A Perfect Circle: The Outsider Meaning

Song Released: 2004

The Outsider Lyrics

Help me if you can.
It's just that this is not the way I'm wired.
So could you please help me understand why you've given in to all these
reckless dark desires?

You're lying to yourself again, suicidal imbecile.
Think about it.
You’re...

1. anonymous

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   Apr 20th 2011 !⃝

   Its about a boy and a girl who have a baby
2. anonymous

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   Feb 14th 2011 !⃝

   a lot of you are right, imo, but the 13th step deals mainly with the different aspects of addiction, hence the bullets and "the pulling of the trigger" deal with getting high, probably with a needle. i think the outsider just cannot understand why this person feels the need to get high and "self-destruct" over and over again. dont really feel like explaining my whole thought process on this as im monstrously hungover, but as long as i can introduce the idea, then....
3. anonymous

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   Dec 30th 2010 !⃝

   It could be abstract, or it could be real. When I read the lyrics I think of Kurt Cobain. What a pussy. Liked his music of course.
   
   Or maybe Maynard knew a crazy suicidal person...or maybe he read about it...or simply disdains the thought of doing it...who knows? None of you do. Neither do I.
4. anonymous

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   Dec 21st 2010 !⃝

   It's an amazing song, who the hell cares what he's TRYING to say? Listen to what he's saying.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Oct 27th 2010 !⃝

   I just love how the video puts the viewer in the position of an outsider, just like the song is from the perspective of a person that is lacking in compassion. Not only are we outsiders to the female antagonists but also to the video itself. Had the video been made by any other band I would probably have thought it was coincidental.
6. J8sony

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   Oct 9th 2010 !⃝

   Very nice to see some intelligent and well-articulated thought going on in this forum. Leave it to Maynard Fans. I think the meaning is much more simply inspired than some of the other ideas offered in this post. It's about what most songs and poetry are about - the turmoils thar accompany love. it's a bout not going down with the ship when your partner is self-destructing. Thai self-destrction takes many other forms besides just drug and alcohol addiction. Manard is not Wired for self-destruction. He would have to be the opposite of that in ordere to tech the wisdom he has thus far achieved.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

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   Sep 23rd 2010 !⃝

   I think the song is mind fuckingly difficult to understand
8. sappy67

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   May 19th 2010 !⃝

   as i know whole 13th step album is about drug addiction so this song is about an addict that is starting to use drugs again. so by suicide i think that he means using drugs. to me this version fits into every line
9. anonymous

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   May 2nd 2010 !⃝

   I think it's about a highly dysfunctional women he was involved with but is now ready to turn his back on. It progresses lyrically and in tone. It goes from... "help me understand?" to "STEP OFF BITCH!".
10. anonymous

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    Mar 23rd 2010 !⃝

    First of all i would just like to say that I believe everyone is allowed to interpret any piece of music in their own way. Thats the great thing about music, it is about how it touches you. Personally I believe this song is not about suicide at all. If you commit suicide you don't "disconnect and self destruct one bullet at a time" or "throw it all away like this", if you commit suicide its over, but drugs or some other addiction will throw your life away. Ive been there, and "lying to yourself again", you always tell yourself that your not in trouble or your not "addicted". I believe that his perspective is from "the outsider," hence the song name. One bullet at a time is everytime you get high, getting high is the bullet. And you are one step further down the spiral. And as most of the album is about "addiction", nothing imparticular but addiction, "weak and powerless", and "The Thirteenth Step", refering to being beyond the "12th" Step in any anonymous program. And the "numb beligerence" is that any addict is completely numb to the outside world and does everything and anything, the addict is beligerent, like a drunk, anything to get high! Just my opinion, i could write 1000 more words but these are some of my key points, ill leave the rest up to you!!! enjoy
11. anonymous

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    May 14th 2009 !⃝

    I hve to agree with alot of the postings. It's up to you how you wanted to interpret. But, I think that this may have something to do with the music video. "Bikini Bandits" which he played a Satan character and the pope played by Dee Dee Ramone. So, possibly could be about Dee Dee (since he did die I think around 2002 and this album was released around that time too). Maybe, it's some twisted way of paying his respects. Just my opinion, which is just like an asshole (everyone has one).

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    Mar 31st 2009 !⃝

    This song is somewhat of a duality for me. Regardless of Maynard's explanation of this song's lyrics are, he does aim for leaving meaning up to the listener. It's like saying to someone who is depressed and suicidal "How bad can your life really be? Stop being such a bitch, you'll die anyway, so enjoy life." Some people aren't as resistant to stress and depression and have weaker wills and a low to non-existent sense of self. "Not the way I'm wired..." kind of shows that difference between strong and weak will. Some people sincerely do not want to be alive and deal with life. I believe that they have a personal right to take their own life.
13. anonymous

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    Jan 14th 2009 !⃝

    someone with a self destructive behavior and the narrator just doesn't get why they want to be that way. end of story.
14. anonymous

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    Aug 13th 2008 !⃝

    Hmm that's neat, Maynard singing a song through the interpretation of someone with less compassion, not understanding the situation.
    
    But I still have to say, I like this song for my interpretation, which is a cold lack of compassion for people who do unto themselves terrible things that they could avoid if they hadn't been so thoughtless and so easily influenced.
    
    This song does Not validate the suicidal depressive ways of many youth today, even though Maynard's creation for the song attempts to bash, somehow, those whom disregard the suicidal depressive youth of today.
    
    I personally believe that there is common ground needed to be taken. a compromise for both the compassionless side of those whom have avoided such fatal things as drugs and other addictions AND for those people who Have fallen victim to drugs, etc.
15. HACKER

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    May 16th 2008 !⃝

    Ok it actually sounds like at the end he says such a mess, over this, coalesce! but that's up to yourself to determine. now I'm not going to give you my interpretation because I personally thought that the lyrics were very clear in this song unlike many others written by jimmy here.

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