Paramore: Brick by Boring Brick Meaning
Song Released: 2009
Brick by Boring Brick Lyrics
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of a world that she's left behind
It's all about the exposure, the lens, I told her
The angels are all wrong now
She's ripping wings off of...
-
1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:She lives in a fairy tale
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of the world that she's left behind
(The girl in the song is living in a fantasy world she has made up)
It's all about the exposure the lens I told her
The angles were all wrong now
She's ripping wings off of butterflies
(She sees this 'fairytale' world as perfect but behind it all it's a dark place)
keep your feet on the ground
when your head's in the clouds
(Basically saying you need to remain in touch with reality. You can dream but you need to be realistic)
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle; bury the castle
(I think this is maybe saying you sometimes need help to get back to reality and stop living in the fantasy world you've built up)
Ba da ba ba da ba ba ha
So one day he found her crying
Coiled up on the dirty ground
Her prince finally came to save her
And the rest you can figure out
(links back to the fairytale with the classic happily ever after ending)
But it was a trick
And the clock struck 12
(But everything isn't what it seems and if you live in your own fantasy world you can't expect a happy ending)
Well make sure to build your house brick by boring brick
or the wolves gonna blow it down
(saying make sure you live in reality and don't build your entire life on dreams and fantasys)
keep your feet on the ground
when your head's in the clouds
(Keep in touch with reality and don't get carried away by your dreams)
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
(you can get help getting back to reality)
Well you built up a world of magic
Because your real life is tragic
Yeah you built up a world of magic
(The girl felt she had to build up this world because her own life was tragic and she needed a way to escape and be who she wanted to be)
If it's not real
You can't hold it in your hand
You can't feel it with your heart
And I won't believe it
But if it's true
You can see it with your eyes
Or even in the dark
And that's where I want to be, yeah
(The fantasys that have been built are pointless because they're not real. Real life is whats important because you know that it's real even if you can't see things for what they are.)
Go get your shovel
We'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
(they want to leave the unrealistic dreams behind and live in reality)
Guys x2:
ba da ba ba da da ba da......
Hayley x2:
ba da ba ba da ba ba da..... -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:She lives in a fairy tale
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of the world that she's left behind
(This girl has created a fantasy world for herself to escape the real one)
It's all about the exposure the lens I told her
(life is all about your outlook. The narrator is trying to tell the girl that if she looks at things more optimisically, they won't be that bad.)
The angels were all wrong now
She's ripping wings off of butterflies
(what she's been told was good really wasn't; she's destroying innocence)
keep your feet on the ground
when your head's in the clouds
(When you dream, don't get carried away.)
CHORUS:
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle; bury the castle
Ba da ba ba da ba ba pow
(She is saying that the girl should bury her fantasies, because they're hurting her more than helping her.)
So one day he found her crying
Coiled up on the dirty ground
Her prince finally came to save her
And the rest you can figure out
But it was a trick
And the clock struck 12
(She has made up a boy to come save her, and she got hurt when she got too carried away and had to force herself to realize he was never really there. [not too sure about this one..but it's a possibility. Another one is that she left her fanatasy world for a boy and got hurt because she was used to everything going how she imagined, and reality was too much for her to handle. You pick which one you like better.])
Well make sure to build your house brick by boring brick
or the wolves gonna blow it down
(This line is key. It sums up the central message: If you live your life by logic and reality, you're not as likely to get hurt. It will be boring but sturdy.)
keep your feet on the ground
when your head's in the clouds
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Well you built up a world of magic
Because your real life is tragic
Yeah you built up a world of magic
(speaks for itself)
If it's not real
You can't hold it in your hand
You can't feel it with your heart
And I won't believe it
But if it's true
You can see it with your eyes
Oh even in the dark
And that's where I want to be, yeah
(Here she debates what the meaning of "real" is. Is it what you can hold in your hands, or feel in your heart? And in the end she decides that where she wants to be is with that which is real in your mind- the kind you can see in the dark because its in your heart, not in your eyes.)
Go get your shovel
We'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Ba da ba da ba... -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Verse 1 ::
She lives in a fairy tale
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of the world that she's left behind
[Obviously, she's living in her own world where nothing is wrong. She's far from the world and she's so caught up on it that she really has forgotten about the real world.]
