What do you think Little Black Submarines means?

The Black Keys: Little Black Submarines Meaning

Album cover for Little Black Submarines album cover

Song Released: 2011


Little Black Submarines Lyrics

Little black submarines
Operator please
Put me back on the line
Told my girl I'd be back
Operator please
This is wreckin' my mind

Oh can it be
The voices calling me
They get lost
And out of time
I should've seen it glow
But everybody...

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  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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     Jun 19th 2016 !⃝

    99% of the black keys' songs are metaphors about heroin addiction. .Under a microscope, heroin molecules in the bloodstream look like little black submarines. "Operator please put me back on the line" means he needs the fix. "Treasuremaps" is an old school reference for needle track marks, because they can resemble pirate- map type treasure maps in movies when they get bad., etc. There are always many interpretations, that what makes a popular song, but an experienced heroin addict can REALLY identify with these songs of depth and sorrow. The love and hate. The up and down. Figured I'd throw that out there. Appreciate the music but for the love of God stay away from heroin.

  2. anonymous
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     Aug 21st 2022 !⃝

    I thought “black beauties” …. I grew up in the 70’s, and it was a stimulant in pill form.

    So, I agree about the drug addiction, the depression and the attempt to deal with all that as well as loss of love and friends, with the use of drugs.

    Don’t do drugs, kids!

  3. anonymous
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     Apr 25th 2022 !⃝

    "Little Black Submarines" isn't about anything. The song, generally, is about lost love, heartache, etc. But the "little black submarines" line is probably a placeholder lyric that just stuck.

    When songwriters are searching for a melody to the chords they're playing, they just fill in whatever words feel right, even if they're total nonsense. After the melody is set, then they go back over and smooth out the placeholders so the song makes more sense as a story. Here though, the guys just thought "little black submarines" was funny or unique and kept it in there. I love this song, but the rest of the lyrics aren't particularly engaging. Keeping those lyrics in the song, even if they don't make sense, gives the song character.

  4. anonymous
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     Aug 31st 2021 !⃝

    "Under a microscope, heroin molecules in the bloodstream look like little black submarines" - heroin (C21H23NO5) has an atomic weight 370 so it is beyond the range of any normal microscope - it is possible to image at the atomic scale but "color" would be entirely at the discretion of the image processor. Carbon is often colored black in diagrams of atomic structure but you have to have a lot of imagination to see a black submarine.

  5. anonymous
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     Sep 18th 2019 !⃝

    If you've never been dead and resuscitated then u might not understand the lines..Oh can it be
    The voices calling me they get lost and out of time...in my personal experience you hear the voices of ppl you've lost in life when ur drifting between this plane and the next and they do gt lost and out of time (sync)..usually because you're in the process of being brought back to this one..I wish everyone finds some kinda love in this life and that you never have to delve so deeply into drugs or depression that u truly overstand this. Peace and Abundance all you beautiful humans out there

  6. anonymous
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     Jan 8th 2019 !⃝

    It's about a Navy Seal's radio communication on a fast capture or kill mission against a known terrorist stronghold. The song is the words of a Hero in the field. Little black Submarines are the teams' insertion method into deep hostile territory. The Operator is their forward command center. The Seal is radioing asking the Operator to correct his course several times because the subs guidance is out and manual course corrections are needed. Without them, he won't make it to the objective alive. The stealth subs are small, oxygen is limited, and he can't surface since detection is certain being right under hostile troops. The stress is eating at him causing him to consider turning away and he has lost track of plans to react because he knows he won't make it back to the love he's fighting for if the sub fails. His mind constantly fades back to his girl and it breaks his heart to know he might not make it back because of failed equipment. He blames himself for not seeing the malfunction light glow to switch to the backup systems but didn't notice with the stress of the guidance problem so radio transmissions are now also messed up. There are a few quiet beats of tense pause for final position to join the team and a sudden cut to uptempo instrumental guitar signals his landing and background engagements due to the teams' detection by hostile forces. The final verse is the last compressed coded radio call outs telling the Operator the treasure map (Intel is good, target is there) fallen trees (under fire) call me back when it's time (tell him when the extract is there) stolen friends (man down) the repeated broken heart is blind is stress taking control. This is signaling the Operator it's no longer a capture mission they've been compromised, all hostile forces are going down. Stepping away from the radio to go to work with the rest of his team the remaining notes are the sounds of a firefight. The first cords are a couple volleys of fire. Then the exchange picks up with every note of the broken riffs being a bullet incoming and outgoing. The final picks are the Seals coming out victorious as the final shots down the last remaining assailant. ...Fuck drugs, depressing junkies.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
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     Sep 3rd 2013 !⃝

    Always heard him say, "should have seen it go" as in his mind exiting following in pursuit his mind. A "glow" is comparable, however in that it is just as likely incomprehensible as the certian path of the said "broken heart."

  8. anonymous
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     Apr 3rd 2013 !⃝

    its about LOVE

  9. anonymous
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     Feb 22nd 2013 !⃝

    It's about a guy in a coma. The operator is God and he's asking him to patch him back to his mind... The "voices calling me" are people trying to talk to him in the hospital.

  10. anonymous
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     Nov 8th 2012 !⃝

    It's about addiction


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