"A Car, A Torch, A Death" Secret Meaning!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
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*a deep, confusing, and thought-provoking tøp song exists*
Interviewer: wHaT's A bLuRrYfAcE!?!?
This will never die😂 that poor interviewer probably regrets that question more than any question ever asked😂
Theory: If you look at it in the context of the album, it's right before Taxi Cab. I think when Tyler says, "I'll take the grave. Please just send them all my way," he's taking the girl's demons upon himself, and I think that the burden of carrying her heart is what puts him in the coffin in the begining of taxi cab. And then he has to rely on God in order to save him from the toll that the demon takes on him.
Caleb Kroeze since I first heard the song I always thought that he meant he would take all of the burden and carry it on his own shoulders, to set his loved ones free.
this comment, thank you for putting into words exactly my interpretation/ connection/ understanding of the meaning.
To me "Them" has always been the demon’s plans for the girl. Whether it be suicidal thoughts, more demons, or just the tortures the demon is planning to put her through.
Oh, that's a good point.
Clique: but...
Clifford: DON'T TRUST A PERFECT PERSON AND DON'T TRUST A SONG THAT'S FLAWLESS
Man, I love this song! It means very different things to everyone, but to me, it’s all about the Atonement. When he says, “I’ll take the grave, please just send them all my way,” it feels like he’s begging the demon to leave them alone, kind of like in Guns for Hands. “I simply tell them they should shoot at this- simply suggest my chest and this confused music.” That is such a deep love for the “you” in this song. That is the love that God has for each of us. It just hits me so hard every time. Thank you so much for going over this one! I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently.
Tyler also wrestles with the concept of taking on demons in "Ode to Sleep." He begs God to tell the demons that God has "no plans" for Tyler. But of course, God does have plans for Tyler to write music and take on the demons - his "pen" is a weapon. That's why, after begging God through the whole song of "Ode to Sleep," Tyler says to God at the end, "I'm sorry."
Ooh, good point! I haven’t thought of that before; that’s a cool connection!
The way I understood the lyrics of the song when I first listened to it was that he was talking about the process a parent and their child go through when the child leaves its house to go to college or to live somewhere else
Low-key Twenty One Pilots Tuesday is back !!! Let it be so ?? Mr Clifford ??💯💯❤️👽💀➡️🆙
It's been back for a while. haha ;)
I've loved this song for years--when I first heard it I thought it was annoying and skipped it, but then I listened back again and fell in love with the emotional and vague poetic-ness of it. I've always believed that yes it is about the pressure Tyler feels for ultimately being responsible for his fanbase, and the understanding of a genuine deep love and concern that comes from God.
He obviously had his own struggles of suicide and depression, which he still dealt a lot with when first forming the band (barely smiling, wanting to crack the door to fall out of the car) but he saw all of the people beginning to rely on and love him (the buckled up heart) when they themselves were going through struggles too (the demon on the porch). So Tyler realized what it truly is like to genuinely care for so many people, and subsequently understood why God would do all that He has for the people He created and adores ("I begin to understand why God died") Now having that kind of love for people is not easy, and it can take a real toll on someone emotionally and physically (Tyler going on tours, writing music, worrying about us like in GfH or HotY) so his "skin...wasn't made to play this game." Humans weren't meant to handle that much pressure, only God can bear it. But the demon (if the demon is the one with the torch) "laid it out, what he had planned" which would be all the ways to torture people (mental illnesses especially) So Tyler, exhausted but still wanting to help us, offers to continue taking that pressure and responsibility on himself, gathering us fans under his wings so to speak ("I'll take the grave, please just send them all my way") So TOP continues to exist, even when Josh and Tyler are tired and drained, so that us fans know we're not alone, and Tyler made it all a metaphor to reflect how God sacrificed His life so that we could live.
I also find it interesting how there is only one rare recording of this song in concert on youtube. Just adds to the vague mysteriousness of the song. Always will have a special place in my heart ....along with every single twenty one pilots song, let's honest here haha. And thanks for the video, I get excited every time you post!
I like these thoughts
I cant believe you havent already done this lol
edit: Oh... You did.
Cliff: A Car, A Torch, A Death is the least well written Twenty One Pilots song
Me: *Kill Bill sirens*
Ok so my theory is the demon is holding the torch but the fire represents the light at the end of the tunnel or death, and the demon represents suicidal thoughts. And the demon uses the allure of the flame to get people the end their life.
