The Used: The Bird and the Worm Meaning
The Bird and the Worm Lyrics
His backpack is all that he knows
Shot down by strangers whose glances can cripple
the heart and devour the soul
All alone he turns to stone
While holding his breath half to death
Terrified...
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I think that it's about somebody who is feeling some sort of pressure, and begins to lost his mind because of it. What with hearing voices and whatnot. "Out of his mind
The weight pushes him whispering, Must have been out of his mind". To run away from the problem [["Crawls like a worm from a bird"]] he kills himself. "All alone he turns to stone". Stone = stone dead. Drowned himself? --> "While holding his breath half to death" -
I think part of the beauty of music is that you can take away from it what you need at the time. I've always gotten validation from music, like I'm not the only person who thinks these things, or feels this way, so when I hear, "terrified at what's inside," I think of looking inside at all the deep seeded emotional wounds we all have, or "all alone he turns to stone," I think of feeling alone and hurt and becoming cynical and hard hearted toward others, which may not be what the author meant at all, but that's what I got from it when I heard it. It's easy to think your interpretation is the right one, but there are unanswered questions in every song worth interpreting that leave even the cleverest of interpretations lacking. It's the nature of symbolism as a whole in song just as it is in literature.
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I thought it was blatantly obvious that none of these interpretations were part of this song. This song is describing a drug addict. "All alone he turns to STONE"....have you never heard the term "stoned"? "He wears his heart to his backpack, his backpack is all that he knows"....where do you keep the drugs? in a backpack maybe? this would explain "his backpack is all that he knows." that shows that the backpack is now a part of the process of using. The next line about how he's been "shot down by strangers"....well, yeah, using isn't always seen as acceptable. As for the chorus, "terrified of what's inside, to save his life he crawls like a worm from a bird". He becomes scared of his health, and has to quit...but it isn't easy, it's like a worm crawling from a bird. as for the "out of his mind" parts; it wasn't the smartest move, yeah.....it's easier to see this from the music video, so that might help if you watch that.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I thought the same thing; its a inner turmoil kind of issue.
Ever heard the phrase, "You're your own worst enemy"?
Exactly. -
...worms don't crawl because they have no limbs?
it certainly seems like a song based on insecurity, and paranoia, always infear of being caught,
it also sounds like a song about addiction of some sort. -
Ummmm....people... This song is about trying to escape the un-escapable. Bert even said it himself!!
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I reckon it's about paranoid schizophrenia too, I reckon that part of him knows he's mentally ill but he can't submit himself to possible ridicule he would receive if he sought help...I dunno, it's just a speculation.
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Alrighty......................
Maybe it's about running from your emotions
"Terrified of what's inside to save his life
he crawls like a Worm from a Bird"
Maybe being a danger to yourself and running from or trying to hide it
.......................idk, idk.................
Jay- Jay -
It's about running away from something bigger than you, be it literally running away fom something bigger, or running away from your problems
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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There has been much talk about the lyrics "Crawls like a worm from a bird" and "He wears his heart safety-pinned to his backpack" but I'm going to focus more on what I see in some of the other lyrics.
"All alone he turns to stone
while holding his breath half to death!"
I think this has to do with a drug problem. Turns to stone as in with some drugs when you do a lot and your near comatose either when your high or coming down. Holding his breath could stem from a hallucination of being under water and holding his breath because he really believes he is drowning.
"Out of his mind away
pushes him whispering:
"Musta been out of his mind..."
Mid-day dillusions of pushing this
out of his head
make him out of his mind.."
This seems like thoughts of depression/suicide. "Pushes him Whispering" as in voices or strong thoughts making him truly consider it, and "Mid-day delusions of pushing this out of his head" is when your suffering from depression, but sometimes during the day you may temporarily forget about your problems, and feel happy, but it is only a delusion and it haunts you again soon after. This ties in also with the "Crawls like a worm from a bird", it's like he's crawling away from himself, his own thoughts.
So ya... These are just my thoughts on the song, possibly not what The Used was really meaning... just my take. -
No matter how hard he tries things come back to haunt him because the bird always gets the worm.
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