Enema Of The State
Told By Tom Delonge
Dumpweed Meanings for: Take Off Your Pants And Jacket | Enema Of The State | Dude Ranch/Misc. Songs | Cheshire Cat/Buddha
That's all about wishing you had a girl you could train. I remember
writing the song thinking about my dog. You can train the dog
to sit, to be quiet, to be a good dog. But you can't teach a
girl to do anything. So I thought that'd be cool to write a
song about...If only you had a girl that you could train like
a dog, that'd be cool because then she could never make you
mad, and she would never be a woman. And women are just a whole
different species. So that song was written [like] 'As if...'
Don't Leave Me
Mark wrote that song, so I can't really speak about what was
going through his mind when he wrote that one. But I can judge
on the lyrics. He wrote that song when he didn't even have a
girlfriend, so I don't know who he's talking to. Sometimes you
write a relationship song that really doesn't have that much
deep meaning. I think it's just like that feeling when you're
really in love with a girl, you're just thinking 'Please, please,
please don't stop liking me.' That's the gist of the song. All
the times you put your feelings into liking a girl, and she
doesn't like you at all, and she thinks you're a scumbag. So
therefore that song's like a prayer to a girl. Always hoping
that you won't make the girl throw up forever, always hoping
that the girls will love you. We speak for all males, we write
songs hoping that girls will like us dirty rotten boys for a
long time.
Aliens Exist
As a hobby all I ever do is read books and study material on
UFOs and government conspiracies. So I wrote a song about a
guy talking about aliens as though he's had a weird experience
but nobody believes him, they think he's full of shit. But he's
directing his angst toward the government, because the government
knows there's something going on. But I'm one of those freaks
that really believes that stuff exists. I think if anybody out
there does a little bit of research they will find that they
side with me. I think it's just a cool song coming from that
point of view. I read books about abductions, and there are
hundreds of thousands of people a year have an experience at
night and they don't know what it is, they just know what they
saw and what they felt, but nobody believes them.
Going Away To College
That's a super-romantic song. Mark wrote the song as though
you are a boy leaving your girlfriend, after years of school
together. After high school, when you're leaving to go to college,
and what do you say to this girl that you've been in love with
for years, but now have to leave for years? I don't think it
gets more romantic than that. It's a sad song and it's really
moving. It's one of my favorite songs on the record, and the
way the lyrics flow with the music, I just think it's a really
sad, emotional song. It's something a lot of people go through.
You probably date a girl in high school and grow up with her
and learn so much about each other and have so many growing
pains and have to leave to go to college. Do you stay with her,
do you break up with her, do you have faith in the relationship...?
I don't know. That's a cool thing to write a song about.
Dysentery Gary
I wrote that song from a point of view. What if you were a guy
who liked a girl, but the girl likes a different guy? It's kinda
like 'I hate that guy, but I'm not sure why I hate him.' That's
where it's supposed to come from. This guy is really frustrated
because this girl doesn't like him, so he's going to make fun
of this other guy. 'I can't think about any cruel things to
say about him, but f%#k, I just don't like him.' That's the
attitude that song has. 'And this girl broke my heart.' That'll
make you feel a little bit better.
Adam's Song
The story behind that is Mark read a letter someone sent him
as an email, that a kid wrote before he committed suicide to
his parents. We kind of got together and wrote this sad, slow
song. It came out sadder than we ever thought it would, which
is good too. Any song that moves you is good. Some people listen
to it and go 'Wow, that's a real bum-out of a song.' But it's
one of those things, a story of a kid not being happy in his
life, crossed with us being really lonely on tour. At the end
of it there's a better way out, there are better things to do
than kill yourself.
All The Small Things
'All The Small Things' is a song I wrote for my girlfriend while
we were recording. I had to write her a song, because I wrote
songs about other girls, but I haven't written one for her.
So I was kinda getting some heat for that. Not really though,
because I love my girlfriend, so I was like, 'I need to write
a rad song' because I was scared - if the song came out bad,
my girlfriend would be pissed. So I kinda warned her that it
would come out bad. Then it came out good, so I was happy. But
the lyrics are totally true in that song - 'She left me roses
by the stairs.' I remember I came home late one night about
midnight and she left roses on the stairs because I was working
late every night in the studio. It's a song for everyone to
have sex by.
The Party Song
That song is about going to one of those parties and people
getting drunk and being stupid and girls trying to be the center
of attention. It's just about girls trying too hard, acting
like dimwits. I think we've all been there, we've all been to
those parties where there's all these guys creeping out on three
girls who just can't get enough attention.
Mutt
'Mutt' is a song I wrote about my friend Benji Weatherly, a
professional surfer who has sex all the time. His name's Benji,
but everyone nick named him Mutt, and it's just a song about
a guy and a girl who like to have sex and who don't really care
about much of anything else. I guess that doesn't really matter,
as long as they're having fun. It's not too deep. As long as
it seems deep, that's all that matters.
Wendy Clear
'Wendy Clear' is a song Mark wrote about this girl he had a
crush on. He liked her but he really couldn't date her because
she was a very influential person in the music industry. So
them dating was a very tricky situation. 'I wish it didn't have
to be so bad,' is how the song goes.
Anthem
'Anthem' is a song I wrote about having a party at your house,
your parents coming home and finding out. I did that to my friend
one time. I wanted my band to play - in high school - at my
friend's house. His parents left only until midnight, but I
still told the whole school that we were playing there. Thousands
of people showed up, and then they all had to leave and we had
to clean up the place before the parents came back at 12. It
was so funny. The whole place chipped in with the clean up,
but the cops showed up and his parents found out that way. So
he ended up getting in to a lot of trouble. I couldn't believe
that I invited all those people over and his parents were only
away until midnight. The stereo was broken...there was a fight,
there was blood everywhere. It was so funny.