What does The Regulator mean?

Clutch: The Regulator Meaning

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Album cover for The Regulator album cover

The Regulator Lyrics

6. The Regulator

I See That Lantern Trimmed Low Burning In Our Home.
And Though I Feel Like Crying, I Swear Tonight, I'll Cry No More.

How Many Times Have I Prayed
That I Would Get Lost Along The Way?

Dream With The Feathers Of Angels...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jun 17th 2019 !⃝

    Regulator is a clock brand
    https://www.collectorsweekly.com/clocks/regulator

    He murdered his estranged wife and her lover less than a year after they broke up. Now he's watching the Regulator pendulum clock tick away the last minutes of his life before he is executed this night, when he'll cry no more.

    The rhythm guitar is the clock ticking his last bit of time away.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Mar 20th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about a man who is torn up and angry about his woman cheating on him and kicking him out of his home.

    He is heartbroken and wishes he were dead sometimes. Instead he turns that pain into anger.

    He wonders if his woman left him for money or material things. He knows she's sleeping with the new guy.

    Then he tells his woman that she is going th hell since no angels are watching over her now, just as surely as the the regulator on the clock counts down the days to her judgement.

  3. anonymous
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    Nov 21st 2021 !⃝

    One night, a man, in emotional agony, for the better part of a year, travels to his former home; that he once shared with the love of his life.

    He stares through the darkness with the rage that replaced his dispare; remembering the happiness that was stolen from him, when she discarded him for another man.

    He’s come to hate her for her peaceful self-righteousness; while he is lost in directionless agony.

    He’s prayed for his own death. This night he prayed that he would be redirected from the doorstep of his own demise. As he hasn’t the self-control to interrupt the revenge that he is so obsessed with.

    She should have predicted that what she did would push him over the edge. If not the creator, she should have stopped him.

    Now, as the tick of the clock is inevitable, so is the justice that awaits her; for the man that she damaged so brutally will take her with him to the afterlife (the longest mile).

  4. anonymous
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    Feb 6th 2020 !⃝

    I feel it's about himself.the pendulum is a divination tool becoming more popular. The regulators were the ones who decided when they were going to come out n regulate. I happend an hour from here in snow camp, alamance county, bc in 1771... That's right.n he was sentenced after something went down n his home. Maybe robbery gone wrong. Hence windows n dog?? The feathers r n his pillow courtesy of d.o.c n we all know what the longest mile is... But hopefully the regulators save him b4 he had to start tht long mile...#regulators

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 28th 2018 !⃝

    The Regulators were a group of outlaws that included Billy the kid. Wondering if they are somehow referencing them.

  6. anonymous
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    Apr 13th 2016 !⃝

    It's about the the artist returning to his home to kill his cheating wife. He feels like crying but will no more. He prayed he'd get lost along the way. Despite the "feathers of angels stuffed beneath your head," the clock (Regulator Clock Company makes wind up clock) still ticks. I think the longest mile is him walking her to where he's going to kill her. He asks if the other man was rich and that's why shes screwing him. She should have secured the house better. Again, he expresses his wish he hadn't actually arrived to do what he intends.

  7. anonymous
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    Jun 16th 2014 !⃝

    This is what I hear. The regulator is itself an idiom, a specific archetype among lawmen. A regulator seeks to bring justice to absolutely everyone, even another regulator. Lawmen and the people the go after are in constant tension, but a regulator seeks to remove that bias from himself or herself. The protagonist in this song is a newer regulator, with the song detailing his disgust with the antagonists skewed moral compass. He knows this person personally, and knows full well facing him may end him. So the pathway begins and he starts to walk "The Longest Mile". A long bitter struggle toward death and justice with the other person. While he is likely to die, the other person is fearful of how the struggle will end. The young Regulator is not afraid at all. He only fears he will die and fail to bring justice down on his opponent. He knows this path, the moral difficulties of violence. Even if he should die, he will outrun this figurative path much more effectively than the other person. As he begins, he realizes he can end it by intensifying the pace of their struggle. His opponent cannot keep up with the regulator and with justice, and he is defeated.

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 2nd 2013 !⃝

    I think it's about a man going on a dangerous mission of some sort, but he knows it's dangerous and he may die so deep inside he doesn't want to do it. I think the beggining is when he is about the leave for it and is narrating his thoughts.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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    Apr 10th 2013 !⃝

    A regulator is a type of clock that has a pendulum

  10. anonymous
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    Dec 5th 2012 !⃝

    So now this is where the Regulator comes in. The character in the song killed the man, then he was caught and sentenced to death. The chorus is sung the second time, and the longest mile now has new meaning. He is now walking the longest mile down death row to the electric chair. The boy was the regulator the first time and fought back against the bad man. But now the regulator has become the government (maybe specifically the warden or a certain lawman or judge, but the generic government figure is adequate for now). The pendulum arm swung against him for a while, then once swung for him as he killed the man, and now it is ready to swing back against him as the regulator executes him as punishment for the murder he committed.

  11. anonymous
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    Dec 5th 2012 !⃝

    Oops, me again, I forgot one part. The pendulum swing. A pendulum is an arm that swings back and forth. The evil stepfather figure has been giving out the abuse as the pendulum was swinging in one direction. Now it is at it's peak, and now that pendulum is about to swing right back at the bad man and hit him with as much force as he used against the person in the song. I can only imagine that the character in the song is a young teenage boy, previously small enough to be bullied by this man, but is now man enough to fight back. And when he lashes out, he will have the full strength of the pendulum's unstoppable momentum behind him.

  12. anonymous
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    Dec 5th 2012 !⃝

    To me, it is about a family member, prehaps his mother who has taken in a new man who becomes an abusive stepfather. He sees the lantern in their home, so he is close to the house where they all live ("our home"). He calls the new man a dog. He wanted he angels to take him away or make him get lost when walking the path back toward the house (a path he most likely knew too well to get lost), indicating he wanted to flee a bad situation. He wants the family member to sleep on a pillow made of angel feathers. He is on his way home to kill the bad guy. He is walking the longest mile back home, where tonight he will cry no more because he is going to end the torture ("And though I feel like crying, I swear tonight I'll cry no more"). It is the longest mile because he knows what will happen once he gets home and it feels like it is the longest mile he has ever walked because he knows there will be a fight and he will murder that dog of stepfather that has made his life miserable.


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