B Is for Brutus

Song about traitors and backstabbers. Good song

Yeah Brutus was the guy that betrayed Caesar.. Clever song

Yeah Brutus was the guy that betrayed Caesar.. Clever song

Yes, Brutus betrayed Ceaser. He was also his best friend. He organized a killing because he felt Ceaser was letting power get to his head and it was for the good of the country to remove him. After this Marc Anthony led a revolution against Brutus and his counter-part (Cassius, i believe) and Brutus fled. As the toops were approacing, rather than become captive, he commanded his servant to hold out his sword as Brutus impaled himself upon it. I think this is what they mean at the end when they say "Time has come to do what's expected of you."

Might also want to mention that the term Quisling after Vidkun Quisling, the pro-nazi head of Norway's government during the nazi occupation.

This song is absolutely insane. I did look up Quisling to see if it fits with the whole Judas/Brutus thing... fits perfectly. From wikipedia: "In some European languages, the term 'Quisling' has become a synonym for traitor, particularly one who collaborates with invaders."

okay, everybody that commented the above has got it basically right, but i have a different interpretation of Brutus' side of the story. (Marcus Junius) Brutus didn't really want to kill Caesar. Brutus and Caesar were BFFs basically, and it was Brutus' peers that were trying to convince him of Caesar's "evil". It was all propaganda. Brutus was pressured by the other senators, namely because of Brutus' famous ancestor, Lucius Junius Brutus. His ancestor, LJ Brutus, was very revered and famous for overthrowing the last King of Rome. everybody was told to believe that Caesar wanted to be the next king (although Caesar didnt even WANT to be king.), so everybody assumed Marcus Brutus to follow in his ancestor's footsteps and kill Caesar. that is what the last stanza means: "rewind and look at what you got had ambition but you lost the plot Judas/Brutus/Quisling, time has come to do what's expected of you" this is basically Brutus' situation. he was really eager to make himself a legend, but didn't want to betray his best friend Caesar, but people are telling him that it's time to live up to what everyone believes is his "fate". its expected of him to follow in his ancestor's footsteps. this ends another rant from a Latin student.

I love the song, but I think that "Brutus" stands only to show how far the guy in question is ready to go in order to succeed in "climbing the ladder". I don't think it fits in the Caesar story otherwise. Hence the song is about a man who wants to become important in whatever he does, not by means of working, but by sweet talking to bosses and stepping over dead bodies (figuratively).