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The Body Electric Lyrics
One humanoid escapee
One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath a lonely desert sun
Trying to change its program
Trying to change the mode -- crack the code
Images conflicting into data overload
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0
Memory banks unloading
Bytes break into bits
Unit One's in trouble and it's scared out of its wits
Guidance systems break down
A struggle to exist -- to resist
A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist...
It replays each of the days
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines...
One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath a lonely desert sun
Trying to change the mode -- crack the code
Images conflicting into data overload
S.O.S
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0
Bytes break into bits
Unit One's in trouble and it's scared out of its wits
A struggle to exist -- to resist
A pulse of dying power in a clenching plastic fist...
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines...
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Some great replies and I think they all work. On one level, this can simply be about an android becoming self-aware and making a run for it. I liked xl5ron's "Blade Runner" take of a human and android escaping. Never thought to seperate those lines into two beings.
On the flip side, it can also be about a human escaping the societal or self-imposed bonds that makes them less than human, be that parents, a job, or self held beliefs and thought patterns.
The title of the song may have been inspired by the Walt Whitman poem "I Sing the Body Electric", which celebrates the human body in all its forms. It's also the title of a Ray Bradbury short story about a family who lose their mother and hire a robot grandmother to replace her.
The numbers 1001001 are binary code for the capital letter 'I'.
I think alot like Subdivisions this is another song condemnig conformity and subjugation lemme know what you all think I do like communal thoughts lol
True. It is also a song about young people leaving their parents and going out into the world on their own.
great song ! it kind of reminds me of a replicant and a human trying to escape from the world as we know it now.
A basic robot gone haywire song, comparable to the killroy story, told in the lyrics of Mr. Roboto by Styx. An overall amazing song.
My dad bought this album when he was 18 and loved it. He always thought this song was cool. Anyhow I like the electrical synth sounds, the funky bass lines and that gotta love 80's electric guitar.
I think Arbiter is 100% correct. Especially on the last paragraph. It looks to me that it's about robots replacing humans for everyday jobs. Then, eventually the androids or robots become more intelligent than humans, and run for it -- reprogram themselves; not live under control of humans. Kind of scary when you think about it: they could just destroy us all.
To me, this song is about the awakening of the indidudal within someone who has always lived a life os subjugation and slavery. As said above, 1001001 translates to "I", I imagine the robot screaming this as he realizes he is an indivudal with his own thoughts and belief. My question is whether or not the ending is a happy or sad one. Is he replaying all of the tasks he was forced to do and then he finally breaks reversing back to his ways?
@Galt2112 I know I'm super late to this response--but if you watch the original music video that Rush produced when they released it, you'll see that it finishes with the robot/man successfully climbing a ladder out of the underground complex he was trying to escape the whole time. At the top he shoves off the grate covering the entrance and is finally "beneath the lonely desert sun"! I'm not sure how the replaying fits in there though--they show a scene of him breaking something during his "routine" repeatedly throughout the video as he tries to escape, is caught and chained...
@Galt2112 I know I'm super late to this response--but if you watch the original music video that Rush produced when they released it, you'll see that it finishes with the robot/man successfully climbing a ladder out of the underground complex he was trying to escape the whole time. At the top he shoves off the grate covering the entrance and is finally "beneath the lonely desert sun"! I'm not sure how the replaying fits in there though--they show a scene of him breaking something during his "routine" repeatedly throughout the video as he tries to escape, is caught and chained up, and finally escapes again. The video's on YouTube if you'd like to watch!
Best bass performance of the album
rush is all about hidden meanings and that is what makes them brilliant. You have the android seeking to create an identity, find his true self, make himself real and break away from the norm by thinking outside the box and running out on his own. But like in our lives identifying and sticking to what you believe in can end up in struggle and you think it over again and again. In your struggle you may fail and end up reverting back to a routine, the thing you tried to separate yourself from and the last resort is pray