| Propagandhi – Back To The Motor League Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I would like to clarify some things in the debate about the meaning of this song and add in some of my own views. "I like to party fucking hard. I like my rock and roll the same. Don't give a fuck if I burn out. Don't give a fuck if I fade away." -- I am not sure what to make of this line. Chris may be speaking sarcastically... "So back to the Motor-League with me before I'm forced to face the wrath of a well-heeled buying public who live vicariously through tortured-artist college-rock and floor-punching macho pabulum." -- According to some of the posts below, Chris used to work at a travel agency called the Motor League in his hometown. He would apparently prefer to work there than feel pressure from record executives to sell "music" to a decadent population with too much extra spending money and nothing to do (which is what many "sensitive artists", "indie" bands, and what are according to Chris intellectually devoid New England hardcore bands). "Back to the Motor League I go. Once thought I drew a lucky hand. Turned out to be a live grenade of play-acting "anarchists" and Mommy's-little-skinheads, death-threats and sycophants and wieners drunk on straight-edge." -- Chris thought he got lucky when he discovered the punk scene, but it turned out that many people involved participated without substance. Not just little kids but people of all ages get into stupid movements because they are bored or feel the need to belong; oftentimes, this is accompanied by totalizing systems of thought that eliminate the individual's ability to think critically and independently. "Fuck off. Who cares? I'd rather hi-lite Trip-Tiks than listen to your bullshit. Fuck off. Who cares about your stupid scenes, your shitty zines, the straw-men you build up to burn." -- According to the below posts, Trip-Tiks are the maps travel agencies give you so you know where you are driving (in the days before Google maps and smartphones). Also, the straw men burning line is a reference to the Burning Man Festival. It began as an unsanctioned gathering of artists in the desert but has since become a part of the system in two ways: its growing popularity means many people attend because it is trendy, and because it is officially regulated by local and state laws which allow the authorities to control the event. "It never ceases to amaze me and as I'm suffering your perfection it reminds me of my own race to redress my own sad history of mouthed feet. Eaten hats. Teated bulls. Amish phone-books. Drunken brawls." -- Don't forget, Chris (he says to himself), you too have plenty of regretted statements and things you said were impossible but happened anyway. His life is full of contradictions and shortcomings he is constantly dealing with. "But what have we here? 15 years later it still reeks of ‘Swill and Chickenshit Conformists with their fists in the air; like-father, like-son "rebels” bloated on korn, eminems and bizkits." -- Best line of the song! 15 years after what? Two things. First, Propagandhi formed in 1986, fifteen years before this album was released. Second, Dead Kennedys released Bedtime for Democracy in 1986, which featured songs like “Triumph of the Swill”, “Chickenshit Conformists”, and “Anarchy for Sale”, all of which expressed lament for the corporate direction punk was moving (i.e. punk was being co-opted into the capitalist system by major labels and moderate politics). Chris obviously believes that nu metal and other mainstream rock music is just the latest incarnation of "government music". "Lord, hear our prayer: take back your Amy Grant mosh-crews and your fair-weather politics." -- This line criticizes christian hardcore bands with a reference to the "The Queen of Christian Pop". "Blow-dry my hair and stick me on a ten-speed. Back to the Motor League. I guess life is just a popularity contest. Success, the ability to perform within a framework of obedience. Just ask the candy-coated Joy-Cam rock-bands selling shoes for venture-capitalists, silencing competing messages, rounding off the jagged edges." -- A Joy-Cam is an easy to use Polaroid camera that prints instant photos; the metaphor here is that government music bands just crank out "hits", which are essentially carbon copies of each other, unoriginal and vacuous. Silencing competing messages means marginalizing critical voices so people primarily hear messages approved by the system; rounding off the edges is a metaphor that means making something smooth, reducing friction, and making something "pleasant" or non-confrontational. "Today is good day to die." -- Just see the Wikipedia entry on this quote. This song is so awesome. |
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| Propagandhi – Iteration Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| To compare my interpretations of "Iteration" and "Purina Hall of Fame", see http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858565166/ | |
| Propagandhi – Iteration Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I see a few comments I agree with and a few I disagree with, even if we all agree that this song kicks ass. I would like to synthesize this discussion and add my own perspective about the back story of the song and about the ending. Punkpirate is correct that this song is about Donald Rumsfeld being tried for war crimes for his participation in the Afghan and Iraq wars (see his/her post - it is good!). But what I would like to point out is that he is included with a whole other group of people as war profiteers: "He’s nothing more than a number on a docket thick with shareholders, engineers, PR firms, politicians: war-profiteers." If we focus too much on the biopic of Rumsfeld, we miss the larger statement about the systemic causes of war and imperialism, which include technocrats, capitalists, and perhaps just the average worker who is either unreflective about, and so unaware of, their complicity in this type of system, or aware of it but feels compelled to keep "doing the job" because one must eat, pay the bills, feed the kids, etc. For example, an engineer sent to Iraq to rebuild the nation stands to make a lot of money. Is he or she a war profiteer? I mean, they did materially benefit from a war; one might say they got paid because the lives of others were destroyed. Such an engineer either doesn't understand or doesn't care that this is the context in which they