Bedbugs And Ballyhoo

Golgotha, just because people haven't commented on the songs doesn't mean people haven't LOOKED at the lyrics. Thanks for putting them in!

This song is saying that sometimes you find yourself having to take the subservient role, to have to get down on your knees or to say please for something. Sometimes you have to lower your head and take it, and it sucks but, "that's the way the thunder rumbles/bee bumbles" (he avoids saying "... cookie crumbles" but that's what we think of because of the rhyme.)

The stuff about buffalo/bison--rifle/cannonball is about hunting animals in the wild. sometimes innocent animals get shot by hunters, and that's the way the thunder rumbles. i don't know if cannonballs are used for hunting, but it fits in with the rhythm better than, say, "bullet".

kanagaroo/chipmunk, and bedbugs/ballyhoo. bedbugs and ballyhoo are opposites. bedbugs means poverty, uncleanliness. Ballyhoo means opulence, extravagance. Kangaroo and chipmunk are kinda opposites in that there's a big size difference. kangaroo happens to rhyme somewhat with ballyhoo; otherwise a better opposite might have been "elephant" or "hippopatamus". That verse might mean: sometimes things good happen, sometimes things bad happen. Hard times, rich times: either way you get what you get, that's the way the bee bumbles.

It's a depressing song about the inevitability of hard times and humility, disguised ironically as a fun, upbeat tune with animals in it.

All four of the animals named here are native to countries that the United Kingdom colonized, but not to the UK itself. That doesn't seem like a coincidence.

The British arrived with guns in those countries and used the guns to dominate the locals (on their knees). They also hunted those animals with guns.

There's a distinct, but not very elaborate, comment negative on the British colonization of North America and Australia.

The voice behind "that's the way the thunder rumbles ... bee bumbles" is downplaying the evils of that, an ironic dismissal that the song doesn't espouse.

Drugs innit?

An interviewer asked McCulloch why he used so many animals in his songs and Ian responded that animal names were handy when he couldn't think of a word. Ha. I don't know if Ian says things like that because they're true or he just doesn't want to delve into lyric explanations. I suspect it may be a combo of both.

I HATE GOLGOTHA!!! who's with me??!!