What do you think Misguided Ghosts means?

Paramore: Misguided Ghosts Meaning

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Album cover for Misguided Ghosts album cover

Misguided Ghosts Lyrics

1, 2, 3, 4

I'm going away for awhile
But I'll be back, don't try and follow me
Cause I'll return as soon as possible
See I'm tryna find my place
But it might not be here where I feel safe
We all learn to make mistakes

And run
From...

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  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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     Jan 2nd 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about finding who you are and realizing that no matter how dysfunctional your circumstances are you will always be excepted even if it's only in a group of outsiders. It's also about learning to except your mistakes and getting over the broken pieces in the world to repair your own shattered self. I don't know/care if this is right because it's how I interpreted it. Love Hayley's voice! Amazing song!

  2. Anabella
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     Aug 19th 2014 !⃝

    I feel like this song is like the last letter from a suicidal person. Saying how they feel(felt).

    "I'm going away for a while,
    but i'll be back don't try and follow me."
    *could be them saying goodbye without worrying the person.

    "I'm just one of those ghost.
    Travelling endlessly"
    *could be them saying i feel lifeless, emotionalless, hopeless, numb. i'm just barely getting by.

  3. anonymous
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     Mar 26th 2014 !⃝

    In my opinion it is the mosst honest song i've ever heard. Everyone knows situations whereyou just think that nothing is going right for you and life really sucks in any way. And it makes me think of that everyone is individual in their own way. And we cannot be real when everything is safe because in life you have to experiences, even if you sometimes take the wrong direction.

  4. anonymous
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     Dec 13th 2012 !⃝

    This song reminds me of me, a misguided ghost basically means a lost spirit. Who dosn't know who they really are and has gone to find them selves in the most bad or horrible way as possible!

  5. anonymous
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     Dec 5th 2012 !⃝

    I think this song is made for those of us who dn't know where we are. Not saying we don't know if we're at the park, or the swimming pool or something like that. It's for those of us who aren't necessarily sure where we are meant to be in this world because of our past experiances, not feeling accepted, etc.

  6. anonymous
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     Sep 6th 2012 !⃝

    I think it means that we all have to find ourselve and through each mistake and each down fall we will feel alone.But life goes on and we have to make our own path because we really have no dierection we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow or the next second we just wonder and follow we constantly do the samw thing over and over again in which case going in circles but we always make a change something always change us we never stay the same but our path will always follow us meaning we let our own regret drag us down but we keep going looking for someone else to help us keep going and so in the end we find our self searching and looking for the unknown walking miles for something that we don't know we want

  7. anonymous
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     May 31st 2012 !⃝

    Abandonment?

    If you think about the first half of the song and picture them being said from a mother, father, wife, or husband unhappy with their life that wants to make a new life elsewhere, most of it make sense like "I am going away from a while, but I'll be back don't try to follow me" or "See, I'm trying to find my place, but it might not be here where I feel safe"

    Starting at "Well, now I'm told that this is life..." the rest of the song could be from the perspective of the person that was abandoned.

  8. anonymous
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     Mar 5th 2012 !⃝

    Well, firstly, why do you keep ymnliipg she could have a miscarriage? You dont want a self-fulfilling prophecy. I tried the whole have a baby to make the relationship work idea. Now I have a four year old with two single parents. Dont get me wrong, she's a happy child and her father plays an active role in her life but this was not the ideal situation for her. It sounds like your girlfriend might be having second thoughts. It's nothing you or having a child with you can talk her into. You seem like a gentleman who deserves a girl that can reciprocate your love. Maybe discuss adoption with your girl? Please dont let abortion be an option. And just to reiterate a baby does not solve or mend a relationship. As precious as they are, they complicate relationships that have issues to begin with. Anybody will tell you that!Good luck! And find a girl deserving of your dedication! Was this answer helpful?

