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0:17

Hello and welcome to

0:19

Learn English Vocabulary.

0:25

My name's Jack and I'm making

0:27

this podcast for you to learn

0:30

or revise English vocabulary.

0:33

You can find a transcript of this

0:35

podcast on learnenglishvocabulary.co.uk.

0:41

There's a page for this podcast

0:43

with the transcript, an

0:45

activity and a task

0:47

for you to do in the comments section. Today,

0:51

I'm going to talk about the

0:53

lyrics of the Imagine

0:56

Dragons song, Whatever

0:58

It Takes.

1:01

I'm talking about these lyrics

1:03

because the song was requested

1:06

by Maya Lin,

1:07

so I hope you enjoy the

1:10

song all the more once

1:12

I've explained the vocabulary in

1:14

the lyrics

1:15

and try to work out what

1:17

the song is about. This

1:21

is going to be a long

1:23

podcast because there's a

1:26

lot to talk about,

1:27

so I would recommend you visit

1:30

the page for this podcast on the

1:33

Learn English Vocabulary website

1:35

if you find this difficult, because

1:38

you'll be able to read the transcript

1:40

and listen at the same time.

1:44

Let's start with the title,

1:47

Whatever It Takes. The

1:51

word whatever means anything

1:54

at all. It doesn't matter what. This

1:58

is the same for however. wherever, which

2:00

means any way at all, it

2:03

doesn't matter how. And

2:05

wherever, any place at

2:07

all, it doesn't matter where. You

2:10

often hear this phrase used as

2:12

an expression of determination.

2:16

So if someone wants to do

2:18

something, but it's something

2:21

difficult,

2:22

they might say, I'll

2:23

do whatever it takes.

2:27

So if you have a goal, perhaps

2:29

you want to study medicine

2:32

at a top university, your

2:34

mum and dad might warn you, you

2:37

need top marks and you

2:39

need to do voluntary work and

2:41

there won't be time to go out and

2:43

party with your friends and you'll need

2:45

to start saving money,

2:48

you might reply, I'll do

2:51

whatever it takes. I

2:53

am determined, so if I have

2:55

to do all these things, I'll do

2:57

them. It doesn't matter what

3:00

I have to do. I'll do whatever

3:03

it takes to achieve my goal.

3:06

In the song, Dan Reynolds,

3:08

the singer, does not say exactly

3:11

what his goal is.

3:13

In fact, his statement is not

3:16

about a specific goal because

3:18

he says, I do whatever

3:21

it takes.

3:23

So this present simple use

3:26

describes his habitual

3:28

or everyday actions.

3:31

He does what it takes to…

3:33

well, again, this is not clear

3:36

from the lyrics, but there are clues and

3:39

if you read a little about Dan Reynolds

3:41

background, the meaning becomes

3:43

clear.

3:45

You see, Dan Reynolds was

3:47

raised in a very religious family.

3:51

He was raised as a Mormon, which

3:53

is a type of American Christian.

3:57

Dan Reynolds is not a strict

3:59

Mormon anymore. but he is still

4:01

religious and believes in a lot

4:03

of the ideas that Mormons preach.

4:06

So when he sings that he

4:08

does whatever it takes, he

4:11

means to please God or

4:14

be a good person. I'm

4:16

going to go through the song now and we'll

4:18

explain the lyrics and we'll try

4:20

to explain the meaning of the song though

4:23

I'm not Mormon so may misunderstand

4:26

some of the references. The

4:29

song starts with a funny

4:31

little rap. Falling

4:33

too fast to prepare for this. Tripping

4:36

in the world could be dangerous. Everybody

4:39

circling its vulturous negative

4:43

nepotist. I'm

4:45

afraid I don't like this.

4:48

I understand that you can play with pronunciation

4:50

in words to make rhymes but dangerous

4:54

does not rhyme with for this.

4:56

So the singer says dangerous

4:59

and vulturous. The

5:02

first line is falling too fast

5:05

to prepare for this. I think

5:07

that this is a reference to the Bible.

5:10

When Adam and Eve first

5:12

disobeyed God

5:14

they went from being obedient servants

5:16

of God to naughty humans.

5:19

This change is sometimes described

5:22

as the fall of man.

5:24

So this could refer to Dan's movement

5:27

away from the Mormon church.

5:30

Tripping means falling. If

5:32

you trip over something you fall

5:34

because your foot becomes trapped

5:37

by something on the ground.

5:39

He says that everybody's circling.

