Bits and pieces.

“I needed somewhere to hang my head
Without your noose
You gave me something that I didn’t have
But had no use
I was to weak to give in
Too strong to lose
My heart is under arrest again
But I'll break loose
My head is giving me life or death
But I can’t choose
I swear I’ll never give in
I refuse”

Best of You – Foo fighters


That song is still traumatically etched in my mind since the first time I heard it about three years ago. It speaks of trust, betrayal, expectations, hope, faith, love and broken hearts, pain and revivals. The things I - for the first time in my life - experienced simultaneously altogether back then, which possibly marked the turning point of my self-realization.

Albeit more than three years had passed, whenever I hear that song, old (and almost forgotten) memories would just start crawling their way forward into the present. Bits and pieces of memories that pile up into one gigantic mass of nostalgic, over-romanticized reminiscence overflowing with feelings. I HATE it when those happen:
1st, when memories came with feelings still attached, coz those leftover feelings might crash with my present ones and turns me indecisive and sort of lost.
2nd, when the memory was actually a ghoulish one, but overtime (as I learn to forgive and forget) it’s losing its sense of ghastliness and whenever it emerges from the abyss, I couldn’t help but miss experiencing the thrill all over again, even though I perfectly know that back then, when I was IN it, I’d give up anything to get it over with ASAP. Confusing, I know.

Back to the song, I still don’t know what the meaning-beyond-meaning is precisely. On some parts of the song, I still don’t know who Dave Grohl refers to when he says “you”. First I thought it might be somebody he loves - a girl, maybe - but then it couldn’t be that trivial. I even tried connecting “you” with God, but it didn’t make any sense (one line says “were you born to resist, or to be abused?” What kind of human being would ask God that kind of question anyway?)

So the best possible answer I could come up with is that Dave refers “you” to us, or whoever is listening to the song. To be precise, “you” refers to anyone who could relate to the feelings and situations that the lyrics convey. Anyone who, by any sheer coincidence, could project off you into I.