Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: power-pop
Song Meaning of “All We Ever Got from Them Was Pain” by Alex Chilton
This hard-hitting song by Alex Chilton paints a bleak picture of a society, or group, who are not only oppressed, but also abandoned by those who are supposed to protect them. The song reflects a sense of powerlessness, and a lack of hope or faith in the system that should be helping them. It speaks of being treated with cruelty and neglect, and reminds us that often, the ones who suffer the most in society are those with the least power and privilege.
The song starts off with a sense of hopelessness, with the narrator despairing that all they got from those who should have been looking out for them was pain. The chorus reveals the sense of betrayal and despair, questioning why justice was not delivered and lamenting the fact that even in spite of great suffering and suffering, no one ever offered any help or assistance. This reveals the overall theme of the song – the feeling that they have been let down by those who should have been looking out for them, and that all they ever got was cold, hard pain.
The song often switches back and forth between a chorus of warning and a verse of surrender. The warning in the chorus speaks of a society who’s been failed by those they look to for help, while the surrender in the verse reveals the crushing realization that hope may have been long lost.