5:42

It's vulturous. Vulturous

5:46

is not a common word but it

5:48

means having the characteristics

5:51

of a vulture.

5:52

When an animal dies in the savannah

5:55

or out in the country vultures

5:58

will come and scavenge.

6:00

That is, eat the dead animal.

6:03

So when an animal is injured, or

6:06

a person is in trouble,

6:08

the vultures might fly

6:10

in circles overhead, waiting

6:13

till they can scavenge.

6:15

If people are vulturous, they

6:18

might hang around someone in trouble

6:20

so they can take advantage of them if

6:22

they fail.

6:24

He says that it is negative, the

6:27

opposite of positive, and then

6:29

nepotist.

6:31

The noun nepotism

6:33

is favouritism based

6:36

on family relationships.

6:39

The adjective is nepotistic,

6:42

and a nepotist is

6:45

someone who practices nepotism.

6:49

In small businesses it's quite

6:52

normal for family members

6:54

to employ one another,

6:56

but in large companies and

6:58

in government and the civil service,

7:02

this sort of favouritism

7:04

is corruption. The

7:06

next part goes. Everybody

7:09

waiting for the fall of man, everybody

7:12

praying for the end of times, everybody

7:15

hoping they could be the one. I

7:17

was born to run. I was

7:19

born for this. I

7:21

mentioned before the fall of man

7:24

is normally when Adam and Eve were

7:26

first naughty and ate

7:28

the apple on the tree that they weren't

7:30

supposed to.

7:32

When they disobeyed God's rule

7:34

and sin came into the world.

7:37

I'm not sure why everybody is waiting

7:40

for it. Perhaps in the Mormon

7:42

faith there's another fall at the

7:44

end of the world.

7:46

I just read and apparently Mormons

7:49

are quite concerned about Jesus coming

7:51

back and a time of great destruction.

7:55

There are millions of webpages

7:57

about the end times. I

8:00

think that the end of the world is a common

8:02

theme in most religions and despite

8:05

the destruction and pain that many

8:07

will have to experience, Mormons

8:09

are praying for it because they

8:12

will be saved from destruction.

8:15

I think that this sense of being

8:17

saved because Mormons are special

8:20

is what Dan means when he says everybody's

8:23

hoping they could be the one.

8:25

But I'm not sure. Next

8:28

there's a kind of pre-chorus. He

8:31

sings, Whip a whip, run

8:34

me like a racehorse. A

8:37

whip is a long leather rope you

8:39

can use to control animals. A

8:42

jockey, the person that rides

8:44

a horse in a horse race, carries

8:46

a short whip that they can use to

8:49

encourage a horse to run

8:51

faster.

8:53

In the past, people who were in charge

8:55

of prisoners or slaves might

8:58

use a whip to punish them.

9:00

Pull me like a ripcord.

9:03

A ripcord is the tag attached

9:06

to a parachute that you pull when

9:08

you want the parachute to open.

9:10

So if you jump out of an aeroplane,

9:13

if you skydive, you might

9:15

want to freefall for a bit and

9:18

when you get closer to the ground, you pull

9:20

the ripcord to open the parachute.

9:24

Break me down and build me

9:27

up.

9:28

To break someone down means to continually

9:31

attack someone so that they

9:33

eventually are defeated.

9:35

If you want to knock down a wall and

9:38

you only have a hammer,

9:40

you can't just hit it once. You

9:42

have to hit it again and again.

9:44

That way you'll be able to break it

9:46

down.

9:48

We use this to talk about metaphorical

9:50

walls, so a person's

9:52

confidence might be like a wall

9:55

that takes a lot of attacks to break

9:57

down.

9:59

To build something Coming up is the opposite.

10:02

It means to build something over time,

10:04

slowly adding more and more. Bricks,

10:07

if it's a wall or a building, so

10:09

that over time it gets bigger,

10:12

or if you're dealing with a person, they

10:14

become more and more confident.

10:18

I want to be the slip slip, word

10:20

upon your lip lip, letter

10:22

that you rip rip, break

10:25

me down and build me up.

10:28

I'm not sure what the slip is that

10:30

he wants to be.

10:31

There might be some meaning that I'm not familiar

10:34

with, but

10:35

normally the verb means to lose

10:37

your balance because the floor

10:39

is wet or oily. However,

10:42

the slip slip is

10:44

a noun, so I have no idea.

10:47

If you have a word on your lips, you

10:49

have something that you want to say. I

10:52

don't think that this is very common.

