fun. – Some Nights lyrics

A lot of people are really over thinking this song and the video is a bit of a red herring. This song has nothing to do with soldiers or war. This is the inside thoughts of nate ruess and his path to success - it actually is pretty simple and the metaphors are thin and easy to identify.
The four opening lines is about his view on success, and his success he perceives as "bad luck," because of the stress that comes with it, hence its a draw. His lips are where his words come from, he wishes sometimes he had the power to do great things, and other times he wishes it was just done.
Waking up and seeing a ghost is about a love that left him (we can figure out that they left him not the other way around at the end of the song, keep reading). Was walking away from love - and what he seems to feel in his heart true love - something a person should/would do. If you walk away from love, if you can do it, then what do you stand for?
War is such an over used metaphor. He's been in music professionally for, 11 years now. This is "war" is now its serious - he's famous now - music is being used in tv ads, heavy radio air play. Breaking the rules is telling the producers, agents, and execs telling them what to do to go stuff it.
Not believing the hype is just that - oh nate you're so awesome! Oh nate everyone loves you - the hype of fame. He believes in black and white things - tangible things. And yet despite trying twice as hard to get where he is at, he is half as liked (oh he's arrogant, oh he stepped on people on the way up) and yet others are starting to copy his style and call it their own. Hey man, I was in the format for eight years!
A martyr in his bed. He's sleeping with a woman tonight that he has no interest in having a relationship with, that likes him more than he likes her, but for that moment swapping bodily fluids his life has meaning. She wants more, and will sleep with him in attempt to get it - a martyr.
Most famous people talk about the sense of being alone. For example when you fly commercially you get special treatment, get to sit in special rooms - mostly - alone - because we don't want anyone to bother you nate ruess. But then you feel isolated and your social circle is largely a group of sycophants with their hands out.
So this is it? I went to school, sold out to corporate labels, I signed up for this? I left someone I loved behind along the way instead of fighting for our relationship for this? I left my parents in glendale, arizona for this?
When I look at the sky its no longer with wonder, stars are just stars. When I hear songs they all sound the same, just like this one. Come on! There has to be something better.
Here I am, playing this five minute song (it is almost five minutes) and I'm already bored with music and it. I've been in the industry ten years and I don't think anyone understands how hard this has been for me.
This isn't for the folks back home - you're not going to like this heap of reality that's coming.
Sorry mom I left, but I do not want to spend my adult years in glendale, arizona (that is where he grew up and went to school). I had to leave because I felt I was going to die if I stayed.
My sister is in a crappy marriage, but they call it "love. " I think its terrible but they have a son, my nephew, and he is amazing and I marvel that out of their fake love, their crappy marriage, something this beautiful could come from it.
I dreamed about you (the lost love) and it was amazing. I called you up and we both agreed. You didn't listen to my pleas to not leave. It made sense we are now far apart. I have found peace and meaning in my life.
But alas, its only a dream.
Nate ruess is telling you his story.

This song has nothing to do with soldiers or the war in the mid-east. It's an internal struggles he's had for 10 yrs. With the music industry and continues to have now that he's famous (the people he left behind). The martyr in his bed is a woman who slept with him only because he's famous, not because she likes him or even knows him, just so she can tell her friends she did it - but there is one woman he really loved and she left him, probably because he was so focused on his music and making it big. Now he's looking back on the sacrifices he made to get where he is know and wondering if it was worth it.

"Some Nights" is a song by American indie rock band Fun. It was released on June 4, 2012, as the second single and the title track from their second studio album of the same name. The song was written by Jeff Bhasker, Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, and Jack Antonoff. Musically "Some Nights" is an indie pop song with elements of power pop and afrobeat. The song lyrics speak of the protagonist's feelings of self-deprecation and loneliness.

The first time I heard this song I thought it was the most fun sounding song in the world, then I listened to the words and now it pretty much makes me cry every time I hear it. It resonates with me because my dad is also a con and I guess I'm hoping I may be one of those amazing things that came from a lie. And if I'm not I'm sure my children are inadvertently.

A brave young man, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, answering the call and making the ultimate sacrifice, he desperately wants and craves the simple things that most people take for granted? Forgetting that their freedom isn't free. The song sounds like a cry out to the lord for more guidance, strength, and perseverance. He knows what he has to do and he also knows all the things he has to put on hold. Brilliant song? Powerful lyrics. This is just how I interpreted the song, only the person who wrote this truly knows.