Standing On The Corner Of The Third World

A beautiful song. If not the best on The seeds... To me, it are words from a wise man in a third world country who describes the life there.

The last lines followed by the instrumental part always make me cry.

This is such a great song! To me, it seems to be getting across about someone who had been ahead in life, but has recently and slowly been delving into the third world. Of course nothing is mentioned about how this person has ended up in the third world country, but the reason I think this is because the writer sometimes references the others in the country as "them" and sometimes as "us" or "we", acknowledging that they are one with the people of the third world country, yet sometimes separating themselves from them. When the lyrics are "Dreaming I was safe in life" could possibly be the person thinking back to when they were in a secure living situation. I find the lyric "Hungry men will close their minds/Ideas are not their food/Notions fall on stony ground/Where passions are subdued" interesting. Personally I see these lines as comparing first world countries to third world countries. People in first world countries will think up any silly idea that others are willing to buy if it can make them a buck. They keep their minds open to things that could be ideas. In the end, their ideas are virtually what is putting food on the table for them, giving them an opportunity to live a little since they have a chance to do so. However, in this third world country, food is food. They aren't thinking up some scheme to make money, they are working for the necessities, for example, food, water, shelter, etc. I think in the end the writer knows their fate which is, he is dying. He cannot survive in the conditions and knows it is a very real possibility that he could die at anytime, later, tomorrow, a week from today, etc.

Such a wonderful song. Really makes one stop to think about their life from where they stand. I love the intensity of the music at the end. It almost seems as if the narrator in the song is dying right then. Just superb! Fantastic as always Roland!