miss_manson July 27th, 2006 05:55PM  

I think this song is about someone that's very different from others. And ''the bad people'' are trying to change him. They want him to be another puppet in their world.
It's a very sad song, though.

anonymous September 6th, 2006 08:03PM  

I think the song has to do with a person looking back on his life and feeling persecuted and trapped. I believe this person doesn't think they've ever shown their true potential for fear of being judged, or maybe disgraced. It's a light mental form of abuse to make anyone feel that surpressed and no good could come of it.

anonymous November 17th, 2006 10:55AM  

I feel the song is about the need for parental approval and using disgrace as a tool for control.
There is a progression from childhood (learning rules) to adolescence when the child starts to withdraw but has fight enough to struggle. The repression deepens in not being free to be himself and he is unable to forgive his persecutor(father?). As a man the will to fight has been replaced by bitter resignation. He tries to please them so I think he actually craves approval which has always been withheld. In the end he reasserts the unforgiven label.

anonymous August 17th, 2007 01:42AM  

This song is about the human state of mind. Humans, being social beings, need to fit in. People must conform in order to be accepted, changing their thought process in order to coincide with the popular thoughts that are circulating. Those who differ from the main groups are often considered weird, and rejected. Many can not express how they really feel in fear of this rejection, and go againgst their will to do whatever it takes to fit in, such as buying brand name clothing, taking part in trends, etc.

vladtra December 9th, 2007 12:26PM  

Personally this song has a universal meaning. I think it's about the government and being a slave to it. Never free never me means he never gets to be himself or else he is breaking the rules and is therefor punished. Nowadays there actually is a lot of people traps in this world that send you to a hell on earth and the mastermind is money. The songs is about dying and never getting your chance to truly be yourself cause your overseeers.

Grissom December 18th, 2007 09:58PM  

Well, this song, sorry to say, is not about slavery. But I suppose that is your view, and for that, I cannot judge.
As in agreement with those above, this song is about conforming with "the popular kids" of society. People change their perspectives just to be accepted, while they fester in their minds. They are tormented by their own, stifled thoughts. Their thoughts turn into depression, and sometimes even illness. This song talks about a man, in general, who is now dying and ashamed of the fact that he did not "live".

anonymous December 31st, 2007 06:46PM  

This song is about a boy who is told to be a certain way, to conform to society, he is never allowed to follow his own way of doing things, his life is controlled by others "they dedicate their lives to running all of his", and the chorus is saying that that he's felt these things, but he's never shown them because he's been forced to conform to society and he's never believed in what he's actually shown "what I've felt, what I've known never shined to in what I've shown". and being how he cannot show what he truly believes in he regrets it later in his life "the old man then prepares to die regretfully"

anonymous February 27th, 2008 02:33PM  

The song is about all external agents of subjigation and socialization (Ex. Religion, society, parents, peers); Also about psychological and spiritual enslavement. Making a prison within oneself to shut out outside influence to stay true to oneself.

"New Blood joins this earth and quickly he's subdued" - we're branded with a social security number and labeled according to our weight, sex and race, becoming yet another statistic in our culture.

"Through constant pained disgrace, the young boy learns their rules" - Through punishment, criticism and humiliation by parents, teachers, religion and others the child is forced to conform to external forces rather than act from the center of oneself.

As kids we make vows to fulfill our dreams, not become a slave to society thus "A vow unto his own, that never from this day, his will they'll take away"

The chorus lyrics are about unfulfilled life and potential because we have to bottle ourselves up and conform to the larger social organism, or religion, etc.

The second part is about ultimately failing to please every expectation placed on a person from parents to society, to the morality from religion. Out of bitterness we play the game to survive and hopefully get what we one day really want; to be free as ourselves but ultimately fail.

I think everyone had pieces of what this song is about. That's the great thing about lyrics, they focus words in such a way that it speaks to us and can be interpreted in many ways.

anonymous May 31st, 2008 08:34PM  

I've always believed this song is the result of a bullied child. I think it probs relates to the songwriter...'what I've felt what I've known never shined through in what I've shown' - obviously and a icon in metallica what he felt and knew seems like a double life for what he feels now. He seems quite bitter and sad about being asked to conform to 'their rules'.... but at the same time is doing a f*ck off to everyone who told him he was wrong along the way. Its a sad song....but contains a feeling of rising above the problems of the past and looking back (down) at the people that created them.

The Unforgiven 2 is more complex. It seems he may have met a person from his past who perhaps was involved in the bullying. Perhaps their child is now the victim....maybe even a Metallica fan? He feels the now the 'popular one'... but is perplexed by the situation - now the other party is unforgiven too....

anonymous August 9th, 2008 05:19PM  

I believe this song is about a child which have born different from the others, with his own way to think. The others (the society, I guess) stand against him, so he must hide inside his own thoughts. When he grow up, start to live his lifetime away from them because he believes he's right, but that makes he feel alone, abandoned.

But he knows he can't live completely away from all the mankind's matters, so he feels he's battled constantly. He never give up, but it has a cost. Finally, he prepares to die alone, pained because a wrong society that never gave him an opportunity to shine with own light.


(Sorry for my very basic english)

anonymous May 23rd, 2009 06:10PM  

The Unforgiven songs are about James Hetfield and his struggles due to the environment he was raised in. A very strict Christian home that did not believe in medicine or anything because God would take care of it. Due to that he watched his mother die of cancer after his father had already left the family. He's not talking about growing old either. The guy in this first Unforgiven isn't old nor grows old in the song. It's about the feeling of being young (James was a pretty young guy when he wrote this, early thirties tops) but feeling like your life is over. That the world has battered you so bad that you are, inside, an old man. That's why he says the lyrics "that old man here is me". He means from the years of mental abuse, both in his childhood and what he's done to himself, have turned him into a bitter old man. James Hetfield is The Unforgiven. He has stated before these songs are very auto-biographical. The Unforgiven trilogy is like his life. These three songs are him in his own words and in my opinion, that's why they're great. Hetfield is a great mind and to get a glimpse into the darkest corners of that has made for one of the best songs ever. That is, The Unforgiven.

anonymous September 8th, 2009 02:31AM  

This song was written directly about me. I was born to a mother who wanted to save her marraige with my father. That attempt failed. Which tore my life apart before it even had a chance to begin. She divorced my father and not to long after was involved in a rocky relationship and marraige to another guy. Then through out all this, I got raised in church under strict penticostal guide lines and with a mean ass step father who would find a reason to spank me with his belt for no reason at all. Among other things, I never planned for a future believing in the lies church taught me. Now I've just been scraping by trying to readjust from all those years. But sometimes I feel I'll be scraping that wall trying to get out for the rest of my life.