What is John Mayer trying to say on his new CD Continuum?

Question

I have been studying the lyrics and I really like this line from "Belief":

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching underwater
You can never hit who you are trying for

and this from "Vultures":

How do I stop myself from being just a number
How will I hold my head to keep from going under

Answer 1

"Belief" was the hardest song on the album for John to write (according to the man himself) because it is such a touchy subject and he wanted to write it without alienating or offending anyone. It's hard to fight a fight based on belief, because when you defend your own, you are usually going to offend somebody else's.

Answer 2

The line from belief is like belief protects you, it's a "beatiful armor" that gives you all the protection you can ask for, but when you have to stand up for your beliefs, they sometimes become extremely heavy, they're a big burden, or the "heaviest sword". And when you have to stand up for your beliefs, a lot of the time your not even sure what you really believe in so its kinda like taking a stab in the dark, or "punching underwater", and your never sure if your point is going to hit exactly where it should.

For vultures, I think it means how we're all just numbers, like with your socail security number, to the government or whoever we're not real people, we're just a number. He wants to escape that, to be more than a number, to be a real person... I'm not sure about the next line, maybe he's trying to stay afloat in the world today, he's trying not to drown in all the problems that our country and our world are having.

Answer 3

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