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Valentine's Day Meaning?

Geki

By Geki
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Geki

Geki

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Posted

OK, so I have been wondering this myself since 2007. What is the song Valentine's Day actually about? Chester mentioned the song being 'dark and we are a dark band who likes to talk about things and make you uncomfortable with them'. Any takers on what the song actually could be about? It's one of the very few LP songs that I have absolutely no idea what it is about. It sounds like a sad song, but I know it's not about something cliche like losing a girlfriend on valentine's day, etc. I know that it has to have a darker meaning to it. Is it about death? I know Mike said MTM had a lot of death metaphors on the album. I think this because of the ''the ground below grew colder as they put you down inside'' part, but who knows.

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RogueSoul

RogueSoul

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'll use my Honors Language Arts skills to try and dissect the song. I'll see what I can come up with.

 

EDIT: After reading the lyrics over a few times, this is what I came up with.

 

VD is about the pain of loss. Not necessarily a girlfriend or boyfriend, but just having someone in your life being taken by death.

 

Valentine's Day itself is a day about being together. It's a really good contradiction of what a person would think about if they looked at the song name without listening to it first.

 

"So now you're gone, and I was wrong/I never knew what it was like, to be alone" This makes me think that now the person is gone, and Chester (or whoever you wish to portray the narrator as) is regretting not spending more time with the said person.

 

I could keep going on, and I'd be glad to. I'll do a line by line dissection of the song if you want me to. But for now here's my short answer.

Edited by Soul
RogueSoul

RogueSoul

Posted
Posted

@Soul if you want I'd really appreciate that you dissect every song like that.

Just open a topic for that and fill it with your stuff!

Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I'll make a thread for it. I'll do VD here though, and put it in the thread later.
hahninator

hahninator

Posted
Posted

I'd like topics about songs and people giving their own interpretation on them. That would really open worlds to people. To see things in a way you haven't seen it before, in an other light.

I agree 100%. I love it when people do this. Maybe we can make more threads about songs :)

 

I always took it as a very dark song too. The very first time I heard it on MTM, on my first listen, I was blown away by how emotional he made the very first line of the song sound. "My insides all turned to ash, so slow". He sings it in such an emotional/sad way that it's really great.

 

This is one of my favorite songs by the band and upon my first listen of MTM it was probably my favorite or second favorite. The use of metaphors in the lyrics is fucking fantastic and the song is very underrated. I see lots of hate for it, especially around here in 2008 when it started appearing in the summer setlists. I'm bummed it was dropped from Projekt Revolution.

 

Let's get into specifics for a minute, besides just "losing someone". It's weird because he uses "took *them* away", "as *they* put *you* down inside", etc. I really don't know if he's referring to one person facing the effects of others, whether . I think the mystery behind it and it being so dark is why I love it so much and share such a big interest in the song with Geki.

 

But a black wind took *them*. Who is them? Chester obviously is suffering a lot with the lyrics in the first "verse" (I guess that's what you call it) making that apparent. Mega imagery in the second "verse". In the third verse he says "a black wind took YOU away". Now he's referring to one person and initially he was referring to more than one. "They put you down inside" in the fourth verse. Back to "them". Now "you're" gone. And again to one person.

 

It really is a perplexing, awesome song, especially if I have no idea what Chester really is referring to. It seems like such a heartbreaking, sad story. He seems really pained to sing it and puts a lot of that into his voice. All in all just a great song.

RogueSoul

RogueSoul

Posted
Posted

I think "Them" and "They" refer to either the memories he shared with the person or maybe the people who took the person away (maybe the person was taken by an accident of some sort.)

 

The black wind could mean death, black is usually associated with evil and wind could be the death itself.

Geki

Geki

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I agree 100%. I love it when people do this. Maybe we can make more threads about songs :)

 

I always took it as a very dark song too. The very first time I heard it on MTM, on my first listen, I was blown away by how emotional he made the very first line of the song sound. "My insides all turned to ash, so slow". He sings it in such an emotional/sad way that it's really great.

 

This is one of my favorite songs by the band and upon my first listen of MTM it was probably my favorite or second favorite. The use of metaphors in the lyrics is fucking fantastic and the song is very underrated. I see lots of hate for it, especially around here in 2008 when it started appearing in the summer setlists. I'm bummed it was dropped from Projekt Revolution.

