nameofthegame May 11th, 2007 02:47PM  
This song isn't about abuse. It's about running from your problem when you nowe eventually, you'll have to face it. Hence the mataphor of a bird and a worm. A worm may crawl from one bird, but will always have others. Also, when he says 'he wears his heart pinned to his backpack, his backpack is all he nowes' he is talking about closing up the problem that you are denying and not noticing anything else but how to resolve the issue

anonymous June 26th, 2007 07:37PM  
When he says "he wears his heart safely pinned to his backpack, his backpack is all that he knows" it reminds me of someone guarding their heart and keeping it shut up so no one can break it. And on "shot down by strangers whose glances can cripple the heart, and devour the soul" it's like he's saying that he can't open up his heart because he knows that he can't trust anyone. He's experienced a lot of heartbreak and he knows he can't trust a stranger.

And in the song he also says "Out of his mind the weight pushes him whispering, must have been out of his mind. Midday delusions of pushing this out of his head, maybe out of his mind. All he knows if he can't relieve it it grows and so it goes." I'm not sure, but it sounds like he's trying to push away the thought that he can't trust those close to him, but the fear still remains.

Then, when he says "All alone he turns to stone while holding his breath half to death. Terrified of what's inside, to save his life. He crawls like a worm from a bird." Since his worst fear is being broken he holds himself back and doesn't let himself get close to anyone. He remains to protect his heart.... I don't know if that's right or not... I'd like to know what 'the used' meant when they wrote this song.. but that's my best guess so far.

anonymous July 3rd, 2007 03:24PM  
I agree a little with you guys, but it's about a guy or a teen that has very no self confidence. He is afraid of what people think of him. And tries to hide himself and not to be bothered.

anonymous August 2nd, 2007 10:28PM  
You guys have some interesting interpretations, I'm not sure yet what I think the song is about but for the line "He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack his backpack is all that he knows", it could mean that he isolates himself, or everything he lives by is in his backpack, or he compresses his life into his backpack...something like that...

anonymous August 13th, 2007 09:56PM  
This means that the man is just different from everybody else, and they hate him for it. So to save his life, he has to "crawl like a worm from a bird". The way that he's different is that he is too secretive of his emotions, and he's scared of what will happen if he lets them out. He wants to keep them inside because his inner self seems demonic or evil to him. but the reason his heart is basically on his sleeve (safety-pinned to his backpack) is because he ends up showing more of himself to the world than he intended just by having to struggle with himself.

anonymous August 16th, 2007 04:51PM  
I believe it's the inner turmoil. It's the fight between the person's self. It's the question of: Who do I want to be?

anonymous October 24th, 2007 08:58AM  
No matter how hard he tries things come back to haunt him because the bird always gets the worm.

anonymous December 21st, 2007 05:20PM  
There has been much talk about the lyrics "Crawls like a worm from a bird" and "He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack" but I'm going to focus more on what I see in some of the other lyrics.

"All alone he turns to stone
while holding his breath half to death!"

I think this has to do with a drug problem. Turns to stone as in with some drugs when you do a lot and your near comatose either when your high or coming down. Holding his breath could stem from a hallucination of being under water and holding his breath because he really believes he is drowning.

"Out of his mind away
pushes him whispering:
"Musta been out of his mind..."
Mid-day dillusions of pushing this
out of his head
make him out of his mind.."

This seems like thoughts of depression/suicide. "Pushes him Whispering" as in voices or strong thoughts making him truly consider it, and "Mid-day delusions of pushing this out of his head" is when your suffering from depression, but sometimes during the day you may temporarily forget about your problems, and feel happy, but it is only a delusion and it haunts you again soon after. This ties in also with the "Crawls like a worm from a bird", it's like he's crawling away from himself, his own thoughts.

So ya... These are just my thoughts on the song, possibly not what The Used was really meaning... just my take.

anonymous February 11th, 2008 04:26AM  
Ok, I'm not sure what The Used was thinking when writing this song, but it comes across to me as...

'He wears his heart safety pinned to his backpack
his backpack is all that he knows'

I think what it's saying is he guards his heart, his backpack doesn't need to necessarily mean a literal backpack, but lets say it does, he keeps his backpack close, it's all that he knows. So he guards his heart on his backpack so that no on could hurt him or whatever.

'Shot down by strangers who's glances can criple
the heart and devour the soul.'

Well we all know those people who judge us by our outward appearances, the way we show ourselves, what little experience they have had with us, etc. Basically, there are strangers who watch him in disgust because he is 'different' then them, but their glances are painful and hurt him.

