" The Middle " was written after Jimmy Eat World had been dropped from Capitol Records after their previous album '' Clarity '' had been released . Their second album '' Static Prevails '' had sold just 10,000 copies in 1996 and Capitol Records decided to drop the band in 1999 due to a change in priorities . Singer/guitarist Jim Adkins explained to the '' Dallas Observer '' : " We were just about invisible there and it was n't going to get any better . " " The Middle " reflects these trying times for the band with lyrics about " Do n't write yourself off yet " when feeling " left out or looked down on . " The band decided to finance the recording of the album and decided to keep things simple on the new record rather than experiment , as they had done on previous records . " On our new stuff , rather than challenging ourselves by getting real experimental , we kind of went in the other direction , challenging ourselves by getting very simple . " Once completed , Jimmy Eat World took '' Bleed American '' to record companies and was signed to DreamWorks Records . '' Bleed American '' was released in the middle of 2001 with the title track as the lead single . However , following the September 11 attacks the album 's title was changed to '' Jimmy Eat World '' and the lead single failed to win airplay , although it reached the top 20 of the '' Billboard '' Hot Modern Rock Tracks
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
The Middle (Jimmy Eat World song)