No You Don't Know What It's Like! You Don't Know What It's Like To Be Like Me... To Be Hurt, To Feel Lost, To Be Left Out In The Dark...

Incidentally, this is an excellent song for when you're feeling stressed out. So expressive! Says everything for you. *laughs*

I've heard various comments about this song being whiny and immature considering the incredibly teenage-angst theme to it. But come to think of it, maybe it's not really all that it sounds like.

I saw the video for the song. Simple Plan performing on a suspension bridge causing a huge traffic hold-up. And the camera shows some of the people in the car, having fights, feeling crummy, in accordance to the lyrics. Then at the end of the video, those people all get out of the car and start walking en masse through the traffic gridlock to join the band.

The video kinda got me thinking. The lyrics says, "No you don't know what it's like, etc." and to some may sound incredibly self-centred and self-absorbed. But accompanied with the video, it gave me a different impression.

What if the song was meant to express how everyone feels like during one of those moments, the feeling of being all alone in a rut, but the video shows that that angst is a universal thing, shared by many other people in the world. That would explain the lyrics being one way, and the video another, portraying a group of disgruntled individuals walking en masse away from their cars towards the other end of the bridge, almost like some exodus.

So the actual point of the song then, is not merely to whine about a situation, but also like a mirror, to portray a common human condition. Then the video steps in to show the say, for want of a better phrase, the bigger picture. Probably. Yes? No? Makes sense? *sits back and smiles with satisfaction* I knew it.

So the song can be taken either way. For the people who just want to enjoy the song and not look too much into it, then we can all just enjoy the fact that Simple Plan says everything we wanna say at the moment and more with such spunk! Yeah! We can just take it as raw expression of angst with drums and electric guitars to dance around the room to. I mean you gotta admit, they say it so well! They're strumming the frustration with their guitars and singing the angst with their words. Just like that old song "Killing Me Softly".
And for those who need to find a deeper meaning to the song instead of just adolescent whining, well now there you have it! *smiles*