Consisting of a quartet proudly from Chicago, Fall Out Boy rose from the punk and hardcore scene in 2001. For the first half of the band’s career, bassist Pete Wentz wrote the song’s lyrics. Even today, after learning to share significantly more creative control as a lyricist, primarily with lead singer Patrick Stump, Fall Out Boy’s discography has a distinctly ‘Pete’ sound.
Wentz isn’t the type of writer to conjure up a bunch of make-believe stories or participate in concept album-worthy world-building. Instead, his specialty is in introspection, self-reflection and clever wordplay.
When its your life’s work, your discography is an open diary, at some point, you are bound to begin to see callbacks and parallels to the past. Sometimes, they are signs of a toxic cycle you tend to fall back into, over and over again. Other times, they are a sign of growth. In this article, we will look into some of the parallels in Pete Wentz’s music, then proceed to over-analyze what on earth they could possibly mean.
“I sing the Blues and swallow them too” – ”Hum Hallelujah,” Infinity on High, 2007
“These are the last Blues we’re ever gonna have” – ”Bishops Knife Trick,” Mania, 2018
Wentz has been open with his struggles with mental health, both in his lyrics and in direct conversations. In 2007, Wentz attempted suicide in a Best Buy parking lot via overdose, using the antidepressant, Ativan, he had been prescribed. In “Hum Hallelujah,” ‘the blues’ serves as wordplay for both Ativan, the musical genre and depression.
“I got in my car. I remember I was listening to Jeff Buckley doing Leonard Cohen‘s ‘Hallelujah’ and sat there and took a bunch of Ativan in a Best Buy parking lot. I called up my manager because I was, at that point, completely out of my head with Ativan. And I was talking to him and I was slurring my words, so he called my mom and my mom called me and she came and got me and we went to the hospital,” Wentz told MTV.
He wrote “Hum Hallelujah” about the experience, the conflicting feelings of the hopelessness of the moment combined with the understanding that there is hope on the horizon.
Jump forward 11 years to Mania, and you have the progress incarnate. Wentz of 2018 is married, a father and actively taking care of himself. He finds himself hopeful and happy, looking forward to life.
Upon first listening, one may easily assume “Bishops Knife Trick” is a breakup song. And in a way, it is. But it’s more of a break-up with the romanticization of self-destruction. The line ‘these are the last blues we’re ever gonna have’ rings like a breakup with Ativan, with antidepressants and the symptoms behind their needs. This is not to say Wentz is promoting the flushing of medications. Rather, it’s him saying goodbye to sadness and self-destruction.
“In poisoned places, we are anti-venom. We’re the beginning of the end” – ”Young Volcanoes,” Save Rock and Roll, 2013
“I’m here at the beginning of the end, the end of infinity with you” – ”The Last of the Real Ones,” Mania, 2016
2013’s Save Rock and Roll set out to do exactly that. With a classic sound and a plethora of rock’s greatests sprinkled into guest spots, the album was made in response to the ongoing public feeling that rock and roll is dead. Instead of verbally contradicting the feeling, Fall Out Boy decided to prove the critics wrong with an album.
In “Young Volcanoes,” the band positions themselves as the antivenom to hateful rhetoric against the scene. The second part is a cliff notes version of a quote by Winston Churchill.
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”-Winston Churchill
Fall Out Boy says that this current era is not the end for rock as a genre, we are barely entering the final pages of the first chapter.
Mania received a lot of critical and fan hate at the time of its release in 2013. However, it has begun to grow on fans and casual listeners alike in recent years. Will it ever see a cult following as strong as Folie a Deux? Most likely not, but it will see a significant amount of respect for having the audacity to try something different.
Mania is a bold departure from what Fall Out Boy has done in the past, but they do not consider it a departure from the genre. Rather, it is an experiment into what the evolution of rock could be as it begins its journey into infinity. Hence, ‘I’m here at the beginning of the end.”
“Sugar we’re going down swinging” – “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” From Under The Cork Tree, 2005
“I will defend the faith, going down swinging” – ”Save Rock and Roll,” Save Rock and Roll, 2013
A staple of every emo night and 2000s rock compilation in the country, “Sugar, We’re Going Down” is arguably Fall Out Boy’s biggest hit. The song is classic F.O.B. in every sense, from the tongue-in-cheek wordplay to the bitter relationship issues.
In the music video?,When a boxer goes down in an earlier round, they have lost the match far before they expected to. In terms of a relationship, Wentz is referring to the knowledge that the relationship was doomed to end from the start. However, he insists on going down swinging, giving his all despite impending doom.
