Follow the Cops Back Home

"I am medicated, how are you?"

The grestest line ever.

“We wondered what teenagers get up to in Iceland, which we visit regularly, as there is no police and barely any crime.” molko on 'follow the cops back home'...i adore this song, when i first got 'meds' it would depress me, but now...ok, it still makes me wanna cry...molko's voice is pure perfection

To me this song is about people looking back on being young and pretty care-free. It reminds me of a young couple drinking, taking drugs, driving to random places, swimming wherever and at whatever time they feel like it and stealing from cops houses/maybe shoplifting - just enjoying life without boundaries and rebelling. Maybe they are older and drinking, remembering the past (stuck on rewind) or maybe they aren't old but have had a rubbish time at home and have left home early/eloped. Whichever it is, they seem keen to carry on breaking the rules by robbing the houses of the law-enforcers. The section: ‘lets take a ride and push it through suspended animation glue and blame it on apartheid’ makes me think that they want to make the moments they share riding around (in a car or on a bike maybe, but it just occurred to me that could mean something sexual) together to last forever, like in a photo or with stop-motion animation. The ‘blame it on apartheid’ bit makes me think that they want to blame everything on the miserable prejudiced old people in the past who took their discrimination and kind of legalized it. It could also be about an inter-racial relationship actually, and the reason they are in the relationship and want their moments making love and generally being together to last is because apartheid would have said they shouldn’t be together, but they are the rule breakers, and so they do the opposite. It would also make sense that they want to drink or forget, and that they may have eloped because their parents wouldn’t approve. Disclaimer; this is my own interpretation, it’s probably absolute nonsense!

Several songs from Meds were probably inspired by Fight Club (you know this book don't you?) This one in particular matches perfectly, in the book there was the character's alter ego that represented everything the character wanted to be, "You possess every trait that I lack" kinda thing until of course it came out of control but before that it was just ahead of the character and he couldn't keep up with it. For those who're interested. other songs are Space Monkey(the idea of making the "keeping the population up and producing people without any purpose" stuff the main goal in life), One of a Kind (the idea that no one's unique and special those who know will figure out) and then there's Pierrot the Clown (however, one can argue with that one but I'm not sure either I can just see some similarities) and now that I think about it Follow the Cops Back Home can also be interpreted in conformity with Fight Club. Oh wow

I love that song. The lyrics are so powerful that they have the power to take you right to that bar where those two men are sitting.

Just listening to the first lines brought the images of Vietnam to mind. Or basically, of every war ever fought, that was justified on apartheid.

In the first verse, those two men meet in a bar and one tells the other about his time in the army. There was this 'call to arms' that was all lies. And now he's drinking trying to get over the stories that left him mentally (or even physically) bruised.

And he keeps talking - just another round until he's finished.

This man is depressed.

When you look at stories about worldview, this man is the perfect example for the subgenre: Worldview Disillusionment: "When a sympathetic protagonist, with developed will, positive motives, and wholehearted idealistic beliefs, experiences a loss or trial that forces them to realize the darker truth, they lose their faith entirely" (© Story Grid).

And he did.

Everything he believed in has turned out to be false. He's probably wasted a good part of his life ('Its such a silly thing to do') being ill with the 'psychedelic yuppie flu' - the illness leaders in his country might still have to order things that do not make sense.

And all he's left with are the memories of what he did and he lives in the past without being able to look into the future and see something positive again ('And now we're stuck on rewind'). The only thing he can think of is lashing out against authority figures, like the police and invade their homes as he once invaded another country.

The reference to 'Let's spend the night in Jimmy Choo's,' could refer to all the Vietnamese shops that you encounter everywhere in the world and who basically offer lots of different things. By saying 'I'll give you nothing else to do' he refers back to the time when he was in the army and how senseless it was. After all the world's still as it is.

And now he can only get through the day by taking meds, maybe PTSD.

And with everything he has experienced, he was supposed to reach a better understanding of the world 'Sophisticated points of view', but that's what made him disillusioned.

And now he's lost looking for something to do in this stupid world where he doesn't fit in because he knows the darker truth: 'War lacks meaning when leaders are corrupt and dishonor soldiers’ sacrifices on the battlefield.'

Other than Pierrot the clown this is my favourite song off meds!!

I'm not quite sure if the lyrics are right though so just let me know if you see any mistakes.

you missed the end to the song which goes..

the call to arms was never true im medicated how are you? lets take a dive, swim right through sophisticated points of view?

that last line im not too sure on

a few corrections ive picked up:

The call to arms was never true Time to IMBIBE here's to you

I'll tell you stories bruised and blue of DRUM machines and land slides

suspended animiation GLUE blame it on APARTHEID

and

I'll give you COATS and cheap shampoo I'll give u nothing else to do

good job with the rest of it though :)

Thanks for the corrections. I have changed the lyrics but I didn't change it to imbide because there is no such word. That is what I thought it was originally though. Also the chorus is not repeated at the end of the song.