The world is full of problems and I want to write about a song; not even a new one. But this song has stirred my schizoid mind and has even constructed a nightmarish dream I had last night. A dream full of Nazis and persecution, full of fire and war and torture. A senseless dream, like most dreams seem to be, only that this one seemed even more complicated to even try to put together and make a little sense out of it.
You would say that the song that has done this must have come from musicians such as Syd Garrett, Peter Gabriel or some disturbed genius musician, but that’s not so. You may even think that the song is so complicated and profound, full of philosophy and meaning. But it is not. The song is called Take a picture and was written and performed by a band called Filter.
I heard it once many years ago; probably when it came out, but had not heard it since then, until yesterday when I was watching a short video about a fighter jet (!!!). The song struck me as I heard it in the video, but it was last night that I tried to find out more about it and whose song was it, because the video didn’t say. All I remembered was a part of the chorus, so I Googled it: “…could you wanna take my picture, ‘cause I won’t remember…“
After finding out about the song I downloaded it (Yes RIAA, I bought it!), and started listening to it in detail. Good, mellow song. A semi-ballad. Nicely played. Good vocals, good guitar, good rhythm. The lyrics, I thought, were probably about a person, probably the singer, whom had succeeded in life and had a father who didn’t believe in him.
I then searched for the band to find out about the person who had succeeded and had had a bad relationship with his father… that took me to the Wikipedia, and I was confronted with a description of the most probable reason to the lyrics of this song that I didn’t expect.
It seems Richard Patrick, the singer of Filter, got on a plane, got drunk, started to undress, was appeased by the air personnel and started to ask people to take pictures because he wouldn’t remember the moment. It also seems, but this I learned somewhere else, that the mention to his father was because another member of the band, sent one of those pictures to the singer’s family with a caption saying something like “what do you think about your son now!”.
I was puzzled. How could the lyrics accompanied with such mellow, nostalgic, heartfelt music be about a FUBAR episode in the life of a person? It seemed to me that it made no sense at all. I thought it was like if Candle in the wind would be sung in Salsa. It was like if the music said something and the lyrics something totally different and disconnected.
I then started to search for other people’s thoughts about this song and found lots of them in www.youtube.com
Most of the comments are from, seems to me, teenagers, since there are meesages such as: OMG!!!! WTF I loooooove this song… or dedications from boys to girls, boys to boys and someone’s reply: “WTF… Is he your lover or something?"… other “smart” people had to hate the song or write their unasked opinion about other bands being better.
Only one serious opinion that read: “I think this song is about a life changing experience where he realizes that he doesn’t have to follow the rules of society or what he was taught growing up. And that feeling you get when you realize you don’t have to follow those rules. You can make your own and still be a a good person. You feel reborn. And Take my picture was like saying at this moment I feel this way but he knows in the future he’ll forget and let guilt and outside influences take over. (Couloumbe102)”
At the end, I ended with some theories about this song. I still can’t believe this song is about a simple drinking too much in an airplane episode, unless, and some people seem to think this too, he’s remembering such an episode as a part of his life, long past, when he had serious problems, maybe substance or alcohol abuse. This hypothesis would make it possible for the music and the lyrics getting along.
Another theory is that the singer is lying and that all about the drunk part is just a joke, and that the song is simply fictional and more profound. That would make a lot of sense. The part about an airplane may be related to his writing the song in an airplane.
The third theory is that the song IS about the drinking episode but that the music is a failed act; that is, the music doesn’t have anything to do with the lyrics but they were, mistakenly but unknowingly, put together.
Finally, what does this song have to be with fire, war, Nazis, persecution… I don’t know. I’ll leave that to my psychiatrist.

The song:

The lyrics as per www.LyricsFreak.com Note: Even though the following lyrics show the chorus as saying “Could you take my picture?” , I make from the song that it says “Could you wanna take my picture?".

Take a Picture
by Filter

Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
My skin is bare
My skin is theirs
I feel like a newborn
And I feel like a newborn
Awake on my airplane
Awake on my airplane
I feel so real

Chorus:
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Could you take my picture?
Cuz I wont remember
Yeah

I dont believe in
I dont believe in
In your sanctity
You privacy
I dont believe in
I dont believe in
Sanctity
A hypocrisy
Could everyone agree that
No one should be left alone
Could everyoone agree that
They should not be left alone yeah
And I feel like a newborn
And I feel like a newborn
Kicking and screaming

Chorus

Hey dad what do you think about your son now
Ah hey dad what do you think about your son now

Chorus (x4)

The Video on YouTube (It does nothing to help understand the song, on the contrary its more confusing):

 Personal, Video, Music, Opinion