What does Adam's Song mean?

Blink-182: Adam's Song Meaning

Album cover for Adam's Song album cover

Song Released: 2000


Adam's Song Lyrics

I never thought I'd die alone
I laughed the loudest who'd have known
I traced the cord back to the wall
No wonder it was never plugged in at all
I took my time, I hurried up
The choice was mine, I didn't think enough
I'm too...

  1. anonymous
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    Apr 26th 2008 !⃝

    This song is about suicide. Anyone who has dealt with suicide can hear meaning behind the lyrics. Just look at "please tell mom this is not her fault" I have seen what suicide does to a mother. It is very sad. Weird thing is; suicide is so very selfish, and most who commit suicide want others to feel bad, but even in depression most don't care to harm their momma.

    CjC

  2. anonymous
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    Apr 9th 2008 !⃝

    This song oringinally was made from a suicide letter sent to the lead singer. The suicide note was from a kid who killed himself and wanted it to be known. when the lead signer got the lettter he wrote a song about it. The song relates to many things. one is "come as you are" or so I think by nirvana. another is about how they went on tour and came back depressed. and lin later years a man from columbine commited suicide listening to this song. I think this is what the song means.

  3. anonymous
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    Mar 23rd 2008 !⃝

    It's actually about two things: suicide and how Mark was bummed out on tour.
    Mark got a letter about a kid who committed suicide around the time that Blink was touring and Mark was homesick. So they wrote this song, and it was coincidental that after the columbine shooting, a kid hung himself in his garage with this song on repeat.

    Throughout the lyrics you can interpret this.

    We all have established its a suicide song.
    But in the chorus "The tour was over, we'd survived"

    It is supposed to say a message such as "We all have our ups and downs and we can all conquer them even if you don't think you can" Like the suicidal person "I'm too depressed to go on" He's like "I can take it anymore" but mark who was homesick ("the tour was over we'd survived") is like "I can get through the rough times"

    In the last verse especially, it's essentially the light at the end of the tunnel...meaning suicide is never the answer.

    Other Stuff:
    "I took my time, I hurried up, the choice was mine I didn't think enough"--reference to Nirvana's "Come as you are"

  4. twinkle_toes
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    Feb 18th 2008 !⃝

    I really agree w/ the first person, but when you listen 2 the last chorus part, it changes and it sounds like he found hope, that there's a way out of it. I think the narrator found that you decide your happiness, sometimes its just easier 2 get depressed and give up then fight back and get urself on track and work 4 a better life, so in the end the narrator realizes he can still enjoy life like he did when he was 16, the trick was 2 just simply ENJOY LIFE! this song really got me through some tough times when I thought there wasnt any hope and I would play this song 2 just sit in my misery, but I would always somehow 4get the happy ending, and then it would make me feel better! that's why I luv this song so much, you think its just another slit my wrist I hate life song, but its a stop slitting wrists save lifes song!

  5. anonymous
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    Dec 4th 2007 !⃝

    Well obviously this song is about suicide just listen to the line "I'm too depressed to go on you'll be sorry when I'm gone" why the hell would it say that if he wasn't gonna kill himself

  6. anonymous
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    Nov 26th 2007 !⃝

    Another note I forgot in my last message:
    - if the user above is right, apple juice might mean -that- juice, but I don't think it is likely.

    - the room might represent himself, as a person. when the tour is over he goes to his room alone, that is, he leaves the room world and goes alone to be with himself (not necessarily physically, but in a psycological way). when he is young he can't wait to go outside, that is, to interact with other people, deal with the outside world. now in his later days he wants turns into himself. notice how he says that "they" will close his room and never step into it agains. The "room" represents his person, it means they will never think of him again which is another view on the apparent absurdity of boarding up his room.

    - "we'd survive" may also point out to the fact that he doesn't want to be alive and that "life" won't spare him the suffering. He was perhaps expecting more than surviving, or maybe he didn't expect to survive at all or hadn't thought about it.

    - "the world was wide" may not mean what I said initially but that, when he was young, the world was full of things to explore. He implies that, today, the world shrinked and he is out of choices. His life is over, he is lonely and so he's out of things to do. In the end "was" is replaced by "is". "too late to try" is replaced by "time goes by" which might mean that he realizes time never stops and that he should live what is left to live while he still can.
    the fact that the line "To pass the time in my room alone" is still present is not a mistake but is there to remember that nothing really changed, only his perspective. He is still alone and closed on himself but he sees this with happiness instead of sadness.

