Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
I have the tapes
I have the plan of a clockwork man
He was happy to walk
Where I always ran
When I'm orchestrated, automated, decimated, regulated
From three folls' creek
From underground by a despot man and a clown
If you choose to walk instead with a clockwork man
Map of warm roads in his concrete hand
Tell me, does he miss reeling?
Does he miss falling?
Can he take you where the boom bands play?
When you're underground
Can he read the sounds
And chase the Hakken-Kraks away?
I have the plan of a clockwork man
He was happy to walk
Where I always ran
When I'm orchestrated, automated, decimated, regulated
From three folls' creek
From underground by a despot man and a clown
If you choose to walk instead with a clockwork man
Map of warm roads in his concrete hand
Tell me, does he miss reeling?
Does he miss falling?
Can he take you where the boom bands play?
When you're underground
Can he read the sounds
And chase the Hakken-Kraks away?
Lyrics submitted by APigInACage
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I believe this song is about one's heart becoming numb after being broken too many times (or perhaps just one). There's this guy that doesn't fall in love out of fear, thus he never gets his heart broken. He always keeps his cool, he walks ("I always ran") through warm roads, he doesn't fall, he is in fact like a clockwork man. He is always in control.
In the last strophe the methods of this clockwork man are questioned. Yeah, he never gets hurt, he never falls, but, doesn't he miss that? Doesn't he miss loving at the risk of getting hurt? Doesn't he miss losing control? Because love, my friends, is all about losing control. Can he really take "you" (some girl, I imagine) where the boombands play? Can he show the beautiful things in life being the way he is (all numb)? I believe not.
I don't know if I made myself clear, English is not my mother tongue and I always have a hard time trying to be clear. I think I just repeated the lyrics. Well, I hope you get my point. Great song by way. And remember, loving is always worth the risk of falling.
@Abel Tumacácori I think you're on to something. Except this is applicable to more than just love. It's a man who generally doesn't take risks in his life but lives by routine, only ever doing what he knows and is instructed to do by some authority (orchestrated, automated, decimated, regulated). And that way yeah he might not fall, but he never discovers the Seussian magic in this world.