The Overly Dramatic Truth

I know that sex is an aspect in this song, but I dont think that he he is falling victim to his irresistable sex drive.

I agree with most of what people have said so far. I think its about a young, idealistic girl who is attracted to him for the fact that he has lived and does know the world. To her, he is so different and probably, a bad boy. She probably even wants to fix him. I think that he really loves her and cares for her. But he is broken. He has seen too much and experienced to much of the cruel side of world. In a way, he doesn't know how to experience that good side of the world and he see's her as too good for him, as too pristine, as too perfectly good. That he isn't worthy and he would just break her and bring her down. That all that he loves about her would be corrupted and destroyed.

But also he is scared that since she may never understand him, she will just get hurt in the process.

The whole sex thing, he says "you think im a genius, I know Im a whore" I dont think he couldn't resist fcking her, but rather that because he thinks he is unworthy, he is wallowing in it. He is almost trying to prove it to her by being worse than he even wants to be. Saying, see, I am just fcking you, Im a bad guy, see, Im not good enough. Its better to be worse than you are than to try to be something better and to fail.

But in the end, he wants it... that goodness, and though he thinks he knows he cant have it, a small part of him thinks maybe she can lift him up.

Thats what I think of when i hear it anyways, if that makes any sense.

Pitchfork: For instance, though, how about the songs that are about sex. "Dr. Hellno and the Praying Mantus" from Fantastic Damage is really explicit and detailed. But "The Overly Dramatic Truth" is much more vague. It doesn't work the same way.

El-P: Well, "Dr. Hellno" was a story about fucking one girl, one night. And "Overly Dramatic Truth" was a story about a relationship that went wrong because I was way older than the girl, and there were just inherent problems in the way that we dealt with each other. It's more of a conversation between me and this girl. Those two songs are completely different type of songs, so I guess "Dr. Hell No" is very specific because it's trying to describe a moment. "Overly Dramatic Truth" is kind of trying to describe a longer moment.

Pitchfork: With those songs, you really have to put yourself out there. "The Overly Dramatic Truth" is big on blogs right now, for instance, and it's about this bad thing. Do you think about that, kind of living this break-up in public?

El-P: I don't think about it. I am glad that I did the song because it's a song that was scary to do. And those songs are the songs that you do and you look at them and you think, "Jesus Christ, am I really going to put this out there? Am I going to fucking expose myself like this?" And I always choose to do it. And when I do that, it seems like those songs really strike a nerve with fans of my music because those are the songs that are impossible to predict, but they're the closest you're going to get to me, to something really pure and genuine.

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6603-el-p/

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El-P is OP. Fantastic musician and fantastic lyricist. Normally people only have one or the other.

I have no life. But then again there are alot of people these days fucking about and not going anywhere in life. I hope it all ends soon.

I think its about this younger girl being in love with him and thinking he would be good to her.. but he knows that he is just going to wind up corrupting her and treating her badly so he knows he should leave. but he's also so sexually attracted to her that he winds up having sex with her but all the while knowing he's doing something wrong.

but at the end there's kind of a glisten that maybe he can actually be good to her.. or maybe he's still just justifying it because he wants to keep slamming her.

Î agree.

In my opinion it's about protecting your loved one by sending her away. That's the only way of truly salvaging her from your own rotten self of someone that knows too much about this cruel and equally rotten world, it's about wanting to preserve that beautiful naiveness and bliss. But at the end he can't manage to resist her, and "maybe this isn't wrong". He knows what he must do, but falls victim to his sexual drive.

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Great song- lyrical content makes the situation pretty obvious, it can just be insanely hard to be attracted to a good girl who isn't perfect for whatever reason. Maybe she was too innocent, maybe she's looking for love that's just not there? Perhaps he thinks he'll just side-track her from the rest of her life because a future isn't possible.Oh and fyi the dude who sings for Glassjaw did the keys for this track.

pedobear

I've always gotten the distinct vibe that this song is about religion, and the mind-rape it commits on most people. Don't know if the quote at the end of the song is related to this song, Flyentology, or both, but my guess would be both.

I think everyone's pretty much on the right track. It seems to be about a girl younger than him maybe 18 or 19 who seems to love him because he's older and more experienced in the world. The things he's seen have kinda jaded him though, and he doesn't want to corrupt her. He also starts to explain that he doesn't really love her, and he cant give love because he's taking no love from the relationship. ("I can't give what I can't take"). He does feel unworthy to be with her so he's glad to be able to f**k her. But at the same time he feels it's wrong, he doesn't want to weigh her down. But, he's so in love with the physcial gratification that he knows he won't stop it. So he wishes she would leave,before he drags her down into his jaded world, because he deserves more than that. Like some mentioned there kinda seems to be a glimpse of hope near the end of the song. He knows she sees more of him than he feels he is, perhaps part of him want's to be that ideal she has of him. And maybe he needs her to save him.

All in all great song.