Linkin Park: Numb Meaning

Song Released: 2003

Covered By: Dead By April (2017)

Numb Lyrics

Tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I...

1. vampire

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   Dec 9th 2006 !⃝

   I think this song is about being under so much pressure you just have to get out and numb the feelings you have of not wanting to disappoint anyone probably numbing it with drugs

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. Sreia

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   Nov 14th 2006 !⃝

   Also to add.
   At the end of the video you see her running up the church aisle
   
   looking for the band, maybe hoping to find someone or people that would be like her. Or accept her just the way she is.. Getting there and finding no one. As the band as left the set.
   You see the video end, as she stands there with a saddened expression.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. Sreia

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   Nov 14th 2006 !⃝

   There's pressure all around from everyone. As in this video:
   classmates, teachers, friends/people in your school or area, parents.. Or even just people in general.
   
   Being a little schizophrenic maybe?
   You have the feeling the world is against your freedom. The world rushs by and excepts you to keep up and live like everyone else.
   Where this girl expresses her feelings and life through her actions.. Such as art. Drawing and painting. Drawing tonal drawings as angels and statues. And then finally her anger from her mother is taken out on a .. Painting?
   You rests her arm out in 2 frames, you can see that she has self harmed.
   She maybe be depressed, or under stress.
   
   She's tried of everyone's opinion on her. She wants to be herself without having to be badly judged or looked down on.
4. anonymous

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   Sep 5th 2006 !⃝

   This song may be about a child and a parent but there is no direct mention that it is about a child and a parent. This leaves the song open to a number of different interpretations depending on a persons backround or what is happening in their life right now. So many people could beleave that the song is talking about sociaties views of people and saying that they don't want to live like how they are thought they should and that they just want to be themselves and be an indevidual
5. anonymous

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   Jul 22nd 2006 !⃝

   Personally,for me......
   I have a twin,and we are complete opposite. She will not let me live how I want to be. She hates me for who I am. This first time I heard this song,i thought it was perfect. That was about three years ago,and nothing has changed. She just tells me daily to go commit suicide.
6. Evanescencefreak

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   Jul 15th 2006 !⃝

   yeah I think this song is about pressure of authority not necessarily about parents, although that may be part of the cause. and he's letting pressure get to him. He's slowly giving in. but after he does, eh realizes it's a mistake.
   
   Evry step that I take
   Is another mistake to you
7. rockmaniac

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   Jul 14th 2006 !⃝

   this song to me is about a parent and a teen. He's always expected to be and do so much. but that's not who he is and that he wants to find out what he wants to do with his life himself. He's not a great person and his dad was the same way. In the song he says
   (but I know i may end up failing too
   but I know you were just like me
   with someone disappointed in you)
   
   which says to me that they pretty much made they made same mistakes but he wants his own identity and to make his own. without all the pressure to be greater than his father.
8. anonymous

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   Apr 5th 2006 !⃝

   This song is about anyone(in general)who is trying to become a part of a group or something like that. For instance, trying to be part of the popular crowd in school, but no matter what they do, they just don't seem to get in. So,they just give up and eventually become numb about the whole thing.
9. anonymous

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   Nov 2nd 2005 !⃝

   i think this song is about being beaten down by everyone and feeling like everyone is against you and that some people do need help to live and the video shows a way to lose your feelings--self harm(which is not the answer-i should know)i think this a great song which shows what could happen to people if they don't get help there are probably a lot of people who could relate to this song me included,chester bennington rock on!!!
10. linkinpark4eva

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    Sep 10th 2005 !⃝

    The whole album is mostly about Chester's/Mike's relationship with a girlfriend. This song is about how much pressure the girl is putting on him to adapt to her ways (tired of being what you want me to be). They speak of being 'caught in the undertow'. They then seem to build a wall around them, numbing themselves to the torture of the girlfriend. It's a powerful way of putting it, but it gets the message across.
11. Phoenix127

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    Sep 9th 2005 !⃝

    Hm, I dont see why it should be about a teenager because I always thought that Linkin Park's music is there to show understanding for those with the situation they are talking about. As if they can Empathise.
    
    Well, they're one of my favorite bands and I think that this song is about being under pressure to change who you are for someone. As though someone is trying to mould you into something you aren't meant to be. And then the feelings build up and as it is so subtly put, he starts to feel numb, as if he has no feeling and doesn't know who he is anymore.
    
    I say 'he' because of Chester Benningfield being the guy singing this... mostly... Except "Caught in the undertone" right?
12. ThelyricalAlkemist

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    Sep 6th 2005 !⃝

    This song is about someone feeling like nothing is good, feeling like they can't be themselves and feeling like someone is trying to make this person just like them. I can really relate to this song.
13. rebecca

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    Aug 12th 2005 !⃝

    The first interpretation is about the video, not the song. I agree with the second interperentation, in that the topics of rules and authority and being under pressure. It may not even be a parent, it could be someone you look up to like an older sister or brother who dissapprove of you.
    
    Dissaproval is the main theme of this song. Numb is a song about dissapproval but doesn't come across as a depressing song. The intro to the beginning of the song conveys the feeling of being numb. Then, the main hardcore guitars after the first two counts of eight may represent the pressure and dissaproval.
    
    Maybe I'm looking too deeply into it, what do you think?
14. sgtshag

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    Jul 14th 2005 !⃝

    This song is about preasure, feelings of inadiquacy and just hating people trying to make you them.
15. anonymous

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    Jul 12th 2005 !⃝

    The person before me says that this song's about a teenager feeling the pressure their parents are putting on them, but I think that's a bit too specific. I think that it's about being numb to rules, expectation and authority; not just parental pressure.

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