Panic! At The Disco: The Meaning

4. Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks

"Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks" is a song by American alternative band Panic! At The Disco. It was written by former guitarist Ryan Ross for their debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out.

The song is thought to be about Ross' father, who took part in battles with alcoholism. Because of his father's conflict with the drug, Ross has tried to abstain from alcohol as much as he can.  Ross and his father were never very close, and it wasn't uncommon for his father to criticize his career decisions.

  Watch your mouth Oh, oh, oh
Because your speech is slurred enough
That you just might swallow your tongue
I'm sure you'd want, want to give up the ghost
With just a little more poise than that  

Here the person on the hospice bed is rambling on and not making much sense, thus the person he's talking to can't understand him. This person instructs the patient to regain his poise, and to start making some sense so that he can help him. After all, we all know how important poise is to the band – they detailed its significance in their hit I Write Sins Not Tragedies.

Give up the ghost is another way of saying dying. The patient doesn't really want to die acting like that does he? Does the patient want people to remember him like that?

  Or was it God who chokes
In these situations, running late?
Oh No, no, he called in
Or was it God who chokes
In these situations, running late?
No, no, he called in  

Ross wishes for the one on the hospital bed to be cured badly to the point of blaming God for his lack of remorse. He first assumes God has a busy agenda, and must be running late, but then takes it back, knowing that God would have witnessed this tragedy by now and is just refusing to help.

One chokes when they fail when expected to win, which emphasizes Ross's disappointment in God. In rap, it describes a freestyler who can't think of any more bars, as God is not speaking, yet "calling" with no help.

The stress of "or" that Ross sings further emphasizes his doubt for God, which isn't surprising, seeing that the band is not affiliated with the church . However, they are religiously devoted to music, as voiced in Hallelujah years later.

  The hospice is
A relaxing weekend getaway
Where you're a cut above all the rest
Sick and sad patients
On first name basis with all the top physicians  

A hospice is a place you go when you are fatally ill it the point of inevitable death. It's a place of relaxation before you pass away — where you can leave the world peacefully. They treat you so well that he describes it as a weekend getaway — unfortunately it might be his last.

You could say he's a regular here. The head honchos at the hospice know his name, and he calls them by theirs! He's also not in as bad of a condition as the rest of the patients, so that's why he's "a cut above all the rest": he still has the ability to create relationships with the staff and other patients at the hospice.

  Prescribed pills
To offset the shakes
To offset the pills
You know you should take
It a day at a time  

He is describing an irony: he is taking more pills to offset the side effects of the first prescribed drug. They are treating the effect with the cause instead of getting to the root of his problem.

On a second level, this could be a reference to the way drugs and prescriptions are treated in Western medicine: everything than could be cured by taking pills should be, and taking more to offset the side effects of the first ones will eventual balance you right out! Western medicine has a dangerously high dependence on medications, even for simple things.

Furthermore, ''you know you should take it a day at a time'' would be a reference to that trite comfort that people often give to those in the hospital. Ignorant of how hard life in and after a hospital truly is, they just offer a ''take it a day at a time, you'll get better!''

  That's when you stu-stu-stutter something profound
To the support on the line
And with the way you've been talking
Every word gets you a step closer to hell  

He's describing how his father talks to him: every time he tries to speak to him he always stutters, which could be a reference to the chorus. The pills have caused stuttering, which is a side effect of multiple medications.

The way that his father has been talking to him could be disrespectful or putting him down. It almost seems as if he's threatening his father, which could allude to the type of medication he's taking. He's probably being medicated for a fairly significant psychological disorder.

I amAlone in this bed, house, and headAnd she never fixes thisBut at least she

As he struggles to get by with depression or another mental illness (and goes into hospice frequently as it sounds like in the other lyrics), the girlfriend mentioned doesn't make any attempt to help him mentally. This includes simple things like making his bed or aiding him to get out of bed.

He stops mid sentence at "but at least she" because he can't conjure up a good or helpful thing she's done for him, since she's left him alone mentally and physically.