Lightning

i reckon it has something to do with the seediness of urban life. the opening verse sets a disgusting image of the cigarette smoke etc. then the greasy marionettes is implying people are like puppets to their "greasy" life. the elevator bit is like how people are never satisfied and always want more - 17 floors is fairly high but people still want to go higher and higher. the last bit shows a sort of longing for nature, somewhere horses flee from thunder, bones of a cat burried - its almost as if its implying that humans are destroying nature and will eventually destroy ourselves "wont be long to you and me are gone from here" meaning wont be long till we destroy ourselves. lightening on the ceiling...im not so sure about, maybe like implying how we've made an awesome thing like lightning into something for our convenience in the form of electricity and lights etc

I think biscuits4 is pretty close, at least, I see it similar to s/he does. The lines about losing vision influences me in this thinking. We've built a grimy city, with smooth talking dealers smoking cigs, people getting high only wanting to get higher (maybe with drugs, but also with any material thing, we're addicted to the idea of "more"). Also, the marionettes on Washington Square...I don't know if that's a more specific place, but one could say it represents Washington DC, and all the leaders are nothing but puppets to their greed and desires, but supposedly "real bone and blood" (sarcasm). Or, conversely, they're only acting like they care about the public, but it's all a big act, they really only care about themselves.

Then he diverts to a more natural setting, with horses running from thunder, and the human setting of a loved pet buried in a garden. This is real, but it's ruined by the emptiness on the radio (and tv, and modern life in general), and it's almost like the only thing there is to look forward to is when we'll be gone, dead.

I think you guys have it pretty much right on, good thinking. trippinbtm, Washington Square is a park in New York City. It's actually the park that the NYU campus surrounds, and I know one of the guys in Dispatch went to NYU (from that voice clip about the hockey team in Gut The Van... anyway...) NYC has always been the most disgusting, materialistic city to me, and I think biscuits4's interpretation of the song goes right along with the image of NYC in my mind.

Heh. Biscuits4 and Carpe_noctem interpreted this exactly as I had from the start.

This song, I don't know, really gets me. I love the version off "Who Are We Living For," and Gone really hurts too. But in a good way.

hey yall. i have no frickin idea what this song means. can someone help me out? zach

it maybe about drugs not sure though

he talks about dealers and getting high

i think its about drugs, prostitutes and just the truth about complicated city life... peace

i have a friend who's a lot more into dispatch than i am. he suggests that this song is about having sex in an elevator. could be wrong, though.

I'd just like to say that I see the "greasy marionettes" as prostitutes. They're the puppets of their pimps, and of course they can't exactly be particularly clean.

Biscuits4, and Carpe_noctem, have it pretty right on, i think!

Good job... anyone else have any other speculation over any of this? --Mark