American Idiot - lost in translation

[ENDrain]

Hello guys! I have a problem with this line in American Idiot:

"We are not the ones who are meant to follow"

You see, I'm not a native speaker. I'm no speaker at all, actually. But I know my grammar, and looking into this line I understand its meaning like "we shouldn't follow smth or smb". Although I've seen (or I think that I've seen) people interpreting this line as "we shouldn't BE followed" - with a passive construction, which is not present in the song. So which interpretation is correct?

[DeJennsitized]

Good question! When I first heard the song I thought the line was "we're not the ones you're meant to follow" which doesn't really make sense in context. "We're not the ones who're meant to follow" is the actual line (I think?) and to me, it basically means 'we shouldn't just be sheep and fall for this concept/idea/propaganda - we're meant to be more, we're meant to think.'

Hope that helps  

[Fuzz]

Interesting. I just always assumed it meant that they weren't the ones we're meant to be following. 

[Billie Hoe]

I always interpreted it as a call to independent thought  Like "We're not the ones who're meant to follow", "We won't accept what you want us to accept", "We will question what you don't want us to question", "We won't follow you because you say you're a great leader", "We will protest what you don't want us to know about"  

I don't really understand how the line gives room for another interpretation. Thinking of it like "YOU'RE not meant to follow US either, make up your own mind, we're not your cultural icons" is really interesting as well but I don't understand how you came to it? Maybe I'm just not as familiar with the English grammar as I originally thought  

[Spike]

I agree with the above post. I'm not surprised it's been lost in translation though, it's a very sloppy line. 

[Jesus of Seneca]

Honestly, I've always loved that line because I just took it to mean, 'we're not meant to follow the rules'.

[Second favourite son]

6 hours ago, crock6000 said:

I disagree with @Spike that it's a sloppy line though.  It's a perfectly grammatically correct and succinct sentence.  What is wrong with that sentence in any form to make it sloppy?  I think it is just one of those cool Billie lyrics that slip by you until you look at it.  It means EXACTLY what it says. How would you say that line, especially in the space of a lyrical phrase in a song?  I am just asking.

I think by sloppy he means that Billie's diction in the line isn't very good.  The actual meaning of the line isn't sloppy, it has the potential to be quite powerful.  But the way it's delivered kinda ruins it, because there are so many different interpretations.  I'm still not entirely sure if he's actually saying who're or you're, or if he's just making a noise mid-line.  Either way, the sentence is indeed grammatically correct, but each construction has a different meaning.  So it's not sloppy in anything other than delivery, but unfortunately delivery of lines is really important too.  Unless of course Billie's delivered it ambiguously on purpose to provoke thought and discussions like this - though maybe that's reading a bit too much into it!  Correct me if I'm wrong, @Spike.

[ENDrain]

Thank you people! Now I see the line actually has been gotten all the way wrong. Good thing I can correct this mistake now.

You know, there's something else I'd like to know. It's Jesus of Suburbia:

"At the center of the Earth in a parking lot / of the Seven-Eleven where I was taught"

Thing is, for someone not from US this line makes little sence. Google tells me that 7-11 is a convenience store, an I can make the rest out - he hangs out in the parking lot of a store and it's like the center of his world, good. But that's it.

I mean, in Moscow where I live, there're many national convenient shop chains. There're "Crossroad" (all names translated into English) shops, with middle range prices. There's a lot of this shops, usually in 10-15 minutes walk from each other. Those are usually bigger that others. There're also "Carousel" shops which are cheaper but not so frequent. There're cheap "Five-ie" shops, where it's common to find expired foods on shelves. Those shops are often found near schools and the pupils like to steal chocolate bars from there. And there're "Dixi" shops with very cheap prices but also very limited on goods.

There're some more, speaking just in-city stores. There're also huge supermarkets on the outskirts, which actually have parking lots near them... What I'm getting at is that if I write a song and put there a line "in the parking lot of the Crossorad where I was taught", or "the Five-ie where I was taught" or "the Metro where I was taught", there'll be a major difference. By picking a specific shop I position the character in a specific place in a city of a specific size, surrounded by people of a specific income. 

All this and many more goes without saying, living in Moscow you just know these things - just as living in the US you just know what a Seven-Eleven is. Can you give me an idea of what kind of store the Seven-Eleven is? What does the fact he hangs out in the parking lot of this shop make of Jesus and his surroundings? If anything 

[ENDrain]

9 hours ago, Billie Hoe said:

I don't really understand how the line gives room for another interpretation.

It doesn't, actually. Thing is, some long time ago I've read a wrong translation of this song (well, it wasn't all the way wrong, but some lines were). So when I looked at this line with my own eyes and realised it DOESN'T translate this way, it contradicted so much with pre-existing vision that I was lost and felt like asking native speakers "how do you guys read this line". There're no sloppines at all.

[Spike]

4 hours ago, Second favourite son said:

I think by sloppy he means that Billie's diction in the line isn't very good.  The actual meaning of the line isn't sloppy, it has the potential to be quite powerful.  But the way it's delivered kinda ruins it, because there are so many different interpretations.  I'm still not entirely sure if he's actually saying who're or you're, or if he's just making a noise mid-line.  Either way, the sentence is indeed grammatically correct, but each construction has a different meaning.  So it's not sloppy in anything other than delivery, but unfortunately delivery of lines is really important too.  Unless of course Billie's delivered it ambiguously on purpose to provoke thought and discussions like this - though maybe that's reading a bit too much into it!  Correct me if I'm wrong, @Spike.

Yeah, this. I also meant it doesn't really scan very well, it's delivered so quickly and "who're" is a weak word that falls on a strong beat, so it just kind of passes you by. It's always been my least favourite bit of the song. 

[St. Jonny]

I've always seen it as just "television dreams of tomorrow, we're not the one's meant to follow, for that's enough to argue". It does have double meanings but I see it as they aren't meant to follow but they could be, just unsure if they want to. See, we're not the one's meant to follow but that is enough to argue throws that line back the other way. So it could be either. Allows you to put your own belief and meaning into the lyrics, something Billie is the one of the best on the planet at!