2econd 2ight 2eer LYRIC BREAKDOWN

Hello, I'm writing to you from the past. Hope the future's not as horrible as we're all certain it will be. I'm no longer linking my lyric breakdowns to The Stethoscope. It's such an unnecessary extra step, putting it on the blog, making a password, sharing the link... why have I been doing that? Here's my lyric breakdown to "2econd 2ight 2eer," the second track on The Normal Album. 

Here's how it works. I'll have the lyrics written in bold down below, and have my thoughts/notes/explanations/etc underneath certain lines in italics. This is how I'll be doing it from now on. Have fun. And remember, art isn't subjective, you are wrong.

2econd 2ight 2eer LYRIC BREAKDOWN:

I wrote a lot of these lyrics with the syllables, number of rhymes, satisfaction of bouncing the consonants, and cadence of the words in the forefront of my mind. Many of them are more dedicated to communicating a "vibe" than direct thoughts/feelings, as many of my more cryptic or difficult-to-decipher lyrics are. While I wouldn't say this is one of my more abstract songs, it's definitely one of those songs where some of the words are less about what they mean and more about how they sound.

My grip on my secrets slipping while I’m speaking in tongues Screaming at the top of my lungs in the confession booth
I wanted to kick off the song by establishing a religious theme, as with much of my work this song is an expression of my spiritual views/feelings/experiences. I wanted to kick it off with a total rejection of propriety and social norms in a situation where one is most expected to be reverent, which is a theme of the song for sure. I wanted to paint this version of myself in the song as a spiritual wild card, losing control over his sins, and channeling his higher power through his guilt  

Take it with a pillar of salt, H.A.L.T., it’s not my fault The devil made me do it, but I also kinda wanted to
In the story of Lot and the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, God instructs Lot and his wife not to look back as the cities burned down behind them. Lot's wife turned around, and was transformed into a pillar of salt. Take those sins and glossolalia with far more than just a pinch of salt. H.A.L.T. is an acronym used in cognitive behavioral therapy to help patients identify the potential sources and therefore solutions to some of their distress. 

I’m cut from a different kind of meat, more than you can chew, hard to swallow me Forget bored stiff, I got rigor mortis, call it morbid curiosity how I cannot commit to reality, when my third eye’s open and I like what I see
A play off "cut from a different cloth," acknowledging I am only flesh. Then continuing to say that this meat is "more than you can chew" (don't bite off more than you can chew) and "hard to swallow." (Tough to believe). I also love how bored stiff can be slant-rhymed with rigor mortis in such a consonant-dense context here, because I can say "I'm not bored stiff, I'm bored to death" but also say "bored stiff" at the same time. (Rigor mortis is when the body becomes stiff after dying) Morbid is a lucky rhyme there too, because curiosity killed the cat - and my spiritual curiosity has certainly killed my proverbial cat in the past. It's hard to resist the urge to go way out there when the spiritual realizations you have can be so comforting, alluring, empowering, etc.  

Baby, I may be crazy but I didn’t lose it, no I set it free  
There is a thin line between being free and being lost, a thin line between losing your mind and freeing it. 

I can’t ignore what’s under dance floorboards, the rhythm of my heart a dead-as-disco beat But I still move my feet to slip out of this groove, I’m free
This lyric feels meaningful I think, but it's one of the ones I see less in. This is one of those lyrics where the vibe is really the point. I'm invoking the story of the tell-tale heart, but using that heartbeat as something to dance to. And with that heart beating despite being dead, it's quite a bit like disco. I'm still dancing though - or am I running away? All I know is I'm moving my feet to slip out of a groove - which might the music, or might be a rut.  

Now to row, row, row my boat over the falls, and maybe wake up from but a dream
This one may be self-explanatory, I'm not sure. It's of course a nursery rhyme reference. But I guess it's about the idea of crashing out of reality. Taking merrily merrily merrily too far. Waking up from the dream - life? Waking up from life? Death? The result of rowing a boat over a waterfall?

If you knew what I knew, if you saw what I see, you’d look through illusions, hallucinations, and lucid dream
As grandiose as it sounds, this is an honest thought of mine in a sense. I do wish the world could see it as I do. That it's all a dream, and if we know we're dreaming, we can do whatever we want with life. Think whatever we want. Be whatever we want. Need nothing. Be free. It's one thing to know that and hear the words, and it's another thing to really see it close up. To witness that truth with your own eyes. I recommend it to anyone who can handle their shit better than me.  

