Rocket Skates Meaning

[bloody_liver]

I watched a documentary on Jeffrey Dahmer and then when I listened to Rocket Skates it clicked. The lyrics perfectly describe what Jeffrey Dahmer did with his victims.
My two cents is that Chino has a serious S&M fetish.

You're red, soaking wet.
I'm right next to you.    * he would cut them up and mutilate them and got his thrill out of laying next to them as they died
You're red, soaking wet.
Let's writhe, let me see you trip.   *he gave them really messed up drugs and even perfected his own substances
One move that will keep you wet.    *he sometimes made contraptions that would cause his victims to bleed if they tried to escape
Lets fall in a long sadistic trance.     *again, he got his thrill out of laying next to them in a sadistic drug induced trance
Put the keys in our hands.            *the keys to life and death

Guns. Razors. Knives.    *obviously the first thing to do to scare someone to death is hold a gun to their head, the fine art of razors and knives follows
(Fuck with me)
Guns. Razors. Knives

You're red soaking wet.
I'm right next to you.
You're red, soaking wet.
Let's sail in this sea of charms.     
Let's drown underneath the stars.    *this is all a delusional kind of trip where he hold their life in his hands and reaches some kind of dreamlike world where they are with him
Let's drink with our weapons in our hands.    *he'd often start playing with knives just after seducing a victim at a bar. it started out as innocently as non-psychotic S&M
Let's sleep in this trance.        *he would actually fall asleep in a blissful trance next to a dead body after drugging, raping, and torturing them

Guns. Razors. Knives.
(Fuck with me)
Guns. Razors. Knives

You're red soaking wet.
I'm right next to you.
You're red soaking wet.

Guns. Razors. Knives.
(Fuck with me)
Guns. Razors. Knives.

You're red soaking wet.
I'm right next to you.
You're red soaking wet.
I'm right next to you.
You're red soaking wet.

[one weak]

metaphors are a tricky concept.

just kidding...sort of. apply whatever visuals you want, but i can't jump on board with a literal interpretation.

it's purely sexual to me.

[mAscArA81]

For me is sexual too but the truth is that yor interpretation  fits really well ... a bit scary...lol...

[Shadow46/2]

Woah now... this is creepily accurate. As opposed to the other albums, I've been struggling to find very deep meanings on a lot
of the songs on DE (they lyrics almost seem too polished at times). But this meaning really gives this song a lot of significance. Makes me
dig it a lot more.

[deftonekid]

Scary...

[UrZ*]

why can't chino just write songs like

"oooohh i love you baby"

always this creepy bullshit

[wheresmysnare]

Chinos lyrics are always based on two things: style and substance

What ever image you conjure is yours and you stick with it, else you might aswell listen to linken park and self harm

[E-Money]

For me is sexual too but the truth is that yor interpretation  fits really well ... a bit scary...lol...

[sing blue silver]

Cool interpretation. I wouldn't assume that's what he had in mind and certainly not how I interpret it but cool none the less.

[DEFinatelydeftones,fsho]

Could be right..... Chino wrote digital bath on his own dream experience (very S n M) electrocuting the girl in the tub and wasn't shy at all in telling us where it came from. I think he has a sort of fetish or curiosity for it too. It's all good, makes for great song writing and keeps us wondering.

[pinkmaggit]

Wow - you really put a lot of thought into that. I would never have thought that this is what the song is about, but that's a very cool and interesting theory!

[pinkmaggit]

Seriously? So that's what it really is about then?

[bloody_liver]

I think of White Pony as having a meta narrative. Don't get all holier-than-thou on me for this. I'm just using my imagination. Last week I was thinking about the Rocket Skates idea and just taking a nap listening to White Pony. I sort of imagined some thread through the album like a story. Here's the basic idea.

Feiticeira translated means 'Witch'. Chino likes horror movies i.e.  976 Evil which is named after a horror movie. Well one famous movie with lots of hot chicks is called Suspiria and in it, a young girl discovers that the dance academy she attends is secretly run by a coven of witches that drug the girls and warp their minds and feed on them every so often. When she eventually uses her wits and uncovers the source of the evil, she confronts the head witch. A famous piece of trivia among horror fanatics is that the actress who plays the witch is just some old prostitute that the director picked up off the street for the movie. Confused? Just indulge me. What I'm getting at is that there's a link between Feiticeira being a prostitute if you look at this horror movie mythos.