  7. anonymous
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    Nov 26th 2007 !⃝

    The song, as it has been said is about suicide but blink 182 describe it from their own point of view. all of it seems to be about their sad moments as a band at tour.
    it is about the moments when they feel old, mis-accomplished, lonely and depressed.
    it talks about how sometimes they miss being kids and it draws the comparison of the times when they wanted to go outside and now when all they want is to be alone at their room after a lonesome tour.
    some other lines talk about how they never "conquered", i.e. failed at doing something (perhaps being successful or failing at their social life) and that it is too late to try now. "the world is wide" means precisely that it is too hard to do what they wanted to do.
    "I laughed the loudest, etc" is about how lonely he is in comparison with the brighter misleading days of the past. The second line about the cord is probably about how life seems to trick him into keeping him in constant suffering. when he checks to see if the cord is plugged in the wall he is not surprised with what he sees because he feels like he is kept in suffering against his will, making him go through rough times and not letting him die. That means he wanted the cord to be plugged. It is a reference to an ocasion when the guitarrist picked up a guitar which had the amp in a puddle. It could be a flash back about that moment, not necessarely how he felt or feels about it.
    "Give all my things to all my friends
    You'll never set foot in my room again
    You'll close it off, board it up
    Remember the time that I spilled the cup
    Of apple juice in the hall
    Please tell mom this is not her fault" talks about how he thinks people who lived with them as kids, their family, will forget about him. He says in six months he will be forgotten and tells them to give away his stuff since they don't care. He also uses this part to apologize even though he feels forsaken and abandoned. This part seems to contradict the part "You'll be sorry when I'm gone" but I think it doesn't. In the first part, after the nirvana line, (which means he has all the time he wants because nobody cares), he seems to be angry and I think the you'll be sorry part means something like "you'll see", somewhat like he was replying back to the fact that they didn't care.
    the end, of course, is a twist on the chorus which originally talks about how bad it is right now, into an optimist view of the future, when he isn't so sad about being alone in his room.

  8. anonymous
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    Nov 24th 2007 !⃝

    It's about someone deciding whether to commit suicide, but then decides against it. The verses show the reasons behind them wanting to commit suicide in the first place.
    The first two choruses show them favouring the option of suicide.
    The musical "bit" in between the last two choruses show them making up their mind.
    The last chorus is slightly changed, showing that they altered their opinions.

  9. anonymous
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    Oct 31st 2007 !⃝

    I feel so smart, I figured out it was about suicide before I read all of this, and I knew the line from Nirvana. Go me!

  10. anonymous
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    Oct 19th 2007 !⃝

    Actually this song is about SUICIDE! those of you who choose not to believe so are dumb, sorry. um actually we had a class discussion about this and its baout the band members brother adam who died

  11. anonymous
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    Sep 14th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about suicide but what nobody knows is all there doing is showing the truth which most people are afraid to do nowdays. The song has a deep dark meaning and that's okay because their just saying what they see in the world that's what music is supposed to be about, and if you don't like it don't listen to it.

  12. anonymous
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    Aug 5th 2007 !⃝

    This song I think is about someone who's been through a lot and no one cared enough to help. In the beginning it's about depression and towards the end its saying there's better things in life then killing yourself, I don't care if oyu don't think this this is just my feeling about it

  13. anonymous
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    Jul 31st 2007 !⃝

    You guys argue to much.

  14. anonymous
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    Jun 8th 2007 !⃝

    TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA:


    According to Tom Delonge:

    The story behind [the song] is Mark read a letter someone sent him as an email, that a kid wrote to his parents before he committed suicide. We kind of got together and wrote this sad, slow song. It came out sadder than we ever thought it would, which is good too. Any song that moves you is good. Some people listen to it and go 'Wow, that's a real bum-out of a song.' But it's one of those things, a story of a kid not being happy in his life, crossed with us being really lonely on tour. At the end of it there's a better way out, there are better things to do than kill yourself.


    Other information:

    The title of the song comes from a sketch in from Mr. Show with Bob and David, in which a young fan of the band Titannica (named Adam) tries to kill himself after listening to their songs. The band invites him on tour with them, but they soon find out that his body is now hideously deformed. They created the song called "Adam's Song" which encourages him to "try again".

    The line "I took my time, I hurried up / The choice was mine, I didn't think enough" is a reference to the song "Come as You Are" by Nirvana, in which the line is "Take your time, hurry up / The choice is yours, don't be late."

    The song caused a stir in 2000 when a teenager committed suicide while listening to it.

  15. anonymous
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    Mar 27th 2007 !⃝

    Listen to me people, this song has no "higher meaning"! This song is out there to stop young people from suicide! you may all be right, but I fear you're going the same road becouse of that song. and, have you ever thought its a commercial trick to lead people on a bogus chase? Think about it! the fuss on this song is amazing; hence, the propaganda for this song has highly risen!




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