Drugs can be used greatly to write songs but hardly does a song really mean, "Everyone go out and do drugs." Or "Drugs are good because they made me write this song and see it this way." That's not what the artist is saying. The artist puts into poetic form the story of what she sees in Alice and Wonderland. She did it in 2 minutes .. extracted very important details out of the story. I'm sure there are plenty more, but she did a good job getting the details that were needed.
How come people have a hard time figuring this song out? Read the words and don't overanalyze. This song can closely relate to John Lennon's Working Class Hero.
"One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all."
---- You can make your own choices but your parents seem to make them for you.
"Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall,"
---- metaphorically for going after your goals, which you are told to do by your parents and society, "You need to have a career. What are you going to be when you grow up?" It's embedded into us that we have to be successful. Yet we are very fearful of moving forward and what we are going to do and be because we are never really thinking for ourselves. Referring to Alice as Ten feet tall basically means she's already starting to THINK for herself. She's "bigger" now and beginning to realize it is HER who is having HER *OWN* adventure, NOT OTHER PEOPLE .. so why are people telling her what to do and how to live her life?
"Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call"
----The hookah smoking catepillar? Ever watch Alice In Wonderland? The catepillar asks her "Who are you?" Alice doesn't really know because she has been told what to do all her life.. WITHOUT EVER QUESTIONING BACK. But in the story, Alice actually asks back, "Who are you?" Basically the catepillar has given her a "wake up call." She begins to question authority. We could also get into what "Who" means. Is Alice not a person? How do you reply to "Who".. are we teachers, scientists, police officers, businessman, construction workers, etc. That is WHAT WE DO, not WHO WE ARE. Therefore, the answer would simply be, "I'm Alice."
"When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low."
----The "men" in society who are in charge? All about authority.. first your parents, than your teachers, than the political figures, and the police... you are just confused. Who do you question? Everyone is telling you what to do but you never know what YOU want to do. You're mind is moving low.. are you even thinking for yourself? How come you don't question anything? How come you just accept it?
"Go ask Alice
I think she'll know.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,"
----When you begin thinking for yourself, all that you ever have been told, and all you have ever known really just doesn't make much sense to you. Once you begin to think for yourself, you start to realize so much more.
"And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!""
----In the Alice in Wonderland story, Alice realizes.. The White King is talking backwards.. he's really not making any sense or saying anything important. The Queen might be saying all this stuff and demanding action, the Queen is not the true authority. It is Alice.
"Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head""
----There are a few things that stuck out here as to what the dormouse had said:
`You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, `that "I breathe when I sleep" is the same thing as "I sleep when I breathe"!
----I breathe when I sleep. I sleep when I breathe.
Aren't they one in the same? This is probably extremely open for interpretation, but what I see is.. we can go through life never questioning authority or we can question authority. In the end... it's all about how we lived our life, either by our own means, or somebody else's. Of course.. it may take you a lifetime to wake up one day and say, "Oh my God! I've been living someone else's dream, when do I get to live my dreams?"
The dormouse also recites:
"Twinkle Twinkle, little bat!
How i wonder where you're at!
Up above the world you fly
Like a tea tray in the sky"
----Where am I? Who am I?
And then this line... "up above the world you fly like a tea tray in the sky" Could this be translated as.. you are made to seem like you are high in the sky, going places because your parents and society tell you that, that you will have success, you will find that career.. yet you are pushed along like you are tea being served on a tray? basically you're not doing things for yourself because other people are serving you by telling you what it is YOU should be doing rather than you serving yourself, thinking about what it is YOU want to DO with YOUR LIFE.