The Dream Is Over

Sounds to me like someone who has nothing trying to hustle their way out of their situation. Down & out, so the question is: do you go by the system and slowly scrape together a living, or make some $$ much more quickly, but illegally. Either way, the odds are against you in the long run. This dream is over.

Could be wrong.. that's how I read it.

i think its pretty obvious. The song is about a generation who was always told that all they need to do is work hard and they will succeed, but in a world where employment is often very hard to come by (especially for teens), easy money is the only option. Easy money, A way out, Join the family. No middle man No IRS

^ obviously talking about gang life.

The dream is just that life will go smoothly and you just need to be good to succeed

About the selling out of the Baby Bookm generation.

No. This is a song about the end of the decadance of the 1980s and the economic downfall of 1990/1991, thus the phrases "we're stepped on and cheated" and "we're flat stonecold lied to." But the song is also talking about how a "self-made business man knows how the system can be beat," perhaps an allusion to self-made millionaires like Bill Gates. One of Van Halen's best songs with Sammy Hagar, showing the wild guitar playing prevalent in earlier songs such as Unchained, albeit with a newer sound, not the "brown sound."

The second song on the album about the economic difficulties of being in a world-famous rock band making millions of dollars.