Fun.: Some Nights [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
There has been some confusion with the fans as the lyric "Some terrible nights" was mistaken for "...lies". Members of Fun. confirmed on November 18, 2012 on their Twitter and Facebook accounts that "it's NIGHTS not LIES."[5][6] Jeff Giles, writing for Diffuser, compared the song to Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia."[7][unreliable source?] Ruess commented that Simon's Graceland (1986) was an influence on the song in an interview with Billboard.[4]
Fun.: Some Nights [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
AS to the video and the soundtrack, I think it was great. I am not into that type of music, but I was flipping through channels and when I saw the video is stopped in my tracks. Not sure if the song without the video would have moved me, but the combo sure did. FUN is on to something.
The first 1.02 minutes of the video are just mainly establishing shots. These shots help establish the storyline to the auidence. The shots are composed of two opposing soldiers and their lives before they head off to war. The first soldier has a other half which he had to leave behind whereas the other man is shown to be a farmer of some sort who has to leave his land and job behind.
The song is about the loneliness, uncertainty, and self-doubt that often comes with the painful progress of self-actualization, or fulfilling one's potential. The protagonist is Nate Ruess himself, as is often the case with his songs. They are all deeply personal. Though everyone may interpret poetry however they like, to find their own meaning in whatever way relates most to them, the writer's true intentions are important. The top 3 interpretations of this song each have glaring inaccuracies that are inconsistent with the actual meaning of the lyrics. #3 is the most outrageous, I hope it's a joke. (Lips = kissing = it's about a girl?!) #1 is closest to the mark, but misses wide on the "war with potential dead brother-in-law" theory and interpretation of the significance of the desert. I think the song is much, much simpler, yet also more powerful, than most interpretations I've read. I'm not saying I'm 100% right, but I strive to be more accurate than the current accepted submissions. My interpretation is based on knowledge of the songwriter's personal history and his other work. (I am not his sister, personal umbrella-holder, hamster, or left sock.) It's actually pretty straightforward. "Some Nights" is a personal reflection of Nate's life, family, career, the sacrifices he made to achieve success, the sometimes disappointing emptiness of that success (how prophetic now that he's a mega-star), struggles with the choices he made, loss, guilt, even simply the pain of growing up, and hope. The same themes are woven throughout the entire album, some even begun in Aim & Ignite. I won't go through every single line, but will focus on the ones that are most representative of the overall meaning. "Some nights I stay up cashing in my bad luckSome nights I call it a drawSome nights I wish that my lips would build a castleSome nights I wish they'd just fall off"Some nights he's performing in concerts, singing the songs he wrote, many of which deal with aforementioned themes. He vacillates between dreams of achieving superstar success in his career, and occasionally wishing he didn't have the burden of such a dream and the responsibilities and problems that can come with it. Elsewhere on the album (in "Stars") he says "Some nights I rule the world/With Barlights and Pretty Girls/But most nights I stay straight and think about my mom/Oh God I miss her so much" which is an even more explicit reference to the lure of his career as an artist and performer and, of course, the quiet moments in between shows when he's alone with his emotions, particularly grieving the death of his mother. "Barlights" and "Pretty Girls" refer to songs from the band's previous album (two of the most popular, too!) "But I still wake up, I still see your ghost..." Said "ghost" appears several times, and could be his late mother, or his old self. "Well that is it guys, that is all5 minutes in and I'm bored againTen years of thisI'm not sure if anybody understandsThis one is not for the folks at homeSorry to leave, Mom, I had to goWho the f** wants to die alone All dried up in the desert sun?"This line tricks people up, in conjunction with the war-themed video and the ongoing political and military conflicts in desert regions. It's got nothing to do with that. Nate's been writing and performing for a long time - literally a decade at the time this song was written. He had to leave home, in Arizona, to focus on his career, leaving behind his family, which is a very close-knit one. His mother has since passed away, and he feels a lot of guilt and loss. It was a difficult choice, wether to leave or stay. Many of us must make the choice at some point, maybe more than once. Simply put, this song is about leaving home, striking out on your own, and learning about who you are. "So this is it?I sold my soul for this?Washed my hands of that for this?I miss my mom and dad for this?"He left home and everyone he loved, and isn't sure it was worth it. The success he's achieved isn't as fulfilling as he expected. At the time, it wasn't even the phenomenal success he'd go on to, but still impressive and life-altering. (Also, incidentally, his struggles with faith and religion are a common theme in his work.)"When I see stars that's all they are, etc."Stars are another recurrent theme, representing fate as well as fame. Here it means he no longer believes in fate, and possibly also that fame is not as glittering as we all dream. One could even maaaybe stretch it to believe that celebrities are just people, and stars are just stars. "My heart is breaking for my sister and the con that she called "love"But when I look into my nephew's eyesMan you wouldn't believeThe most amazing thingsThat can come