song analysis of 'Passenger' by the Deftones!!!1! :3

My Interpretation of 'Passenger' by the Deftones!! :D

A plug I once knew told me this: 

"When you take weed and mushrooms, you're driving the car - you're in control. With harder drugs, such as acid, cocaine, etc, you're the Passenger. You're not driving, you're not in control; so all you can do is ride it out." 

According to Reddit this is a hot take, but I personally believe Passenger by the Deftones is about an addiction to hard drugs with the knowledge that it's fucking you over. The song is incredibly sexual in it's nature - I mean c'mon it's a Deftones song - but sexual with a plethora of references to cocaine use. In the first verse,

"Here I lay
Still and breathless
Just like always
Still, I want some more
Mirrors sideways
Who cares what's behind?
Just like always
Still your passenger"

there's two obvious extended metaphors - the metaphor of being a Passenger, and the metaphor of sex. Let's break down the passenger part first. Remember that quote I put at the very start of this blog? Yeah, well that really works with the lyrics and overall vibe of this song. The first three lines, 

"Here I lay
Still and breathless
Just like always"

has sexual overtones, putting emphasis on the lustful desire of to be a passenger - to be on cocaine. Why cocaine you may ask? Well, the song's off the album White Pony, which is the street name for cocaine. The whole album is about sex, drugs, and loss of innocence. Very Deftone-sy indeed. Anywho, back to yapping. 

By using imagery in the first three lines, it paints the picture of an S&M sex act. Still and breathless - nervous but excited, guilty but begging for more. Those three lines plays into the sex analogy.

"Still, I want some more
Mirrors sideways
Who cares what's behind?
Just like always
Still your passenger"

The fourth line (still, I want some more) plays into the sex analogy and (not) subtly gives the listener a glimmer of the song's true meaning. It plays with the idea of addiction to something you know is killing you. The fifth and sixth lines (Mirrors sideways, Who care's what's behind?) plays into the metaphor of being a passenger. The mirrors are sideways because you're in a car. The two voices singing this song gives an interesting perspective; one voice worried about what may come of this drive (Just like always, Mirrors sideways), the second voice apathetic, suicidal, and reckless (Still I want some more, Who cares what's behind?). The second voice, the reckless one, clearly doesn't care about what's behind him, or what his past is - he only cares about 'being the passenger'. Both voices emphasise the sexual nature of this drug intake.

The second verse,

"Chrome buttons, buckles and leather surfaces
These and other lucky witnesses
Now to calm me
This time won't you please
Drive faster"

reeaaallyyy plays into the sexual nature of this substance abuse. The first two lines (Chrome buttons, buckles and leather surfaces, These and other lucky witnesses) makes a silly comparison between BDSM and the car they're in. Chrome buttons, buckles and leather surfaces (surfaces and objects typically found in BDSM scenarios) and the description of the car seat. Not too much to yap about there. "These and other lucky witnesses" is an interesting away of describing a car trip, or even a kinky hookup. "These and other witnesses", in my opinion, is a way of claiming that the previous line is about specifically bondage, and hinting that there's more figurative bondage holding him down in this car. More figurative bondage in a song about someone driving a car, or the bondage of his cocaine addiction..?

"Now to calm me, This time won't you please, Drive faster" are three interesting lines. They outright tell you who Chino (the lead singer) is talking to, and what his desire actually is. Chino is admitting he can't function without cocaine and using that as leverage to get high once again - to be said passenger.

Fun.

"Roll the window down this
Cool night air is curious
Let the whole world look in
Who cares who sees anything?
I'm your passenger
I'm your passenger"

The lines analysis aside, this chorus is so horny omfg. ANYWHO, this chorus is pretty self-explanatory:

'show the whole world I'm addicted, I don't care. I just want to get fucked up, regardless of consequences, regardless of anything else. Fuck me up, because I'm your passenger.'

The only thing left in this chorus to analyse really is "Roll the window down this cool night air is curious". What that means in the context I gave to the song is 'show the media a sliver of what's happening here, because the media (cool night air) is curious'.

THIRD VERSE TIME!! :D

"Drop these down
Then put them on me
Nice, cool seats
There to cushion your knees
Now to calm me
Take me around again
Don't pull over
This time won't you please
Drive faster"

The idea of being cushioned here plays into the idea that cocaine is the singer's only comfort. The only way to calm him is to get high once he crashes, to not pull over but instead drive faster. Even when he's losing his shit crashing on coke, the high of it all outweighs the aftermath - all he wants is more and more... but to what limit?

BRIDGE TIMEEEEEEEEEEE XD

"Here I lay
Just like always
Don't let me
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go
Take me to the edge"

This bridge, like the third verse, is pretty easy to work out. "Here I lay, Just like always" is a very direct reference to the first verse. Here I am, as per usual, ready and willing to be drug-fucked once more. "Don't let me go" is pretty easy to understand - the singer knows that he wants to stop, knows that he needs to stop, but the addiction is too powerful and he simply just can't. "Go, Take me to the edge" is also pretty easy to understand. The singer appears to be saying 'take me to the edge, push my limits to where it almost kills me. Destroy me, because there's no way I could possibly back out now'. Cocaine is killing Chino, but he simply couldn't care anymore.

Yaaaaay, we're done!! But wait, proof? Don't worry buddy, I got that covered:

The following is an excerpt from an interview with 'Kerrang!' from 2016, with Chino Moreno (lead singer/frontman) and Stephen Carpenter (lead guitarist). The question was asking about the band's hard drug usage from 2000-2006:

“‘White Pony‘, that’s when the drug-use really became a thing in our band. Before that we didn’t really do anything—I didn’t even smoke weed. But we started using cocaine, we lived life like there was no tomorrow, we sold it to ourselves that that’s what you do in a band. In retrospect, I’m not completely upset I did it—it kinda makes you who you are. But fuck man, I had this false reality that I could do whatever I want. And we were successful from that record, so it was this falsehood like, ‘We can just get high and fucking make some shit and people are going to love it.’ You get this false feeling that you can’t fuck up.”

Anywho, that's my 2cents. Or maybe I over-analysed a shitty Deftones song which is just about drug-fucked fucking. Boys will be boys ig :3

Moral of the story: Don't do coke kids, unless you're in a 2000s nu-metal band.