What does Rolling in the Deep mean?

Adele: Rolling in the Deep Meaning

Album cover for Rolling in the Deep album cover

Song Released: 2010


Rolling in the Deep Lyrics

There's a fire starting in my heart,
Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out of the dark

Finally, I can see you crystal clear.
Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your shit bare.
See how I leave, with every piece of you
Don't...

  1. anonymous
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    Aug 22nd 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about pure revenge rolling around in her mind. Adele is pissed.

    There's a rage growing in her heart that is making the light or idea come to her that she wants revenge (as potraited by the throwing of dishes in the video). Pure anger. She sees you (the person) crystal clear (as potraited by the glasses of crystal clear water) for what you really are. You sold her out (left her and probably for another person) and now she wants to lay your ship bare (in days of old, this was pirate jargon for stealing everything). She might even be thinking she wants to kill you, taking every piece of you. And like she says, don't underestimate her or the things that she will do!

    In the background lyrics, "you wish you never had met me", "tears are gonna fall", yours not hers. She already cried! She already feels the scars! She's in stage 2 of grief!

    I think she feels you are going to hell for what you did to her and even if you wanted to, she knows she would never be with you again.

    You played her to your own beat, to your own beating of your drum the way you wanted to play her and she knows you played her. Now you're going to pay. But she's Rolling in the Deep trying to picture the different forms of revenge she could send you through.

    I think and feel the mystical dancer in the video potraits revengeful thoughts in Adele's mind. Kicking, throwing, mishappeningly rolling revengeful thoughts around in the depth of her mind.

    Will she kill you, probably not . . . but she's thinking it!!! You had her heart in your hand and you destroyed it. Now,you will reap just what you sowed!

  2. anonymous
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    Aug 20th 2011 !⃝

    Linkin Park made this song so much better in London

  3. anonymous
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    Aug 20th 2011 !⃝

    I think Adele knows what the song is about and we are just meant to apply it to ourselves and our feelings and enjoy it! It is comforting to know we aren't the only ones feeling a certain way!

  4. anonymous
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    Aug 19th 2011 !⃝

    My x was a man of lyrics.. He told me he liked the "beat" of this song!! Turns out there was a reason.. He was the love of my life the one he claimed he wanted to marry.He had my heart in his hands and he played it to the beat!!!! he ended up using cocaine and cheating on me with who knows how many woman.. The fact that he made it a point to tell me to listen to this song has my mind twisted!! He is the one who cheated so whey should he feel this way?? maybe its his was of dealing with his own guilt.. Someday he will look back and realize what he lost!!! he is a very angry person who controlled me, had attemped to get physical with me..
    He totally played me to the beat.. I think this song represents love, anger, hate, and drugs.
    I hear this song and it reminds me yeah we could have had it all but he messed up. he is gonna wish he never met me bc I will be holding my head high knowing I wasnt the one who threw it all away!!! he will get his someday!!!!
    I really do love this song!! Now I see him for who he really is.. "go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your ship bare"He is talking about me spreading rumors, but I have no story to be told, but he sure as hell does!!!
    This song is AWESOME!!!!!

  5. anonymous
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    Aug 15th 2011 !⃝

    i think rolling in the deep is when you are so close to having love and hence the phrase we could of had it all. i think when she says rolling in the deep she means going in to deep love hence again rolling in the deep= rolling in deep love. when she says you had my heart inside of your hand means she thought she could have all her love in his hand like her love will always be there for him. finally when she said you played it to the beat she means you did all your tricks and fooled around with me and was not serious and she was done with him :) thanks for reading

  6. anonymous
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    Aug 15th 2011 !⃝

    i think rolling in the deep is when you are so close to having love and hence the phrase we could of had it all. i think when she says rolling in the deep she means going in to deep love hence again rolling in the deep= rolling in deep love. when she says you had my heart inside of your hand means she thought she could have all her love in his hand like her love will always be there for him. finally when she said you played it to the beat she means you did all your tricks and fooled around with me and was not serious and she was done with him :) thanks for reading

  7. Gabrielle Van De Velde
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    Aug 12th 2011 !⃝

    The phrase and song name "Rolling in the Deep" I believe refers to the way alligators kill their prey... taking their victim into deep water and using a 'death roll' to drown it then consume it piece by piece - "See how I'll leave, with every piece of you".

    (From Wikipedia... Alligators consume food that can not be eaten in one bite by biting and then spinning or convulsing wildly until bite-size chunks are torn off. This is referred to as a "death roll.")

  8. anonymous
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    Jul 24th 2011 !⃝

    This song is about Adele's breakup with the man she loved. Now that their relationship is over, she realizes that he was never a good person to begin with, and that she will make him pay for how he treated her. The song comes out of her anger about the breakup. Also, the term "rolling in the deep" comes from the British expression "roll deep", which means to have someones back and be there for them no matter what (Adele said so herself). When she says "We could have had it all, rolling in the deep", she means that their relationship was great and they had the kind of relationship where they were trusting and caring with one another ("rolling in the deep") until he ended things.

  9. anonymous
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    Jul 22nd 2011 !⃝

    "You played it to the beat" is a wonderful play on words...there's the beat of the heart, the beat of the song, and of course the fixed expression which means 'really precisely.' Although, the expression probably comes from one of those anyway!

    Anyway, that's what's happening here...she's been manipulated in her heart, she's been manipulated as a matter of course in the 'song' of his life, and she's been manipulated through and through--layers and layers of meaning!