Hi Cliff. I really like your videos. I have a request. I would like it if you explain "Telescope" by Cavetown. It just came out. I woke up and saw the music video and I didn't really understand it. It would be cool if you could explain the song and the video. Keep up the good work, thanks😁😁
That song is soo good! Yes Cliff please do this
I’ve said this before but I really think Tyler’s talking about a mother figure in his life, wether it be his mother or grandmother or just a mother figure in his life, I just get that vibe. To me this sounds like a child leaving home for the first time and he just wants to stay home and take care of her. The buckle up your heart part to me just seems like such a intentional phrasing, making it seem like she just carefully buckled it in and sent him on his way. That’s just the vibe and imagery I get from this song. I especially lean towards grandmother and the demon being literal death.
Yes, he's leaving home, taking the love (heart) of his mother with him, knowing she will suffer with his departure, and he wants to take all the her suffering. And, in his case, as we know, he's not only leaving, he's dying for that old life, he will never be the son she knew again, but he wil take care of her heart with all his strenght.
Some time back I read an article in which Tyler speaks about a pivotal moment. In the early days of the band there was a small group of young girls who never missed a show when the band came to their town or to those nearby. Ty was familiar with them. At the next show in their town, one of the girls wasn’t there. Her friends related the news to him that she’d committed suicide. He points to this moment as the impetus for finding out more about what these kids who came to see them were going through. I always think of that girl when I hear A Car A Torch And A Death.
i think "torch" stands for the sense of safety and joy. When the demon takes the torch, he robs the girl of her joy
THIS IS THE VIDEO IVE BEEN WAITING MY ENTIRE LIFE FOR
This is one of my favourite songs from our boys ! ♥
Yes! I love this song so much, it's just one of those songs that you can listen to on loop for hours and still be interested and find more meaning in it
Happy Tuesday!
Unpopular opinion: ambiguity is what makes this song so special
I need someone to make some sort of animation to go along with this song and "Taxi Cab". I feel like it would be cool to see the visual interpretations of the story.
Look up "Dead Come Alive - An Animation" -- that's the basic idea behind both Taxi Cab and A Car, A Torch, A Death
I love this song and album a loooot
I'm supposed to be writing flash fiction for a class right now...instead, I'll listen to Cliff explain a song that could itself be a short-short story. Procrastination!
We’ve already talked about how Self Titled and Trench are related, and how the car and the torch are related to it as a possible theory, but the death might be Tyler sacrificing himself at the end of the Blurryface- Trench storyline to save his friends and his fans
Have you noticed that on the Self Titled album cover what looks like Dema in the right corner of his thoughts? I have commented this on so many videos but nobody is listening!😂
YAY the explanations are back
To me, the repetition of the motifs of the first verse in the third verse represents the cycle of day and night, being well and feeling tortured. It's another day and again Tyler will have to deal with the demon. It's an ongoing struggle.
cavetown: releases an awesome new music video for a deep song with cool metaphors
Cliff: makes another explanation for a 2009 twenty one pilots song
p.s. I love these top explanations dont get me wrong XD cliff makes everything fun
Thanks for the video and thoughts. I absolutely agree with you. I always thought this song and Oh Ms Believer were about the same "person" = the fans. I actually think that there are a lot of similarities between the 2 songs. Also, Tyler always ends up "sacrificing" himself to "save" this female character.
Dude! I love that you went back a couple of eras and covered this song!!! Honestly one of my favs! Can I just share a little something I have noticed that I haven't heard anyone discuss? Look at the album cover for Self Titled.... is that Dema in the right hand corner? I mean.... Does this prove that it was all Pre planned? Been driving me nuts and I have commented this on so many videos but nobody is listening to me dang it!😂
5:18
DAH
I was literally talking with my friend about this song yesterday!
Have you done before you start your day yet on the self titled Twenty One Pilots album? Thanks for the video
positive Productions that songs terrible in my opinion
Anyone here in 2024? I feel like this song connects to all the Lore. As you mentioned a car a torch a death!!!
I think the song is about how life can change and have its ups and downs, like a car on a road
The torch held by the "demon" is encountering ones own sins' that can be left behind and the demon will be no longer be behind you
The death is seeing how much has changed since you have been with your family or friends and seeing them pass away or other, like Tyler was saying about leaving behind the girl
The heart is the memories of all the loved ones who have passed away
The air getting thin is ones actions in the past that will tell how you'll live your life.
I also think march to the sea has a similar meaning, spaceship being the sins then are atoned or realizing your own mistakes or having a person be at your side helping you relize your own mistakes
Honestly a little afraid to hear your explanation. This is one of my all time favorite songs and I am not ready for what I always believed it to mean to be torn down!
This whole time I thought the "you" was God
This just blew my mind
That one dislike is Blurryface
The girl's darkness was so dark that a demon needed a torch.
One of the reasons I love Twenty One Pilots is because they have incredible lyrics and they are so wise with their choice of words while they write their lyrics and I love their songs in general
I always thought the vulture represented death in the new stuff not the gun shot. Vultures feed on the dead so if there is a vulture near by I'm sure you know what that means.
