Towers of Rabble

Billy didnt like this song, he mentioned that Blank was a b-side on one of the MCIS singles and he didnt like that song either much, but it was better than Towers of Rabble.

Billy says he doesn't like this song, to the point where he didn't add it in Aeroplane or any other release until the MCIS deluxe edition, which is crazy to me because this song is amazing!!!!

So it's about the conflict between being authentic to yourself and standing up for yourself versus society's conditioning which often goes against that. The chorus makes that pretty apparent;

Be yourself (Billy), don't be yourself (society, other people etc) Speak your mind, don't speak your mind Stand alone, don't stand alone

Then Billy writes about the price of authenticity which is to;

Be on your own, be all alone

So his view is clearly both empowering and negative, as he demands an authentic life but obviously a society that doesn't value that would react negatively to such authenticity.

He goes into the reasoning behind why it's important to "be yourself";

And no one can see you So do what you wanna do You're invisible next to forever

Meaning "Fuck it, no one's gonna be paying attention in the long run anyways and in the grand scheme of things my life is insignificant, so why not be happy by being true to myself?" IE saying you shouldn't worry about other people's ethics and judgements, only your own matter.

The fourth verse goes especially into that last concept;

And nobody knows you (literal meaning) Even if they pretend to (society's judgements) They all think they're all so clever (they think they got you pinned down as what they judge, but they don't) Truth is rare as ivory (Being yourself/authentic is rare) The truth is in their pure deceit (inauthenticity in general society) Blessed in your naivete (Probably referring to a fresh eyedness in standing up for what you believe in while thinking it's easy, but hey, you're blessed for doing it at all)

Then the last lyrics close in on that individualism;

I thank you all (society at large) For nothing (you guys don't shape who I am, I just am who I am) Forever (Considering how often he uses this word and rhymes to it, Billy probably just thought it sounded nice, but it has a pretty powerful interpretive meaning about how if you could choose to again and again, you should always be authentic forever)

So yea, the song has a surprising amount of lyrics depth, and the lyrics are fun to sing and play along to. I have no idea why he doesn't like this song, and the fact that his normal songs, especially from that era contain as much if not more savant lyricism is insane. 10/10