Lyric Analysis 3: Paramore

As with Foo Fighters, only one Paramore song made it onto our shortlist, and that song was "Brick by Boring Brick." The song was released as the second single from their third album "Brand New Eyes".

She lives in a fairytale, somewhere that's too far for us to find,
Forgotten the taste and smell of a world that she's left behind,
It's all about the exposure, the lens I told her,
The angles were all wrong, now she's ripping wings off of butterflies.

Keep your feet on the ground,
When your head's in the clouds.

Well go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole,
To bury the castle, bury the castle,
Go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole,
To bury the castle, bury the castle.

Ba-da-ba-ba-da-da-da-da

So one day she fell to crying, coiled up on the dirty ground,
Her prince finally came to save her, and the rest you can figure out,
Well it was a trick, and the clock struck 12,
Well make sure:
To build your heart Brick by Boring Brick,
or the wolve's gonna blow it down.

Keep your feet on the ground,
When your head's in the clouds.

Well go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole,
To bury the castle, bury the castle,
Go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole,
To bury the castle, bury the castle.

Woah, Woah, Woah.

Well you built up a world of magic,
because your real life is tragic.
Yeah you built up a world of magic.

Well if it's not real you can't hold it in your hand,
Or feel it in your heart.
And I won't believe it.
But if it's true you can see it with your eyes,
oh even in the dark,
And that's where I want to be, yeah!

Go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole,
To bury the castle, bury the castle,
Go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole,
To bury the castle, bury the castle.

(x4)
ba da ba ba da da ba da......


The song appears to be a judgement on the way some people live the lives. I feel it is an attack on the lifestyle of building up a positive image of your life, to distract from the real problems. I feel the analogy to a fairytale is particularly effective and portrays the message of the song in a familiar way. It appears to say "even in a fairytale, evil can still catch you" and this reflects to the idea of a song: If you build up this fairytale world about your existence, it doesn't make the problems go away.

In terms of a music video, I think it would be interesting to make one for this song. As I have mentioned before, it is important to stay away from simply telling a narrative. This song would be ideal in relation to that idea, because while the song has a base of narrative, the ideas and messages take hold of the music alot more effectively. Indeed, even the narration itself is merely a metaphor for the message of the song.

With this in mind, even a literal interpretation of the lyrics could produce an effective peice. However, with our own interpretation this could be an extremely high quality video.