Interpretations:Name

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Interpretation 1

I think this song is about the band name's and how it's effected them throughout their career. People hear the name TMBG and they always think it's a joke and half the time, can't even remember it correctly. I find the song pretty sad, in a way.

"They're gonna stop you for this

They won't forget about this

It's not the same after this"

These are about the people who don't/didn't want to take them seriously based solely on their name.

"They're gonna love you for this

They're gonna crown you for this

Everything's new after this"

These are the people who loved the name, thought it was hilarious/cute/interesting whatever and became fans based, again, solely on the name.

"I'm gonna wake up to this

I'm gonna walk after this

I'm gonna quit after this"

This is about them having to wake up everyday to still be in that band, with the same name, good or bad and the problems it's brought them but they still have to deal with it. They may have even threatened to leave the band due to some of the problems and "walk after this" may be that they had plans on going on to a new band after this one was over.

"I'll get you for this

I can't believe we do this

I can't believe we got this"

The bitterness towards the name, but also, how weird it is to realize that you've been in a band for the length of time and that's how you make your money. The "got this" could be about how far they've come or perhaps even about the Grammy they have received, or any other recognition, for that matter.

"All the guys at our jobs

They're not real jobs

They're only paper jobs"

See, again. It's very unlikely for someone to actually make money doing what they do and many people don't think that being a musician/song writer is a real job.

"All the guys at the club

They're not working enough

and they're not making enough"

The people who work at the clubs, where they perform, maybe see the band on stage and see them and wish that they were doing that, and making their money. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.138.84.55 (talk) 19:46, June 1, 2007

Interpretation 2

I was put off at first by the annoying synthy sound of this from Myspace, but after relistening and reading the lyrics, I have to say I'm pretty impressed. I think the song's about the nature of language and naming things, and how giving a name to something tarnishes the essence of it and makes it somewhat artificial. Here's my thoughts in terms of the lyrics:

First and third stanzas: You're you at first. Then you receive a name and "everything's new after this". Everybody around you begins to see you in terms of your name, and they crown/stop/love you for this, and not you yourself. So because we take on names, it's not the same after this. Eventually (or immediately from the point of naming, even), you also start seeing yourself not primarily as a soul/entity/human/whatever, but those notions instead become secondary to your name in regard to self-perception. The name is what drives the narrator, and he's willing to wake up for this and walk after this and not for himself, though he seems to be expressing some dread toward this realization ("I can't believe we do this, I can't believe we got this".)

Then the second stanza talk about other people more severely affected by the naming of things and the categorization/socialization ingrained into children's minds; they just copy what they know to be their existence, and they don't know what fun is (probably because they try to make a word out of an un-word-able thing). Again, fourth stanza, people through the notions they take on in life assume that a job is their destiny and their meant-to-be occupation in life, though these stations are just "paper jobs" as they mindlessly go after things such as money and believe they need to work harder and make more. All because of society's way of giving everything a name and the expectations/limitations it puts on its people's minds, which in the end lead to some loss of reality and desensitizes them from the intangible and more meaningful aspects of life and existence. Though I could be looking to much into this... ~ magbatz 01:52, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Behind every song is a crime.

The first two stanzas are the respective positions that police and criminals have concerning a particularly daring escapade performed by Name--the name used would vary by party referring to the character in each stanza; police would call Name 'scum' or similar, while other criminals could have a slew of epithets for Name.

The second two Stanzas refer to children behaving similarly to criminal role models unthinkingly, convinced they are enjoying themselves. In particular I get a drug use vibe, imagine how kids succumb to peer pressure and run with other kids despite their misgivings.

The fifth and sixth stanzas refer to trying to leave a gang and how the gang feels about this respectively. What ever crime Name committed in the previous stanzas was supposed to be his/her grand finale, but the gang refuses to let Name leave, and is shocked that the situation has come to this.

The final two stanzas refer to how the jobs and businesses of the gang are just fronts to throw off suspicion, and the work is done in the cubs selling women and narcotics. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.107.73.85 (talk) 14:15, June 10, 2010

Interpretation 4

I think that this is a song about how people get first impressions from a person's name, or how they associate certain things with a name. The narrator says "name" just indicating any name and then describes what people think of based off of the name. It's also about someone who (correctly or incorrectly) realizes that their whole life they have been judged off of their name, and then they decide to change their name and therefore change how people perceive them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.27.193.170 (talk) 22:02, March 31, 2015‎