Off By 50

i saw pinback in concert last week (great show by the way)...and they prefaced this song with comments about the bullshit in the bible, esp. regarding the "666" mark of the beast number. then, as the song was being sung, the videos on the wall behind them were of failed preachers, hypocrites, and many references to 666.

personally i think that for the most part it might be about the end of the earth. also when it says "to pave the way" i think it means to make way for a new beginning. im pretty sure the next line that says "if i believed i would believe that you're the on they talk about" is talking about god and how if he believed in god then he would be calling to him to for help. but other than like the first set of lyrics i dont really understand anything else. please more people comment on this song

im going to go with your guess on this one. i do believe it is about the end of earth but not mankind

The only thing I can really see here so far is some kind of environmentalist message... and I don't know if environmentalism is a message Pinback pushes often (I can't derive a meaning from most of their music), and I'm not much for the ol' environmentalism, but I do see him kind of singing to those of us who are wasteful and are attempting to dry up the planet's resources. Anyone with me at all?

WHOA, I do believe they might be talking about moar than environmentalism. I do believe they might be a-talking about Yahweh. "Free lunch" is "God". "IF I believed, I would believe you are..."

Atheism? Preach, fellas.

Somebody maybe figure out what "50" could be

Rob said that the bible tells that the real 666 number was actually 616, that Off By 50 is a reference to the fact 666 is "off by 50."

"There’s no such thing as a free lunch." is a sort-of common saying among environmentalist educators pointing out the fact that even the "good alternatives" are still problematic and not perfect--that our problem lies not so much in how we generate fuel and energy, but the fact that we require so much in the first place.

"If I believed I would believe that you’re the one they talk about. If I believed I would believe that you’re the one they call upon."

The first time I heard this I immediately thought of the anti-Christ, but who knows.

I think there are a lot of issues they are addressing in this song, environmental, political (war), and the spread of democracy as a kind of solution to everything yet even democracy is an imperfect theory where we claim to give to the poor but there really is no such thing as a free lunch--and how all these things are done/related to religion and done in the name of God. it's a lot more intelligent than that, but that's my general interpretation.

I would have to agree with most of you that this is a biblical song, or something about death.

This song really caught me by surprise. I listened to it, didn't really think to much about it, gave it a second listen, and this song may be the best track on the album. Really is the sleeper hit on the record.

it should also be mentioned that the title "off by 50" refers to the denouncing of the number 666 as the number of the beast (or devil) in the bible due to a new fragment found in the oldest copy of the new testament. so the actual number is said to be 616, not 666--making it off by 50. I think the trivialness of this is something that relates to the whole of the song and the trivialness of all we do in the name of something which we assert as true or false for our own reasons.