¡Uno! - Song meanings

[Bastard of 1967]

Just my opinion but I don't see Angel Blue as being about the guitar. Before the picture I thought it was about a young girl and wanting to take her virginity, and I still do really - I guess it could all be weird metaphors relating to his childhood and Blue, but... I can't really see that. I think the "stick in the mud" line is a metaphor for not realising that she's hurting the narrator, like a child mindlessly stabbing at the mud without realising they're doing harm (a reference to the girl's age which he stresses throughout the song). In the boxset version one of the captions on the song is "baby has barely started" which adds to that meaning too.

Here's what I wrote about my interpretation of Angel Blue in my review:

Now the narrator has truly decided to pursue this girl, but she obviously hasn't committed to it yet. I can't help hearing won't you be my bloody Valentine? as we'd say it in England, but it's probably a metaphor for wanting to take the girl's virginity. The lust is as evident as it is in Troublemaker, but there's still hints that it's more than that; Stab my heart like a stick in the mud / Cut my chest just to see the blood / Now I'm singing out the alphabet / As the tears are putting out my cigarette. It's filled with desperation, knowing that she wants to but she won't, and wanting to hurt her in return because she's tearing him apart. There's also the battle with commitment, knowing that this is "wrong" not just because he's married, but a lot of the phrases in the song stress her young age; bloody Valentine / senorita / you're just a fucking kid / teenage traces. (just personal obviously, not implying anything about Billie)

I love reading all the different interpretations though.

Great suggestions and insights in this thread, wow! I'm actually of the opinion that songs like Angel Blue have multiple meanings simultaneously -- some that stand on their own, some that make sense in the context of an album storyline, and maybe a few other themes thrown in all at the same time. Not only does Billie think like there are 50 radios in his head tuned to different stations and all playing full blast at the same time, but it's clear he writes that way too.

With this as my starting perspective, I see several things going on at once in Angel Blue. It's a punchy, explosive salute to youth on the one hand -- the adolescent frenzy, thrill, and freedom that Billie once enjoyed, with one of his signature guitars as the metaphor he deploys to represent a nostalgic reprise of his younger self. But that same metaphor also represents "Angel Blue" the lust object -- the barely-legal hottie that first grabbed his eye in Troublemaker, and who becomes his one-way ticket to hell -- his "angel of death" -- by the time Nightlife rolls around in iDos!.

I can only imagine the adrenaline rush, the excitement, the adventure, the wonder, the power and passion, that Billie must have felt when he first laid hands on his vintage Stratocaster and ground out his first power chord on it. By labeling his lust object "Angel Blue" he's superimposing those feelings onto her. And in that, the same metaphor that links Billie to his past also sends him careening off into his future mayhem. These two themes, plus the third -- Billie, once the vibrant punk rebel, getting bombarded by midlife responsibility and casting himself in the trilogy as "the dirty old man with the babysitter" (see Lady Cobra) who's just craving some fucking escape from it all -- keep playing themselves out back and forth intermittently not just throughout the song but throughout the entire trilogy.

Angel Blue has become one of my favorites on iUno! and I would kill or fucking die to hear it live this spring.

[Bastard of 1969]

Related to Angel Blue there's the lyrics; Stab my heart like a stick in the mud

Woodstock '94 is a reference to the mud I guess.

But what "stick" means there?

[Cob]

Really? haha that's weird.

I gotta say I love Troublemaker, but the lyrics don't make much sense, altough it's like "going in to a party" right? That's the way I see it, and he wants to have sex, of course.

Troublemaker is about car sex to me, in a figurative sense. I imagine it's about Bj and his wife in a literal sense.

[solongfromthestars]

To me Troublemaker is just a song about lusting after someone and fantasizing about them all the time. Like the narrator wants to be a "troublemaker" because going after the girl is "forbidden" and it'll cause trouble, but that's what he desperately wants. Kind of a step on from Fell for You, the tender feelings of new love start developing into blind lust.

My boyfriend suggested that the "tattoo of a pig sniffing glue" is a metaphor for false commitment. That's probably going too deep into some simple lyrics but I really like that interpretation.

[JDookie]

Waking up the dead and everything'll be alright

This line suggests the amount of copies he's made of Blue

I see some references to the guitar, too, but above all this song makes me think about wanting to revival past, being scared about the future and wanting it never to come. Especially thanks to the line above, dead= the past which is... past so it's like dead, but it's still more confortable than the unknown future (so everything will be alright, if you make it living again).

Also, there are some references to things tipical of the childhood: you're a princess (like in fairytales) but above all now I'm singing out the alphabet as the tears are putting about my cigarette, you know, the alphabet song is a song for kids and while singing tears are falling down= nostalgia.

You're just a fucking kid and no one ever gives you a break and teenage traces speak for themselves.

Cut my chest just to see the blood could be something stupid you do when you're child in order to satisfy your curiosity (it makes me think of Jesus, too, but I absolutely don't think there's a link ).

This is just my own interpretation, anyway. To me, this is a song sung by an X-Kid.

[Ralph B. Vasquez]

I vaguely remember in one of the interviews when Uno! came out, Billie said he didn't even know what Nuclear Family was about.

Oh I see that's been covered...sorry.

hahaha i think we just heard the same interview, where he stated that he has no choice but to just finish that song, LOL but nuclear family is still one of their stronger tracks on iUNO! for me

[Cob]

I see "waking up the dead and everything will be alright" as the idea behind playing a show. You're bottled up, angry, angsty, and you just let it all out during a loud punk rock show that just puts all of your cares away.

[X-Kid-X]

It would be really cool to make this a trilogy-song-meaning-thread and not only limit it to Uno, because I think the lyrics of all three albums are connected (not all of them, for sure, but many). For example, one of the strongest metaphors that stretches over all three albums is the "red light". It's in "Oh Love" ("Don't stop when the red lights flash"), it has an own song on Dos ("Stop When the Red Lights Flash") and it appears in "Dirty Rotten Bastards" on Tré ("Chop me a line of my best friend's ashes. Dust to dust when the red light flashes"). Plus, there are other songs that deal with traffic and locomotion in the broadest sense ("Little Boy Named Train", "Walk Away"). My theory is that the red lights symbolize important turning points in your life, they give you the chance to either stop, turn around and change direction or just march on straight forward, ignoring the warning signal, whatever may come. What are your thoughts on that? (Sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere else...)

That's pretty much what I think about the red lights. And the fact that it's featured in all three albums made me think about it deeper. It must be connected to the whole concept of partying in this trilogy. In Oh Love it's right before the party so it's like "tonight everything goes". In iDos! it might be the party getting out of hand..

In Tre: Billie's singing "Chop me a line of my best friend's ashes. Dust to dust when the red light flashes. What the fuck does "OK" stand for, when the afterlife is nothing worth dying for??" This verse is obviously related to death. "Dust to dust" meaning we were created from dust and we go back to dust when we die (in Christianity). So maybe the red light in this context is the final turning point of your life.

[tubbyfox]

Having now heard all the songs on the trilogy I would really like to hear Billie talk about the meanings and hope he will give some interviews on TV soon. I don't suppose he'll ever give away everything about the songs as they are so personal, but I'm guessing the whole trilogy is about temptation and whether you give in or resist. After hearing Tre songs, especially Missing you and Walk Away I'm thinking Billie did the right thing and did indeed walk away. Other little clues along the way have been falling for someone in "a pink bathing suit", "the colder it gets you won't see me any more" leads one to imagine this could have been a little temptation in the summer months on the beach. Also, the beach house is now up for sale...??? Thinking of changing beach next year? Oh, how we speculate! Wouldn't you like to know the whole story???