are making money. Ultimately, it is about more than Rumsfeld - it is about the complex relations between financial institutions, the state, the military, and business interests (the military-industrial complex), which all drive international conflict and imperialism. As far as Rumsfeld and understanding his complicity in the system, Chris implies that he understands and doesn't care, defending himself with a laughable response of "I didn't know": "the laughter from the gallery drowns out these vestiges of a profession’s oldest defense. The court will direct the record to reflect compliments from the bench; you sir, are central casting’s crowning achievement." He is thus sentence to clean up the desert of the landmines he sent there. As for the ending, as some have pointed out, the lyrics read, "Time and tide, no one can anticipate the inevitable waves of change", but the Chris only sings, "Time and tide, no one can anticipate the inevitable waves of..." He never says change; the guitar solo just comes in and replaces the vocals. Some have said this is an optimistic ending, but I disagree. The lyrics read "inevitable waves" of change but change never comes in the song. When you hear it, you wonder what comes after "of" and you look up the lyrics. You see "change" on paper, you expect change to come, but it doesn't. Instead of saying "change", the lead guitar comes in and replaces the vocals; for the rest of the song, the only change is the lead guitar, while the rhythm guitar, drums and bass stay the same, unchanged. The guitar solo is shouting for change but the underlying structures of the song (and of society) are unimpeded. Metaphorically, it doesn't matter how much or how loud you shout, because just as a lead guitar doesn't alter the accompaniment, talking changes nothing. It is more difficult to change things than it seems. And the song just fades out with no change at all. Whereas Propagandhi's previous album, Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes ends with a relatively optimistic lyric/solo combo, Potemkin City Limits ends more disheartened, possibly signaling the onset of pessimism that is depicted by the photo of "Greg Lambert" in a robe, on a mattress, with a shotgun in the liner notes of the album. As with everyone else, I get chills when I listen to his song because it lays out a great vision of the future; however, I think that great vision is undermined by a pessimistic turn in the last moments of the track, reminding us that "Iteration" is also just a speculative fiction. |
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| Propagandhi – Iteration Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| This song may not be as positive as you think - see my comment above. | |
| Propagandhi – Purina Hall Of Fame Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I am very impressed by the discussion here! I have learned a lot about this song from reading. I will here just attempt a synthesis of some of the more salient points below, and add a few ideas of my own. It seems as though there are at least three ways to read this song: first, based on the interview Whitey666 posted; second, based on the explicit meaning of the lyrics; and third, as an analogy for human society. First, based on the interview, it seems as though Propagadhi is highlighting the disparity between how society treats animals who save humans (from fires, drowning, etc.) and how society treats humans who try to save animals (from factory farming, slaughter, etc.). The animals are "rewarded" for their acts while the humans are seen as terrorists who should be punished. While these treatments are different, they are both produced by the needs of the status quo: animals saving humans reaffirms humans' superior status (or at least perpetuates the survival of the human species) while the animal liberator must be punished for disrupting business, destroying property, and causing disorder. Second, based on the lyrics: I generally agree with Whitey666 on this one. I even agree with the interpretation of the solo, except I would like to add one thing. Guitar solos, as they made their way into rock from blues/jazz, worked as an expressions of spontaneity - unpredictable, free, and in a sense, chaotic. This particular rippin' solo, I think, expresses the chaos caused by the bomb going off (or to widen the reading, the disorder caused by radical social action). [The ending to this song is the ending of the album, and it seems somewhat optimistic. Propagandhi ends their next album, Potemkin City Limits, with the song "Iteration", which seems to be a much more pessimistic ending. For my interpretation of that ending, see http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858565166/]. Third, reading the song as a metaphor for human society (at least North American/European society). Much of what has already been said can be imported here, but one difference is how Purina as a corporation works: it doles out trivial prizes to obedient, loyal subjects (the pets who save humans), while at the same time mass producing animals in factory farms purely for the purpose of slaughter. Purina praises with one hand and murders with the other, just like the capitalists/the state/colonial power/insert your preferred oppressor. Furthermore, honoring pets creates the illusion that Purina is a "good company" and distracts from their true business model - slaughter.And Todd points out in that interview that "Purina is a company that feed animal parts to other animals." I think the same can be said of the US government (and probably others), that its acts of praise masks its acts of cruelty, and that those in power use people against others to maintain the system (war, wage labor, racism, sexism, neocolonialism, homophobia, etc.). So it is not necessarily the song that is a metaphor for human society, but the description of Purina in the song that is the metaphor (on this reading). |
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| Propagandhi – Purina Hall Of Fame Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I would also add that Chris has said in other places (for example, the liner notes from Potemkin City Limits) that how we treat animals shapes the way we treat others. Besides, Propagandhi is too smart to write a one-dimensional song; it is likely meant to be about animals on the surface and about human relations in the subtext. | |
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