10:55

I saw an example of the topic

10:57

on everyone's lips,

10:59

meaning the topic that everyone is

11:01

talking about.

11:03

And then it's the chorus. Whatever

11:06

it takes, cause I love the adrenaline

11:09

in my veins.

11:11

Adrenaline is a hormone

11:14

that's produced in the body when

11:16

you're in danger.

11:17

It makes you feel excited

11:19

and nervous and energetic.

11:22

It prepares you to fight or run.

11:25

Dangerous sports or extreme sports

11:27

like skydiving and base jumping

11:30

give the people who do them an adrenaline

11:33

rush,

11:34

which makes them feel excited and happy.

11:37

I think all sports can cause the body

11:39

to produce some adrenaline,

11:42

but the more dangerous the sport, the

11:44

greater the adrenaline rush you get.

11:47

Dan sings that he loves the

11:49

adrenaline in his veins.

11:52

Veins are the tubes in your body that

11:54

carry blood around. When

11:56

your body produces adrenaline,

11:58

it's transported around

11:59

your body, in your blood and

12:02

through your veins. I

12:04

do whatever it takes because

12:07

I love how it feels when I break

12:09

the chains. To break

12:11

the chains is a metaphor.

12:14

If you think about a prisoner in an

12:16

old-fashioned jail with metal

12:18

bracelets called manacles around

12:21

their wrists and ankles,

12:23

they would be chains connected to the

12:25

floor or walls to stop them

12:27

from escaping.

12:29

These chains stop the prisoner

12:31

or slave from doing what

12:33

they want. They stop them from being

12:36

free.

12:37

Sometimes ideas or fears

12:40

are like chains that stop us from

12:42

doing what we want. So

12:45

if you break the chains you conquer

12:47

your fears or ideas that prevent

12:49

you from doing what you want.

12:52

Whatever it takes, yeah take

12:54

me to the top. I'm ready for

12:57

whatever it takes because

12:59

I love the adrenaline in my veins.

13:02

I do what it takes. I

13:04

want to take a minute now to talk about

13:07

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Rosetta Stone. How language

14:31

is learned. The next verse

14:33

is quite interesting. Always

14:36

had a fear of being typical. Looking

14:39

at my body, feeling miserable.

14:42

Always hanging on to the visual.

14:45

I want to be invisible.

14:48

Dan sings that he had a fear

14:50

of being typical.

14:52

Typical is similar in this

14:54

instance to the adjective normal.

14:57

It really means that someone or something

14:59

has the features that you'd expect

15:01

from that type of person or thing.

15:05

You can say that a typical car

15:07

has four wheels.

15:09

Four wheels is a feature of cars

15:11

that you would normally expect. So

15:14

if a car has four wheels, it

15:16

is typical.

15:19

Dan was afraid of being

15:22

typical.

15:23

I do understand his sentiment, but

15:26

it's a bit of a teenage complaint.

15:29

Normally, it's people who are not typical

15:31

that have problems.

15:33

Dan wanted to be special. He

15:37

then sings, looking at my body,

15:39

feeling miserable.

15:41

Miserable means very unhappy.

15:44

I think of miserable as a kind

15:46

of low energy sadness. If

15:49

you're feeling miserable, the feeling

15:52

can last for hours. Dan

15:55

is unhappy about how he

15:58

looks, that

16:00

lots of people can relate to. He

16:03

sings always hanging on

16:05

to the visual. In this

16:07

sense, hanging on to something is

16:09

the opposite of letting it go.

16:12

So he's got a problem with the

16:14

way he sees his own body and he

16:16

can't let it go. He

16:19

sings that he wants to be invisible.

16:24

If something is invisible, you

16:26

can't see it. Oxygen

16:29

is invisible. We know

16:31

that there's oxygen in the air around

16:34

us, but you can't see it. It's an

16:36

invisible gas.

16:38

The next lines are, looking

16:41

at my years like a martyrdom. Everybody

16:44

needs to be a part of them. Never

16:47

be enough. I'm the prodigal son

16:49

I was born to run. I

16:51

was born for this. We're back

16:54

into the religious language here. A

16:56

martyr is someone who suffers

16:59

a lot, usually to the point of being

17:01

killed because of their religious beliefs.

17:04

When religious people are not allowed

17:07

to practice their religion, we

17:10

say they are persecuted.

17:13

If religious people refuse to

17:15

stop doing their religious practice

17:18

and they are arrested or killed, then

17:20

they are martyrs.

