Holiday

Alright, So everyone is arguing about this song being anti-bush/war/american. How bout we work backwards and find out?

The first stanza is a direct reference to the wars going on right now. Many famous seers have suggested a prediction that the end of the world will come after or during World War III. So, the line "Hear the sound of the falling rain, coming down like an Armageddon flame" could mean that the war Bush has started might cause unfixable damage to the world. "The shame, the ones who died without a name" is referring to everyone who's fallen victim of the political battles that the power-hungry country leaders pull us into. All the soldiers, all the victims of the terrorist attacks - they all "died without a name". Starting a war is never the right answer ("Trials by fire setting fire...").

Holiday could be considered an anti-Bush song to a certain extent. The author shows his disgust towards the power-hungry president who will destroy anything that confronts him "Pulverize the Eiffel towers who criticize your government. Bang, bang! goes the broken glass, kill all the fags that don't agree"). No matter what, the diplomacy of the gov't is directly related to what the president does...so if he launches a war and this song is anti-war...so this song indirectly would bash bush.

The song also shows different sides of the political fence - the line "Another protester has crossed the line to find the money is on the other side" is criticizing Democrats ("There's one line that sort of messes with the liberals a little, too, where it says, 'Hear the drum pounding out of time, another protester crosses the line to find the money's on the other side'" - Armstrong). People only care about self-interests (like money) and not the consequences of politics.

The Bridge is also very good. "Zieg Heil to the president gasman" really means that the rep of Cali (represents liberalism movement) is trying to show salvation to Bush. It's a funny satire of the gov't and how we tried to handle our problems. In the end, he says we are "outlaws" because we are hypocritical and break our own rules when it comes to being a good country with honest intentions.

FINALLY, the chorus sums it up. Billy says he "begs to dream and differ from the hollow lies." In short, he is disgusted how America follows blind lies and wants to break out. This is very hard though since you would try to argue with a brick wall who is stubborn. This line also takes a jab at our gov't for all the ill-concieved actions they wanted everyone to support like starting this war. At first most of us said lets go kill Sadam and terrorism...but now we really see what we are fighting. "This is the dawning of our lives on holiday" is the best point of the song. It literally said everything the song points at: Oblivious America. We lived our lives not really paying attention to what really happens everyday or who we vote for. In turn, our politics are the same way. If you are on holiday you are away from your work and you also are more care free; This sums up our attitude when it comes to politics. We blindly vote or are misguided/lied to and we never take a chance to GO TO WORK and GET OFF BREAK BY LOOKING AT OUR COUNTRY. And it's all because we are on holiday...when should we come back?

Also, people wonder how this songs fit into the opera. Part of the album story
: Jimmy breaks free and finally leaves his dead-end town. Now he's entering the City and is obviously extremely excited about it. He's on holiday, he's starting a new life. He thinks that now he's free but really can't see what's going on (refers to America in the 21st century and how we are misguided or lied to). Blvd of Broken Dreams then goes into the depression of Jimmy of the realization of his life (i.e. American society).