Rise Against - Good Left Undone Meaning

Good Left Undone Lyrics

In fields where nothing grew but weeds,
I found a flower at my feet,
Bending there in my direction,
I wrapped a hand around its stem,
I pulled until the roots gave in,
Finding there what I’ve been missing,
But I know…
So I tell myself, I...

1. brando374

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   Nov 13th 2007 !⃝

   Music is supposed to move you. What's fun about a song if you know exactly what it means. This song to me is about a relationship I just got out of. So interpret the song how you wish to, it's about what you want it to mean.
   
   peace
   and
   love
   brandon
2. anonymous

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   Oct 17th 2007 !⃝

   You know what I think it's about both Political standings and relationships... Put it this maybe the song is pointing out how people are throwing away relations ships over nothing and that people are marrying to.. just be married and then divorcing, you could even go as far to say the song could go as far as abuse... So with that you hae the chorus singing about a relation while the versus stating peoples problems with taking marriage seriously not even marriage relations period. But I'm just saying this to take both sides of interpretations. and my reasoning example would be
   
   "in fields where nothing grew but weeds
   i found a flower at my feet"
   
   - finding someone good in this sea of Fallowers (getting into marriage because someone else did)
   
   "So I tell myself, I tell myself, it's wrong.
   There's a point we pass from which we can't return.
   I felt the cold rain of the coming storm..."
   
   - explaining how people get themselves into something there not ready for, doing it then getting stuck in that position, the storm interpreats to fighting and arguing because it was never meant to be.
   
   "All because of you,I haven't slept in so long.When I do I dream of drowning in the ocean; longing for the shore where I can let my hair down. I'll follow your voice; all you have to do is shout it out!"
   
   - this I think you could be as the original interpretation or describing the process that woman use to run away from the abuse of home. All because of you... Haven't slept in so long could mean th haunting nights of the past, and longing for the shore, meaning longing to escape and live with out fear...
   
   Should be enough to understand were I'm getting but, sense I see the argument of its ot about love and Rise Against doesn't sing emotionally but more on politically and world issues, I wanted to explain my combination of both together...
3. anonymous

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   Jul 10th 2007 !⃝

   I hate how people say bands are emo because they sing about love. Aerosmith sings about love and breakups and are they emo?
4. anonymous

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   Jul 10th 2007 !⃝

   K some of there songs r about political shit but not all are like the approaching curve is obviously about a girl, so why can't the good left undone be about a relationship?

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Jul 5th 2007 !⃝

   Did you ever think that maybe Rise Against does this on purpose? They leave the song to our own imaginations and we can think of it however we want to
6. anonymous

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   Jun 22nd 2007 !⃝

   Rise Against as Tim said that they are NOT a political band although he did say that it IS one side of their band but not the only side, meaning that they don't want to be know as just a political band and that not all of their songs are just for politics. I strongly think that this song is talking about his love, this band is definitely not an emo band just because it means love...
   
   But all and all this is a great song.
7. anonymous

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   Jun 2nd 2007 !⃝

   Jeez I've only been to this site twice and everyone here is so ignorant (well the ones I've seen).
   
   1. A song can mean anything to anyone so no ones really wrong.
   
   and 2... Just because a band has a lot of political songs doesn't mean that ALL their songs have to be political.
   
   I guess there's a 3. Pretty much every band/artist will eventually write AT LEAST one love song. It's something we can all relate to and something everyone goes from.
   
   I hope the people on this site will GROW UP some day. This is my last visit.
8. anonymous

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   Feb 19th 2007 !⃝

   Rise against aren't a left wing political band. If they were they would write every song about that stuff... but some songs are just plain old love songs. It's in an interview with tim yo!
   
   I personally think this song is about when he was gardening in the summer right!
9. anonymous

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   Jan 31st 2007 !⃝

   Tim was never married in the first place so how would he get divorced...
   
   I think this song has personal and political meanings. It could be about the planet and politics but it also could be about having to leave his girlfriend for one reason or another. Over all Rise Against lyrics are pretty much always up for individual interpretations. I think they probably want their fans thinking for themselves.
10. anonymous

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    Jan 25th 2007 !⃝

    I agree with the comment above me, all musicians use their music to express themselves and if it is a relationship problem that's going on then that's what inspires their writing and what they are going to express it doesn't classify their type of music aka make them emo, anyway this song could be interpreted either way I agree more with the environmental side just because of Rise Against's larger history towards environmental messages in their songs, but it is possible that both subjects were considered in writing this song, good writers leave their work up for interpretation and only he knows what message he wanted to give and maybe he was trying to send two messages about his relationship trouble and the environment, both sides have their cases and evidence
11. brokenenterprises

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    Dec 4th 2006 !⃝

    I too think that this song is about a previous relationship that he has had. This is the one person who he saw as good in this life "in fields where nothing grew but weeds....". I do think that they are rather politically minded and use their music to send a message (i.e. prayer of the refugee). I respect them for their efforts to send a message the best way they know how.
12. anonymous

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    Nov 25th 2006 !⃝

    the guy above is right however don't believe in all the bullshit the left says...and I don't reall think rise agianst is like totally ecoterrorist liberal hippies.....just kno you have ot conserve and protect our earth...but not at the cost of mans well being ...dont go over board
13. anonymous

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    Nov 23rd 2006 !⃝

    Actually,Tim recently went through a pretty rough divorce, and although most Rise Against songs are politically oriented, they do also write songs that deal with their personal lives.
    
    I.E. Like the Angel, Swing Life Away, The Good Left Undone, etc. Have relatively little political meaning.
14. anonymous

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    Nov 16th 2006 !⃝

    Don't pay any attention to the above interpretation. Rise against is not an emo band, and he's not whining about a past relationship. Rise against is a band of left-wing, politically active environmentalists.
    
    Unlike the previous poster, I'm honest enough to say I don't know what this song is about, but you can bet it has to do with how we're ruining our own future or hurting our own people.
    
    "in fields where nothing grew but weeds
    i found a flower at my feet"
    
    - finding something good in this sea of destruction we call earth
    
    "I wrapped a hand around its stem
    and pulled until the roots gave in
    finding there what I've been missing"
    
    - finding profit in destroying the last untouched part of the environment
    
    "so I tell myself, (tell myself) it's wrong
    there's a point we pass from which we can't return
    i felt the cold rain of the coming storm"
    
    - our capitalistic, short-sighted government and social structure is wrong, we're close to the point of no return in terms of screwing up our planet, and we're beginning to feel the effects of the 'coming storm' in terms of climate change and species extinctions
    
    "all because of you
    i haven't slept in so long
    when I do I dream
    of drowning in the ocean
    longing for the shore
    where I can lay my head down"
    
    - probably spoken from the first person, all because of the corporations and policy makers, people concerned with our future aren't able to get much sleep, worried about the horrible future we're constructing for ourselves and our children
    
    
    all that having been said, rise against's lyrics are rarely literal. There's many possible interpretations here, but if you want to know what he's really singing about you need to do research into what kind of band they are.
    
    The last thing tim mcilrath is going to sing about is some botched relationship.