Wake Up Interpretations
Wake Up
This one was sent in by Bunderboy@aol.com
"THE CRACKS AND LINES FROM WHERE YOU GAVE UP
THEY MAKE AN EASY MAN TO READ."
Layne subtly addresses his heroin problem, employing a metaphor of a broken
object. The double meaning of "crack" is clear as both heroin and a crack.
The "lines" he mentions can also be cracks or lines in
the drug sense. He feels empty and quickly judged,
an easy man to read.
Bunderboy@aol.com
This one from "it is I"
ok, here is my attempt at expressing what i get out of wake up. i used to
think that river of deceit was my fave song, but after listening to wake up
enough times, i must say that that song speaks so clearly and eloquently and
is so bitter-sweet (excuse the triteness) that i have to talk about it- if
anyone has a reply please send it. i do wanna say that this is the story i
see in the song, so its very easily open to arguement, but i think the
spirit of the song is the same for anyone
obviously the song is like a poem and has a simple story on the exterior
about a guy who is living a sort of lie. The speaker of the song (or, the
singer, i guess) is urging this guy to wake up and realize that the things
he had once thought of as real are not what they are supposed to be. the
way he has been living his life, the way he has looked at things- are just
full of regret and self degradation. the guy is killing himself because he
thinks feeling for the world and doing whats the "right thing" is the way it
should be- and because of this he is wasting a way. he has too much faith
in unstable things and he has come to a point in his life where he has to
make a choice because his skies are turning grey. he has romantacized
himself to the point where he doesn't believe himself to be some sort of
junkie or lowlife whose beautiful destiny is to rot away- he isn't a fool,
either, because he can keep his clear head inthe ambiguous yet blissful haze
of life. no, he is a person with responsibility in life- he has pressures
and expectations from others and from himself- he is supposed to grow up to
be someone and make something out of himself. but he cannot understand the
irony of growing in one way but at the same time wasting away- whatever it
is that is happening to him, whatever this realization is, it is not just
some stage in life that he must conquer. it is not just puberty, not just a
midlife crisis, not just menopause, not just a little manic depression. no-
its the real thing, its life- its the way he his killing himself in the name
of love and god and good and truth. this is what he must wake up from- this
is what he must leave behind and start all over. there is definitely drug
reference which, hose who just assume its for junkies and evil ppl, is a
symbol for losing hope and faith in the normal solutions to life. in my
opinion, i think drug use is much more profound and spritual though sad- its
a complex problem which can involve too many things- in the case of this
song the drugs were a way to escape the frustration with life and love and
finding meaning- its an age old cliche, but its still a deep issue that only
few can truly understand and empathize. and, this part i do not understand
but i can interpret due to my own battles with drug use, drugs can sometimes
be a self destructive element that isn't suicide but it is. it isn't a cry
for help, but in some ways it is. its a true way to close your eyes and
sleep for one second from the pain of aloneness- and its a true way to get
rid of yourself in a quiet way. even if it doesn't kill you, which really
isn't the aim, it does kill your soul so you don't have to encounter any
more pain, but at the price of enountering no more love.
i guess i should mention themes and stuff, just like my extremely
intelligent high school english teacher forced me to, but i think you can
get it if you can get it.
also, i will try to write about what the music does for the lyrics, or
actually the other way around. anyway, the song itself is so unique because
it is very hypnotic and subtle at parts- like at the beginning. the bass
inthe very start just makes you try to listen extra hard to what is playing
and when you do that you are caught up into the song. the vocals, unlike in
alice in chains, are very crisp and clear and very melodious, as opposed to
very rocking. but, layne stays very soft until certain parts of the song,
where it seems that there is a build up of pressure and a sudden, very
impassioned release of emotion. after the second release, (from little
peace from god you plead) the song is again incredibly hypnotic and calm-
which creates great contrast the the loud release. it makes it seem almost
traumatic, and mimics the state of mind of the guy in the song. he would
possibly be deemed a manic depressive by some phony psychoanalyst (i hate
psychologists and psychiatrists), but it is really much more complex- it
simple terms, one moment he is totally in control of the meaning of pain and
love, but the next moment it is chaos and he just wants one moment of peace
from turbulence.
ok, i'm definitely done, sorry about babbling, i love feedback!
This one by Billy Pollock
okay first htings first. layne is singing about himself. the young man hes
is referring to is him. the love affair he had was with his heroin."for ten
long years, the leaves to rake up" is saying that now after all that time
wasting away in the pain and ecstacy of his problems he must now see the
light. "slow suicides no way to go" is aying that he gets very depressed but
he realizes that shit, u cant keep feeling bad for urself all the time. "ur
not a crack up, dizzy and weakened by the haze, moving onward" says that hes
no longer gonna keep being down about himself. but he is also aware that he
has
been damaged by his pleasure and that its gonna be hard to live without it."
so an infection, not a phase" when he first started doing it, he figured it
was controllable
and so thought nothing of it until he realized that he was ruining his life
and affecting everyone around him(ie.chains) the part about him giving up is
his past efforts to clean up, the easy man to read is the coward he feels
himself to be. the peace from
god he begs is, just to let him cloud out the negativity in his head for a
while, just enough for him to start to heal. just a little push u could say.
i speak of this from experience with drugs. it is very difficult to stop
once u realize ur addicted. the most
tragic part about mad season was that it was his rehab, but shortly after he
fell down. An album to listen to which is along the same veins of quitting
heroin is sparkle and fade by everclear. alot of people think they're pussy
or whatever but i just ask that u
read the lyrics. layne is wonderful person, and i know that the more drugs u
do the more withdrawn and unbelieving of anybody that u become is not easily
cured. i hope that he is the one on leads on the next album and not lanegan.
no offense to him, but what made mad season, mad season was layne's tortured
voice and lyrics