Fine - Alkaline Trio

This is a song rapidly accelerating to becoming one of my favorite songs of all time. I probably first heard it at sometime this year, most likely this current semester. Throughout, I've heard it easily more than 50 times. Musically, I love it. I've taken to learning this song on guitar, and I'm eager for the opportunity to replicate it on drums, as asymmetric and syncopated as it is. The acoustic version of it is excellent as well.

But really, it's more the lyrical content that brings me back over and over. Simply put, it's about a guy that's, well, fine. Shit's happening around him, things he can't control. There's another person giving him bad news, and he knows it. (It's gonna hurt like hell when you pull back the hammer and fire). And you know, with all the pain this guy's going through, all the uncertainty, he's still fine. Let him know when you've got some good news to tell him. He can wait.

Sure, the guy lives with all these problems, all these issues out of control, and he himself is directionless about where to go with his life from here (All the stars in the world couldn't help me steer my way out of this kiddie pool). In the scope of the world, this relationship isn't really a big problem, even though he's struggling with it now. But, even still, he's fine. He'll survive. Yeah, he drinks to get past the issues, but he wouldn't trade in his hand for all the aces in the deck. He's fine.

Alternatively...

It's about a person who's deeply depressed, the other person, the rejection absolutely ruins this him. A guy who only wants to be happy. He recognizes how silly this issue is, but yet he can't ignore just how much it pains him. Every time he proclaims that he's fine, he's lying. It could be to other people, his friends, his family, or it could be to himself. No matter how many people try to help him with his problem, this is really a problem he has to tackle himself, a problem he can't overcome. It would be foolish to follow him, he clearly can't accomplish the thing bringing him down so. He's tried many times with whatever it is, and it's fallen through every time. Maybe he just wants to convince himself that he's happy, and he's doing whatever he can to do so, with lies, with alcohol.

It should be fairly simple to realize why I relate to this song so easily, why I listen to it as frequently as I do. It's because I'm fine.