Vices
“Far away from any road
Grows my heart in solitude
Where no passer-by can see
On life’s highway, God with thee
Knowing when all else doth fail,
Thy compassion shall be free
Oh let it be, let me be
On life’s highway, God with thee”
…..
We need vices (oh)
We need vices (oh)
Where’s all my hope and my marriage license?
(Where’s my head?)
Those days are dead (forgive me)
Those days are dead (forgive me)
Those days are dead (forgive me)
We need vices and fifteen slices of bread.
She said goodbye to the ground
She said goodbye to the ground
She said goodbye to the ground
And jump
Well, God created
The dark and the manger
Where is my shrink and my imagination?
(you sing that sad song)
That forest burned
That forest burned
That forest burned
We need ten years, everyone, so we can return
Just say goodbye to the ground
Just say goodbye to the ground
Just say goodbye to the ground
Just say goodbye to the ground
Just say goodbye to the ground
And jump
We need vices
We need vices
We’ve done nothing to brandish our disguises
Those days are dead (forgive me)
‘Cause those days are dead (forgive me)
‘Cause those days are dead (forgive me)
We need vices to wave to the good old days
Just say goodbye to the ground
Just say goodbye to the ground
Just say goodbye to the ground
And jump
I notice so many references and themes throughout the album Daisy such as…(trees, forrest, fire, burning, bed, sleeping, and a whole lot of biblical stuff.) “Well, God created The dark and the manger”… God created the dark (evil) and the manger (good). The parallel of the two, the idea that God could create, not just something good but something bad as well, is totally right Jesse’s point of view. (i’m not saying I believe this…this is just what i’m guessing he’s talking about). I think they are talking about coming to terms with the good and evil in the world, about just being a normal (read: imperfect) human being until the world burns out and is destroyed. Where is my shrink and my mind’s eraser?”…it’s like we’ve asked for forgiveness from christ, but wanted him to help us not feel so bad about committing these vices or even forgetting. I think this song is about mankind’s need for vices and Brand New’s struggle to remove their own personal vices and the fact that they just stopped trying to get rid of these vices. I also think that “That forest burned, we need ten years everyone, so we can return” means that we as people don’t learn from our mistakes. We’ll burn down a forest, then wait and come back to it, back to our old mistakes. The way Jesse just angrily says “return” makes me think he’s scolding people for making the same repeated mistakes that we, as human beings, make time after time. We commit the same sins, we burn down the same forests, but we know we can wait for everything to repair itself and we can go back and make the same mistakes. I also believe this could have a double meaning..(i feel a lot of this album had “double” meanings..Maybe it opened the album because its very important to Jesse and the guys. Maybe he needs 10 years on rewind (like..where was he 10 years ago? He was just a kid with his friends leading a simple/normal, relaxed teenage life. All this just kind of happened to them, they didn’t plan on being a band) Maybe he’s like “where the efff has my life gone?”. I know he’s stated before that their intentions were to never be “big” or “popular”, it just kinda happened and its still awkward to all of them. They actually can’t believe it..All of their lives took a dramatic change off course when they formed 9 years ago as teens. Maybe “These days are dead(forgive me)”…is like their way of saying…we love this, but we gotta move on and get back to our normal lives as individuals, because I also know that they all live their own separate lives away from the band and only get together at the studio and on stage. (kinda weird, haha). Plus i head him say that this may be the last “recorded” album they put out..who knows what that means?…I also think the overall lyrics in Daisy are so simple (and so complicated…”the double meaning”) because truly the issues in his life that have/are fueling his writing are so very simple and common and most people deal with these same kinds of issues, hence each and every person being able to connect so well with their music/lyrics, in their own individual way…
