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The doubt came after listening to Fireal from Deftones. I'm not sure of the meaning, or should I say the point the singer wants to make.

This is the context:

Life before I would shine down unshy
It comes from the first one
While I watch you
I want to be much than more
While I watch you

Lyrics aren't present on the or the disc itself so while researching on the internet I've found some sites where the lyric is shown as "I want to be much, then more". But most of them say "...much than more". So I guess that's the right one (my ears are not trained enough to actually get it right from the get-go by just listening to it).

What do you get from "I want to be much than more"?


On the other hand, if you do believe "much than more" is wrong and the right one has to be "much then more" please say so. English is clearly not "my" language, so feel free to teach me a thing or two.

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    Why do you think that the most common lyrics are correct? All the lyrics sites copy each other, so if the first lyrics to appear on the internet are incorrect, most of them end up being incorrect. And since some people pronounce "than" so it sounds exactly like "then" (I don't), nobody can tell the difference between "much than more" and "much then more" by listening. May 28, 2014 at 13:07
  • @PeterShor Back in the days, when Internet wasn't what it is today, I searched the same thing and I'd only found "much than more." (not thousands of lyrics sites, just a couple) so if you ask me I'd have to go with that one. It's not only what I think honestly, I did that mental process when asking myself/asking in the site.
    – Daniel Sh.
    May 28, 2014 at 13:14
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    if you're running a lyrics site, do you think you listen to every single song that is released and write down the lyrics as best you hear them, or if there are lyrics already available for some song, do you just copy them? From the same song, Google finds 101 hits for "we are beggers where blown" and only 57 for "we are beggars where blown". Do you think these 101 misspellings of "beggars" are all independent misspellings, or do you think it's more likely that the first guy to write down the lyrics misspelled it, and the rest copied this first guy? May 28, 2014 at 13:36
  • My point is as follows: Back in those days, real people submitted the lyrics, and back then the official band page had the lyrics written on the site. So... what are the chances? I take mine and believe that some actual fan of the band did a copy/paste from the band page. And in any case, what's your point? Do you think it's much then more? We're clearly moving away from the topic here.
    – Daniel Sh.
    May 28, 2014 at 13:41
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    Song lyrics are often poetic, or even cryptic. This one is more cryptic than most. I'm having trouble making any sense of pretty much anything in that song.
    – Jay
    May 28, 2014 at 14:01

1 Answer 1

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Taking it to be pronounced "much than more" I immediately think they wish to express themselves beyond the cliché of "much more." Their use of the phrase leads me to think that what they are saying is just being "much more" is not enough. I believe the goal here is to emphasize the desire be a great deal more than what the mediocre cliche "much more" would imply, so they employed a twist on words to illustrate that. Again, that's assuming it is "much than more."

Now if it honestly were "much then more," I'd say a comma is missing. It would read "much, then more," meaning that what they want to be would progress in stages; first "much" — and "then" more than "much."

Song lyrics being the "no set rules" art that it is, the flexibility of interpretation clearly applies here.

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  • Thanks a lot for your input. What I thought about it at first is that he wanted to be much, like a lot, (in whatever matter it is), not just "more than X" with X being another person for instance. It's like not wanting to compare himself to another since that would lead to compliance (once you've reached the point when you already are more than X). Him, just wanting to be "much", like "more" and "more" without a roof. And that's quite similar to what you've said. Avoiding mediocrity. Thanks again.
    – Daniel Sh.
    May 30, 2014 at 22:34

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