What does No Roots mean?

Alice Merton: No Roots Meaning

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Album cover for No Roots album cover

Song Released: 2017


No Roots Lyrics

I like digging holes and hiding things inside them
When I'll grow old, I hope I won't forget to find them
'Cause I've got memories and travel like gypsies in the night
I build a home and wait for someone to tear it down
Then pack it up in...

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  1. anonymous
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     Jul 21st 2021 !⃝

    Digging holes and hiding things inside them...
    Bank rubbers are hiding money from the coup in holes they are digging.
    It's also something dogs do. When they are very fond of a bone. And don't want other dogs to eat it. In Iceland people a putting pieces of shark in holes. It's gives the meat a "sharp" (better? taste)
    Så my interpretation is, that you are digging holes for something your are fond of, that you don't want other people to take from you. Perhaps you hope times will be better and you can go a get it later.

  2. anonymous
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     Apr 13th 2020 !⃝

    Update on the post of April 13, 2020 at 11:43- Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the part about "digging holes and hiding things inside them" may be her putting something of herself in these places she's been. Then when she grows old, she can go back and find them and remember the amazing things that happened in those places. I took this part literally, though, of course it is figuratively. She could probably actually mean putting memories in things she sees, if that makes sense. For example, she could look at something she bought in one country she lived in and remember that country just by looking at it. That thing doesn't even have to even be an object she bought. It could be a place that reminds her of another place. When I go to Newport News, Virginia, there's a little bit of it that reminds me of Wiesbaden, Germany and I feel relaxed and kind of at home just looking at it.

  3. anonymous
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     Apr 13th 2020 !⃝

    Alice Merton said herself that the song was about her moving around almost all her life and not having a place to call "home"; hense the line "I've got no roots". She soon realises that "home" is not a place, but was with the people she loves; hense the line "my home was never on the ground". As a military brat, I can relate to these lyrics very well because us military families move around a lot and not just around America, but around the rest of the world. We "got memories" about all the places we've been and people we've met and every single experience in each of those places wether it be good or bad. And then, when it's time to leave, we "travel like gypsies in the night". Since this happens so often, it's the same old story; we've "seen this road a thousand times". The only thing I don't fully understand is the digging holes part.

  4. anonymous
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     Jan 15th 2020 !⃝

    It means you don't fit in. Or you're a bank robber.

  5. anonymous
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     Jun 29th 2019 !⃝

    It's about failed relationships and making the same mistakes in every one, never learning and growing better.

  6. anonymous
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     Dec 27th 2018 !⃝

    I think it means that you move around too much.


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