So anyways, as I am 'imagining' the album in my head I think it's about Chino being captured by this witch or vampire woman. The entire album is a series of events surrounding him
-  chino is captured (feiticera),
-  he waked up in the basement of a brothel and frees himself from some ropes and electrocutes her (digital bath)
-  she doesn't die but rises up like some vision of a demon promising him that he is infected by her and will eventually bleed out of control (elite) 
   elite has a double meaning. she is looking into him and screaming 'you like attention' since he's a rock star. thus, he is some kind of elite celebrity person
   elite also means that she is an elite force of evil in that she is some kind of head witch or vampire
- escaping to the streets he tracks down a drug dealer girl (rx queen) rx are the letters they put on prescription bottles and shit. so anyways he's following her    and then he eventually starts sucking on her blood
- going grazy on drugs with a prostitute who turns out to be a vampire (street carp) and since she's more powerful she is climbing walls and stuff
- he is subdued and hypnotized while realizing the vampire is a girl that  disappeared when he was a teenager who he remembers (teenager) and since she's a vampire she is still a teenager
- he goes to a party and realizing his immortality cuts himself to show people that even if they tried to hurt him he won't die (knife party)
  he takes his new vampire girlfriend and walks up to a bedroom and has freaky vampire sex the kind where you both start floating
- him and the chick go out and feed on a korean girl together and drag her through the leaves taking turns biting her and fucking her
- she takes him on a drive and in contrast to when he was first a captive he is now more free than ever as a vampire (passenger) and she drives him home
- he picks up teenage girl and fucks her at his place but feels terrible for taking away her innocence and possibly looks back on the event from a distant point when he watches a fly that sucks the blood from her dead body. since it has her blood its like she is the fly and since her blood is tainted with vampire blood it lights on fire when it goes into the morning sun. he is looking at the cross and hands her a gun to kill him. he can't deal with the fact that in some way he tore off her angel wings  and there's basically corpses all around the house that are attracting flies everywhere (change in the house of flies)
- as dawn approaches he is going to kill her and let her get eaten by (pink maggit)s and at some point when he says "i'm so into this whore afraid i might lose her so forget about me cause i'll stick you" he is confiding in the vampire from the song teenager. he is hesitant to actually kill the girl when the vampire chick knees her in the throat and as she slowly dies she says the 'back in school' bit to reminisce with Chino about how they were popular when they dated. chino still feels awful but she tells him that he needs to transpose/change his attitude about things or just die. he tells the dying girl that all she is to him is meat and as he gets ready to eat her he asks his chick to hand him a flask.

Here's a song by song plot point. It only goes so far cause I've spent too long writing this and wanna eat a bagel and move on with my life...


Feiticeira
- in the trunk of a car kidnapped by a psycho woman
- realizes he drank to much but looks on the bright side 'fuck i'm drunk but i'm off my knees'. she must have had him at gunpoint
- she evades the police 'the police stopped chasing'
- she calls him her 'new cool meet'
- she takes him out of the trunk and takes photos of him and fucks him
- she cums and then shoves him in the back seat 'and just before i come too, moved to the back of the car'
- she gets him to pose for the camera 'she made me touch the machine'
- threatens to kill him and he begs to be untied because 'you said you would right? and you will right?'
- she taunts him by singing 'should i let you go? shouldn't i let you go?"


Digital Bath
- is back at her house
- he's got a blindfold on and it's tied up
- sings about her freedom 'you move like i want to. to see like your eyes do'
- in a basement where no one can find him (the cops were after her in the first song)
- he can feel the warmth from a bath that she's drawing for herself
- he hasn't seen her face but is identifying her by the taste she left in his mouth 'you taste foreign'
- through struggle he loosens himself from bondage 'new life breakaway'
- he's full of adrenaline now that he's free 'i feel like more'
- through the steam of the bath she sees him approach 'i know you can see the chord breakaway'
- he drops a toaster or something into the tub 'you breathed then you stopped'
- he experiences a strangely romantic moment now that he's turned from prey to predator


RX Queen
- he tracks down a drug dealer chick 'i won't stop following you'
- he has a new found blood lust  'help me pray for the death of everything new'
- he chases her and has her in his grasp and she bites him but he says 'you're my girl and that's alright. if you sting me i won't mind'
- he films them having sex and tells her to look at the camera 'now now look at em, look at em now, look at em sting' (them = audience)
- also the sound of 'now now look at em' is sang in the same way as 'should i let you go?' so it actually represents Feiticeira's voice in his head
- The drugs are messing him up and he feels like they're flying and landing on the moon
- In his drug induced delusion he thinks he's eating some kind of animal
- he is tripping so hard that he thinks he's travelling through time 'i see a red light in june'
- he hears her crying and it starts to snap him out of his hallucination
- the 'red light' is her blood and he's been eating her
- her face goes blue while he strangles her
- 'we're all the virus' refers to him realizing that the virus he imagined feeding off of on the moon is simply human flesh