  9. anonymous
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     Feb 6th 2012 !⃝

    I feel like it's a piece about life. About the roads that are paved ahead of time for everybody, and about the fact that straying from them is quite difficult.
    The introductory verse is easy enough to understand. The speaker is confused, and decides to take that confusion and inspect it on her own. Based of the mentions of finding her place, we can deduce that her current position in life is either not the one she wanted or unsatisfactory. The second option, which is more likely, then corresponds to her explanation: "It might not be here where I feel safe."
    The arts are an industry about emotion and passion. A common idea behind such a career is the fact that you can release your emotions into a safe atmosphere. But if we compare that with this, we see that somehow this safe setting is unsatisfactory, reinforced by her next few lines.
    Her commentary of running from mistakes without direction can be taken at face value- when you realize you've made a mistake, you usually scramble to fix it without considering logically how to do so.
    Then she continues with her metaphor about being a ghost. This line portrays (along with the tone of the song) a slightly ethereal quality; she feels, for lack of a better word, floaty. Untied, she searches for a path to take, wondering if she should continue in the direction she is in, or take a new road. This then corresponds with her next line- "Don't need no roads./ In fact they follow me." She is trying to set a path for herself, but all of the choices she has are full of preconceived notions. Instead of simply doing what she likes, she feels like no matter what she chooses, she will have to do what others want from her. The "roads" follow her until she chooses one, and as she tries to escape them, she comes across even more, leading her to "go in circles."
    She then continues to relay the idea "that this is life/ and pain is but a simple compromise/so we can get what we want out of it." Her thoughts on the matter are waved away with these words. People tell her that she expects too much out of life, and that the pain of choosing and following is negligible in comparison to what she will gain.
    This opinion is met with her own plea, given in the next few lines, in which she retaliates, asking someone to tell her which of the pains is easiest so she can choose a path that hurts less than the others. She's asking for help in choosing the path of least resistance instead of going after what she truly wants- she's giving up, and basically saying that she'll listen to whoever has a legitimate answer for her. But it takes the shape of a plea, and as the song continues on, we can deduce that nobody has an answer to give her, and so she has nobody to run to.
    With this in mind, she comforts herself (you can almost picture a small child hugging his or her knees) with the phrase "Oh you are not useless/we are just..." She continues with her song, and now we see definitively that she is trying to reassure herself, and that she is simply accepting the fact that while most people are critics, few to none are willing to resolve problems. "The ones we trusted the most/pushed us far away."
    The next two lines are a protest; again, she is going through stages of acceptance and self-assurance. Much like when one is crying for some reason or another, she enters the phase in which she tells herself emphatically that she's right, and that she shouldn't doubt herself.
    The song ends in reluctant acceptance; the problem unresolved, she finishes the song reflecting once more on the circular nature of her struggle, and the fading quality of the music and vocals invoke an image of somebody musing quietly to themselves, speaking aloud before tapering off into reflective silence.

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Oct 12th 2011 !⃝

    I understand this song ,metaphorically meant, as a journey. It's a journey, everyone of us has to make in order to find out, who we really are, where we belong and what we want in life. It's about a person ( meaning: everyone could be this person) who's really confused. Maybe it's because of growing up and everything that comes along with it, like: pressure, losing grip, feeling alone and empty, relation-ships, travelling out to unknown places, disappointing things...

    I like the way it's written, because you can be sure that Hayley & the rest of the band would NEVER ever write a song, they can't identify with.
    So the clever thing about it is, that she deals with her own feelings and experiences and still lets everyone in the world feel, as if he or she was the one, the song was written about/for.

  11. anonymous
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     Aug 31st 2011 !⃝

    I think this is a song about moving on and realizing that the places and the people you feel comfortable around isn't always where you are meant to be."See I'm trying to find my place, but it might not be here where I feel safe".

  12. anonymous
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     Jul 17th 2011 !⃝

    I think, that this song is about feeling like you have no place on Earth, that you don't know what you want, what your value is, and your purpose in this world, and that you don't know where you're heading, so we run away from our problems and it always goes into a viscous cycle.

