Foster the People: Pumped Up Kicks Meaning
Song Released: 2010
Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out of his mouth he's a cowboy kid
Yeah found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things, I don't...
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This song is about a guy named,I think,robert hawkins. Well,he was an out cast and he would get beat by his dad when he was a boy and then something happened and he went to some mall and shot 9 people including himself...something like that. Thats all the deets I know.
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I like the song , i know its not talking about good stuff but who in the hell cares, if the people didnt like it they wouldn't put it on the radio. LOVE THIS SONGG! :)
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all the responses are from those thinking too much. Remember the "artist" is somewhere between 16-24 yr. and has limited experience in the adult world. No doubt we could all make up a negative experience from childhood and market it as a song - but to take it too mass-murder proportions is a far-fetched. Let's let the boys take their girls to the proms, have a little sex, and be done with it.
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guys. this kid was lonely. he felt left out cuz everyone else had all those wonderful things. at the end when we commits seucide. its because he realised what he did and he could be arrested for it
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dad's dinner is a beer on cold ice
coming home drunk
robert is in no way the robert hawkins or anyone else you think it might be
go tta go sorry ); buh bye -
In an interview....
What was your motivation for writing about school shootings?
Kids are just getting younger and younger and losing their minds and going on killing sprees. It really was bothering me, and I was trying to figure out why that was happening more and more. I wanted to tell that story and get inside the head of a kid going crazy. The song's about isolation, being an outcast, and seeing the world through the character's eyes. It's not about him actually physically going and doing anything, it's about his mental state. -
Well, I don't thinks its about a particular person. The kid isn't happy with his life and doesn't have the life that a kid usually gets. You can tell from the dinner is packed in ice and his father works late.
What the surprise his father's bringing him? I do not know but, it might be him being drunk a joint, the kid not being beaten or a prostitute. (some of my theories are pretty out there)
The kid is jealous of the rich kids who have their dads and friends. So he resorts to smoking and getting "high" to make the loneliness go away. You can tell he's getting high with the two lines 'I reason with my cigarette and say your hair's on fire have you lost your wits"
He found his daddies gun and decided to use it to kill all the normal people so he doesn't have to deal with them or to get the built up anger and pain out. Or to get the feeling of being superior for once.
Remember Robert's got a gone and you better run better run -
It's referring to the killer involved in the columbine massacre and that incident as well
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the lyrics suggest dark, Columbine revenge. The song is about a troubled and delusional youth with homicidal thoughts. Mark Foster stated that the lyrics were written to "bring awareness" to the issue of gun violence amongst youth, which he feels is an epidemic perpetuated by "lack of family, lack of love, and isolation
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And the rolled cireret is the thing that has the hair on fire witch means he is smoking.
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I think that all the other kids with the pumped up kicks are the popular kids. The pumped up kicks can be like Nike airs or jordans the shoes the popular kids wear. And Robert is loosing his mind and finally snaps and decides to come into school and try and kill the popular kids who picked on him hense the "better run Better run, outrun my gun" cuz he's shooting at them. And "daddy works a long day" and "he's bringing me a surprise" means his da I always at work and he never sees his dad and when he does he gets a surprise (a beating or abuse) and the part where it says "becomes a quick pull trigger" means he's thinking about killing his abusive father
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What is going on here everyone knows that this world is dark and crazy but tomorrow is another day why sing a song about this to get in our youths heads and take a chance that this is the right way to go especially this scares the hell out of me with school starting back
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"Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out of his mouth he's a cowboy kid
Yeah found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things, I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you"
I think Robert is just a made up character the artist made when he was a kid, or even maybe someone he wished he was who was some bad ass guy, the person he could never be. Like any bad ass cowboy, he had his cigarette in his mouth and being a snoop he found his dads box of random things he found a gun and now hes pretending hes going to kill his dad.
"Daddy works a long day
He'll be coming home late, Yeah he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise,
Dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice
I've waited for a long time
Yeah the slide of my hand is now a quick pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say your hair's on fire, you must of lost your wit, yeah"
His dad works all the time and never really pays attention to him, he comes home late and sleeps but brings him a ready home dinner for his son. he waits and waits for his dad to come home now so he can shoot him. his insecurities show in his hand as hes playing with his cigarette instead of smoking it. I'm not exactly sure the meaning of why his dads hairs on fire.. but i think his dad came home drunk and he might of lost his shit on him.
the chorus: "
"All the other kids with the pumped up kicks,
You'd better run, better run, out run my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, out run my gun
All the other kids with your pumped up kicks,
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet"
- i think he pussied out and didn't shoot his dad so now he's pissed and targeting all the kids who have it better than him.. Kicks are what cool kids wore in the older days.. so i assume now he's shooting down kids he's seeing in school and if they aren't afraid of him or fast enough he'll shoot them down. -
i think that it is a abused kid who had finally hit the boiling point of his life. his dad works late- probably meaning his dad works hard and his dad goes to a bar every night and gets drunk every night and the surprise is that his dad comes home drunk and starts the abuse. and the rolled up cigeret is a friend the kid made him self because he is a out castand has no friends. pumped up kicks is just a expression about kids who have stuff that he cant have. no this is not the cheary beat song that is the accuall meaning is a scary thing to even think about. this is a sad thing to think about to
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in the chorus of this song i dont think he is actually referring to kids i think when he says "kids" he is bringing his dad down to his level the whole "you act like a kid so you must be a kid" thing comes into play this way this song is universal for everyone who's parents werent there for them sure not everyone didnt kill em but he makes a very good connection i personally love this sing :P
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