  10. Jenny Gill
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    Jul 21st 2011 !⃝

    think the man she is in love with is abusive to her and the drop's of water represent her tear's and all the breaking glass could mean fighting.
    just my opinion.
    i love her voice finally something different so sick of everyting sounding the same :)

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 18th 2011 !⃝

    "There's a fire starting in my heart,
    Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out of the dark"
    -To me, this means she is becoming angry, and her anger is taking away her sadness. (bringing her out the dark)
    ("Reaching a fever pitch" seems like a warning that she is about to become extremely angry.)

    "Finally, I can see you crystal clear."
    -Finally she sees him for what he is. A d-bag.

    "Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your sh*t bare."
    -A warning to him that if he tries to spread stories about her (sell her out), that she will, in turn, lay out all his secrets and air his dirty laundry. She's almost daring him to sell her out so she CAN do worse to him.

    "See how I leave, with every piece of you..."
    - She is telling him to pay attention, as she leaves the relationship with everything that was good in his life, what little dignity, he may have had left. She being the best part of him(?)

    "Don't underestimate the things that I will do."
    - Again, she is warning him, not to screw with her again, and not to be a fool and think she will take any more sh*t from him. She's making it clear she WILL seek revenge.

    "The scars of your love, remind me of us.
    They keep me thinking that we almost had it all...
    The scars of your love, they leave me breathless...
    I can't help feeling...
    We could have had it all..."
    -Self explanatory. All the memories they shared, good and bad, remind her they could have made it, lived happily ever after, etc.

    "Rolling in the deep"
    My interpretation of this is that he's going to be sinking (rolling) in the sh*t storm she is about to cause for him.

    "Your had my heart... (you're gonna wish you)... Inside of your hand (Never had met me)
    And you played it... (Tears are gonna fall)... To the beat (Rolling in the deep)"
    -He had her love, her heart, all of her and yet he played her. The whole time her heart was beating for him, he was playing her(?)

    "Baby I have no story to be told,
    But I've heard one of you and I'm gonna make your head burn"
    -She has done nothing wrong, nothing that would soil her reputation, he on the other hand...has. And she is saying she is going to use that to cause him stress, anxiety, regret, etc.

    "Think of me in the depths of your despair.
    Making a home down there, as mine sure won't be shared."
    -When he realizes what an idiot he was for causing their relationship to end, treating her so bad and playing her, she wants him to think of her, and what he lost. She wants him to get used to that heartbroken feeling ("home") because he will no longer be welcome in her life ("home")




    "Throw your sorrow through every open door" -Take his emptiness and try and fill it by being with other women (another woman = "open door", throw himself at others...)

    "Count your blessings to find what you look for"
    -She's telling him to pick up whatever bits of his life he has left and go find whatever it is he thinks he wanted when he was with her, that he apparently didn't think she was giving him.

    "Turn my sorrow into treasured gold (Whoa)
    And pay me back in kind- You'll reap just what you sow."
    -Not too sure about the first part.



    I feel like "Rolling in the deep" is her way of telling him she is about to rain a sh*t storm down on him, for what he has done to her, and he'll soon be rolling in sh*t.

    Nikki

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 18th 2011 !⃝

    I had a feeling that my husband really enjoy this song. But his wished leaving me could be so easy. This song is so sad.

  13. anonymous
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    Jul 17th 2011 !⃝

    She is a jilted lover. In her mind it was perfect and had he just followed her path everything would have been perfect. (we could have had it all).

    He dumped her and now that she sees there is no chance, she has set her heart on revenge: (There's a fire starting in my heart, Reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out of the dark).


    Now she begins plotting, saying 'hit me with your best shot' cause I'm coming after you: (Finally, I can see you crystal clear. Go ahead and sell me out and I'll lay your ship bare. See how I leave, with every piece of you Don't underestimate the things that I will do.)


    He may be bad mouthing her, but she's got dirt on him and she is going to use it to destroy him / burn in hell: (Baby I have no story to be told,But I've heard one of you and I'm gonna make your head burn. Think of me in the depths of your despair. Making a home down there, as mine sure won't be shared.)

    She has become a Revenge Stalker and her goal is to destroy him by any means necessary. She's a real bunny burner (like in the movie 'Fatal Attraction').

  14. anonymous
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    Jul 12th 2011 !⃝

    Second, you think this is a "no-love song" between two people? Think again. We see only the singer, the remaining are just symbols. Why then don't show the "jerk"? Because there is no such person, she is not speaking about a person.

    The video is full of symbolism. The big old house, the covered painting/map, the empty house, the blind dancer, the thousand glasses of water, and the thousand of broken cups/dishes, the scale city, the fireworks, the zodiac signs in the walls, etc.

    I'll explain just two essential symbols. First there is no house with such exaggerated amount of glasses of water, nor with such amount of broken cups/dishes. So, its not a house. its an analogy. As you can see there is a scale city inside this "big house". Got it?

    The glasses with water present young people, fresh mind people that see all clear, and all of them beat at the same time with this "music" because all of them see/feel the same.

    The broken cups that continue being broken day to day, represent old people that is disillusioned or just monetary broke.

    I wont go over the other symbols that are complementary but not relevant to understand the real meaning.

    So, practically, the message is "XXXXXXX, you got it all, but now you are rolling in the deep".

    Listen the song again under this new light, do it makes more sense now? :)

    Have a nice day!

  15. anonymous
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    Jul 12th 2011 !⃝

    Adele described the song title's meaning to Rolling Stone as an, "adaptation of a kind of slang, slur phrase in the UK called 'roll deep,' which means to have someone, always have someone that has your back, and you're never on your own, if you're ever in trouble you've always got someone who's going to come and help you fight it or whatever like that. And that's how I felt in the relationship that the record's about, especially 'Rolling in the Deep.' That's how I felt, you know, I thought that's what I was always going to have, and um, it ended up not being the case."




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