Eight years later, the line is recycled in the titular song of Save Rock and Roll, but under a very different context. As previously established, Save Rock and Roll is an album with the mission of saving the scene.
Far from their heyday, Fall Out Boy’s experimentation is sometimes met with scorn. Critics aren’t ready to hear something new. Fans are often harsher than the critics, wanting more of the old. Meanwhile, Fall Out Boy stands by the genre that raised them and their own creative choices, determined to continue to trailblaze. Perhaps their choices will bear fruit. If not, at least it would have served as a path for future artists to build on F.O.B.’s work and turn it into something better.
“We’re broken down on memory lane; Alone together, we’re alone.” – “Don’t you know who I think I am?,” Infinity on High, 2007
“Let’s be alone together; we can stay young forever” – “Alone Together,” Save Rock and Roll, 2013
Although only 28 at the time of its release, Wentz had a lot of context from past relationships to know when he was putting himself in a potentially toxic cycle. However, his problem was that he would choose to continue with them regardless.
In “Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am?” Wentz acknowledges a sense of loneliness with a current partner, too hung up on the past to focus on the present. The partner is equally as distant. However, neither is ready to leave the other. They are alone together.
This is a concept Wentz has toyed with before, particularly on his LiveJournal in 2004.
“alone together. it’s funny how easy it is to sleep with someone, but how hard it is to sleep next to someone. it’s too intimate. it makes my heartbeat race and pound inside my head. it is deafening. I slide my arm from behind her head and slip out the door. the pavement on the sidewalk is watching me go over every moment in my head. it’s watching me remember you. mistake by mistake. frame by frame. we’re not just taking trips down memory lane, we are broken down on it.” – Pete Wetnz
Fast forward to 2013, and he revisits the theme. Although older and more self aware, he acknowledges the ongoing desire to continue this cycle, preferably with someone that wants to remain childish and immature rather than face life’s harsh realities.
“I know I’m not your favorite record” – “Dead on Arrival,” Take This To Your Grave, 2003
“I’ll spin for you like your favorite records used to” – “Favorite Record,” American Beauty/American Psycho, 2015
Keeping in the spirit of reliving toxic cycles, we have this parallel. The spinning of vinyl records immediately calls to mind cycles. Here, 2003-Wentz keeps begging for the attention of a romantic interest. Although he knows she’s seeing other people, and he’s nowhere near the top of her list, he invites her to keep coming back, hoping he’ll grow on her. Offering them another side of himself they may like better if they would only stop spinning for long enough to flip the record over.
2015 sees Wentz still aching to perform for a partner, not to portray a reflection of himself but rather to cater to their partner’s favorite records. It’s sweet on the surface, but certainly puts the narrator in a position to be taken advantage of.
“Got a postcard from my former self saying how you been”- “The Carpel Tunnel of Love,” Infinity on High, 2007
“Dear future self, I hope it’s going well. I’m drunk on cheap whiskey in an airport hotel” – “Dear Future Self,” Believers Never Die, 2019
So now we get a little meta. Instead of unearthing parallels from the depths of an entire discography’s CD booklets, we get a very direct reference, from a younger version of Pete to an older one, and then a response.
In “The Carpel Tunnel of Love,” we see Wentz in his classic self-destructive pattern of being in a complicated relationship rooted in lust, but unwilling to leave. He knows he’s screwing himself over, and has to wonder if there is something in the past he coils have done to prevent this. The answer is, disappointingly, yes. He’s getting metaphorical postcards from his past self, curious to see if things are any better now than they were before.
Although written years later, “Dear Future Self” deals with the opposite scenario. Here, Wentz finds himself facing a series of instabilities, both in his mental health and in his current relationship. Which caused which, he’s not sure. But he does have to wonder if he gets his act together long enough to create a better future for himself. So, in an airport bar, he tentatively writes a postcard to his future self, wondering how he’s been.
In conclusion, it’s fascinating to see someone’s growth and similarities through the eyes of their life’s work. These are not the only parallels in Fall Out Boy’s discography, and I haven’t even touched on their lyrical obsession with car crashes, but it is what it is. Hope it inspires you to put on some of their records and try to find some parallels of your own.
I am a multimedia journalist with a passion for guitar-based music – be that rock-n-roll, bachata, or anything in between. When not in a mosh pit, I can be found knitting, collecting CDs, thrifting, journaling, or attempting to incite chaos among feuding global powers. I hold a bachelors degree in Broadcast Journalism and a masters degree in Mass Communication from the University of Houston, making me twice the Coog you'll ever be 😉
