Archangels Thunderbird

I find myself listening to this song several times a day lately. One of my favorites. But the lyrics are quite puzzling. Any thoughts on what it all means?

And btw, I'm at the point where I can mumble the entire song in my sleep word for word without any thought.

I don\'t know if I qualify as a cool person, but here goes. \n\nFirst thing to understand is these guys are German, and English isn\'t their first language. I\'m convinced that most Krautrock lyrics are more about setting a mood than sending a message, so looking for a specific meaning sometimes comes up dry. \n\nThe first verse seems to be various perspectives on God - the everywhere eye and the emperor of the sky could both describe some people\'s God concept, but one is specifically asking your opinion about the other. So you should take the transportation from one of His top aides. I guess? Maybe there is some specific theological point they\'re making, but I can\'t suss it out. \n\nThe Edgar Allen business is obviously Poe, and the mood is spooky, and otherwise I\'m not sure what that\'s about. \n\nCape Cod lion is more Deity business, and the elevator to Eden is a Heaven reference, but are they saying something specific? Maybe?\n\nThe next verse makes me think of a nursing home or asylum. \n\nThe final verse seems to express frustration that no one understands the important message they are conveying- whether or not they have one.

Hello!\n\nI\'ve came across this song because The Breeders covered it on their album "All nerve".\nI\'m a German-speaker, too and the lyrics at first sight still don\'t make a lot of sense to me.\n\nBut, I thought about it and translated some words that I didn\'t know and what I get from the song is kind of a story or description of an image about humans believing in a God who says "I\'m the emperor of the sky", but I think that the authors are critizising the people\'s believes and say that there is no God and ask themselves why people aren\'t revolting against a ruler (God) that was forced upon them.\n\n"When the everywhere-eye\nAsks you\nWho is the emperor\nOf the sky\nTake the Archangel\'s Thunderbird"\n\nThat reminds me of a story I once read in the bible.\nUnfortunately I don\'t know anymore what the guy\'s name was, but there was a man who doubted God and said to him: "Why do I have to suffer so much? Why do you let this happen?" God answers: "I am the almighty God and I\'ve created everything, including you. So don\'t doubt me." (At least that\'s what I remember)\nSo God asks in this line: Who is the emperor of the sky? and expects humans to worship him and recognize him as their emperor.\nI don\'t get what the author means by the word \'Archangel\'s Thunderbird", unfortunately.\n\n-I don\'t get what they mean with the Edgar Allan (Poe) thing, bc I have never read Poe. Does he write about religion, maybe?\n\n-I don\'t get what they mean with the Cape Cod thing, but a lion is often a symbol in Christianity for God.\n\n"There is no elevator to Eden\nBut a hole in the sky"\nMaybe the author means that you can\'t go to heaven, because there is no heaven. And in reality there\'s only a hole in the sky (the ozone hole)\n\n"In shock-corridors\nPeople are standing\nWith their eyes in their hands\nBut they don\'t understand\nWhy their confessional folding-chairs\nGo into the narcotic flight of stairs"\n\nI think this describes earth and humanity\nEyes in their hands??? Maybe they don\'t see the truth because they don\'t want to?\nConfessional folding-chairs could be like a confessional box in church and they mean that going to church and confession doesn\'t lead to anything other than some kind of "narcotic" state that makes us forget our troubles while they are still there and that\'s denial, or something. And we forget, we could get up there, up the flight of stairs, and revolt against our "emperor".\n\n"Baiting soldiers are sleeping\nIn the melting House of Wax"\n\nSoldiers who are sleeping:\nThat means that anyone could just go past them up the flight of stairs to heaven (metaphorically)\n\n"Why is the audience not taking\nThe insurrection-axe"\n\nWell, they think that "the audience" (e.g. audience of religion and its stories) (=humans) should "take the insurrection-axe", which is a pretty Germanized English and I think they mean that they ask themselves: Why the hell don\'t people revolt/start a revolution against this emperor who appointed himself as such (in the first line).\n\n"Thousands of windows burst open\nAnd the alarm bells are broken"\n\nOk, so the humans, as in an asylum, are kinda locked-in in the building (=earth), but all the windows are open and the alarm bells are broken, so they could easily escape (metaphorically of course) and start a revolution against God and religion, and be free without their self-appointed emperor who watches over them.\n\nYeah, that\'s just my opinion and the vibe I get from this song (at least The Breeders version).\nIt would be interesting to know if there are any allegories in Poe\'s literature or the bible, to understand more about what the band means with "The House of Wax" (which is melting, so maybe the belief in God is melting and religious believers become less over history??), "the Archangel\'s Thunderbird" and "the tower of sleep" and "sailing to Cape Cod" and so on... I think these are some allegories and metaphors from literature or the bible or sth.\n\nSorry for my probably bad English, as I said, I am not a native speaker of English.

Can't believe this song has only one commenter on it (well, two now) so far. I guess cool people don't come to SongMeanings dot com.