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ReJoyce Lyrics

Chemical change like a laser beam
You've shattered the warning amber light
Make me warm
Let me see you moving everything over
Smiling in my room
You know you'll be inside of my mind soon.

There are so many of you.
White shirt and tie, white shirt and tie,
White shirt and tie, wedding ring, wedding ring.

Mulligan stew for Bloom,
The only Jew in the room
Saxon's sick on the holy dregs
And their constant getting throw up on his leg.

Molly's gone to blazes,
Bolan's crotch amazes
Any woman whose husband sleeps with his head
All buried down at the foot of his bed.

I've got his arm
I've got his arm
I've had it for weeks
I've got his arm
Stephen won't give his arm
To no gold star mother's farm;
War's good business so give your son
And I'd rather have my country die for me.

Sell your mother for a Hershey bar
Grow up looking like a car
There are;
All you want to do is live,
All you want to do is give but
Some how it all falls apart!
Song Info
Submitted by
kirwar4face On Jul 23, 2002
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Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane

Original lyrics by Grace Slick. These lyrics are undoubtably inaccurate, but are just as accurate as the lyrics usually found on the web, which, if my information is correct, come from the lyric sheet of the original After Bathing at Baxter's LP. This version of the lyrics corrects some errors of that lyric sheet and perhaps introduces others. I'll update whenever I have what seems to be a more accurate version of such and such a line in the song. I welcome all comments.

Alternate lyrics: 1)The phrase I render as "Animal eyes" is usually rendered as "Amber light". This seems just as likely. 2) "The only Jew"...I always heard this as "The only two in the room", which I assumed meant Bloom and Molly, but "Jew" is too apt and provocative a lyric to be doubted.

Notes on the song: As most people know, the song is based on the novel Ulysses by James Joyce, with what looks like personal and political commentary by Slick. (Leopold) Bloom, his wife Molly, Stephen (Dedalus) and Blazes Boylan (a crush of Molly's) are characters from the novel. (Not having read the novel, I have no idea whose arm Stephen's got...or is it Molly who's got it?)

Saxon-sick: as sick as a Saxon, a Saxon or Sassanach being the epitome of crudeness to a Celt. The verse reputedly refers to Bloom's fondness for cunnilingus, the "holy dregs" being menstrual fluid.

"War's good business" : short form of a popular antiwar bumpersticker slogan that had just come into vogue at the time the song was written (1967?):" War is good business: invest your son." Exactly how this ties in with Ulysses is unclear, but Slick nails it to the wall and makes it sing.

That's all I know about this song right now.

@kirwar4face Saxon probably refers to Haines "How long is Haines going to stay in this tower? Buck Mulligan showed a shaven cheek over his right shoulder. —God, isn’t he dreadful? he said frankly. A ponderous Saxon."

Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane

The line "Wars good business" is taken directly from Ulysses.

Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane

Like so many of Grace's songs during this time, and like Ulysses itself, it's a fairly stream of consciousness prose, in this case critique about societal norms and mainstream culture. Lyric is not accurate in many cases, like; "go out looking like a star", should be "grow up looking like a car."

"War's good business so give your son and I'd rather have my country die for me" was and still is a fairly strong anti-war statement, based partly on JFK's slogan; "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

A fairly strong and cynical look at mainstream culture that Grace was very good at.

Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane

I was under the impression that these lyrics are a reinterpretation of the final “Penelope” chapter of Ulysses – the only chapter from the perspective of Molly, wherein her middle of the night musings are captured through punctuation-less stream of consciousness. That said, several of the lyrics come from other sections of the book , but Molly did say that when Leopold returned he recounted the events of his day to her. I reread the book last year and it wasn’t until near the end that I thought to consider how these lyrics fit in. I downloaded the book (for free) on a Kindle to search for phrases. Many of the lyrics seem to have no relation to the book – of course with the disclaimer that the book is so dense that I will admit that many allusion could have slipped by me. I couldn’t find any connections in the first 2 verses, - No white shirt and tie, no wedding ring, no chemical change. And later in the song… I can’t make any sense of the arm . The lyrics seem to capture more the spirit of the nocturnal stream of consciousness ramblings.
The connections I have come up with are : • The third verse seems to refer to the Cyclops chapter – wherein Leopold attempts to meet up with an acquaintance in a pub midafternoon and gets into a political discussion with a local denizen, who ends up airing anti-Semitic grievances (Bloom being a Jew) and attempts to assault him at the end. I don’t think Bloom ordered Mulligan Stew though. No throw-up that I recall. • As previously mentioned, Blazes Boylan is a guy who Molly having an affair with (no mere crush) which is central in the book. She has a rendezvous with him that afternoon, and Leopold is preoccupied with this throughout the day. Boylan is well endowed, according to Molly. • Leopold does sleep opposite Molly in their bed – with his head at the foot of the bed. • The gold star mothers farm I am guessing refers to Molly’s childhood in Gibraltar, but that is a guess. • I’d rather have my country die for me, was directly taken something Stephen said early in the book. • The references to mother in the final verse undoubtedly refers to Stephen’s mother who had died one month previous. Throughout the book, he reflects a lot on his mother, often with guilt. Hershey bar? Look like a car? No idea. • The ending of the song – “Somehow it all falls apart” is odd. The ending of the book is very positive and optimistic. Molly keeps repeating the word yes – presumably meaning a recommitment of her love to Leopold (although there are other interpretations).
I am sure I missed much, and would love to hear others’ views. For another interpretation of the book, see Kate Bush’s The Sensual World

Song Meaning
Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane

Chemical change- Have a bit of a freak out - Come back down.

Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane
  1. It's Stephen (Daedalus) not Steven.

  2. "I'd rather have my country die for me" is undoubtedly an anti-war statement and a reference to John F. Kennedy's "Ask not ... ", but also probably a reference to Stephen's declaration from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

“I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use -- silence, exile, and cunning.”

Cover art for ReJoyce lyrics by Jefferson Airplane

I've always thought, without knowing of course and having never read Joyce, that the first lines were: Pentacle chains - like a lace, You've shouted the warning - amber light, Needless to say, I've never been good at figuring out what many rock singers are actually saying. Thank goodness for the internet!

@princemarzmusic I always heard it as "chemical change like a laser beam you shouted the warning amber light"