Notes

March To the Sea: This is one of those songs that have MANY different perspectives and after looking into it I feel like there are more than 1 that can relate to me and I agree with full heartily. But since I have to choose one, I am going to choose my first ever theory of this song. I think this song is about society and someone who has slight anxiety is realizing what is going on. (It makes it easier if I go verse by verse) "There's miles of land in front of us, And we're dying with every step we take, We're dying with every breath we make, And I'll fall in line." The miles of land is people's creativity, self expression and basically what people want to do or say but they all fall in a line meaning they aren't expressing their selves and are trying to live under people's norms. They're dying with every breath and step they take meaning they are losing their thoughts of the world and changing to be "normal," losing their personality. "A stranger's back is all I see, He's only a few feet in front of me,
And I'll look left and right sometimes, But I'll fall in line." He sees someone who has lost their touch in life and now is trying to act like everyone else becoming a dull stranger. He's very close to Tyler because Tyler is trying to become that and getting close to it. Tyler looks left and right but falls back in line meaning he sees the creativity he withholds but is either afraid of what other people might think or think it's not worth it and follows the line to become plain. "No one looks up anymore, 'Cause you might get a raindrop in your eye, And heaven forbid they see you cry, As we fall in line." No one looks up to see what they can express and think because you might get a raindrop meaning something that is not "normal" that society will judge you. This could also mean that Tyler "cries" meaning he is dealing with his demons and it brings him down to where he is emotional and people around him will judge him for his actions. "And about this time of every year, The line will go to the ocean pier, And walk right off into the sea, And then we fall asleep." Around this time could mean something like school, work, around a group of people, social media, etc. And they are walking into the sea and falling asleep meaning they are walking into society standards and are falling asleep meaning turning off their thinking and feelings that might be different than what people would suspect. "As we near the end of land, And our ocean graves are just beyond the sand, I ask myself the question, why I fall in line." As they near the end of acting like themselves and their ocean graves meaning instead of land graves (expressive self) they are in the ocean of non-expressive people metaphorically dying. Tyler is aware of everything but has some anxiety to express himself and asks himself why he has to live up to people's thoughts of him. "And then out of the corner of my eye, I see a spaceship in the sky, And hear a voice inside my head, 'Follow me instead'." Now he is seeing what he is giving up on and the creative, imaginative, confident, self expressive side of him is saying "don't worry about anyone just be yourself." The spaceship represents those things. "And then the wages of war will start, Inside my head with my counterpart (spaceship), And the emotionless marchers will chant the phrase, "This line's the only way". He’s fighting with himself on whether or not he should break away from the norms or just continue on. People have numbed themselves to the emotions they once showed, they now hide every emotion to look ordinary. Society today says that this “line” or life is our only one. Everyone is trying to convince us to do what everyone else is doing. Go with the flow. His counterpart is his side that is different than others and wants to be able to express it. "And then I start down the sand, My eyes are focused on the end of land, But again the voice inside my head, Says 'follow me instead'." Tyler is trying to convince himself that what he is doing is the right thing but the counterpart inside his head is saying don't listen to them. "Take me up, seal the door, I don't want to march here anymore, I realize that this line is dead, So I'll follow you instead." The take me up, seal the door part is referring to the spaceship closing the hatch. This represents the final choice of marching in the line otherwise known as society. He realizes that the line is dead with no self expression, having to live up to people's standards and not being able to express himself so he climbs on the spaceship and follows his free self instead. "So then you put me back in my place, So I might start another day, And once again I will be, In a march to the sea." The spaceship (expressive side) is taking him back to the line so he can start another day to decide what he wants to do. You might ask why the space ship would do that but that's just referring back to someone with anxiety who doubts themselves and will forever try to teach themselves to not listen to others and be yourself. So yeah that's just my thought on this song. Again, I found other theories that fit right as well with this one that I might share later that mostly consist of a religion theme.