Street Carp
- 'street carp' refers to street hookers and how he is now fishing for them
- he picks up a girl who turns out to be a vampire 'you're that girl with sharp teeth' 'you're that girl with gold teeth'
- She subdues him 'who grabs at the walls and pulls me down'
- he gets tired out and his half awake when she decides to drive him home 'here's me new address 6 6 5 oh i forget. now write it down'

Teenager
- because he gave her the wrong address he wakes up still with the girl and is remorseful and in pain and hurt that she is refusing to have affection for him 'i climbed your arms then you pulled away'
- she is trying to take care of him until he calms down and he is screaming and disappointed 'the more i scream the more it seems that i'm through with the new you'
- he remembers her from when he was a teenager and how they dated once but then she disappeared 'i drove you home then you moved away'
- she is singing the same thing that Feiticeira sang (remember 'should i let you go?') and he realizes that she lived in the same brothel as the psychopath who originally got him into this mess. 'the more she sings the more it seems that i'm through with the new you'
- the soft lullaby sound of the song represents how he has quieted down and falls into a deep sleep

[bloody_liver]

A nice epilogue is 'The Boys Republic'. I imagine that it's as if White Pony was all a dream and Chino smokes a joint in the sun and tries to reaffirm some semblance of peace and harmony with the world as the nightmare dissipates.


blue star
shine your light down
on everyone cause
i don't care
their soothing me
yes tear lung
blue star
shine your light down
pierce for my face
to heal my veins
down on everyone
cause i do care
their soothing me
tear lungs
it's more it's more
down shine light
shine your light
down
it's more it's more
on everyone cause i don't care
you're soothing me their lungs
blue star
shine your light
shine your light
shine your light down
blue star down
blue star shine down
on everyone cause i don't care
you're soothing me
their lungs
it's more

[wheresmysnare]

Intresting stuff..

I think it's important not to confuse Chino's admissions in respect of his inspirations for the songs with the actual 'meanings' of the finished lyrics.

I'm pretty sure the White Pony explanations all came from the same interview. I get the sense that he was uneasy having to elaborate on the actual song meanings however. He is happy to explain his inspirations whether it be Abe collecting knives or a party where he imagines a girl in the bath, but he doesn't give any further insight into how he developed these ideas and put them into lyrics.

His lyrics are something i've always liked, they're very visual and sensory and never really commit to telling a story whether it be fact or fiction, or attempt to embed Chino's opinions or life experiences upon the listener.

In Digital bath for example, he uses imagery and words, describing tastes smells and sensations relating to an event, but he always refrains from driving home a fixed narrative to the world he creates in the lyrics.

I'm greatful for this as I almost don't like knowing what chino is actually singing about, I like how he keeps it open ended and I think he does too, this would explain why he never really elaborates on his lyric meanings but will stretch to recalling the basic inspiration that got his creative mind weaving up some dark, rich and sensory world.

[bloody_liver]

Intresting stuff..

I think it's important not to confuse Chino's admissions in respect of his inspirations for the songs with the actual 'meanings' of the finished lyrics.

I'm pretty sure the White Pony explanations all came from the same interview. I get the sense that he was uneasy having to elaborate on the actual song meanings however. He is happy to explain his inspirations whether it be Abe collecting knives or a party where he imagines a girl in the bath, but he doesn't give any further insight into how he developed these ideas and put them into lyrics.

His lyrics are something i've always liked, they're very visual and sensory and never really commit to telling a story whether it be fact or fiction, or attempt to embed Chino's opinions or life experiences upon the listener.

In Digital bath for example, he uses imagery and words, describing tastes smells and sensations relating to an event, but he always refrains from driving home a fixed narrative to the world he creates in the lyrics.

I'm greatful for this as I almost don't like knowing what chino is actually singing about, I like how he keeps it open ended and I think he does too, this would explain why he never really elaborates on his lyric meanings but will stretch to recalling the basic inspiration that got his creative mind weaving up some dark, rich and sensory world.

Art is best described as communication. For instance, the filmmaker Charlie Kaufman had introduced Synecdoche New York at TIFF saying that he was about to involve the audience in his story. What he meant was that his film was so strange that it leaves it up to the audience to see what it means to them.

