Interpretations:The Neck Rolls Aren't Working

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Song about stress[edit]

I feel like this song is the quandary of an overly stressed worker. His co-workers are just trying to relax the worker with what I believe are neck roll pillows that were giving to him so he can think clearly, but he's so over stressed that he doesn't believe it's working when all he needs to do is relax. The air horn could just be loud background noise that made him stressed to begin with and preventing his work from being done. His family is also contributing to his stress and causing his hair to fall out, even though he denies it. I don't know, it might be a stretch. This is just my opinion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AnaNgInASpaceSuit (talkcontribs) 21:23, June 24, 2018

Denial[edit]

The way I see it, this song is someone in between "Older" and "By The Time You Get This" or "When The Lights Come On": aware of their own age and mortality, but nowhere near able to accept it. The first lines verse about the airhorn and headband reference the modern music and fashion that the singer cannot understand or relate to, as well as the modern trends that seem to come and go with such overwhelming presence, despite the fact that not everybody wants them to. The line before the title in the chorus seems to be a stab at outrageous education prices, where the singer has to pay someone else to tell him what to pay for. The title is a gripe against whoever told him to try neck rolls to reduce stress, or remain younger, because, well, they aren't working. The next verse's gut wrench and drain-pipe could be references to failing gastro-intestinal health, or mental health, as the negative outlook of the drainpipe keeps dripping onto the positive outlook of the gut wrench. The next lines result in a quadruple negative, which can be seen as a reference to the often confusing levels of jest portrayed by people today, which the singer tries to emulate but can't pull off without confusing themselves. The pre-chorus lines bring up that the singer stopped working, then started again, because they considered themselves to be broken, which works well with the gastro-intestinal/mental health ideas of the 2nd verse. The chorus brings up that, even in the past, the singer felt like they weren't youthful, and that the methods didn't work then, so why would they work now? The bridge accents this by having the singer plead for no reminders of their past, as the nostalgia doesn't help them in the present; even if John Glenn already landed, the singer's still orbiting some 50 years later. The next verses are an abrupt 'acceptance' by the singer, but instead of accepting their age and mortality, they accept the modern ideals in one last attempt to regain time. The next lines are just a rather sad extension of the singer's denial, claiming absurdities, like the fact that its Monday on Thursday, or that rain can ascend instead of descend. The final chorus is the last bit of acceptance presence in the singer's mind, still aware of how they're being manipulated to spend their money a certain way, as well as the looming threat of death and aging. However, the singer seems to prefer a pleasant lie to an unpleasant truth, leaving the listener to wonder if they're lying to themselves as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.162.237.22 (talk) 03:03, June 25, 2018

Salt Junkie[edit]

This song feels like it describes a person going through issues similar to ones I've only recently discovered about myself. I'm a salt junkie. For 20 years people (including doctors) have been treating me like a drug addict and telling me to stop doing things that I already wasn't doing because nobody (including doctors and including me) ever thinks of salt as being addictive. Apparently salt junkies present with all the same symptoms of any other junkie whilst they're still on the salt because if you're getting all your dopamine from salt you can't get it from any other source (like cleaning and working). So everyone treated me like a junkie because I was one, but told me that quitting things I wasn't doing was the answer. I stopped dumping salt on everything I ate 8 months ago and went on a whole foods plant based diet. Since then I've lost 110 lbs. It wasn't until 7 months after I got off the salt that my dopamine started to normalize and now I actually enjoy cleaning and working out and I'm a smegging morning person which is something no past version of myself ever thought I'd be able to say.

I very much relate to spending money on lessons on how to waste money (debt counselling), and the air horn (drugs/alcohol) which exacerbate the problem whilst also preventing you from finding the root cause by making themselves the only issue that anybody (eventually including you) notices. The neck rolls represent solutions to the problem which address only the symptoms. If you have neck pain then try a neck roll. In my case it was if you have mild sleep apnea try breath strips, or if you struggle to sleep normal hours just force yourself to wake up at the same time everyday and let the circadian rhythm take care of things, or if you can't get to work in the morning because you spend 3 hours paralyzed in bed out of shame then just get up anyway. Sometimes the neck pain is because of posture. Sometimes the cure to sleep disorders is mindfulness. Sometimes the shame is because of the one thing you do that you believe to be acceptable. (PSA if you have an issue that has been diagnosed by a doctor then listen to your doctor. Also look at your lifestyle but ALWAYS get your doctor's permission before stopping any treatment they've prescribed because if the changes you see in yourself are real then other people will definitely notice and doctors are people too).

Basically I think this song is about the fact that different people can have the same symptoms but with different root causes, so don't stop trying until you find something that actually works (and if you're switching out one addictive thing for another then I can assure you that that's not a real answer, but most everybody knows that. It's much more important to realize that a crap ton of things can be addictive so pay attention to where you're getting your dopamine from). Dysfunkt (The Bouncing Wizard) (talkcontribs) December 20, 2018

Feedback loops of the character's main issue[edit]

The character's big issue is that he has poor judgment &, by extension, decision making and they compound onto themselves to make him hopeless. Throughout the song, he has 3 obvious issues. The air horn, the headband, and saving money. The air horn's only purpose is to detract from the other two since it's not supposed to be the point of discussion. Then there's the other two, the headband and money, that also serve the same function as the air horn though it isn't as obvious.

The part where he begins the extreme amount of double negatives highlights that he feels he's on the path to being broken, i.e. feeling hopeless, as he felt when he quit working.

Working through it is simple. Once you knock the air horn out of the equation, you have to wonder why the character has the headband to begin with. Let alone why he's still wearing it. I think he simply bought the headband in the wrong size, which ties into his second problem of spending money inefficiently. The character displays bad judgment which is how he managed to buy the wrong size, have faith in neck rolls to improve his spending of money, or expect a gut wrench(which is not a plumber's tool ftw) to fix pipes. By the end of it all, the growing symptoms of his poor judgement, just like the air horn, distract him from addressing the issue of his poor judgement and worsen it. His terrible circulation leaves him making ridiculous conclusions like rain falling upwards and believing that wasting money is a skill worth learning. A hopeless person.

~ By FidFid