'All alone he turns to stone
while holding his breath half to death'

This varies, the first part comes across to me as when he is alone, all happiness leaves him, he becomes depressed, and nothing can chear him up--turning him to stone. Obviously, stone cannot feel, so it may also be a way of numbing himself to the 'glances' and hurtful words, or whatever other people might do to him. The 'holding his breath half to death' is a little more difficult. A lot of people in depression are delusional too. Like they have schizophrenia. Sometimes holding your breath and counting slowly to ten, or higher, may clear your head of these delusions or whatever.

'Terrified of what's inside
to save his life
he crawls like a worm from a bird'

I think this is pretty straight forward, but maybe not. When in depression, the feelings come from inside, they creep around telling you what's wrong with you, basically giving you your depression. He is terrified of these thoughts, and like a worm cowards from a bird (for those of you who are a little slow...it's because birds eat worms.) he cowards from these thoughts.

'Whispers of...(just keep working...just keep working...im terrified)'

Just keep working, to keep the thoughts off of his fears and why he is terrified.

'Out of his mind away
pushes him whispering
"Musta been out of his mind..."

I'm not exactly sure what he means here, probably because it's slightly hard (to me) to understand the way it is written, but if it means people are whispering that he's out of his mind, then he is trying to push away those thoughts and what those people have said.

'Mid-day dillusions of pushing this
out of his head
make him out of his mind...'

He wishes (delusions that he can), but is unable to push these thoughts out of his head, no matter how hard he tries, and it makes him go out of his mind.

For the next few parts, it is pretty much the same as I have already explained...

This song is a little confusing, and I might even be wrong in my interpretation, but I hope this helps anyway :).

anonymous April 5th, 2008 09:53PM  
It's about running away from something bigger than you, be it literally running away fom something bigger, or running away from your problems

anonymous April 16th, 2008 11:49AM  
Alrighty......................
Maybe it's about running from your emotions
"Terrified of what's inside to save his life
he crawls like a Worm from a Bird"
Maybe being a danger to yourself and running from or trying to hide it
.......................idk, idk.................
Jay- Jay

anonymous June 3rd, 2008 05:04AM  
I reckon it's about paranoid schizophrenia too, I reckon that part of him knows he's mentally ill but he can't submit himself to possible ridicule he would receive if he sought help...I dunno, it's just a speculation.

anonymous September 13th, 2008 06:09PM  
Ummmm....people... This song is about trying to escape the un-escapable. Bert even said it himself!!

anonymous October 1st, 2008 04:02PM  
...worms don't crawl because they have no limbs?
it certainly seems like a song based on insecurity, and paranoia, always infear of being caught,
it also sounds like a song about addiction of some sort.

anonymous October 3rd, 2008 08:21PM  
I thought the same thing; its a inner turmoil kind of issue.
Ever heard the phrase, "You're your own worst enemy"?

Exactly.

anonymous October 25th, 2008 07:48AM  
This song is about a kid that is at a new high school and is dealing with bullys and the stuff that most outcasts deal with at school. "All alone he turns to stone while holding his breath half to death." Doesn't that remind you of High School if you weren't in the "in-crowd"? Also "his backpack is all that he knows" makes me think he is new at school. "Shot down by strangers who's glances can cripple." High School anyone? I don't care if you were popular or not this is High School.

anonymous February 19th, 2009 04:50PM  
I think part of the beauty of music is that you can take away from it what you need at the time. I've always gotten validation from music, like I'm not the only person who thinks these things, or feels this way, so when I hear, "terrified at what's inside," I think of looking inside at all the deep seeded emotional wounds we all have, or "all alone he turns to stone," I think of feeling alone and hurt and becoming cynical and hard hearted toward others, which may not be what the author meant at all, but that's what I got from it when I heard it. It's easy to think your interpretation is the right one, but there are unanswered questions in every song worth interpreting that leave even the cleverest of interpretations lacking. It's the nature of symbolism as a whole in song just as it is in literature.

robtambaz March 23rd, 2009 05:25AM  
He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack. maybe this means he's a loser wearing a heart badge safety pinned to his back pack. The few lines work out and flow with my version.

anonymous May 28th, 2009 01:45PM  
I think that it's about somebody who is feeling some sort of pressure, and begins to lost his mind because of it. What with hearing voices and whatnot. "Out of his mind

The weight pushes him whispering, Must have been out of his mind". To run away from the problem [["Crawls like a worm from a bird"]] he kills himself. "All alone he turns to stone". Stone = stone dead. Drowned himself? --> "While holding his breath half to death"

anonymous July 16th, 2009 10:43AM  
This song sounds alot like a paratrooper landing in a warzone, and is trying to get away from enemies or sumthing. but im sure thats not it =p