Seether - "Truth"

Powerful lyrics and an aggressive beat are what draw me to this song. My best friend found it while she was looking for a theme song for a character she writes; after she forwarded it to me, I put it on almost constant play for a month straight, which drove my mother absolutely insane. (Another benefit to the song; my "teenage rebellion" consisted almost entirely of playing my favorite songs on repeat almost constantly while I was in my room at home.)

Most people--and by most people, I mean all of my friends who don't listen to hard rock--don't realize that the genre is filled with just as much meaning and insight as any emo indie rock. But if you read the lyrics or listen to the song, you realize that what the singer is talking about is what just about everyone faces. In a world with no real moral absolutes, people are equally as far from wrong as they are to right, and sometimes, the truth doesn't set you free.

I've loved hard rock and grunge for as long as I can remember, practically. When I was seven years old, I knew all the words to Nirvana's songs, because my older sister indoctrinated my other sister and I into the world of Kurt Cobain (minus the hard drugs). I've spent my entire life listening to rock music, with occasional breaks for country and pop... that never seem to last very long, because there's a passion and a sense of emotion and destruction just beneath the surface in my favorite rock music that other genres lack. I'm not fulfilled unless I'm listening to rock. Even the names of the bands draw me in... Nirvana, Metallica, Seether, Seven Mary Three, Smile Empty Soul... and bands like Styx and Led Zeppelin and Lynrd Skynrd are part of my past as well.

So back to Seether's "Truth" which was the original purpose of the blog. This song is almost my theme song; for a long time there were people who demanded the truth, but didn't actually want to hear what I tried to tell them. So I learned lessons that kept me going, kept me sane, kept me strong: don't ask, don't tell. It's a stupid rule in the military, but if I didn't ask for the truth, and didn't tell anyone the whole truth, everything worked out fine and they could go on pretending that I was the girl they'd known for so long.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's experienced the sensation of the authority figures in their life giving conflicting and contradictory messages. You have to behave a certain way around certain people, and then you have to change yourself around a different group of people, until finally you get sick of it and demand when you get to be yourself for every group of people. And you wonder when they'll finally accept that just because you don't tell them everything doesn't mean that you don't tell the truth when you tell them something. The truth won't set you free, or keep you alive. And you still wait for the ones who won't ask you to be anything other than what you are, because somewhere, there's a part of you that thinks that you could save them if they'd just listen to the right words at the right time.

If I gave you the truth, would it keep you alive?

If I gave you the truth, would it keep you alive?
Though I'm closer to wrong
I'm no further from right
And now I'm convinced on the inside that something's wrong with me
Convinced on the inside, you're so much more than me, yeah

No there's nothing you say that can salvage the lie
But I'm trying to keep my intentions disguised
And now I'm deprived of my conscience and something's got to give
Deprived of my conscience
This all belongs to me, yeah

I'm beaten down again,
I belong to them
Beaten down again,
I've failed you
I'm weaker now my friend,
I belong to them
Beaten down again,
I've failed you

The deception you show is your own parasite
Just a word of advice you can heed if you like
And now I'm convinced on the inside that something's wrong with me
Convinced on the inside you're so much more than me, yeah

I'm beaten down again,
I belong to them
Beaten down again,
I've failed you
I'm weaker now my friend,
I belong to them
Beaten down again,
I've failed you (2x)

I'm beaten down
I'm beaten down
I'm beaten down
I'm beaten down