CRACKING THE CODE of "KILL4ME"

[Hazekiah]

All right. OMG I GOT THIS.

And YES; Charles Manson, L.A. home invasions, etc. We're diving DEEPER than that. Gimme a minute here.

We'll get to the lyrics but HOLY SHIT let me just tell you about how I found my way to FULLY UNDERSTANDING THEM first.

I fucking KNEW I'd heard that expression about "sideways for attention, longways for results" before.

Since I happened to have my septuagenarian dad on hand I thoroughly annoyed him by inviting him to listen to the new Manson track because GODDAMN it is just such a classic, funky, blues-rock opening. I figured he might actually dig it, y'know? LO AND BEHOLD, right on schedule, he ruefully admitted with a backhanded complement, "That almost sounds like music," lolgoddamnit.

>_____>

But anyway, he redeemed himself. All I could figure was that it was a race car thing. I didn't grow up watching that shit but anyone from Ohio and/or Florida sure as shit did. I'd only seen Days of Thunder and the OG "Speed Racer" and I'd even seen Manson at a race track (Halloween of 2000 at the Kansas City International Raceway, w00t) but I was pretty fucking sure there was a connection there. Y'know, drifting sideways around turns along the track to "cross" in front of competitors for attention but also making a MAD DASH along the straightaways to REALLY win the race.

Which I already knew and my dad only reinforced. But I was DEAD FUCKING CERTAIN I'd heard that phrase SOMEWHERE ELSE, TOO. Like he srsly drew diagrams of cars drifting around turns on a racetrack and I all LOL, YEAH, I TOO LIVED THROUGH THE FAST & FURIOUS MOVIES.

So I kept digging. Cutting DEEPER into the matter, if you will.

I mean, I'd already suspected that Manson was singing to himself in what was essentially an ego-destroying love-ballad like so many others of his, but RIGHT AWAY I came to an interview with Manson from two years ago:

So when I was writing ["Third Day of a Seven Day Binge"] I had a completely different frame of mind. I was thinking, this is going to keep a lot of girls through college if they’re strip dancers.

How?

I mean, in part, because of the beat and the rhythm of it. But the song could be interpreted at face value as being about drugs or a relationship gone wrong. Or biblical. That’s a part that I think a lot of people don’t look into -- the very simple idea of what happened in the bible on the third day, Jesus rising from the dead et cetera and so forth. And I say et cetera and so forth because it pisses me off when people say et cetera more than once. So much that I got a tattoo of it on my fucking wrist. Therefore I may not be able to ever kill myself, because I’d ruin my tattoo. As I always say, sideways for attention, longways for results. You won’t see me kill myself. Ever.

O___O

Sooo, that actually explains A LOT of things.

1. Primarily, "sideways for attention, longways for results," of course, referring to the laying of cuts across one's wrists for gestural, cries for attention vs. ACTUALLY fucking killing yourself by slashing all the way up your forearms instead, focusing on RESULTS.

2. "Let's grab a gold switchblade and make us a blood pact, babe....and I can tell that you ain't faking," anyone? AMIRITE.

3. And did you happen to notice the similarities between the basslines of "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" and "KILL4ME"...??? LOLOBVS.

4. Or OMFG even "THIRD Day of a Seven Day Binge" being referenced in NUMEROUS ways while leading into "KILL4ME," ffs?!? LOLWUT.

5. And goddamnit both songs switch metaphors to gunplay midway through ("bullets in the booth" vs. "unload six rounds"). LOLBUTSRSLY.

6. Ugh, JMFC Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth by gunshots to the head in a theater booth and his body was moved across the street to a local hotel until he finally perished hours later before a crowd spilling into the halls vs. "your hotel hall won't be so vacant and I can tell that you ain't faking because I take death threats like the best of them." ... ... ...

7. Further to that same point, I'd bet the whole bit about bloody noses/roses, betrayal, and sacrifice might even be referencing the "wounded head" and Rose McGowan as Jackie O of the Kennedy assassination so closely linked to that of Lincoln and the essay upon which "King Kill 33°" is based. Freemasonry, Golden Dawn, switch blades, blood pacts, etc. >____<

8. ANNNNND OF COURSE THE DOUBLE-CROSS OF CELEBRITARIANISM.

O____O

So anyway...I'm pretty sure it's more of a metaphor for Manson interacting with himself than it is a call for fans to kill themselves, the president of w/e, or anything else. Or maybe ALL those things? Whatever. SLEEP TIGHT.

Which, just for the hell of it, also reminds me to mention that somewhere along the way my dad also reminded me of THIS fucking classic, which I'm pretty sure doubles as a country-fried domestic violence murder-ballad/suicide-anthem showing up the man who done this gal wrong...which isn't EXACTLY all too different from the proceedings of "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" or "KILL4ME," lolbutsrsly.

o_______O

Which I am OF COURSE fully aware is ridiculous af in context here but OMFG it works SO fucking well and it legitimately IS seriously part of how I arrived at the rest of this with the help of my dad, lol. He's kinda weird. We all are. Deal with it.




While we're at it, Manson mentions "motherfucker" in the THIRD line of "Tattooed In Reverse" and MOM = WOW = "tattooed in reverse" from the 1st person POV of Manson himself, etc. but n/m I digress...