17:22

Dan is comparing his life to

17:25

the lives of people who've been persecuted

17:28

and sings that he sees his life

17:30

like he is being persecuted and

17:33

he is suffering for his beliefs

17:35

that he is a martyr.

17:37

He then describes himself as the

17:40

prodigal son.

17:42

This comes from a Bible story about

17:44

a boy who left his family

17:46

and wasted all of his family

17:49

money.

17:50

Then years later returns to his

17:52

family, sorry that he's spent

17:54

all their money and disappointed them,

17:57

and is welcomed home and

17:59

forgiven. In the story,

18:01

the father is so happy to

18:04

see his son return, he doesn't

18:06

care about the money. I'm

18:08

not sure what this means, but it's

18:10

quite a common idea.

18:12

The idea of a prodigal son is

18:14

used in lots of films and books.

18:17

Then there's a precorus

18:20

and a chorus before another

18:22

verse that's really dense

18:24

with advanced language that

18:27

I'll go through quickly.

18:29

Hypocritical, egotistical,

18:32

don't want to be the parenthetical, hypothetical.

18:36

If someone is hypocritical,

18:38

they talk positively about a principle

18:41

or a moral idea and

18:43

then don't follow the principle themselves.

18:47

So

18:47

if I were to talk a lot

18:50

about the environment and protecting

18:52

the natural world and then

18:55

flew business class a lot and

18:57

ate lots of steak and drove

18:59

a sports car, it would be

19:02

hypocritical.

19:03

The noun form is hypocrite.

19:06

If someone is egotistical,

19:08

they only think about themselves

19:11

and make themselves the centre

19:14

of everything.

19:16

I think that young stars of sports

19:18

and music and film are at

19:20

risk of becoming egotistical.

19:23

If everybody treats you like you're

19:26

special,

19:26

it's very easy to start thinking that

19:29

you are special.

19:31

The adjective parenthetical

19:34

is not common.

19:36

Parentheses are what we

19:38

call brackets in non-mathemat

19:41

or scientific language.

19:43

On a UK keyboard, they are

19:45

above the numbers 9 and 10. They're

19:48

like bent lines that you

19:50

place around the ideas that are

19:53

not part of the main meaning but

19:56

add some extra context or colour

19:59

to the main meaning.

20:01

I think that the most common use of

20:03

the word parenthetical is

20:05

related to scripts. So

20:08

a script has the lines that

20:10

an actor says in a film or play.

20:14

If the writer wants to add some

20:16

more information, perhaps about

20:19

how the character feels, they

20:21

can add it above the line

20:23

in parentheses.

20:25

This is a parenthetical statement.

20:29

Instead of script writing, it's

20:31

not common. If

20:33

something is hypothetical,

20:36

it is an unproven idea.

20:39

It's a theory that needs an experiment,

20:42

or that will be proven or falsified

20:45

by time and experience.

20:48

In the sense of the lyrics, it's contrasted

20:50

with a real or proven

20:53

idea or person.

20:55

So if a person is a singer,

20:58

they are hypothetical in

21:01

a way if they only sing

21:03

at home.

21:04

It's not until they've gone out and

21:07

tried to be a singer as a job

21:09

that they get to prove that they are a real

21:12

singer, that they are more than just

21:14

a hypothetical singer. Working

21:17

onto something that I'm proud of out

21:20

of the box.

21:21

An epoxy to the world and

21:23

the vision we've lost.

21:25

People use the phrase out of the

21:28

box to mean two things.

21:30

It can refer to the state of something

21:33

when you bought it.

21:35

So if you buy a new guitar,

21:38

normally it will need some adjustment

21:40

and maybe new strings. But

21:43

sometimes people say they get

21:45

a guitar that was set up perfectly

21:48

out of the box.

21:49

That is they literally opened the

21:52

box and the condition out

21:54

of the box was good.

21:57

The other meaning of out of the box describes

21:59

an idea.

21:59

idea or an approach to something

22:02

if the approach is very innovative

22:04

and unusual.

22:07

Sometimes you hear someone praised

22:09

because they've come up with a solution

22:11

to a problem that was out of

22:13

the box, meaning it was very

22:16

innovative and approached the problem

22:18

in a new way that wasn't part

22:21

of the traditional in the box

22:23

approach.

22:24

Apoxy is glue. It's

22:27

a very hard glue that forms

22:29

a resin like a hard plastic.

22:33

Normally it comes in two tubes that

22:35

you have to mix together. Apparently

22:38

this is a Mormon saying.

