Fall Out Boy - Sugar We're Going Down - Lyrics Meaning

Fall Out Boy achieved mainstream success with the release of "Sugar, We're Going Down," the first single from their 2005 album From Under The Cork Tree. The song reached number eight in the US, making it the band's first top ten single. On the surface, "Sugar, We're Going Down" appears to be the quintessential tale of a boy who is in love with an unattainable girl. She is in love with someone else, and doesn't want anything more than a physical relationship with the song's narrator ("I'm just a notch in your bedpost / but you're just a line in a song"). The boy becomes extremely jealous, to the point that he appears to stalk the object of his obsession: "I'm watching you two from the closet / Wishing to be the friction in your jeans." A second, deeper interpretation of the song comes from the line "I'll be your number one with a bullet." The phrase "with a bullet" comes from the Billboard music charts, which place a bullet next to the name of any album or song that has achieved a higher rating than it did on the previous chart. The song is also about Fall Out Boy trying to live up to people's expectations, and the band's determination to be a success.