from some terrible nights"(That "nights" has been confirmed by the band, not the oft-misquoted "lies".)His elder sister, with whom he is close, has had to face her own unique challenges and personal loss. She's had responsibility of the greatest kind bestowed upon her. The love in her now-over relationship, which she either convinced herself of, shared, or was manipulated into believing, was false. But the love that was then *born of it* is precious and true. Even the most terrible nights can be worthwhile, literally, by resulting in a beloved child, or figuratively, resulting in personal growth, maturity, and wisdom.Nate loves his nephew very much, and has previously sung to him on "Aim & Ignite". He has a strong sense of family. He also repeatedly refers to his mother, father, and sister, who are all vitally important to him.They represent stability, home, true love, loyalty, and forgiveness. They're the ones he can depend on and trust, who will love him no matter what he does, whatever "big mistakes" he makes.The question of "What do I stand for?" is literal, also meaning "What inspires me?", "What motivates me?", "What do I really want from life?", "What makes me happy?","What defines me?", and other questions we all must ponder. What defines us is constantly changing, but it's up to us to decide how we define ourselves. (I don't believe it's at all political.)"Most nights, I don't know anymore."On the nights when he's doing what he loves, performing, "ruling the world", he feels secure. But most nights he's left struggling with the uncertainty that naturally bubbles up in everyone as we get older, lose friends, lose loved ones, start to drift a bit, start to move forward in our careers, our lives, essentially start realizing we're adults. (Making his "We Are Young" so much more bittersweet and powerful.) The trials of growing up and changing what you are, how you are, why you are, are universal. The one constant is who you are.Additionally he has the more personal complications of fame, the loss of his mother and his former band, all exacerbated by his own heightened sensitivity and emotional perspicacity. Without his mother, who was such an important part of his life, he might be feeling like he's lost some of his ballast, setting him off balance. When the person who knows you best is gone, your very understanding of yourself, your own relationship with yourself, is shaken. You relied on that person to know you better than you know yourself, to give you guidance and insight into your own soul. It's a life-changing loss that forces you to wobble for quite some time.Ironically, as Nate becomes more and more well-known, the very question of "What *do* you stand for?" will be asked of him almost relentlessly. We're doing it right now by attempting to extract as much meaning as we can from his lyrics, often assigning intentions that aren't even there. In doing so, we're revealing more of what we ourselves "stand for" even if we're not conscious of it. Nate's very hard on himself in his songs. He's also incredibly honest, and lays bare a lot of his greatest fears and struggles. At its most basic, "Some Nights" is about those fears, doubts, regrets, and struggles, as well as hope.
The song is a summary of his music career. Some nights, the show went badly, some nights it was fair, some nights he wishes that his lips (singing voice) would be successful enough to give him financial stability, some nights he wishes he would have an excuse to quit singing.He still sees the ghost of his former band The Format, and he is not sure what he should stand for now that fun. is enjoying success and fame. He feels that he has to have a message.He calls to his boys (bandmates) to take risks with their music and to not be affected by the press (hype - black & white print media). He feels that when he works twice as hard at his music, it is liked only half us much and his critics "come again to jack my style".But, for one night, tonight, he's okay with it because he has a groupie (martyr) in his bed so he's just going to stop wondering about it all for a while.He then resigns himself to his current life. He misses his family as he left them and is now on the road touring with his band. He's become jaded by the limelight and other famous musicians that he now has contact with. When he sees other "stars" they are no longer people he idolizes, but they are just plain people. He's feels like he's losing his earlier musical creativity and songwriting seems bland and all the same to him now. He tries to encourage himself to keep going "come on come on come on".A song or performance lasts about five minutes. "Well, this is it guys, that is all- five minutes in and I'm bored again."He's lamenting that his music career and touring have gone on for ten years, and he feels that no one understands what it has meant to him to leave home behind. He's from Arizona and didn't want to live for his family and didn't want to "die alone all dried up in the desert sun". So, he left to pursue a music career.His heart is breaking because he misses his sister. The con is her love for her brother (Nate) and her belief that he would be a successful musician. He feels he failed her and isn't as successful as she believed he could be. But when he looks into his young nephew's eyes, a little kid who idolizes his now famous uncle, he feels that something good has come out of his music career after all. The terrible lie is his perceived fame; he thinks it isn't deserved or real. The amazing thing is that the young nephew adores his uncle.He ends off thinking about giving it all up and moving home again to be close to his family, but then realizes it's just as well to leave things as they are and he will just keep on touring and not go home to Arizona. He currently lives in New Jersey.Note: The war theme in the video is a concept of the video director Anthony Mandler and has nothing to do with the meaning of the lyrics when they were originally written. 041b061a72