It's all about the exposure the lens I told her
The angels were all wrong now
She's ripping wings off of butterflies
[The first line I think is about how her life isn't the way the world she sees it. She looks at her life in a different through her own eyes, or 'lens.' I don't know about the second line, because I can't interpret it, but I think I understand the last line. The butterflies represent life, nature. In order for butterflies to go around freely, they need their wings, but then she's destroying them by ripping off their wings. She's destroying her own life.]
Keep your feet on the ground
When your head's in the clouds
[Don't wander too far off from the world. That's all I got.]
Chorus ::
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Ba da ba da ba
[I think this talks about how she's digging her own grave. She's destroyer her body, her 'castle,' by destroying her life. She's probably doing drugs or cutting herself, but I doubt that she's cutting herself. Haha.]
Verse 2 ::
So one day he found her crying
Coiled up on the dirty ground
Her prince finally came to save her
And the rest you can figure out
[So the person that she loves 'noticed' her and she saved her from what she was going through. He made her happy and you know, they end up 'loving' each other, and you can figure out the rest.]
But it was a trick
And the clock struck 12
[Well, it is what it is. It was a trick. He was only using her for his own purposes. 'And the clock struck 12' was, I'm guessing, from Cinderella, when she had to leave and her dreams of being with the prince, her dance with him, her happiness, was over. Although, she didn't have a happily ever after story.]
Well make sure to build your house brick by boring brick
or the wolves gonna blow it down
[She should get stronger and be happier, or else the big bad world would just bring her down again.]
Bridge ::
Well you built up a world of magic
Because your real life is tragic
Yeah you built up a world of magic
[She made a world of her own with magic and fantasies and nothing can go wrong. She probably went through a lot because that's what people who have went through a lot do, and she probably doesn't want to go go through any of it anymore.]
If it's not real
You can't hold it in your hands
You can't feel it with your heart
And I won't believe it
But if it's true
You can see it with your eyes
Oh even in the dark
And that's where I want to be, yeah
[Hayley's comparing what's real & what's not and she won't believe anything that she can't see or touch. She's probably talking about something like faith or ... magic. She wants to be in some place where she knows that everything's real. She doesn't want to be like that other girl who's living in a fantasy.] -
I think that this is about a girl who is living in her fantasies until one day she finally snaps back into reality, and is completely lost, and scared of the real world, because it's nothing like the place she is used to, and so she has to learn to forget the fantasies,and learn to live her life in the real world, (burying the castle).
-
I think this song is about a girl who couldn't handle the cruelties of reality, so she escapes into a fantasy land within her own mind. She spends so much time here, that she starts to forget what the real world is actually like. The second part is about how the definition of reality is unclear, and how it depends on your own views (or "lens"), and how the girl discovers that her fantasy isn't real at all, and that the world can be a horrific place. The line "...ripping wigs off of butterflies" shows how she is destroying innocence, because she lost her own. The chorus is saying she should stay out of and destroy her fantasies. "...bury the castle..." The part
Thee next part is about how she thought she was being saved by someone she loved, only to have those hopes crushed "...and the clock struck 12." The part about her building the house is saying that even if reality seems worse then her fantasy, staying there will only lead to harm. The part about keeping your feet on the ground is saying that you should only let your imagination take you so far. The next part is kind of self-explanatory, saying that she built a world of magic to escape the tragedy of the real world. The next part is kind of showing the difference between reality and fiction, and how she won't believe in things she "...can't feel in her heart," and that if it's real, "You can see it with your eyes, Oh even in the dark."
I don't know if this is all right, but it's my interpretation. -
She has a tragic life, and she's 'ripping wings off of butterflies' because she cant handle it any more, so she destroys all of the beauty she can find cause (i think) shes been called ugly, so she feels like she has to make sure no one else feels beautiful, and then when it says, her prince finally came to save her, it means shes fund someone who thinks she beautiful, so she doesn't want to destroy any more, then it says, you've built up a world of magic because ur real life is tragic, it proves that the person the songs about, has had a bad life. I always associate this with my big cuzie, cause she's LGBTQ+ and her mom doesn't accept her, she's always going on the internet or sleeping when she's at home, so she said his is her theme song (this is probs horrid)
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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She lives in a fairy tale
Somewhere too far for us to find
Forgotten the taste and smell
Of the world that she's left behind
[The girl in the song doesn't live in reality. She mainly sticks to her ideas, concepts, her realities.]