I’ve been watching you for awhile and every time you do a twenty one pilots video you put your all into that video. I can tell you really care about it. Thank you.
Just thanks. Not enough people talk about this song. It's something
I always read it as “mourning”, not “morning”, which shifts the third verse to him being at a funeral, with the jar being an urn. Thus, he’s literally walking away with what remains of the person, and this is the death referenced in the title. So he’s lamenting not being able to take their place when he says again that he now understands why God died
I love this song so much
wait. on the trench tour, when does the gunshot sound appear and tyler falls over?
Haha that thumbnail though 😂
regardless of weather or not you actually believe in God I think a lot of people can agree that "I begin to understand why God died" is one of the most profound lyrics ever written.
Maybe the demon is holding a torch to symbolize how sometimes the dark parts of our minds try to downplay how bad they are and hold up a fake hope or "makeshift torch" as to say " No, no, I'm not that bad, you'll be okay with me here" even though we should get rid of it
Ay another tøp video awesome
i was surprised because like why haven't you done this song before
Maybe it's just that they're both about cars or that they're next to each other on the album, but I've always gotten the feeling that A Car, A Torch, A Death and Taxi Cab are related in some way, almost like the same story from multiple perspectives or something like that. I've never been able to fully puzzle out what the song means to me, but to me there's something in Tyler's choice of words that suggests the subject is a maternal figure, and I feel like it's just as much about Tyler wanting to protect and die for the subject as it is about the subject being willing to do the same for Tyler if only she was able to. I find myself changing my interpretation with every listen depending on which lyrics pop out at that moment.
I think it’s about a teenage boy struggling against lust. After all, that’s how old Tyler was when he wrote it. The car is his spiritual journey. At one point in the song, he hops out of the car. And he goes in a girl’s house.
I LOVE THIS SONG THANKS SO MUCH MY FREN!! I think the demon has a torch because often times evil hides its self within a little truth. In order for something to be believable it has to have a little bit of truth twisted in it. Idk if that makes sense, but that’s how I saw it. So I think the demons torch is a false sense of hope or something that seems to be good and isn’t.
the makeshift torch could be thought of as a fake hope
It's a HEATLESS FIRE.
explanation suggestion: hobo johnson songs
Could you do a Dema for dummy’s series but on danger days by my chemical romance?
surprise: its actually about his future daughter.
idk
CLIPPY lol, that wouldn’t surprise me, Tyler is just too clever and cryptic
Not sure if you've done covered this before but I'd love to see a video analyzing Vampire Weekend's lyrics!! They're really interesting but I'm not smart enough to make any sense of them on my own so I would love to hear your take!
As far as the lyric, ‘makeshift torch’ goes, it makes me think of makeshift as being haphazard and temporary, while the torch is hope. Could it be false hope?
There is a part of me that believes Tylor has been through SRA. I know that is dark but it explains why he is able to write such dark stuff yet have a Christian message. This could also connected to MK Ultra/Monarch mind control programming found in almost all of the music industry. They use trauma to split your mind into different compartments and then send demons into each to creat different personalities. One source of trauma often used is to be buried alive in a real person’s grave the whole night. I’m not 100% sure, but I kind of remember hearing from SRA survivors that before being buried they were given some kind of decision like, these people or kids can killed/sacrificed and you will go free or you can take the grave and all these people and kids will go free. Also, I think I remember them talking about hold a jar with the heart of someone they killed as an example. This may make the song that Tylor has covered, “Jars of Hearts”, make sense as to why he would cover it. And then “Taxi Cab” is a song to his new found personalities explaining to not be afraid, reminding that Jesus’s heart is the heart that is in our vessel! As a side not, I have always had my suspicions about Ohio and the Freemasons. Go High Low! As above, so below. It is one of the few state that I have driven through that you see Masonic car plates EVERYWHERE! Talk about “...old traditions...”, they are into Babylonian/Egyptian secrets religions. Also, I think Military abductions, fake Alain abductions, are centered around Ohio. Then you could get into reptilians also with “Trapdoor”, “...throws on a mask that will alter his face. Nobody know his real name but now he just uses one he saw on a grave...”, and “open the slits in your face and start your day. You don’t have much time to make your slits look just right. I’m in your mind...”. Sorry for all these dark subject, but ultimately I think there is something much deeper to why Tylor thinks he has to keep singing to stay alive. Like he is running for his life or is in some kind of binding contract, not just a simple record contract, but soul contract. Maybe he was given the decision to go along with the agenda of the dark and evil music industry, be programmed, propagate hidden magic “fire breath”, or his family, friends or himself would be hurt or killed. Maybe his former band mates were freed as he decided to take it all on himself? Josh may have already be subjected to SRA, mind control programming growing up in a military family in that one run down place in their videos. Anyway, I think they intrenched themselves into the music industry to try and get other programmed multiples out, example would be Halsey.