The strange thing is that the most acclaimed abstract art has such a great value because you can draw out these logical trajectories of your own subjective experience. I think in the case of White Pony there is a definite collection of abstractions lyrically that go towards a dark world of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Chino welcomed the opportunity to discuss what the symbolism of 'Around The Fur' in 1997. He even said in the EPK for the album "ask me anything i'll tell you anything you wanna know about the deftones". An interesting side effect of his open approach to exposing his motivations were interviews such as a French television show where he spelled out Mascara being about his wife and then going on about how they are having marital problems. Since he's more quick to say he doesn't like to explain the lyrics or sing about his personal life...I mean yeah I respect it and it certainly has gotten to a point where the press just doesn't cross those boundaries. But just because he avoids talking to the press about what the meaning of his lyrics are doesn't mean they don't have a meaning. He must know how amazed people are when it comes to the mysterious world of some of his songs. I'm sure that he's grown to realize how much people remain fascinated by it if he doesn't explain it. And let's not forget how much he would alienate himself from the rest of the band if the topic of their music was still wrapped up in him talking about his lyrics. By leaving the lyrics alone in interviews he involves the group as a whole and the collaborative connection remains in tact. He respects his band-members and has often reaffirmed how long they've been friends and how good it is to play music together. That being said, in this random box on a computer I think there's plenty that can freely be said and discussed on lyrical interpretation.

Enter, White Pony. It's depersonalized at least that there's nothing as personal as say, Mascara. I honestly think he took his abstract writing to another level and focused in on this kind of after hours world. In one sort of base layer there's a general theme of a series of dark erotic fantasies. I think after that it was crafted to more less work with the confluence of instrumentation. Chino kind of uses his voice like an instrument and I think he'll chose some bizarre words a lot of the times simply because their inflection, syllables and annunciation are like effects. If you compare it to say Linkin Park there are good examples of people who sing not to compliment the guitars and drums but to make their voice and fundamentally isolate themselves from the song while they air out their verbal tampons on stage. Guys like Chino craft their voice at the heart of the song and enveloped in that essence go with it to sound right for it but also to associate lyrics that fit the vibe. So like Rx Queen, the opening bass line just has this creepy feeling to it and when you hear 'I won't stop following you' it just works perfectly in the rhythm but also in finding a verbal description of what that sound makes you feel.

So yeah, to go off on this huge plotline of White Pony admittedly does undervalue the full spectrum of the music as a whole. Chino is respectful to the purity of music like David Lynch is respectful to the purity of cinema. Cause to define it for the masses is to put it into a box. When someone mentions Tool what do you think? Do you start to hear Stinkfist in your head? I don't. I think of Maynard's whole image and this intellectual mystical concept he's pushed with the band. When I think of Korn I don't hear Blind, I think of Jon Davis blaming everyone for molesting him when he was a kid. In contrast, when someone mentions Deftones my mind connects more with the impression of their sound. My Own Summer usually kicks in. If Chino talked about his lyrics in every interview it would probably get to a point where his story would come to mind more strongly than their music when brought to mind.

So overall I'm simply trying to say that this is my own crazy way of associating different shit and really just an expression of just how far my imagination was able to go with the album.

[wheresmysnare]

I agree with you, the best thing about his lyrics are how they set down a certain mood and picturescape with the various lyrical ques but also allow almost limitless interpretation as to the meaning, allowing listeners to develop their own personal attachment and meaning with any given song.

Sorry for the miniscule reply im working at the moment

[DEFinatelydeftones,fsho]

Intresting stuff..

I think it's important not to confuse Chino's admissions in respect of his inspirations for the songs with the actual 'meanings' of the finished lyrics.

I'm pretty sure the White Pony explanations all came from the same interview. I get the sense that he was uneasy having to elaborate on the actual song meanings however. He is happy to explain his inspirations whether it be Abe collecting knives or a party where he imagines a girl in the bath, but he doesn't give any further insight into how he developed these ideas and put them into lyrics.

His lyrics are something i've always liked, they're very visual and sensory and never really commit to telling a story whether it be fact or fiction, or attempt to embed Chino's opinions or life experiences upon the listener.

In Digital bath for example, he uses imagery and words, describing tastes smells and sensations relating to an event, but he always refrains from driving home a fixed narrative to the world he creates in the lyrics.

I'm greatful for this as I almost don't like knowing what chino is actually singing about, I like how he keeps it open ended and I think he does too, this would explain why he never really elaborates on his lyric meanings but will stretch to recalling the basic inspiration that got his creative mind weaving up some dark, rich and sensory world.

+ a million

[Deftones-argentina]

why can't chino just write songs like

"oooohh i love you baby"

always this creepy bullshit

I'd actually enjoy that a fucking lot, for instance. Mentioning earth once or thrice in the lyrics would make that song an instant classic!

[Robotsatemygrandma]

That is a very interesting theory friggin kudos!

That's what I like about Chino's writing in particular, what he leaves open for interpretation is only limited by your imagination. To which is a great gift. Then again when he wants to make a point, he delivers.

I think a lot of the members here have touched on why the dude is a monster. His approach is musical, not always with a lyrical story to tell. The best way I can describe it to anyone is like driving on a hilly road. You start drifting across the line going up and down, but once you hit that flat patch you straighten out and punch it.