It's all about the exposure, the lens, I told her
The angles were all wrong now
She's ripping wings off of butterflies
[She sees the world through a "lens". Her idea of the world is much different than reality. The "angles" in which she lived were wrong and she felt as though her like was worth nothing, so instead of harming herself, she brought the pain upon butterflies, restricting them from living. Dark stuff, eh?]
Keep your feet on the ground
When your head's in the clouds
["Keep your feet on the ground" is pretty straightforward. Focus yourself on what's important, what's right in front of you.]
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Well go get your shovel
And we'll dig a deep hole
To bury the castle, bury the castle
Ba da ba da ba
[This fantasy could have been construed due to a traumatic childhood. This girl may be a teen or young adult, but with the prospects of a child. "Bury the castle" hints that she should get rid of everything she once knew.]
So one day he found her crying
Coiled up on the dirty ground
Her prince finally came to save her
And the rest you can figure out
[This is essentially a reference to classic fairy tales, such as Cinderella. The handsome prince saves the damsel in distress. "And the rest you can figure out" hints either sex or a generic fairy-tale ending, which, in the protagonist's mind, is what she wants.]
But it was a trick
And the clock struck 12
[The "prince" who had come to save her was just being selfish. He wanted her for his own deeds, may it be sex or whatever. "The clock struck 12" hints that it was all an illusion, a la the fairy godmother's magic in Cinderella.]
Well make sure to build your house brick by boring brick
or the wolves gonna blow it down
[Build yourself up or you're just going to fall down.]
Well you built up a world of magic
Because your real life is tragic
Yeah you built up a world of magic
[Because of a supposed hard life, this girl created a fantasy world in which nobody was hurt. But this ended up harming more than helping in the long run.]
If it's not real
You can't hold it in your hands
You can't feel it with your heart
And I won't believe it
But if it's true
You can see it with your eyes
Oh even in the dark
And that's where I want to be, yeah
[Hayley could be hinting at something like religion. Many of the concepts of a religion, such as a god, are not tangible, but can be believed in and "seen" within the mind. Paramore is an openly religious group, so this would not be a surprise to me.] -
Haley has written many songs about her life experiences. This song relates to one of her life experiences where she was a child, for example the castle, and then had to mature, like burying the castle. It could be interpreted as in high school. You come in as a child and living a fantasy, then you end up having to throw it all away and trade it in for maturity and responsilibity.
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An anon said it before, but I would like to add. This is about Monarch Programming. The little girl is a test subject to a brainwashing program, where she goes through unimaginable pain each day. She escapes to this fantasy world of hers as it is the only way to survive. As she gets further and further into her mind, she starts to forget about her abuse. But she needs to be pulled back to reality, and get her life together. Escape the lab, but to another physical place. Through her journey, she is trying to figure out what is real and what isn't; her definition of real is blurry. When she thinks that someone, a man, is coming to save her, she gets her hopes up and starts to believe it could all be better again. He disappoints her by being a lab tester, a part of the Monarch Programming, and beats and rapes her like she has never experienced before. The chorus is saying that they need to bury that fantasy that she is living in and come to terms with what is happening to her, and how to fix it. It is quite a brutal story, really.
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Well I think its about a girl who creates her own ideal world where everything is perfect for her. She got so carried away, that she couldn't believe they were corrupting her innocence and soon she was harmed and deceived. They tell her to keep a steady focus on reality and not get carried away. If she looses her grip she would live her whole life as a fantasy that tries to cover up her troubles. but its only hurting her and making her life worse. These "bricks" represent the strength of her resistance to her optimism or hallucination. It protect her from false perspectives. and bury them, so her fantasy or "lala" land wont destroy her.
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The song is about MK Ultra. Monarch Programming. Mind control. The Illuminati use it on children starting as early as two years old to warp them into obedient slaves.
"She lives in a fairy tale" refers to the alternate reality the child escapes to, as opposed to the horrifying reality she actually lives in.
"Somewhere too far for us to find" means that no one knows exactly what goes on in her mind because she's disconnected from reality.
"Forgotten the taste and smell of a world that she's left behind" suggests sensory deprivation, which is occasionally used in Monarch Programming.
"It's all about the exposure, the lens, I told her" is talking about when the child is old enough to be part of the media. You must look and behave the way you are told to front of the camera.
