What does Hum Hallelujah mean?

Fall Out Boy: Hum Hallelujah Meaning

Album cover for Hum Hallelujah album cover

Hum Hallelujah Lyrics

It's all a game of this or that
Now versus then
Better off
Against worse for wear
And you're someone
Who knows someone who knows someone
I once knew
And I just want to be a part of this

The road outside my house
Is paved with good...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 28th 2007 !⃝

    OK, think about this. Song is about the fans. What I mean is it's about the fans who hold them up on a pedestal and think they are amazing and want to "just be a part of this". Think about it "I could write it better than you ever felt it." this is meaning this song is about the feelings of the listeners. and how they want to be in the shoes of FOB.

    I think its also about how people seem to think they are absolutely in love with people they don't know. like celebrities. "I thought I loved you but its just how you looked in the light". I think the "a teenage vow in a parking lot" has to do with before a show these fans think they are going to meet the celebrity in question and be some how it will be magical of some shit lol.
    ...who knows I could be died wrong about all of this, and to be honest a lot of what y'all have said makes a lot of sense too... most of their songs I understand pretty well I think but this one gave me some trouble..

  2. murdocking
    click a star to vote
    Jun 22nd 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is about a classic love tale, of a young boy and a girl that grew up as neighbours and thought to be in love,but one day one of them moved.and then they bumbed into each other one night at a club when teenagers.
    "It's all a game of this or that, now versus then
    better off against worse for wear" are references to when they first met each other when they were really little and how they used to tease and object each other (as children usually do when they have crushes)
    "And you’re someone who knows someone who knows someone I once knew,And I just want to be a part of this" this is where theyre pretending that there memory of each other is faint, (although, they secretley both remember each other perfectly, and both of them secretely want to be apart of eachothers lives)
    "The road outside my house is paved with good intentions
    Hired a construction crew, 'cause it's hell on the engine" this is when they "suddenly remembered" who the other was, and they start discussing memories of their childhood,and how they used to cause mischief with eachother.
    "And you are the dreamer and we are the dream." refers to how theyve thought of each other ever since the got seperated. It also shows the first sign of a romantic thing between them.
    "I could write it better than you ever felt it." is when he starts wondering if a relationship between them is going to turn out how he's dreamt.

    "So hum hallelujah,Just off the key of reason" is when she suddenly rushes him into her arms. and the next thing he realises he is in a parking lot altar exchanging vows,and doing it for all the wrong reasons (since he's just seen her for the first time in years),and hoping that something will come up and stop the catastrophe.
    "I thought I loved you,It was just how you looked in the light." is when he tries to tell her how he's not ready for a relationship, especially one so suddenly with an almost complete stranger.
    "A teenage vow in a parking lot,"Till tonight do us part"" shows when is laying the whole idea out in front of him,and realises that she thought of him a whole lot more than he though of her, and that the "marriage" would probably end soon enough anyway.
    "I sing the blues and swallow them too" is where he realises that there's nohing he can do now, and just tries to stop thinking of his troubles and goes ahead with it.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    i did not get to finish my interpretation because I have to leave, but I will try to post the end of it as soon as I can.

    Murdocking.

  3. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 19th 2007 !⃝

    The song it about Pete Wentz commiting suicide nothing more nothing less.
    All this complex meaning sh** is rubbish.
    Peter Wentz attempted suicide in a parking lot listening to the song "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckely.
    "I sing the blues and swallow them too" did everyone over look this lyric? he downed pills to try and end his depression.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 15th 2007 !⃝

    It's really about that the fact that Pete attempted suicide. If you really noticed that when FOB sings:
    "I love you in the same way, there's a chapel in a hospital
    One foot in your bedroom and one foot out the door
    Sometimes we take chances, sometimes we take pills.
    I could write it better than you ever felt it."
    Also, when Pete attempted suicide he heard song "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley on the radio.

  5. x_lily_x
    click a star to vote
    Jun 15th 2007 !⃝

    I THINK I know what this song is about... It's worth a shot to try and figure it out anyway. Nothing to lose.

