Interpretations:Finished With Lies
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One day, I was thinking about this song, and I thought, "Hmm, I guess this song, in some ways, is about the boy who cried wolf."
This is clearly about the christian god
If you don't believe me now You'll never believe me now (lie, lie)
You'll think it's a lie
Couldn't we just put away the ancient history? Throw up our hands at the unsolved mystery
The unsolved mystery, is evolution vs. creationism.
This song is about a manipulative man who is constantly lying and misinforming people. He is determined to turn over a new leaf because he longs to regain the trust of friends. He's so sincere in his intention to stop lying that he is even willing to take a lie detector test to prove it. However, he doesn't want to be held accountable for past lies. He begs the person at which he is singing to "put away the ancient history/throw up [y]our hands at the unsolved mystery" - essentially, he is asking her to forget anything he has said in the past and to not question it. Soon, though, the singer gets frustrated and annoyed, seeing that pure earnestness of intent to quit lying is not good enough to convince people, so he decides he may be able to convince the person at whom he is singing by manipulating them (I'll turn everything around and confuse you/Talk faster and faster 'til I lose you/I'll fix it so you can't remember what was true). This is the ultimate tragedy of the song - the singer DOES want to be finished with lies, but he until he is willing to face accountability, manipulation is his only option.
I'm going to have my head examined I'll prove you were wrong about me Move the needle telepathically
I'll turn everything around and confuse you I'll talk faster and faster 'til I lose you I'll fix it so you can't remember what was true And there'll be nothing to remind you
It has decided it wants to become malevolent
Anyone else think this song seems like a continuation of the "No One Knows My Plan" theme?
Is "If you don't believe me now, you'll never believe me now" a reference to the Smiths' "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side" ("And if they don't believe me now / Will they ever believe me?")
This song also sounds like "La La Lies" by the Who. -King of Hearts
The beginning of the song sounds like some one who doesn't lie to the point of stating everything completely and totally literally, such as "If you don't believe me now, you'll never believe me now." But once it starts getting into the lie detector and telepathy whatnot, it begins to make less and less sense.
This song seems to me to be nothing more than some guilty person trying to weasel their way through a lie detector test.
First comes the promises of truth:
"Now I'm telling the truth, I'm finished with lies"
Then comes voluntary submission to the tests:
"They'll see when they look inside; I won't have to say a word"
But of course, he's trying to subvert said tests:
"I'll stop thinking what I shouldn't be thinking. I'll make everyone believe me"
Which goes along with my favorite line in the whole song:
"I'll prove you were wrong about me; move the needle telepathically"
After all, what is a lie detector test but measuring the effect the mind has on the body? The main flaw with "lie detectors" is that they can be fooled by a subject who is able to keep his physical telltales (pulse, perspiration, etc.) under control.
In a final attempt, the narrator tries to confuse the person adminstering the tests:
"I'll turn everything around and confuse you; I'll talk faster and faster 'til I lose you"
Until, in the end, the subject's guilt is forgotten:
"I'll fix it so you can't remember what was true, and there'll be nothing to remind you"
~ Salt-Man Z
I do agree with the person who thinks it's about a person tricking a lie detector test, but I have a similar but more broad interp--it could merely be about a mythomaniac (better known as a pathological liar). Though this person lies all the time in order to get what they want when they want it and how they want it--the world is their Burger King and we're all just the servers.
On another hand, this could be about a person who lies so much that he has in effect convinced himself that these lies he is telling are true. Such a person is not necessarily malevolent, but he is a habitual liar who, because of this tendency to hide the truth, has essentially hidden the truth from himself and lost a sense of reality and perception.
And on, one final note, the opening kinda reminds me of the opening of the Beatles' song "Getting Better". Any possible connection there? 0dd1 01:58, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
I've always felt this song went with 'Reprehensible Me'. It's another story of human history -- or lacktherof. Who's to say history isn't all just a lie (throw our hands up, forget all the ancient history)? Of course there's little material here to make that conclusion... the lyrics are simply suggesting that lies and not-lies are impossible to distinguish.
"You should have your head examined" is a standard schoolyard taunt in the USA meaning "you're not mentally well". Linnell has the narrator turn the phrase around & on himself to mean "I'm going to take a lie-detector test". --Nehushtan (talk) 02:55, 4 August 2019 (EDT)