"The angles are all wrong now" means that everything she thought was real - her alternate reality - has turned nigtmarish, or she has discovered that it doesn't actually exist at all.
"She's ripping wings off of butterflies"
has a painfully obvious meaning - she grew up and, no longer the victim, is now the victimizer. She's helping torture children just as she was once tortured.
"Keep your feet on the ground while your head's in the clouds." There's a sense of disconnection or weightlessness when the child escapes reality.
"Well go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole, to bury the castle, bury the caste." Simply put, now that she's an adult, it's time to realize that the world she lived in as a child cannot exist anymore. Castles are one of the triggers used in Monarch Programming.
"So one day he found her crying, coiled up on the dirt ground." This could be a flashback, recalling how terrible her life actually was. She lived in a cell that was never cleaned. He was her handler, and one day he caught her crying. Children under mind control are suppossed to grow up tough.
"Her prince finally came to save her, and the rest you can figure out." Her handler was someone she was led to believe was a good guy, but he actually came to make her suffering worse.
"But it was a trick, and the clock struck twelve." He wasn't there to save her. He was there to beat and rape her.
"Well make sure to build your wall brick by boring brick, or the wolf's gonna blow it down." She has to separate what really happened and what did not, and do it solidly, or she could have a very serious mental breakdown. They also threw in a not-so-subtle reference to the Free Masons with the mention of bricks.
"If it's not real, you can't hold it in your hands, you can't feel it with your heart, and I won't believe it." Her fantasy world of her childhood is just that - a fantasy. Nothing real will come of it but delusion or maybe split personalities.
"But if it's true, you can see it with your eyes, oh even in the dark. And that's where I want to be, yeah." Hayley Williams is saying that, as a girl and more likely to be a victim of sexual abuse, she would rather stay in reality while being victimized "in the dark" than give up her mind to MK Ultra.
The overall message here can be either of two things: Paramore knows about MK Ultra (perhaps victims of it themselves) and wish to live in reality. Or they know that, having been subjected to mind control, a person has to separate him or herself from that part of their lives to be able to do the same to future generation Illuminati. -
This song seems to come from the viewpoint of two people; they come across as mean-spirited, possibly jealous, afraid that their own world is really just based on lies (otherwise why are they so worried about someone else's supposed "fantasy"), and generally live in darkness. They know their own situation is never going to last/survive, so they project their own anger and helplessness onto the subject in the song... All in all, the writer/writers sounds bitter and twisted...
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I, personally, connect pretty strongly to this song right now. To be blunt, I'm having a crappy time right now. Anyway, onto the interpretation.
This girl had a crappy life as a child, you see. Because of that, rather than face up to it, she hid in a fantasy world she created, where life was beautiful. Things slowly started deteriorating in that world, too - ripping wings off of butterflies, how the clock struck twelve. She realized that she needed to get back to the real world, build her home brick by boring brick, or reality will blow it down, just as it did to her fantasy world. In the end, she was forced to bury her castle - it's not real. You can't hold it in your hand, or truly feel it with your heart, and because of that, you can't really believe it. The real world is true - you can see it with your eyes, even in the dark. That's where she chose to be.
...That's where I have to be, too. -
i think it mean exactly what it says she doesn't live in the true world because she doesn't like her real life.
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I think its about tragedy and how people can insert themselves into vivid imaginational mindstates and there is only so much time you have to imagine before you can't tell the difference between reality and the unexisting. The girl falling into the whole symolizing the emotional break between the girls fantasy world. When you think about it, who. Has ever built themselves inside a fairytale or fantasy and could never dig themselves out. Its the biggest trap of them all. " go get your shovel" means keep digging until you find you breaking point. After all, fantasies are escapes. "Bury the castle" can mean two things :1 burying childhood and forgetting or 2. Facing reality. This song is a favorite for me because my 12 year old imagination is overactive and everytime I pull away, it keepsbtugging me back. Is my castle burried? I don't think it will ever be.
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I think that by burring the castle, she's growing up. They made it look like she was the little girl in the music video, and the girl didn't fall in to the whole, she jumped in.
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The top few interpretations are true in a sense. The song actually alludes to the MK-Ultra brainwashing. When she was found 'coiled up on the dirty ground' her mind was fighting the effects and it scared her. The 'prince' that came to save her would allude to her handler that makes things better all over again
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