    I think this was about one of Pete's bad experiences as a teenager ie, overdosing when he was a teenager in a parking lot.

    I don't know how the original "Hallelujah" song is interpreted into the mix, but it must be significant to the writer.

    The lines "A teenage boy in a parking lot" kinda make this obvious... To me anyway. Although Fallout Boy have a knack of making their fans believe that their songs mean one thing, whilst they actually mean something completely different.
    "Till tonight do us part" reveals to me that the person who is supposed to be in pain/overdosing (I won't say it was Pete because a) I don't know this and B)it might spark controversy) wanted it over quickly, and perhaps didn't want to think of it as death - maybe the concept of dying scared them.
    Hallelujah also has religious connotations - Maybe the writer thought that death would be more pleasant/manageable than life.

    Thanks again for reading this.
    Lily (",)

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 6th 2007 !⃝

    I love this song so much because you can relate it to your own life and experiences, however you interpret it. My interpretation is that it's about how the narrator slept with a girl he barely knew and inevitably got her pregnant. It's obvious he doesn't know her when he says, "And you're someone who knows someone who knows someone I once knew". I think he want to be a good father but he is still in a state of shock. He thought he loved her... but it was actually just the spur of the moment. He says "I thought I loved you... It was just how you looked in the light". He didn't really love her at all. He made a mistake that resulted in him fathering a child. The mistake is pointed out when he says, "I sing the blues and swallow them too". "Sometimes we take chances sometimes we take pills" means he took a chance by having sex. He is also being sarcastic about birth control pills. She did not take them. "A teenage vow in a parking lot" refers to the vow they should take if she was to get pregnant (which did happen). "Till tonight do us part" relates to part of the marriage promise. However, these 2 teens did not take into consideration the consequenses of their actions. When he says, "There's a chapel in a hospital, one foot in your bedroom and one foot out the door" he is refering to the birth of his child. He's using symbolism to show that although they will not marry, the child needs them to be united. He wants to leave and run away from his problems, but at the same time knows it's his responsibility to be there for her and his child.
    This song makes the issue of teen pregnancy well-known. It presents the problem through the eyes of a young tennager experiencing it. He's warning us to make good choices... or we'll end up like him with few options. This first-person point of view makes the song so realistic and touching that you can feel what he feels. Take responsibility for your actions.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 5th 2007 !⃝

    Ok this song is about a teenage romance. It is also about a personal experience of petes overdose with ativan. They have interprted Jeff Bucklys Hallelujah.

    Hum Hallelujah Refers to when he's depressed and instead of singing the words he hums them in greif.

    I sing the blues and swallow them too.. He sings the blues of a song like the sad melodys of a song and metaphorically he saying he is swallowing his pills at the same time overdoseing.
    I believe this song can also be refered to as a teenage romance Instead of till death to us part.. Tonight do us part to symbolise he didn't mean much to her.

    fall out boys lyrics are so clever I guess it just depends on how the indivual person will inperate in their own way.

  8. machs
    click a star to vote
    May 23rd 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is about American Idol, particularly the 2007 season. Allow me to elaborate:"It's all a game of this or that" means that the whole thing is just a game, whether it is of singing ability or being a good entertainer. "Now versus then" means it's the old time singers, such as Melinda Doolittle who is more old fashioned singing wise, versus modern singers like Blake Lewis. "You're someone who knows someone who knows someone I once knew" is about how if you have "connections" in the music business you have a better chance of winning American Idol, and some people "just wanna be a part of this". "The road outside my house..." and so on is all about how your dreams can be made or broken my American Idol and "I could write it better than you ever felt it" probably means that one of the members of the band has actually has been through the whole American Idol process. "So Hum Hallelujah Just off the key of reason" means you can't sing any song off key except your prayers (Hallelujah). "I though I loved you it was just how you looked in the light" means that sometimes people's opinions on the contestants change and when they "think they love you" it can just be how they saw them then. "I sing the blues and swallow them too" means that they sing
    the blues sometimes but they also swallow the blues, meaning the breath mints, because to sing that much you have to have pleasant smelling breath. The second verse is pretty self-explanitory. "We're a bull your ears are just a china shop" is referring to the bad singers during the early stages, who hurt our ears. "Chapel in a hospital" is in reference to Phil Stacey, who most probably went to pray and thank god that they let him through to the next round after he went and see his wife, who had just given birth, after auditioning. "Sometimes we take chances sometimes we take pills" means that sometimes you take a chance when you audition to American Idol, but if you don't make it, you start "taking pills", meaning you feel worthless after you didn't pass the audition so you resort to drug addiction.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. midnitegreen
    click a star to vote
    May 13th 2007 !⃝