Hold on. To me, verse 2 has always been two different people. You have the demon, sitting on the porch, and the *we* holding the torch. The torch was used to see the demon (or possibly drive him away), since it was night. And when the *we* left, the demon crept into the girl's house. My question is who the "we" could be.
This is the comment I was looking for far too long. I understood it the same way. They (he and the girl) sit on the porch. It's getting dark and they see her demons coming back. So they built the torch. Like when someone makes fire that wolf's won't get close. And when he leaves they come closer and go into her room and stay there with her. Because she can't hold them back alone.
I think the car was packet by her. The packages are her problems which she told him on the porch. Deep thoughts mostly come at night. And when she tells him she packs his car and opens or gives him her heart. But he can't stay over night. He can't always be there to protect her. And later he feels the burden when he gets cold and thinks about her problems. He wishes to jump out of this car. Get away from the problems. His love is just too big so he can't. He stays and he feels her pain too. He now gets why someone would offer to take someone else's pain. Like Jesus (god) did
I think the real problem is that on the internet you can find two different lyrics. One with "he held a makeshift torch" and the other one with "we held..."
My thought is that the makeshift torch is the demon's fake hope. It seems to give the girl hope but as it turns out the it really has terrible plans for her that it explains to Tyler. I also think the song ends with Tyler realizing that him giving his life is not the answer but instead remembers that Jesus "buckled up his heart". That he gave his life not only for him but also for the girl and therefore she has the same hope that he has. The road is open for her too and he can therefore leave it to God. He begins to understand the mystery of Jesus dying for everyone.
Hi pop song professor
For me when they're in the porch the demons are in the dark and Tyler and the girl are protecting themselves from the demons with the light of a torch. But when Tyler leaves the girl takes the torch with her. Later on, one of the demons comes up to Tyler with the torch, meaning that the demons were able to take away the torch from the girl and the girl is now unprotected and being torture by the demons.
I think Tyler and the girl are without God -- symbolized by the car leaving. They craft a makeshift torch -- not the real light of God. It doesn't work. The real torch shows up later, carried by Christ.
They’re saying WE held a makeshift torch the demon isn’t holding it
You have to explain buzzcut season by lorde
Finally a tøp video
ehhhhh YES
Is this the same person as in Taken By Sleep from No Phun Intende?
Also when he said headlights driving south, things going south is an axpretion of things going bad, so maby he wants to "head south" and kill himself? Is the demon passing the torch on to Tyler? From who evers hart he has in hes car? Does Tyler want to die and asks a demons to send him all hes other demons? Jar of hearts? Maybe Tyler thought of an outcome of hes journey, that is why he is back to start at the end of the song?
This always has been my favourite song! Until Neon Gravestone xD
Explain just like yesterday pleaaaseeeee
We NEED an explanation of Two and Dollhouse!!! (Both by Tyler)
Ahhhhhh Two... Such an anxious but beautiful song!
lovin life yees it is and I can’t figure out why it sounds like that and what the very few lyrics mean. I want him to explain it so bad lol
A car, a torch, a death is one of the best Twenty One Pilots songs ever. I have never related better to a song. The biggest temptation of ways to kill myself was by just opening the car door and jumping.
we need an explanation of telescope by cavetown
i legit dropped my phone when i saw this
Same😂
wait... when was tyler shot?
You should check out Hobo Johnson. Would love to know what you think about him!
He made a video about half•alive, check it out.
So it's not about a death and restart?
Wait... Tyler pretended to die in his live show?! Why did he take it out 🤔
WAIT. WHAT GUNSHOT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???
To be fair, the only other album he had at the time was no phun intended
I like the video by don't believe that's their one of their worst songs ever
Could you do Tyler, the creator plz?
I’m the 69th like. Nice.
The reason the devil is holding a torch. God is light and the devil wants to be God. The devil is known to mimic God hence the makeshift torch.
In the first explanation 2 years ago you completely skipped over “the air begins to feel a little thin” and now you’re relating it to “a dark and stormy night”? Nah, clearly it’s hard for Tyler to breathe which is a physical reaction to either crying really hard or some kind of heavy feeling in his chest that I have experienced when being really scared for people I love. I think you missed the point of that. Sorry.
Lucifer is technically "the bearer of light" so... maybe a demon can hold a torch ?
Couldn't that demon be Blurryface?
Please sir explain it's time by imagine dragons leave a like to save this comment
He can't bring himself to say worst-written
No, wrong. The songwriting is perfect. "Beginner songwriting?" No, no, no.
Worst song off self titled
A car, a torch, a death is one of the best Twenty One Pilots songs ever. I have never related better to a song. The biggest temptation of ways to kill myself was by just opening the car door and jumping.