Teenage Rebellion - Song Meaning

And in the first year of my former life
I was 17 and a wildfire burning
If I stretched out my hands I was convinced I could conjure angels
And yeah I was pretty sure she was bulletproof
At least I never saw anybody ever get to you
You used to wonder all the time if you made it,
on to the point of a ritual,
to the point of a ritual

And I used to die every night
All in your honor,
in your honor, oh, in your honor
While you were gone,
While you were gone

And in the last hours before the sunrise
I’m not sure if I passed out or closed my eyes
I woke into a dream where I know I knew,
somebody had just got their claws in you
And your breath heaves in silent anythings,
like a subconscious ritual

And I used to die every night
All in your honor,
in your honor, oh, in your honor
While you were gone,
While you were gone

And if you’re gonna break my heart, it might as well be tonight
And if you’re gonna break my heart, it might as well be tonight

I used to die every sweet, sweet night
All in your honor
And I used to die every night
All in your honor,
in your honor, oh, in your honor
While you were gone,
While you were gone
All in the throws of rebellion
In the throws of rebellion
In the throws of rebellion

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I really like this song, eventhough it is more like a home-recording or a demo. It is such a soulful song, love the piano interfaces.

Not sure whether this is some fictional story, like Brian often used to tell in earlier stuff or a real personal story, which would fit to album frame...

I seem some paralells to Here's Looking At You, Kid, for example when Brian sings that he "used to die" in Teenage Rebellion and "And tell her I spent every night of my youth on the floor,
Bleeding out from all these wounds. " ..but I don't get what's the complete meaning behind it.

I would appreciate if any of you could he me finding out..

What I took from it was that it relates, like you said, to the songs about his earlier relationships. It seems like a reflection on them. Sort of like everything up through Elsie was him still talking about these relationships while he was still hurting from them. And now he's put all that behind him, moved on, and now he's looking back more with more reflection because he's not so much "still in it". I think the fact that the word "teenage" is in the title and that he talks about a "former life" implies that he's older and looking back at his younger and more naive days.

For the "I used to die" part in particular I think it's that idea of sort suffering when you love someone, especially at that age. Maybe like when you fall head over heals for someone who maybe only just likes you a little or someone who doesn't truly treat you right. But you suffer anyway because you're so crazy about them.

Like with the line from HLAYK, he spent all this time essentially suffering because he cared about this girl so much even though maybe she didn't feel the same or hurt him in some way. Death, bleeding, and wounds, all being a physical version of what went on for him emotionally.

I love this song!

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

What I took from it was that it relates, like you said, to the songs about his earlier relationships. It seems like a reflection on them. Sort of like everything up through Elsie was him still talking about these relationships while he was still hurting from them. And now he's put all that behind him, moved on, and now he's looking back more with more reflection because he's not so much "still in it". I think the fact that the word "teenage" is in the title and that he talks about a "former life" implies that he's older and looking back at his younger and more naive days.

For the "I used to die" part in particular I think it's that idea of sort suffering when you love someone, especially at that age. Maybe like when you fall head over heals for someone who maybe only just likes you a little or someone who doesn't truly treat you right. But you suffer anyway because you're so crazy about them.

Like with the line from HLAYK, he spent all this time essentially suffering because he cared about this girl so much even though maybe she didn't feel the same or hurt him in some way. Death, bleeding, and wounds, all being a physical version of what went on for him emotionally.

I love this song!

You just made me cry...

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

What I took from it was that it relates, like you said, to the songs about his earlier relationships. It seems like a reflection on them. Sort of like everything up through Elsie was him still talking about these relationships while he was still hurting from them. And now he's put all that behind him, moved on, and now he's looking back more with more reflection because he's not so much "still in it". I think the fact that the word "teenage" is in the title and that he talks about a "former life" implies that he's older and looking back at his younger and more naive days.

For the "I used to die" part in particular I think it's that idea of sort suffering when you love someone, especially at that age. Maybe like when you fall head over heals for someone who maybe only just likes you a little or someone who doesn't truly treat you right. But you suffer anyway because you're so crazy about them.

Like with the line from HLAYK, he spent all this time essentially suffering because he cared about this girl so much even though maybe she didn't feel the same or hurt him in some way. Death, bleeding, and wounds, all being a physical version of what went on for him emotionally.

I love this song!