    It is about commiting suicide.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Apr 9th 2007 !⃝

    I think this is a song about a guy who wants to or is about to take his own life, as he sits in his car in a parking lot (Pete wentz has said that he tried to OD while in a parking lot) he tinks about the things that have happend in his life, mainly his teenage years hence the line "a teenage vow in a parking lot". As this is going on the song Hallejuah plays on the radio.

  11. wentzrocks9
    click a star to vote
    Apr 2nd 2007 !⃝

    I love this song.
    I interpereted it as when they were younger, he loved her a lot more than she loved him. And she's saying "Til tonight do us part", you know, in a parking lot, which I think really symbolizes the impermanence of it. And he says "I sing the blues and I swallow them too", because he knew he didn't really matter to her, but he's not gonna say anything about it. And later in the song, they're older and everything and he says "I love you in the same way", so after all the time that's past, he still loves her. "There's a chapel in the hospital," I think that's really kind of talking about how she's such a wreck, but he still wants to be with her. So yeah I really love this song.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 2nd 2007 !⃝

    "sometimes we take chances, sometimes we take pills" refers to how when shit goes down in your life sometimes you take a chance and face it and sometimes you try to run away from it. Taking pills refers to suicide.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 26th 2007 !⃝

    "Hum Hallelujah" is a song about committing suicide.
    While the singer attempts suicide, the song "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley plays in the background.

    The lyrics are beautiful, ethereal. Fall Out Boy lyrics are meant to be so ambiguous as to inspire individual interpretation.
    My own interpretation of this song is that the singer truly believed in a true love, and becomes disillusioned.
    He is shattered by the realization that they both wanted to believe so much that they faked it.
    ["you are the dreamer
    and we are the dream
    i could write it better than you ever felt it"]

    "a teenage vow in the parking lot
    "til tonight do us part" "
    the singer is detailing how instead of "til death do us part", this was an ephemeral love that he had believed in.
    this heartbreak may have led to "sometimes we take chances/ sometimes we take pills" -
    because after all,
    "I thought I loved you/ it was just how you looked in the light "

  14. Yudorka
    click a star to vote
    Mar 10th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about teenagers who had just met and they have sex in a car in a parking lot. however the girl gets pregnant and she tells the boy. So in the song he is playing a game of "THIS OR THAT". Perhaps the girl intends on keeping the child and considers marriage "You are the Dreamer and We are The Dream", she wants him to be in the childs life somehow. and in the same sense the boy doesn't know what he wants and is angry that she "forgot" her "pills" "Sometimes we take chances Sometimes we take pills. She didn't take her birth control and got pregnant.
    He thinks about how he doesn't even know her that well because she is someone who knows someone who knows someone he once knew that he just wants to be a part of.
    Though it was a "TEENAGE VOW IN A PARKING LOT, TILL TONIGHT DO US PART" meaning that she was to mean nothing to him but only for that night. He only THOUGHT he loved her just how she looked in the light.

    so I'm guessing he married her and chooses to be in the childs life cause he says "There is a Chapel in the hospital" and "One step in your bedroom and one step out the door" meaning just one night with a girl you don't know can ruin your life just because she gets pregnant.

    Fall Out Boy songs can be a bit complex, and I'm not saying I'm completely correct!

    but keep in mind I'm only 14 so if you have any thing better post it ~dorian~

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