Holloway Prison Blues

"The leg bone is connected to the Foot bone is connected to the Export Processing Zones. And it's nothing we condone. But everybody owns A pair of those shoes." Frank begins the connection of his skeleton to what is wrong with the western world.

"The bloodstream gets its sugar from the Intestine gets its sugar from the Supermarket chain That left the village drained. Every high street, same soulless refrain." He compared his bloodstream to things wrong with the western world.

"I looked a little closer at The walls of my house And to my surprise They were made out of glass. So i made my way softly Towards my front door, But to my surprise It was bolted shut and barred." We're all in a fragile house, made out of glass, and we're stuck in here. He's saying how fragile the world is.

The newspaper reads like A list of charges brought against me. So I'm changing my plea to An open address to the jury. I confess That I was there on that grassy knoll, And I confess I helped fake the moon landings as well." He's saying that all of us are responsible for the faults with the western world

"But I confess I've yet to let slip my lowest low: There've been times when I've pretended I didnt know About my skeleton." remember before when I was talking about him drawing his skeleton to the problems of our world? well here he says he sometimes ignores this problems.

"Your honour I swear that i can explain: There are mitigating factors to consider In this case;" I was looking out of a window to the west." He's only looking toward the progress of the western world, not the eastern.

Francis Fukuyama took me by the arm." Francis Fukuyama wrote a book about The End of the World. Frank told me he was trying to square the end of the western world with this book.

"Won me over with his famous Inetellectual charm, Swore this beauty wouldn't do any harm. We didn't look east Because the sun was setting." the sun was setting in the west, and there was nothing left they could do about it. the western world failed, and there's no going back to the way things were before they split from the east.

"It's easy to lose yourself In the faintest reflection in the Pane of a window. I suspect that I've lost myself In the guilty reflection of The pain that it lets through." sometimes you only look to do what's best for yourself, and not what's best for others or the environment. frank, on the other hand, is guilty of the pain that he is causing by only caring for himself.

"I must confess I've started Throwing stones Around the house. I don't mean to moan But i never even Signed the lease." frank has begun ruining the world, but doesnt care because he's not worrying about those who will come after him.

Francis Fukuyama is best known for his book "The End of History and the Last Man" in which he argues that liberal democracy is the endpoint of human sociocultural evolution.

The song is saying that being complacent and content with what is whilst there's obviously still so much wrong in the world is simply ignoring the problem, or "looking out of a window to the west" and not the East "because the sun was setting". This can be interpreted as a comment on the modes of governance outside the western world (e.g. single-party state China, de-facto authoritarian Russia etc.) and the fact that even in countries that hold themselves up on their so-called freedoms like the US, UK etc. are still really just sham democracies with the illusion of choice. Despite this we console ourselves by ignoring the problems and denying our responsibility of what we create through even the smallest choices, like our shoes (made in sweatshops in Asia) or shopping at supermarkets (that undercut local high street shops). This is continued in the chorus where the narrator confesses his guilt in a number of famous conspiracy theories (namely the assassination of JFK by an unknown second sniper and the faking of the NASA moon landings).

The whole glass house metaphor - "I must confess I’ve started throwing stones around the house. I don’t mean to moan but I never even signed the lease." - is commenting on the fact that living in liberal democracy is considered in itself tacit support for the system and to complain about it is considered hypocritical, even though we had no real choice in it's creation and have no real opportunity to change it from within - "So I made my way softly towards my front door, but to my surprise it was bolted shut and barred." Finally, the lines about the window compare the way people ignore problems completely with the way that people who are vocal in their criticism are still involved with the system.

frank's words again, not mine:

"The title is a nod to Johnny Cash and was the last one we came up with for the album. It's a song about people denying the connection between themselves and what's wrong with the world. People deliberately put mental blocks in the chain of responsibility, I'm guilty of it as well but it's lame and should stop."

Yeah I agree. Awesome band,very political