XD XD XD

[YoureAlreadyHere]

So that must be some good coke you done got thur.

& I misheard the lyrics as "silence for attention; longing for results. Who are you going to cross?"

[Enname]

I knew there were cars missing in the song, what with the whole hotel, road trip, suicide pact, romance thing going on (and not because I watched Thelma and Louise one night before the song was released, or Drive). Even if slightly tenuously and via your dad.

The 'sideways for attention, longways for effect' had been bugging me as well, apart for being an obvious cross. I'd not have picked it as Manson self quoting though, because with the exception of this album it almost always never is. Intertextual short hand. Very short hand, especially if successful.

Side note: if Third Day of a Seven Day Binge is Biblical, I had gone more for a 'old testament' reading with God creating the world in a 7 day binge rather than the Resurrection. Funnier, but fine. Technically even the Jesus bit was God onna bender.

[Norsefire]

Thanks for finding that quote Haz! I remember him mentioning a few times about his tattoo and if he would cut through it etc etc but couldn't find it.

[Shangri-LIE]

I think with this album it's important to use Occam's Switchblade to follow the story. Kill4Me being a song that I simply see as being somewhat of a pisstake, much like the WKWYFL video. Not that I don't feel like diving deeper into it. Still a good thread.

[Tetragrammaton]

My only contribution to this thread is to say that this is actually more difficult than it sounds. In another life I woke up my girlfriend in the middle of the night, who was an experienced and skilled cutter, and asked her where exactly the best positioning for "results" was. She grumpily aimed the knife for me (a serrated but mostly shitty steak knife) and turned back over to sleep. So I put a sock in my mouth to bite down on and started to try sawing away with legitimate pressure and goddamn if that's not the most counter-intuitive thing in the world to the point where everything in your brain is just "wait no, this is the opposite of what should be happening." It was a decent cut but I was not a fan. I got up and plied myself with the only liquor we had around, fucking Jager, and went to go run a warm bath since I heard that helps. Long story short I eventually just passed out on the bathroom floor drunk and woke up early before she did and said got pissed off that, even in this I was a pussy and a failure, and got back in bed. And then she yelled at my for getting blood on her sheets.

Basically my point is, forcing yourself to cut into your own body is a shitty and difficult way to kill yourself unless I assume you're really fucked up, have a considerably sharp thing (like uh, a razor,) and really reaally want to die. I have immense respect for anybody brave enough to kill themselves, but even more so for people who do it in some brutal painful ways.

[TH15x15xMYxOMeGA]

Nice!!! I enjoyed reading this. I LOVE this song because the first time I heard it I loved the music but thought the lyrics were void of much meaning, but the more I listen the more I realize how many layers this song has. I was at work today and was thinking, "Why did Manson use the number 4 instead of 'for' in the title? Then I'm like oh shit! The Manson murders!" I love how this song is an extended release pill instead of a just a hit.

[Shangri-LIE]

My only contribution to this thread is to say that this is actually more difficult than it sounds. In another life I woke up my girlfriend in the middle of the night, who was an experienced and skilled cutter, and asked her where exactly the best positioning for "results" was. She grumpily aimed the knife for me (a serrated but mostly shitty steak knife) and turned back over to sleep. So I put a sock in my mouth to bite down on and started to try sawing away with legitimate pressure and goddamn if that's not the most counter-intuitive thing in the world to the point where everything in your brain is just "wait no, this is the opposite of what should be happening." It was a decent cut but I was not a fan. I got up and plied myself with the only liquor we had around, fucking Jager, and went to go run a warm bath since I heard that helps. Long story short I eventually just passed out on the bathroom floor drunk and woke up early before she did and said got pissed off that, even in this I was a pussy and a failure, and got back in bed. And then she yelled at my for getting blood on her sheets.

Basically my point is, forcing yourself to cut into your own body is a shitty and difficult way to kill yourself unless I assume you're really fucked up, have a considerably sharp thing (like uh, a razor,) and really reaally want to die. I have immense respect for anybody brave enough to kill themselves, but even more so for people who do it in some brutal painful ways.

l.m.m.f.a.o *fist bump

[Enname]

I think with this album it's important to use Occam's Switchblade to follow the story. Kill4Me being a song that I simply see as being somewhat of a pisstake, much like the WKWYFL video. Not that I don't feel like diving deeper into it. Still a good thread.

Anyone who has a passing acquaintance with Occam and his sharp implement would therefore know you should delve into the question at hand in multi volume length, from all points of view. Preferably at the most granular level. Only then after every angle has been laid bare do you choose the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions.

So hop to it! XD

(And of course it is a pisstake, he said it himself in some interview three days ago!)

[Shangri-LIE]

Anyone who has a passing acquaintance with Occam and his sharp implement would therefore know you should delve into the question at hand in multi volume length, from all points of view. Preferably at the most granular level. Only then after every angle has been laid bare do you choose the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions.

So hop to it! XD

(And of course it is a pisstake, he said it himself in some interview three days ago!)

I did exactly that. I also came to that conclusion on my own and had no idea that he had said that. So there we go! It's a pisstake! SOLVVED! XD