22:41

Mormons believe they are the glue

22:43

or the bridge that connects God

22:45

to the world.

22:47

An epoxy to the world is how

22:49

Mormons describe themselves.

22:53

The next lines are, I'm

22:56

an apostrophe.

22:57

I'm just a symbol to remind you that

23:00

there's more to see. I'm just

23:02

a product of the system, a catastrophe.

23:06

An apostrophe is a little grammatical

23:08

mark.

23:09

It's the mark we use to show that there's

23:12

a letter missing in contractions.

23:15

The word don't

23:17

is a contraction of do not.

23:20

The apostrophe goes where

23:22

the missing O should be.

23:25

Dan explains this well,

23:26

just a symbol to remind you

23:29

that there's more to see.

23:32

He describes himself as a product

23:35

of the system.

23:37

The system is a negative

23:39

way to refer to society and

23:41

the social structures that

23:44

influence a person as they grow and

23:46

develop.

23:48

In his case the system

23:50

would include the Mormon Church, his

23:52

schools and the political, moral

23:54

and cultural conditions he was

23:57

raised in.

23:59

The product of the system is sometimes

24:02

used to describe a young person

24:05

who's done something wrong.

24:07

You might read that the young person

24:10

was a product of the system as

24:12

a way to understand why a

24:14

young person did something horrible, especially

24:17

if the local schools are bad and there

24:20

are gangs. Dan Sings,

24:23

he's a product of the system, a

24:25

catastrophe. This

24:27

is a bit over the top. A

24:29

catastrophe is a disaster.

24:32

It's normally used to describe

24:34

an event that goes seriously wrong

24:37

and causes a lot of trouble.

24:40

While it means the same as a disaster,

24:42

I think it's not generally used

24:45

to talk about events where people are killed. It's

24:48

not quite as strong as a

24:50

disaster, but it has the same sort of meaning.

24:54

Dan goes on, And yet

24:57

a masterpiece, and yet I'm

24:59

half diseased, and when I am

25:01

deceased, at least I go

25:03

down to the grave and die happily.

25:06

Leave the body and my soul

25:08

to be a part of thee.

25:11

A masterpiece is a great work

25:14

of art. People describe very

25:16

famous paintings by highly

25:18

respected artists as masterpieces.

25:23

If someone is diseased, they

25:25

have a disease.

25:26

I don't think we commonly use the adjective

25:29

form to talk about people. I

25:32

have some cauliflower plants in my

25:34

garden that are not growing

25:36

well because they have some sort of disease.

25:40

I might describe a plant or a crop

25:42

as diseased, not normally

25:44

a person. Deceased

25:47

is a synonym for dead.

25:49

It's used in formal settings and

25:51

funerals to say that a person

25:54

has died.

25:55

We don't much like the word dead,

25:57

as it isn't very refined.

25:59

it's

26:00

very direct and when things are

26:02

difficult to talk about,

26:04

we prefer to use other language.

26:07

He finishes by saying that he goes

26:09

to the grave –

26:11

that's another expression that means

26:13

he dies.

26:14

He goes to the grave and dies

26:17

happily,

26:18

because he leaves his body and

26:20

his soul to be a part of thee.

26:24

In this case, the use of the old-fashioned

26:27

word thee, meaning you,

26:29

makes it clear he's talking about God.

26:32

In English, we used to use thee

26:35

for you as an object, thou

26:38

for you as a subject, and thy

26:40

and thine for your.

26:42

However, this language has stopped

26:45

being used much.

26:46

It is still used in some prayers

26:49

that were written a long time ago,

26:51

so

26:51

when you see someone saying thee

26:53

and thou,

26:55

they're probably reciting a prayer.

26:57

I'll post the YouTube video

26:59

for this song with the transcript on the

27:02

page for this podcast on learnenglishvocabulary.co.uk

27:07

so you can listen to the music and

27:09

hopefully enjoy it all the

27:11

more. I hope you've enjoyed this

27:13

podcast. As always, I love

27:16

reading your comments, so please

27:18

leave me a comment on the site or a

27:20

rating or a review on Apple Podcasts.

27:23

I love to hear from you and any comments

27:26

or suggestions you have.

27:28

If there are any topics or songs

27:31

or scenes from a film that you'd like

27:33

me to talk about, or anything

27:35

else you'd like to hear, I would be delighted

27:38

to make a podcast for you. So,

27:41

please visit learnenglishvocabulary.co.uk

27:45

and say hello.

27:47

Thanks for listening.

28:00

you