 

Let's get into specifics for a minute, besides just "losing someone". It's weird because he uses "took *them* away", "as *they* put *you* down inside", etc. I really don't know if he's referring to one person facing the effects of others, whether . I think the mystery behind it and it being so dark is why I love it so much and share such a big interest in the song with Geki.

 

But a black wind took *them*. Who is them? Chester obviously is suffering a lot with the lyrics in the first "verse" (I guess that's what you call it) making that apparent. Mega imagery in the second "verse". In the third verse he says "a black wind took YOU away". Now he's referring to one person and initially he was referring to more than one. "They put you down inside" in the fourth verse. Back to "them". Now "you're" gone. And again to one person.

 

It really is a perplexing, awesome song, especially if I have no idea what Chester really is referring to. It seems like such a heartbreaking, sad story. He seems really pained to sing it and puts a lot of that into his voice. All in all just a great song.

I agree with everything you just said. I was lucky enough to see it played live that one time in Manchester during the Winter Tour, but that was it. They should have kept it for Projekt Revolution.. But yeah, upon the very first listen to MTM, it was one of my favorite tracks on the album. Chester gives a very emotional and awesome delivery throughout the song and especially on the first 'verse' like you said as well. I definitely think this could have some meaning behind it. Most of all LP songs do have meaning, but I think this one could be personal and not a story or character like they sometimes do. Btw, this was one of the very first songs written during the MTM sessions (as said in the MTM booklet) and it remained virtually unchanged from the Korn studio, apparently. Interesting. But anyways, a song interpretation thread would be nice and fun.

GlassCastles

GlassCastles

Posted
Posted

@Soul if you want I'd really appreciate that you dissect every song like that.

Just open a topic for that and fill it with your stuff!

 

I agree 100%. I love it when people do this. Maybe we can make more threads about songs :)

 

But anyways, a song interpretation thread would be nice and fun.

http://lplive.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=10371

lgr

lgr

Posted
Posted

I agree 100%. I love it when people do this. Maybe we can make more threads about songs :)

absolutely, I would bury myself in threads like that.

 

I had heard that this song was about Chester dealing with the loss of his father, but I'm not sure when or where I heard that and like most things on the internet it's probably not true...

 

 

having listened to Valentines Day almost directly after visiting auschwitz, I've always considered it applied to how I felt about that day -

the collective pronouns - "they"/"you" (possibly plural?) can make it refer to a group of people, not just an individual - "a black wind took them away" is scarily apt.

it was the middle of a European Winter, and the "so cold" line always strikes me.

"I used to be my own protection but not know" - of becoming aware that the world and its people are capable of horrifying acts.

 

the fact that we were actually there in that place on Valentine's Day itself makes the coincidences even more unsettling.

 

every time I put that song on I can just feel the cold in my hands and feet, I remember the lights aboard the night train and the way falling snow blurs your vision and makes you dizzy sometimes. I listened to MTM on loop and chester's little vocal intonations and breaks in tone are really firmly attatched to that time

lgr

lgr

Posted
Posted

I have heard that Valentine's Day was about Chester losing his father, but it's not, because his father is still alive. Chester posted a pic on Twitter about a year ago of his Dad and Ryan. Lol.

Just as I suspected :lol:

I always wonder how crap like that gets started. "Omg it's about his dadd, so sad :( :( <\3" like, what even...?

daroker510

daroker510

Posted
Posted (edited)

The song is about him getting killed by a bomb in war on valentines day

 

My insides all turned to ash, so slow

And blew away as I collapsed, so cold

^

Hes describing something that turned him into ashes and once that thing hit him he collapsed and as he falls is body turns into ashes,,

 

 

A black wind took them away, from sight

And held the darkness over day, that night

^

He saying the black wind of the bomb blew it away and that the day look like night with all the smoke and dust in the air..

 

I used to be my own protection, but not now

Cause my path had lost direction, somehow

^

He use to be able to protect himself but now that hes gone he no longer can because since he lost his life life he lost direction and purpose,,

Edited by daroker510
  • 3 months later...
nikolajlaulp

nikolajlaulp

Posted
Posted

I think "Them" and "They" refer to either the memories he shared with the person or maybe the people who took the person away (maybe the person was taken by an accident of some sort.)

 

The black wind could mean death, black is usually associated with evil and wind could be the death itself.

But in the first verse, doesnt "them" refer to his ashes??

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