (I'm mostly talking about the music video, sorry!)
There's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for. I have a feeling this has something to do with what happens. Mona Lisa/Mary, in (probably) killing the man in the coat/narrator, basically paid to be punished, IE, probably going to jail or getting caught in that net-gun-thingy. (Seriously, who brings a net gun and weird joker-punchy device to a funeral?) I also think that the end of the video where we see fire in the mans eyes means that he has finally gotten revenge, and Mary/Mona Lisa has finally 'tasted what she's paid for'. -
Okay, so my thought is probably pretty similar to some other people's. When I first heard this song, I thought it may be talking about somebody who looked and acted 'beautiful', but was actually quite nasty (This person may be Mona Lisa or the girl in the official video, 'Mary') and said/did some extremely horrid things (Like how Mary murders the narrator/ the 'man in the black coat', in the video). Like in the lyrics, it says 'I'd pay to see you frown'. I'm guess it might mean something like 'I would pay real money to show people who you really are'. (I'm mostly talking about the music video, sorry!)
There's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for. I have a feeling this has something to do with what happens. Mona Lisa/Mary, in (probably) killing the man in the coat/narrator, basically paid to be punished, IE, probably going to jail or getting caught in that net-gun-thingy. (Seriously, who brings a net gun and weird joker-punchy device to a funeral?) I also think that the end of the video where we see fire in the mans eyes means that he has finally gotten revenge. I dunno, this probably sounds pretty ludicrous! -
Brendan was killed by Mary and she tries to stop him commutating with the world that's why there is all the rules (e.gstop the clock cover the mirrors). but he can communicate with the little girl who he tells to find the note he wrote before he died because he knew she was going to kill him and he couldn't stop her. so the girl finds the note and revels Marys secret.Mary probably is taken to jail and Brendan has had his revenge. Because there's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for
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Not going to type an essay on what I think this means like everyone else. Okay so according to the music video and lyrics, I think this song Is about a woman who seems so sweet but her true personality is horrible. "id pay to see you frown" he would pay for everyone to see her real side.
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What I think. I think the narrator or whatever was brutally murdered and the killer was bloody Mary she killed him (aka Mona Lisa) so she drinks so ease the guilt so she locks his spirit from the outside world
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I think it is the story behind her smile...
... don't know why -
The singer of Panic! At the Disco said that even though it may look like just a struggle between a guy and a girl at first, it really is a story about his personal struggles. I think it is all up to your own interpretation and how you want to view the story in this song- whether it's about a prostitute or a socialite, whether the use of the name "Mona Lisa" actually refers to the painting or is symbolic of a girl who smiles despite her pain and secrets. I think the cool thing about this song is that it could pretty much go either way. It's just about how you look at it.
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As you see the setting is a funeral type place. Brendan Urie ( the singer ) seems to have sometime of hate towards "Mary" So im thinking maybe mary and him were like enimies or like battleing for a spot at the towns mayjor or Mary killed him to get the spot . the she trys doing a spell on him ( thats why there are rules involved ) to keep him from contacting the living & thats why he was walking around trying to get peoples attention then he reliezes the girl is seeing him so he goes up & makes sure he isnt just seeing things & she smiles telling him she can see him & he tells her to get the note he put in his pocket before mary killed him , because he knew what was going to happen but he had no way of stopping it therefore he prepared to get payback on her. ( obviously the girl is sensitive to ghost and can see them more than regular people) so she finds the note & puts it up . & mary get put away to jail . Thats what i think everytime i watch the music video .
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i think that the guy who looks like a vampire is dead and is a ghost, so he is talking to her to get her to tell everyone that she killed him. So when he's talking to the little girl in the video "Mona Lisa, wear me out" I can't much explain why he's saying "wear me out" unless this whole thing has worn him out, and the little girl can see and hear him, so he wants her to prove that Mary (Mona Lisa) killed him. That's what I think but i could be wrong.
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I think that if you people would actually watch the music video AND read between the lines you'd understand. Mona lisa is what the man is referring to that she's a 2-face bc first off the guy is dead GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEADS!!! 2nd you can understand that the guy as in a close relationship with the girl and that she didn't truly love him, if you look close at all of the stuff the guy and girl had at their house in the video you can tell that it was all nice and that most likely means she was a goldigger and wasn't telling the man something, and probably he got to deep in her personal life that she got drunk, angry, and decided to kill the man, it never said anything dirty, the song was mostly REVENGE!watch the video and make your own interpretation bc a lot of the time everyone has their own different view of everything.
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If you all think about it, music as an art form is not reserved, thus meaning one can derive completely different meanings for the same song. It doesn't mean anyone is right, or wrong. The only way to actually get the meaning in which the song was written under, you would have to ask Urie himself, and that probably won't happen.
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