  13. lizzizzme
    click a star to vote
     Mar 15th 2011 !⃝

    I think it may be about the pressures of being in the spotlight and still trying to figure out what 'truth' is or what is 'right'.

    I'm going away for awhile
    But I'll be back, don't try and follow me
    Cause I'll return as soon as possible
    See I'm tryna find my place
    But it might not be here where I feel safe
    We all learn to make mistakes
    ((everyone wants to know what i would do and i am asking for some alone time to rethink the things i have believed for so long))

    And run
    From them, from them
    With no direction
    We'll run from them, from them
    With no conviction
    ((i don't know what i will find or where i am going or how i will feel when i get there))

    Cause I'm just one of those ghosts
    Travelling endlessly
    Don't need no roads
    In fact they follow me
    ((i am just like everyone else, but people want to follow my example anyways, even though i may be going off road))

    And we just go in circles
    (('there is nothing new under the sun'))

    Well now I'm told that this is life
    And pain is just a simple compromise
    So we can get what we want out of it
    Would someone care to classify,
    Of broken hearts and twisted minds
    So i can find someone to rely on
    ((seems that everyone comes to the same mid-life crisis and the only way out is through, and i want someone to follow to relieve this pressure))

    And run
    To them, to them
    Full speed ahead
    Oh you are not useless
    We are just
    ((everyone has something to offer))

    Misguided ghosts
    Travelling endlessly
    The ones we trusted the most
    Pushed us far away
    And there's no one road
    We should not be the same
    But i'm just a ghost
    And still they echo me
    ((no one elses opinion carries more weight than my own, and yet people still seem to want to follow my example))

    They echo me in circles
    ((and still i am followed))

    maybe, maybe not.

  14. anonymous
    click a star to vote
     Feb 13th 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about being an individual (different) in the mainstream world that we live in. If you are different everyone will tag you or laugh at you and this song is about trying to find your place in the middle of this crowd of intolerance. You feel like a misguided ghost because you don't have anyone to follow or rely on.
    Oh, check out my band here:
    www.myspace.com/statictimeband
    thanks!

  15. hateistheq
    click a star to vote
     Mar 2nd 2010 !⃝

    Basically I think this song is about losing a friend and trying to move on, so forgive me if I'm wrong

    Verse 1}
    I am going away for a while
    But I'll be back, don't try and follow me
    'Cause I'll return as soon as possible
    See I'm trying to find my place
    But it might not be here where I feel safe
    We all learn to make mistakes
    (She's leaving behind her friend who betrayed her or something, but she'll be back soon enough)


    And run
    From them, from them
    With no direction
    We'll run from them, from them
    With no conviction
    (she's running away from all the sadness and pain that she's feeling because of this.)


    Cause I'm just one of those ghosts
    Traveling endlessly
    Don't need no roads
    In fact they follow me

    And we just go in circles
    (She's one of those lonely people, just looking for people and that she just goes on, but she goes right back to where she started)


    Well Now I'm told that this is life
    And pain is just a simple compromise
    So we can get what we want out of it
    Would someone care to classify,
    Of broken hearts and twisted minds
    So I can find someone to rely on
    (She's been living it up for a while but then things start to fall apart and she realizes that life isn't so perfect and people are cruel, but she has to go on to find someone else)


    And run
    To them, to them
    Full speed ahead
    Oh you are not, Useless
    We are just
    (when she gets to the place she needs to be, she'll run to them, and she realizes that she's not a bother)


    Misguided ghosts
    Traveling endlessly
    The ones we trusted the most
    Pushed us far away
    And there's no one road
    We should not be the same
    But I'm just a ghost
    And still they echo me

    They echo me in circles
    (She used to be on e of those people who were just lonely and looking for friends, after their old ones ditched them and ignored them, and they have to start all over)


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