Chemistry Class

I think he's trying to deal with being attracted to someone who, in painfully obvious ways, is different from yourself. He goes further and likens the process of accepting love from "unworthies" to the bargain we enter into when incarnating: It seems like an unlikely proposition that we would accept life on Earth with the death, destruction, disappointment, grief as a "learning experience"--a "chemistry class," but we do--which itself has to say something.

The "you" and "I" are the same - Elvis talking about some guy in first and third person. Taking orders from the kingpin - duh, talking about the male organ. Guy is a joker who tries to please people by goofing around, and fantasizes about the girl. Disappointed though - I thought it was "Beauty's not a virgin but you take it on the chin."

I think this is the age-old story of a sexual attraction to someone that you despise. Love-hate, but you can't have her as she is controlled by the "king-pin" (some other powerful man). The last stanza is the attraction part, even though you would like t put her in her place as she is irritating. Mixing two differing personalities (intelligent and spacious) but....the attraction can't be ignored. Great lyric.

She's controlled by society and it's views on beauty; maybe she is intelligent but she acts shallow and vapid to "please people" like herself. She has been rejected and scorned by different groups because of this, but she still can't figure it out. He has been led on by her, and is frustrated with her teasing and wants to provoke her enough to break out of her mold. I think he's trying to say that you don't have to sacrifice intelligence for beauty or acceptance.

To me, this song seems to be about an unwanted pregnancy:

"You've got a chemistry class I want a piece of your mind You don't know what you started when you mixed it up with mine" Mixing your chemistry together and having a child

"Are you ready for the final solution" = abortion

The phrase 'Final Solution' has exclusively Nazi connotations. Make of that what you will. I'm not sure I know what to make of it, except that given EC's predilection for imagery that toys with fascism (e.g. the song that follows it is 'Two Little Hitlers'), it might just be a rhetorical device.

One of my favorites from back in 11th and 12th grade school. For me as a teenager it spoke volumes as did the entire album. Its by-the-book sexual obsession with a classmate/co-worker. Some here have attributed this to actual co-mixing of chemical DNA, e.g.pregnancy and abortion, but I think EC had more of the hormonal story to tell here. I've read reviews that much of what EC was doing comprised a sort of emotional fascism that occurs in relationships (a fascinating concept, I think) -the quest for absolute power and control over others that manifests itself between a man and a woman and all the manipulations and coercion and possession and occupation (being taken over OR the job you've been given (see Oliver's Army). Young person's hormones as German Army on the march. Chemistry also continues that paranoid theme that runs through Armed Forces. So the the girl is shooting sparks and showing off her legs from across the classroom, but the narrator doesn't trust it just yet - he feels he's being subjected to a different kind of manipulation, but the end result is the same, she has no idea (or maybe she does) of what ideas she's awakened in the narrator: "you don't know what you started".

More play on words with the emotional fascism angle: "Are you ready for the final solution?" is not just the chemical result of two or more solutes in the classroom beaker, but of course, shipping off of political and ethnic undesirables to their deaths is a (satirical) device as as2191 says, to the narrators overwrought (and barely controllable) emotional reactions to his situation by saying "do we do this and get it over with" and break this tension? She'll never give him the satisfaction of a real yes or no, in his mind.

Now the music - starts with a slow-motion dreamy imagery (punctuated by Steve Nieve's movie soundtrack-like quality keys) that practically jumps out at you and continues the passion play you witness before tumbling into the 1960s style melodies.
This song, I believe, was a bookend to the other song on the album "Two Little Hitlers", as it further pushes the envelope of emotional fascism and relationship domination between two people struggling for control. Witness the gentle descending guitar note melody in the background at the end of "Chemistry" with EC 's echoing Fender Jazz guitar while he runs effects and the tremolo bar over top. Those same simple descending arpeggiated notes match identically to "Two Little Hitlers" while the chorus of "I will return, I will not burn" are sung over top.

Pure genius.