You are so smart, and passionate. I love your posts. I totally get everything you said about this song too

(this isn't working because now I'm responding to everything)

Haha, wow thanks for these responses! Breanne, I spend WAY too much time thinking about everything and Gaslight songs easily get thrown into that mix because I relate to them so much it's scary sometimes. If only i spent this kind of time on school stuff, then I'd really be smart! You're posts are always great too!

Cool, thanks Shelby ...that would make sense , good interpretation. What do you think is he talking about when he sings "in the first year of my former life
I was 17 and a wildfire burning"?

Thought about the fact that Brian means his former life was before all those relationships leaving so much heartache..but I don't know if that really makes sense

Wildfire burning was a time when everything was going right, he could conjure angels which is a kind of miraculous thing so it shows he was confident and happy with the way things were

thomas94 wrote:

Cool, thanks Shelby ...that would make sense , good interpretation. What do you think is he talking about when he sings "in the first year of my former life
I was 17 and a wildfire burning"?

Thought about the fact that Brian means his former life was before all those relationships leaving so much heartache..but I don't know if that really makes sense

Yeah like before his (or any teenagers) first broken heart. I think the "wildfire burning" part could be just this idea of being young and adventurous (maybe that's not the right word). Like how you might throw caution to the wind and dive into something (like a relationship) because your passionate about it and you've yet to be hurt.

OR (just thought of this) wildfires are bad, destructive things that spread and quickly get out of control right? So that term kind of implies him being sort of this destructive, out of control, wild thing that's going to destroy everything it touches. Idk I'm just pulling that from the word choice. Any other ideas there?

And I think maybe he's calling that "the first year" because it's sort of like when you start telling a story, in the beginning everything is okay at first then something bad happens and that starts the plot. So at first he was 17 and happy and ready to dive into something head first, then all hell broke loose, haha.

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

Yeah like before his (or any teenagers) first broken heart. I think the "wildfire burning" part could be just this idea of being young and adventurous (maybe that's not the right word). Like how you might throw caution to the wind and dive into something (like a relationship) because your passionate about it and you've yet to be hurt.

OR (just thought of this) wildfires are bad, destructive things that spread and quickly get out of control right? So that term kind of implies him being sort of this destructive, out of control, wild thing that's going to destroy everything it touches. Idk I'm just pulling that from the word choice. Any other ideas there?

Both of these.

For me "wildfire burning" is the perfect way to describe my 17-year old self. So passionate and full of life, and you kind of think you know everything, which leads you to do things indiscriminately that you'd hesitate to do later on. Like a wildfire burning, yeah.

I love this song.

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

thomas94 wrote:

Cool, thanks Shelby ...that would make sense , good interpretation. What do you think is he talking about when he sings "in the first year of my former life
I was 17 and a wildfire burning"?

Thought about the fact that Brian means his former life was before all those relationships leaving so much heartache..but I don't know if that really makes sense

Yeah like before his (or any teenagers) first broken heart. I think the "wildfire burning" part could be just this idea of being young and adventurous (maybe that's not the right word). Like how you might throw caution to the wind and dive into something (like a relationship) because your passionate about it and you've yet to be hurt.

.

This is basically what I was saying/ meaning but in more detail. I think we're right. Never mind the next 2 paragraphs you wrote, trust yur gut instinct dude. You talkin some sense

Jerseyrain wrote:

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

thomas94 wrote:

Cool, thanks Shelby ...that would make sense , good interpretation. What do you think is he talking about when he sings "in the first year of my former life
I was 17 and a wildfire burning"?

Thought about the fact that Brian means his former life was before all those relationships leaving so much heartache..but I don't know if that really makes sense

Yeah like before his (or any teenagers) first broken heart. I think the "wildfire burning" part could be just this idea of being young and adventurous (maybe that's not the right word). Like how you might throw caution to the wind and dive into something (like a relationship) because your passionate about it and you've yet to be hurt.

.

This is basically what I was saying/ meaning but in more detail. I think we're right. Never mind the next 2 paragraphs you wrote, trust yur gut instinct dude. You talkin some sense

I agree I just wanted to throw as many ideas out there as possible. They're all a bit redundant anyway. But I should never trust my instincts, haha. They cause me to say things without explaining/using the right words and get me into trouble. Hence, your and Gordon's anger at me about Bon Jovi.