Marilyn Manson – Warship My Wreck lyrics

To me this song stands out as one of my favorite songs by Manson. I've listened to it a lot, and also read quite a bit about Manson over the years, and as I tried to figure out what Manson is telling with this song I've taken consideration to the person Manson is. But also note that this is just my finest guess of what this song is about. I absolutely DO NOT have any definite answers! Ok, here we go.

I think this song is about the manipulative, dark side of Manson. I feel he freely admits and does not excuse himself with these lyrics.

We start from the beginning. "You're a paper doll/ I fold you how i want".
He begins by providing a subject for his manipulative ways. This person is just an object that he can form the way he wants.

Then there comes "You're not my noose/ I tied this knot"
Here Manson admits that his manipulative side is not the subjects fault, he takes full responsibility for his ways. He also compares his manipulative properties to a noose, so he is fully aware that this is not a good thing. It can also be that the comparison comes from Mansons belief that his manipulative properties will eventually lead to his downfall.

He goes on with "If this won't be our fingers locked together/ This is total war/ Method not objective"
Here he tells us that if this relationship to the subject is not working, that's when he will use his manipulative properties to fulfill his wishes. He also admits that he has no need to look objectively at the situation.

We move on to "Cannot say, I'm breaking the rules/ If I can glue em back together".
If you search into Manson and try to get to know him, you might agree to my opinion that Manson is very good with words. To me, this part of the song talks about this. How he doesn't fear "breaking the rules" (Rules= Laws yes, but most importantly social norms),because he can very easily talk himself up and make everything ok again.

"Scars on my fingers, bruises my neck/ Crashin' my trains, warship my wreck"
Here Manson admits to that his manipulative properties may give shorttime gain, but that it is not a longterm solution to his problems. The word "warship" is clearly a play on words, with the real meaning being worship. He is seeing himself from the outside now, and see people still comitting and remaining loyal to him in some celebritarian way. He is almost mocking (but with a very serious undertone) the people around him for not finding him responsible for his evil manipulation or seeing what it is doing to his personality.

Lastly we have "Cut the hands off/ Then kamikaze into your soul".
He is presenting a solution for himself. He needs to "cut his hands of", in other words disable himself from manipulating, and take the plunge if he wants to connect with people in a real way. He knows this will be painful in some way.

I think this song is a very honest work of art, and I am deeply impressed by Mansons maturing as an artist and musician. At least that is my opinion with this interpretation as a good guess.
Sorry for the long post! I'll be interested to hear others interpretation of this song too!

I think this song has a deeper meaning about pain and how we self sabotage ouselfs for other people and how we try how we crash our own trains in life. As i listen to the song as it hoes futher with kamakazi into your soul is how we easily let someone into our soul and then they destroy it like a kamakazi pilot would scars on my fingers implies a figarative meaning of how your hands would look during a physical fight against struggles in relationships and bruises on my neck is how a person can figurativly bruise your neck with words and feelings. Breaking the rules if i cant glue it together is literal explantion of how one doesnt do things to your partner of you cant fix it and this is frustrating restriction

Hey MasterX, love your interpretation. Yours is the only one I've found online. Here's my interpretation.
"You're my doll, I fold you the way I want. You're not my noose, I tie this knot."
I personally LOVE the noose line. It's so simple but genius. It's saying that he will never be restrained/constricted in the metaphorical sense by a woman. He is stating that he is the dominant one of the two, w/the woman being submissive. He will do as he wants, and her role is to do whatever it is he wants. Since it's written in the present tense, it seems as though some sort of argument unfolded in which the woman was trying to tell him what to do/exert some sort of control over him and he resisted.

He goes on with "If this won't be our fingers locked together/ This is total war/ Method not objective"
On this one, I'm not fully certain--but basically he may be predicting that the relationship may end just because she's trying to control him. Then it goes on to say that if the relationship *doesn't* end based on this disagreement, and the woman continues to try to control him, it will turn into an outright war that she won't win.

“Method not objective”
This is a complicated one—because both of these words can be defined in 2 different ways. “Objective” can *either* be defined the way you defined it—“impartiality”/being rational—or it can also be defined as having a task at hand. “Method”: may mean he has his ways/his methods that are in place and have been in place for a very long time. Or—method may mean that he is actively putting together a “plan” take care of this situation. I think it’s less the latter, more the former. My final take: he’s letting the woman know that she won’t win—and not because it’s his goal to “win” per say (that’s not his “objective”), but instead she won’t win because it’s impossible for him to change for the mere reason that he’s a creature of habit. It would be too difficult to change the way he has always been.

“Cannot say, I'm breaking the rules/ If I can glue em back together".
This line makes me sad—because here it sounds like he’s saying that he can get away with anything he wants. Rules don’t apply to him—but most importantly he’s saying that women will ultimately comply to whatever he wants, and will forgive anything he does/any mistakes he makes. Just because, well, he’s Marilyn Manson. Also—this may also have the underlying theme of this particular woman being replaceable in some way—as in even if this relationship were to end, it’s not a big deal, since there’s always another woman who can give him what he needs.

"Scars on my fingers, bruises my neck/ Crashin' my trains, warship my wreck"
Here he’s basically saying that he’s performing self-sabotage by not willing to compromise at all with her (“crashing my trains.”). There’s also the theme of being child-like/immature—he understands that he’s throwing a tantrum and that he may be destroying things to destroy them just because he can. “Scars on my fingers, bruises on my neck”—can possibly be taken back to the noose line. He’s self-sabotaging/choking himself/wrecking himself. The woman sees all of this and knows he’s this tortured soul who is unable to have a healthy relationship that she desires (and is only hurting himself in the process). She forgives him for this, and in addition, continues to look up to him because of the powerful man that he is in our world. His talent as a musician, and his celebrity status come first in her eyes. She will forgive anything, and will love him regardless of the things he does.

The 2nd part of the song:
"Cut the hands off/ Then kamikaze into your soul".
“Cut the hands” may be referring to his own hands—the hands that are controlling the knot of the noose. Without his hands, he can no longer use the noose to choke himself/hurt himself. It Or—it may refer to this hands that are responsible for crashing the trains together—damaging the relationship.
“Kamikaze into your soul” can either be a positive thing or negative. Positive: without his hands, he can now dive into the woman’s soul and love her/fulfill her desires in all of the ways she needs. They will become one. Or, negative: even without his hands, he will figure out a way to hurt himself anyway, and he won’t only hurt himself, but he will take the woman’s soul with him (blow both of their souls to pieces). The way the melody goes for this part of the song—I feel like he meant for the interpretation to be positive; however, it seems like deep diving into her soul is an afterthought, a hypothetical scenario/wish that will never come true. He knows that in a perfect world he *could* cut off his hands that are performing this self sabotage, but he chooses not to. He goes back to…“breaking the rules,” and the cycle of being forgiven and worshipped repeats itself.

As a side note:
The tone of his voice during the 1st chorus of breaking the rules is sad (2:40). The verse then repeats at 4:20, and he here he sounds full of despair. The song then ends with him screaming like a child to worship him.