"Learn You Inside Out"

[love4andrea]

Jun 26, 2008 8:07:53 GMT -5 gogonutz said:

I could never figure out if this was a spiritual song or a love song. But to me personally it is neither.

For some reason I've always had this scene in my head of this young boy who is really unhappy with his life. He gets bullied, has no friends, is clumsy, etc. the whole shh-bang. And this is like the song (even though it's almost a poem in my eyes) is like a duet between the young boy and his mom.

First two verses = boy, chorus = mom, 3rd verse = boy, rest = mom

Like the boy's crying out for help/attention saying it's so hard, and the mom is telling him that he can be proud of himself like she is proud of him.

and the line/title: "(I wanna) learn you inside out" for me means "I want you to learn how to live inside out", like the mom's telling the boy not to look what's on the surface but what's underneath. He might not be the most handsome kid, and he might not be able to run as fast as some other kids and he might never make it to the NFL, but still he can achieve great things, if he believes in himself. Because the strength is inside him, and if he lets it come out, he's capable of anything.


I don't know if it makes sense to someone else, but that's always what I feel with this song.

Wow, that was deep! Never thought of it that way before, Thanks!! I've always thought of it as a love song. I love the songs with piano!

[love4andrea]

Nov 29, 2008 18:48:55 GMT -5 @skrappydoo said:

Ooh, this is fun! I never thought of it as a love song until I read your interpretations above--now I can see that. This is the first Lifehouse song that gave me a tear in my eye the first time I heard it. It's very vulnerable.

At first I thought it was referring to someone with a disability--like autism. "In silence you stare at the world. You're eyes are screaming to be heard."

But after I heard the lyrics a few times, I thought it might be about Jason's relationship with and love of music or maybe getting into other people's music. I was thinking of the cover of a CD as eyes screaming to be heard. Learning music inside out. Being high when he is playing music and escaping from the gravity drowned world. My favorite line is, "You're out of my mind. I wear you on my sleeve." So, when he is writing lyrics, he is getting them out of his head in a therapeutic way, but then is wearing them figuratively on his sleeve where it's vulnerable, but also literally on his ipod. And I also thought about the mirror image with the "soul staring right back at me."

Or as we were joking about in the "OTHER" forum, maybe it's about his love of Turkey legs or Subway. LOL!

Haha!! Turkey legs, steak, and Subway.....