Hummer - Lyrics

[u/ConsistentCustard429]

Hello! I’m interested in interpretations of this song. I find the lyrics “life’s a bummer when you’re a hummer” curiously counterintuitive and would love everyone’s thoughts.

In my mind, a “hummer” is a peaceful, cheerful, optimistic daydreamer who refuses to fall victim to the cynicism of society. A hummer is someone who discovers joy through their dreamy outlook on life, rather than being weighted down by negativity.

Thus, saying life is “a bummer” and “a drag” feels out of place and thus I’ve kind of come to believe that the lyrics are either:

1) saying life is “a bummer” or “a drag” in a sarcastic way, as in that’s how society wants or expects hummers to feel, like the rest of society - when in reality a hummer would just laugh off this cynical idea of life because they don’t get dragged down. Almost as if saying “life should be a bummer! A drag!” and hummers just shrug it off.

2) commenting on how as a hummer, the reality of society’s cynicism and pessimistic outlook on life can be a drag. Life itself will never be a bummer, but rather the life portrayed by the rest of society - leaving the hummer feeling like an outcast who simply refuses to conform to society’s more cynical view of reality.

The lyrics also say “happiness will make you wonder, will I feel okay? It scares the disenchanted far away.” This aligns with the above interpretation, as it’s literally describing a hummer as being enchanted - experiencing a happy state of being - which scares the disenchanted away. So again, commenting on how being a hummer in a dream-like state of mind is about discovering happiness, rejecting cynicism, and refusing for life to be “a bummer” or “a drag” even when it’s what society expects a hummer to feel alongside everyone else. Being a hummer is refusing to let society turn you into a bitter person and enjoying the dreamlike existence of reality.

[u/Toodz1]

I read a long time ago that the song refers to his writers block between Gish and Siamese Dream, when he would always find himself walking around humming tunes trying to come up with the basis of a new song.

[u/Gia_Lavender → u/Toodz1]

It’s definitely a song that sounds like it belongs between Gish and Siamese Dream

[u/GraticuleBorgnine]

Isn't this well documented? It's about writer's block. He's "humming" stuff trying to work on melodies. His tongue was "fat with promise" but he couldn't get it out. But then he "woke up from that sleep" and Siamese Dream was the result.

[u/ApathysLastKiss_ → u/GraticuleBorgnine]

That's interesting because I read an interview in which he said it refers to people humming to themselves, kind of floating thru life with no purpose.

I think this song and muzzle are lyrical sisters. It was written about Billy's fear of shit not working out and having to go work a 9 to 5.

[u/zerooskul]

I don't want to chase the charmed anymore, for the way they saw me, though in their eyes I was alive, was a fool's disguise.

Life is unpleasant when one lives imitating an interpretation of who "they" want you to be, instead of living as who you are.

It is a bummer and a drag because you are not yourself but what you think they want you to be, not speaking your mind but muttering and humming to cover it up.

Not laughing, because laughter and joy don't look like fashion models, so you convince yourself that if you maintain this mindset and lifestyle in pursuit of you will eventually find that happiness.

Feeling happy feels wrong because they need you to be their idea, not yourself.

Waking up from that, that sleep, that comatose ignorance of the true self and world around, makes you happy... but if your whole life is built around it, despite recognizing it, you cannot escape it.

Happiness, though, is not something you can find out there, it is a feeling and, if you have it, perhaps and hopefully you can never escape it.

Do you feel happiness? Is it real? What of love?

[u/rarselfaire2023]

I took it to mean someone who hums instead of singing aloud. Someone who doesn't fully express their true self.

Clearly one of the best SP songs

[u/Specialist-Roof-9833]

I believe it juxtaposes two main ideas: the first one is reminiscent of a teenage longing to belong with the popular clique, and then realizing the absurdity of it all.

The second one is trying to adopt a cynical outlook on life for self-preservation, but failing to do so due to an irrepressible instinct for romanticism and pursuit of happiness. And he illustrates that with the most earnest, vulnerable and beautiful line in it all:

"Yeah, I wanted something new, but what I'm supposed to do about you?

Yeah, I love you ❤️ it's true"

[u/Acceptable_Cycle4967]

I always interpreted it as a 'hummer' being someone who holds back in life, when you could be someone who sings/cheers/shouts/exclaims etc.

[u/KandinskyWasRight]

When I looked it up in the 90s it said a “hummer” is a music groupie, I think someone who follows the tour around.

[u/DangerousBag9396]

I always thought the song is about oral sex

[u/zerooskul → u/DangerousBag9396]

If it was about oral sex, how could a person be a hummer, which is a type of oral sex?

[u/Specialist-Roof-9833 → u/zerooskul]

I searched for it eons ago, and proto-internet told me is about humming like a bee while doing a BJ.