And I know that meaning can be such a pretty thing to keep, but I got facts and I’m not afraid to use ‘em, take the good with the bad, take off the back you make a new front  
Life is inherently meaningless - nothing has intrinsic meaning. We give significance to things in life ourselves because it makes sense to us, it feels right, it's pretty. But what I'm saying here, (or at least the version of me who wrote this, or is in this song is) is that I'm not afraid to live life knowing and acknowledging its meaninglessness, and regarding it as such. The next line is not really a related thought. Just a statement of belief that what we consider good and what we consider bad define each other. All things are defined by their opposite in the construction of meaning and significance. So you can't take the bad away from the good - the same way that taking the back off something doesn't make it so there's no more back to it. It just changes where the back is, and re-defining the front. This is kind of abstract I guess.  

Some days I'm glad that I am a madman and I’d rather be that than an amicable animal, mild-mannered cannibal
I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory, yeah? It can be a thrill to relieve yourself of the pressures of social mores and graces. Even if you can't help it, even if it's something that you can't control - it's worth sometimes looking at it as something better than the alternative: pretending to be normal, which is the only way normal exists.

But I’m more level-headed and clever than ever and I’m getting better one forever at a time, and if sick is defined by what’s different, well then pull the plug out and let me die
I wrote this lyric in a different context shortly after starting medication for the first time. The first line anyway. It's a medication reference, and an expression of one of the thoughts I later struggle with in Marsha, Thankk You... and Outliars.

Vice-versa, vice versus virtue, well who I am I choose through all the things I do And if it rhymes, it’s true But I hate poetry  
More of this song deals with morality than I usually think of it doing when I think about the song, but I guess in this case I'm asserting that we are not our actions - which I go into in depth in Laplace's Angel. It's not a shirking of responsibility, but a shirking of identifying with our vices and our virtues alike. It may sound like I'm saying the opposite, but we all know that rhyming doesn't make things true. As I later say in Black Box Warrior, ideas don't spread because they're good, they spread because people like them. We tend to assume that things that sound right are right, with all our platitudes and pop psychology memes and fun phrases and conventional wisdom quotes - but fuck that. The truth isn't always poetic or pretty or likable. FaCtS d0nT cARe aBOUt yOur FEELings, SN0wflAKe! (((dogwhistle dogwhistle dogwhistle))) Christ, I'm tired.  

Now with my moral compass pointing south, going down
With nononononononono no respect for reality
This is another one of those lyrics meant more to encapsulate a "vibe." I feel like it's a bit on the self-explanatory side. That this version of me has had so little regard for significance and meaning, has allowed the nihilistic side of his spiritual experiences dictate his relationship with others, and this has caused him to end up where he is in the song as indicated in the first lyric.

I’m just a psycho, babe Come and go out my mind I didn’t lose it babe There wasn’t much to find I’m just a psycho, babe Come and go out my mind A tourist passing through Well that was fun, goodbye
I'm one crazy motherfucker. I've driven myself insane just to explore what it's like on the other side. Don't mind me, sanity, I'm just stopping through on my way to madness. Have a good one! I guess? I don't know. Well, it was fun either way, fuck it. Goodbye!

Like many parts of The Normal Album, this song is exploring ideas and trying to reconcile a duality. It's claiming a perspective yet also expressing the difficulties with it and how the yin to its yang defines it. Shoulda called it The Nondualism Album. Cause I think that gets lost a lot, and ends up with me getting people thinking I accidentally forgot to pick a side in my social commentary. Dummkopfs, I know what I'm saying. I'm not always perfect in the verbiage, but I guess the reason I didn't call it something more focused on the idea of nondualism is because I'm not committing to not picking a side either. The album isn't about picking sides or making grand statements about normality - it's about exploring the idea of normality, expressing the difficulty with trying to reconcile self and society, about the pain and confusion that comes with those things, and also when I say it's a loose concept album I very much mean loose. 

Sorry, it's 7am and I never slept, I think I'm still salty ninety years later about that one reviewer who intentionally misquoted my explanation of I/Me/Myself to make me look like a transphobe and then went on to tear my album apart saying its perspectives are inconsistent (don't you dare write songs from a place of internal conflict - and there better not be any songs about overcoming it if you do!) because you can't express the joys of existential nihilism and also have thoughts about things.

Goodnight.