Song Review: Soundgarden: The Day I Tried to Live

okay.. you know the drill.. lets get to business... again, this is only my interpretation. enjoy!

LYRICS  

I woke the same as any other day
Except a voice was in my head
It said seize the day, pull the trigger
Drop the blade, and watch the rolling heads

The day I tried to live
I stole a thousand beggar's change
And gave it to the rich

The day I tried to win
I dangled from the power lines
And let the martyrs stretch
Singing

One more time around might do it
One more time around might make it
One more time around might do it
One more time around
The day I tried to live

Words you say never seem
To live up to the ones inside your head
The lives we make never seem
To ever get us anywhere but dead

The day I tried to live
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

I woke the same as any other day you know
I should have stayed in bed

The day I tried to win
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

And I learned that I was a liar

(one more time around)

The day i tried live

Just like you 

MEANING 

okay as usual, ill start with the first line..

I woke the same as any other day
Except a voice was in my head
It said seize the day, pull the trigger
Drop the blade, and watch the rolling heads

these lines suggest that chris has a story going on here.. it is defenitely about waking up and deciding that it was time to 'live' and 'win'...which meant to join the rat race, lie, support capitalism...

The day I tried to live

I stole a thousand beggar's change
And gave it to the rich

so, chris just tried to live the average middle class life like all the others. and he realise that hes actually acting as a channel.. channeling money from the poor working class and handing it over the the bourgeoisie.. 

The day I tried to win
I dangled from the power lines
And let the martyrs stretch
Singing 

With that part of the song, I always thought it was about how the person that the songs talking about tried to do confrom to society, but he ended up washed up, thus he "Dangled from the powerlines".

One more time around might do it
One more time around might make it
One more time around might do it
One more time around
The day I tried to live

These lines i think is about him telling himself that with maybe just one more time, one more day, he might be able to block out his guilt... but naturally, i doesn't work.

Words you say never seem
To live up to the ones inside your head
The lives we make never seem
To ever get us anywhere but dead

These lines are one of my favourite... the words you say are like people encouraging you to do good and don't lie and help people always... they never work in this kind of a society.. and hes also saying(on the 3rd and 4th lines) that the lives we make, the wealth, the glamour, all that we achieve via greed, are all gonna go away one day...

The day I tried to live
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

this one speaks for itself... the pigs being all the other rat-racers. blood symbolises the expense of the poor.. mud i think refers to the filth and corruption..

I woke the same as any other day you know
I should have stayed in bed

this is where he regrets ever trying to fit in society, joining the rat race etc. etc. 

And I learned that I was a liar

(one more time around)

he learned that he too is a liar, just like all the other pigs he has always despised.

The day i tried live

Just like you 

its like him saying: "well, that was the day i tried to live just like you.."

well to sum it up its an "outsider", the narrator has viewed the corruption of our world with distaste, but from a distance, without participating. One day he awakes feeling a drive to take some kind of action. Diving into life, he discovers that despite good intentions, it is not so easy to live in this world without sometimes lying, cheating, and doing harm to other people. But "one more time around might do it." So maybe it is not hopeless -- maybe it is worth trying again until you learn to get it right. In the end, he feels somewhat ashamed -- he did not live up to his own high standards; he couldn't keep from getting his hands dirty in the "blood and mud", and he learned that he too is a liar, just like all the other pigs he has always despised.

yeah.. its an awesome song...