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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He talks to his cigarette saying that he's lost his wits, it's him(Robert) who's lost his wits. He doesn't listen to his "friend" and goes on with the shooting.
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I belive this song is about the begining of mass murderer Billy the Kid. Just the way his life became messed up.
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I'm almost 100% certain this song is not about Robert A. Hawkins... but I could be wrong.
But here are my facts. Robert A. Hawkins wasn't a cowboy for one thing. Yes they lived in a ranch style home but he was not a cowboy by any means. He also didn't just live with his father he lived with his mother also. This is significant in the song because he only has a father in the song. Also he shot up the mall with an AK47 not a revolver which is another critical thing in the song... he had a six shooter not an assault rifle with a mag of 30 bullets.
Also Pumped Up Kicks refer to Reebok Pumps which are a basketball shoe that you could pump up. It gave you a little lift or was supposed to. Very popular in the late 80's - 90's, and were expensive. Reebok recently brought some of them back. The shoes are just as expensive today.
Here is a site that has an interview with Mark Foster if you want to read what he has to say about it since he wrote it.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=22941
Also NPR did a segment on them as well.
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/26/136643883/foster-the-people-an-outsider-anthem-a-viral-hit -
I think this is about the columbine (the highschool shooting) and what he was thinking him self when he was with his buddy shooting down all the kids in the highscool who maybe teased him or made fun of him so he wanted to get them back
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I think it was the Robert from the Westroads mall shooting.
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I Think The Song is about a misfit, one that can't socialize properly doesn't know how to relate to people so he feels like an outcast. so ultimately he has a strong dislike for the cool kids so he plans to shoot them because of how they make him feel.
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Robert is home alone with nothing more to do than to let his imagination go wild. He entertains himself by getting into Dad's cigarettes. Next he finds Dad's gun & imagines himself as a Cowboy. Let's not forget about the box of bullets he's found in Dad's closet. Now what Bad Guys can he go after? Robert remembers the punks with their pumped up sneakers & how they teased him, caused he didn't have the same. You know he's got to go after them. Well, the Bad Guys are running scared now & won't tease him again. Robert thinks about his Dad & the long hours he works. But Dad loves Robert & has promised he would bring him a surprise when he comes home. What does Dad have to eat for supper, but a frozen T.V. dinner? Robert goes back to his imagination again, being the Cowboy who gets the Bad Guys. NOTE: Remember no one gets hurt, this is all imagination.
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I think this is about a boy whose father was a complete and total jerk to him. The song says he has a quick hand. With a quick hand he can tell his dad his last words then before his dad knows what will happens he will be dead. Robert probably relates to the Colombian Massacur where two18 year olds shot people in a school. Robert is just getting revenge on all the bullies/dad that were mean to him. It makes sense
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Why I don't think this is about Robert Hawkins
"He won't tell you his plan"
He told 4chan his plan before doing it
"Yeah found a six-shooter gun"
Which is a revolver... not an AK47 which Robert used.
"All the other kids with your pumped up kicks You'd better run, better run, out run my gun"
Robert didn't shoot any kids. There's nothing that said he had intentions to kill kids either. If he wanted to shoot kids he didn't like he would have done it at school. -
Its about a kid who has a really bad life-at home and at school-and there are all these other kids who have good normal live and he is jealous of them. So he brings a gun into school and uses all his anger toward the world and focuses it to this one point and he starts shooting the kids who have better lives then him.
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Jeesh...Is it really that tough to figure out?Read the lyrics,its obvious..
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This is about the Columbine Massacre. Foster even told it. The Columbine Massacre: Two youths in High School, picked on by the jocks, and both enthralled with guns and shooting, plan a massacre of everyone that was mean to them. In 1999, the two 18-year olds come into their High School, Columbine High School, and begin killing anyone that they see. They then targeted every jock in the school, who were wearing their white ball caps the day before a game, and the two youth begin their wicked murder rampage. After killing everyone that picked on them and others, they then killed themselves. One shooter, Eric Harris, said to one student, as he forced her to run away, down a long hallway, "You'd better run, run. Outrun my bullet." Pumped up kicks were common shoes in the late 90s and early 2000s. The rendition of calm, happy music, in connection with the worst school shooting every, creates the psychadelic surge that Foster the People is known for.
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In my opinion, the song is about a boy who was bullied so often that he just could not take it anymore. So he found a gun, and shot all of the people who had wronged him.
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He cant be lonly robert is not the singer there fore there is someone else because it says I dont even know what I think it is about group of boys going after the snotty rich kids with fancy stuff after finding a gun in roberts fathers closet.
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Roberts got a quick hand
-He fast with his hands
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan
-Hes going to do something he's been planning but hasn't told anyone else
Hes got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth he's a cowboy kid
-Hes smoking a cigarette he's feeling like a cowboy and probably good about him self, like powerful or in control because he can hurt other people
Yeah he found a six shooter gun. In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things, and I don't even know what
-He found a gun in his father's closet along with some other illegal thing and some he doesn't know what there for
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you
-Even though he doesn't know what there for he's going to use them to hurt people
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.
-All the popular or rich kids better run fast or they'll die
Daddy works a long day.
He be coming home late, yeah he's coming home late.
-His dad has been working and he's later than usual
And he's bringing me a surprise.
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice.
-Hes dads probably going to beat him up because he didn't cook dinner or because his dad is going to drink bear for dinner and get drunk
I've waited for a long time.
Yeah the slight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger,
-His dad has been abusing him and he's been planning for a while to shoot his dad and his fast hands now are useful for shooting his dad
I reason with my cigarette,
And say your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah.
-He shifts the smoke in his mouth (Probably looking down at his dad) and says to his dad practically that he probably never expected his son to push back
[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.
-Since he controlled his father by shooting him he's going to try that on the kids at school
[Whistling]
-Feeling happy about being free from his abusive life
[Chorus x3:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun.
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.
-Since he controlled his father by shooting him he's going to try that on the kids at school
(The lyrics don't match the beat, its so happy! The lyrics are pretty sick but I still like it :D)
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