Flobots: Handlebars Meaning
Handlebars Lyrics
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it's good to be
ALIVE
and I'm a famous rapper
even when...
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When I first saw the video and listened to the song I thought, "wow, this is stupid if they're gonna keep singing about handlebars" Then it moved on and showed the difference between two friends and how one loves freedom (represented by the dove) and how one becomes arrogant from (I can ride my bike with no handlebars) to (I can end the planet in a holocaust). This isn't just about government arrogance, ignorance, and corruption, it's about human nature and corruption of the mind.
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I think this song is about standing up for what you believe in, having morals, and staying true to yourself instead of being so influenced by the media.
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What the song is about is quite obvious. At the beginning the two guys (which is actually really one guy, you'll get it later) start out beside each other or as one. stretching out their arms, riding with no limits. Then the guys' personality has two paths to choose. the good or bad. The bad is the path of power pursuit, the good is just living a simplistic good life wanting the world to be harmonious. You can tell it's really one person by the fact that in the video you see two birds flying, the black one (evil) devouring the white one (good). which is saying that right now evil is devouring good in the world.
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I believe that the theme of this song is the nature of ambition and the drive for power. A basic human need is the need to feel powerful and capable. We have seen this need in little boys, as they ride their bikes with no handlebars. With age, education, and intellect, the ability to satisfy this need increases logarithmically, however the driving emotion, which harnesses the intellect, is unchanged from that of a little boy and is unsophisticated.
I believe the song is also is a commentary on some of the most powerful men in the world, that the emotional driving force that has reaped the accumulation of great power is not very different from that of little boys, and that we should trust them accordingly. -
This song is about personal freedom and the ways to have it. There are two paths: peace or corruption. The peaceful path gives you plenty of personal freedom, you can do whatever you want (within reason). The path of power and corruption can also let you do anything you want. However, this path leads to desctuction and loss, which in the end is the bad path.
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There are two brothers; they both start off the same, with simple lives. The biggest thing in their lives is "I can ride my bike with no handlebars." They begin moving through their lives. Then they split; they each choose a path for their lives: one chooses a path of power and corruption (c) and the other peace (dove). The peaceful one goes through his life normally, learning and progressing naturally. Meanwhile, the power-seeking one works his way up, seeking more power. First, through a corporation (c), learning about influencing people's decisions and making more money to gain more power. Then, he works up through government, giving speeches and gaining power to have more control. Then he progresses to a dictator, where he has complete control. He goes completely corrupt with power. Realizing this, his brother (who took the other path in life) leads a revolt against him. He and many followers try to take on the powerful leader, but many are killed in the attempt. The corrupt brother realizes, only too late, what he has become and what he has done (his brother was just shot and killed). He then thinks back on the way his life was at the beginning trying to find out how he got where he is now.
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I pretty much agree with the post from 2008-05-22 22:45:36, the only difference I find with his first interpretation is that instead of the 'C' on the sign meaning corporation, it would rather mean corruption, a path leading to power and ultimate strength, but at the sacrifice of so much, while the dove, symbolizing peace in many things, is the path leading to a pure future, where people would fight to keep the world pure and die for the idea of a peaceful future.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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While I'm not going to offer a full interpretation, I think its significant that in the video, several times in the background you see what looks similar to a partially completed version of the Freedom Tower, the planned replacement for the Twin Towers. This appears to be what the group led by the "peace" individual is marching on at the end of the video. I would argue that they're using this as a symbol of the conflict over America's future, whether it will be a more peaceful, populist society or a more fascist one.
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My interpretation is simple. Its the difference between peace vs communism, fascism, false freedom and all that. It all starts with a simple choice of children in the beginning as children are the future.
By the way Canada is the only true free accepting nation in the world no USA bullshit. -
I really don't know what to put
I think there are a couple or meanings for this
my first one is that he is talking about the 2 paths they can take and he and his friend chose different one, the dove, which I think means free and pure,and that's who's talking in the 1st verse, then the one that went to the, "c" corporate side, is talking in the 2nd and third verse,
kinda really makes you wonder who's really in control and what stuff do these people know because in the end of the video where the one friend, who took the corporate path, was in a state of shock, almost like he had NO ida what was going on till the end where he eventually killed an entire city... who's to say that stuff only in videos, what if that was happening to bush and he didn't know what he is being controlled and we had people that WE didn't know controlling us????
my second one
i think it is first talking about him in is real life, and how he is happy to ride his bike with no handle bars, then he gets into all the things he COULD do if he put his mind to it
he could be this person that is just trying to make it through, or he could be goverment leader and kill this world basicly, but in the end of that I think he is saying, "I don't want to do any of that, I am still young, I wanna just keep riding my bike with no handle bars and make this my great accomplishment"
oh and yes the dove very symbol video as well -
Well actually I read online what the lead singer was talking about! he was inspired by the song when he learned to ride his bike with no handle bars. He felt so triumphant, but at the same time he knew that there were other people in the world who couldn't even find food to eat. He goes on talking about the video, and the two paths one could take.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Another meaning to this song is responsibility and accountability. If a person in power is not responsible and misusing their power, it falls on others to make them accountable for there actions. The music video shows this as the revolution and the song expresses it with the threading verses, the Holocaust, snipers and missile references.
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This song is all about mocking how we as a human race have become swallowed by our pride and think we can do anything.
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