The shit blog of Paul Chris Jones

Sometimes, I'm convinced the best song ever recorded is Blink 182's Adam's Song. This is a song about spilling a cup of juice on the floor and tracing a cord back to the wall to find it wasn't plugged in at all.

It's a completely different song from the rest of Blink 182's discography, which includes songs about prank phone calls and fucking a dog in the ass. It's sad, restrained, emotional, and all the things that bands like Blink 182 aren't known for at all. This was the band whose members stripped down naked and ran around Los Angeles, their willies and pubic hair for all to see, for a music video.

The lyrics of Adam's Song are a young man's suicide note, describing how he's too depressed to go on living and to give all his things away to his friends. The song begins with these lines:

I never thought I'd die alone

I laughed the loudest, who'd have known?

I trace the cord back to the wall

No wonder, it was never plugged in at all

I took my time, I hurried up

The choice was mine, I didn't think enough

I'm too depressed to go on

You'll be sorry when I'm gone

It's all very depressing. And that line "The choice was mine, I didn't think enough" hits me especially because I had opportunities and choices as a youth that I squandered in favour of staying at home at playing video games instead. Those goddamn video games. Is there anything I couldn't have done if I wasn't addicted to video games??

Then the chorus begins:

I never conquered, rarely came

Sixteen just held such better days

These lines hit hard with me, someone who is a perineal loser whose own life has amounted to nearly nothing. I still remember those teenage days, when summer seemed endless and adult life was full of possibility. If only I could return to the age of sixteen. I'd still be a loser but at least I'd have the foreknowledge to buy Bitcoin back when it was still 1 cent.

After the chorus begins the second verse:

I couldn't wait 'til I got home

To pass the time in my room alone

I feel this line describes me perfectly. As a young adult, all I wanted to do was live alone, never venturing outside my flat. My ideal life was to play computer games 24/7 and never have to talk to anyone. I even had a rope and pulley system invented so I wouldn't even have to interact with the delivery men. In hindsight, this was a poor lifestyle to aim for and luckily it never came to pass; I've always had friends or flatmates. But that line, "To pass the time in my room alone", gives me the shivers now, because I know the allure of isolating yourself, especially during times of depression. I think of the summer days I wasted indoors instead of, I don't know, starting a band or meeting up with friends.

Next comes a trio of lines that I call the Holy Trinity of Adam's Song. These are lines that will always haunt me, even to my deathbed. The first two lines are:

Remember the time that I spilled the cup

Of apple juice in the hall

Yes, it's lines about spilling apple juice in the hallway. Apple juice. In the hallway. Why are these lines important? Well, to say these lyrics are genius would be an understatement. Remember that time he spilt a cup of apple juice in the hall? Of course you don't. But everyone's family has an incident like the apple juice incident. Something dumb that sticks out in your mind, some minor thing that happened that no one will ever forget due to how funny or strange it was. Mentioning the time he spilled apple juice is genius because it tells you that this is a real person, from a real family. I imagine him telling his mom, "Remember the time with the apple juice?" And his mom laughs between tears, and says "Yeah, yeah I remember" and their bond is a little closer.

And then the next line:

Please tell Mom this is not her fault

Christ, the feels. He feigns with a sucker punch of a line about spilling apple juice and then he slams his fist full on into your heart with a line about his sad mom! It's the old one-two. The line comes right at the end of the verse too, so there's nothing after but the sad sound of fingers plucking a bass string to accompany you as you're confronted with the image of his mom, tear-stained and distraught, on hearing the death of her son. And that's not all. "Please tell Mom this is not her fault," tells you that he loves his mom, and cares about her, despite his own pain and depression.

By now you've decided this song's pretty depressing. Maybe you've even decided to grab a razor blade yourself, run a bath and write your own suicide note, just because of the mood this song's put you in.

But here's the thing I always forget about this song: it has a happy ending. Because, right at the end of the song, just when you think it's over and you're about to choose which rope you want to hang yourself with. there's a message of hope. A message of optimism. You see, the words in the chorus change ever so slightly so instead of looking to the past, he's looking to the future.

The lyrics at the start of the song were these:

Sixteen just held such better days

Days when I still felt alive

We couldn't wait to get outside

The world was wide, too late to try

And the lyrics at the end of the song are these:

Tomorrow holds such better days

Days when I can still feel alive

When I can't wait to get outside

The world is wide, the time goes by

It's truly astonishing. This is a band that wrote a song about wanting to fuck a dog in the ass, fuck your dad in the ass, and fuck a pirate in the ass. Whereas in "Adam's Song", they've covered the mature topic of depression and ended the song on a note of optimism too. Well, I guess this is growing up.

It's a sweet way to end the song, and it tells you not to give up hope because there's always the possibility of a better future.

In fact, now that I'm looking at Blink 182's discography, there are more songs like this, like "I Miss You", a song where a guy misses his girlfriend. Maybe Blink 182 are softer than I thought.

Covers

By the way, for real Adam's Song aficionados like me, someone who's been listening to the song on and off over the past twenty years, sometimes vanilla Adam's Song isn't enough. In fact, I find the original version of the song, the official version by Blink 182, too loud and too brash. It's all drums, shouting and electric guitars.

What I want is something slower, quieter and soothing. I currently enjoy an acoustic version by a girl called Maggie Antope. Then there's a piano version by someone called Nick Ward which is also good.

Weirdly, the first time I listened to Adam's Song, I had downloaded it from the internet illegally using Limewire, but when I clicked on the song to play it, it wasn't the official version that came out the speakers but an acoustic cover sung by some guy with a nasal voice. He sounded like Weird Al with a bad cold. I didn't even know it was a cover at the time; I thought it was the official version by Blink 182. I went on thinking this for years until finally, one day, I listened to the actual original version and realised my mistake. But by this point, that acoustic guitar cover was the real version. At least, it was for me. It was the version I had grown most attached to. And I've never found that cover again. Oh well.