In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Thank God for how I'm learning how to live
That's the ticket
That's the way of the world
That's the spirit
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
I'm going to hit you with a 2 x 4
Johnny Rotten hit me upside the head with a billy club
He also knocked me to the ground
He also shot me with his BB gun
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
I'm going to hit you with a 2 x 4
The electric eel shocked the hell out of me
He also blew me out of the water
He did, thanks to his ass
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
I'm going to hit you with a 2 x 4
Pontiac, we build excitement
That's the ticket
That's the way of the world
That's the spirit
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
I'm going to hit you with a 2 x 4
Johnny Rotten hit me upside the head with a billy club
He also knocked me to the ground
He also shot me with his BB gun
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
I'm going to hit you with a 2 x 4
The electric eel shocked the hell out of me
He also blew me out of the water
He did, thanks to his ass
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
2 x 4
I'm going to hit you with a 2 x 4
Pontiac, we build excitement
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
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Many years ago I heard this song, and I was in anguish, struggling to find out what it meant.
Years later, I went to Wal-Mart, and this man who looked familiar came up to me and talked to me for like 15 minutes about this song, 2x4 by Wesley Willis. This person, I later realized, after checking The Shrine when I returned home, was in fact, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus H. Christ, In The Holy Flesh. Later I was diagnosed with Prosopagnosia, but anyway.
This song, as Our Lord and Savior, Jesus H. Christ, In The Holy Flesh told me at Wal-Mart during our fifteen minute conversation about 2x4 by Wesley Willis, is about religious hypocrisy. "Thank God for how I'm learning how to live," he says, followed soon thereafter by, "I'm going to hit you with a 2x4." Of course, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus H. Christ, In The Holy Flesh, Whom I Met At Wal-Mart, teaches us not to be violent, "hit[ting]... with a 2x4" included.
However, Wesley Willis, thanks to the aforementioned vision of God, has a spiritual awakening. He is shown visions that expose to him his own violent nature, visions of himself beating people up with 2x4s, and is appalled by his violent nature. When he says that the electric eel "shocked" him later on, this is a double entendre. Not only did the electric eel physically hurt him, but the violence surprised him, and shook him into a different, religious perspective in which he opposes violence. This is why, in the next verse, Johnny Rotten, Of Punk Fame, Whom My Daughter Met At Target, is beating him up. Punk music is what caused Willis' violent nature, and like Satan, it is only hurting himself. In the first verse, he thanks the Holy Spirit for this vision. We know this because he says, "that's the spirit." Punk music, as everyone knows, is satanic and violent, and therefore caused his violent nature. It only bit him in the "ass," so to speak.
In the final verse, Willis employs aquatic imagery, very common in the Bible (from Jesus walking on water, to Jesus turning water into wine, etc.) to represent his metaphorical baptism. That is why he is "blown out of the water," not back onto land, but into a higher plane of spiritual understanding. We know this because he says the eel "shocked the HELL out of him." Not only, then, would he be blown the opposite direction of Hell, towards Heaven, but also be rid of his Satanic, violent urges like before.
I cant believe nobody has commented on this!