This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Sick city, yeah, restless people
From the sick city burnt their houses down
To make the sky look pretty
What can I do, I'm just a person
This is the line we always seem to hear
You just sit, things get worse
And watch TV and drink your beer
Walking all alone
Not going anywhere
Nobody seemed to care
Restless as the wind
This town is killing me
Got to put an end to this restless misery
I'm just one of those restless people
Can never seem to be satisfied
With living in this sick old sick old
Sick city
It may be too late for me to say goodbye
And I might be too late
To watch this sick old city die
Going on the road
Yeah I'm gonna try
To say sick city so long farewell
And die
From the sick city burnt their houses down
To make the sky look pretty
What can I do, I'm just a person
This is the line we always seem to hear
You just sit, things get worse
And watch TV and drink your beer
Walking all alone
Not going anywhere
Nobody seemed to care
Restless as the wind
This town is killing me
Got to put an end to this restless misery
I'm just one of those restless people
Can never seem to be satisfied
With living in this sick old sick old
Sick city
It may be too late for me to say goodbye
And I might be too late
To watch this sick old city die
Going on the road
Yeah I'm gonna try
To say sick city so long farewell
And die
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What the fuck do you think it means?
I think it's about how we're killing the world and just sitting by knowing it's happening but "What can we do? We're just people". The reason for it being a sick city is because it's the cities that are the most polluted. And everyone in them is too blame so they're the sick people.
the song is about society in all. see charlie, as well as the whole manson family, were completely exposed to the full effects of marijuana and LSD. in so they saw many flaws in society and, so they saw it, great wars would come and before charlie got to the point of taking action to win the world from the jews, blacks, government, corperation, etc. he looked for release from such a "Sick City" hence the lyrc "..gotta put an end to this restless misery..." and in the end its almost like a suicide message saying hes gonna try to say goodbye. this is by far my favorite charles manson song. but i've only been able to find marilyn manson's version. but when i listen to it i can see and hear straight through the "honorable" brian Warner and hear charlie himself. its realy powerful. -thank you
suicide.this guy shouold have taken up a hobby.
I love it. I always felt so out of place and lost before I read about Charles Manson a few years ago... He believes in everything I do, about humans destroying the planet and killing life... and this song pretty much sums it all up. Eventually giving up, bring so helpless, a minority... You cant do anything about it, but you can leave it all behind...
I didnt know that Marilyn Manson covered this...
Devendra Banhart's first album Oh Me Oh My... is a worthy successor to this album. Check it out.