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Factory Lyrics
Now I know I had something to say but the
Problem is to say something
Uhh... you gotta say it
And I still don't remember a thing
Since that funny gas came out of that
Pipe next to me
I guess they didn't OK it
Now I remember -- did I tell ya?
Cut my thumb off at the knuckle
On a broken band saw
Didn't see the belt buckle
Or the blade slip
And I remember when the doctor
Did it up with a stitch
funny thing...
Still got a scratch that I can't itch
Where my thumb was
Now I've brought the same piece of chicken
In a bag to work every day
For the last twenty years or so
And I really don't mind
Work assembly line
Got an intercom blasting the news
And the latest on the baseball scores
Come around every Friday
Well I get a paycheck
Take the same road home that
I come to work on, heck,
It's a living
And I got another factory back home
I got a barbeque, pink mustang, fenders chrome
And at nine o'clock I sit there in my chair
And I don't know why I lose my hair
And then I go to
And then I go to
And then I go to sleep
Well I like to know what I'm doing
When I do it and I do what I'm doing
'Cause I don't know what to do
When I'm not doing it
Sometimes I remember as a boy
My father told me I could grow up
To be anything I really wanted to be
Anything
And every day at lunch I still look
For my lost digit
Still got that funny scratch
So maybe when I find it I can itch it
And I got a little rubber pool in the backyard
For the kids to wade in
And I...I...I...I...I...I?
I got another factory back home
Got a little backyard, pink mustang, fenders chrome
At nine o'clock I'm in my chair sat down
just lately when my wife talks back to me
I slap her around
And then I go to
And then I go to
And then I go to sleep
Problem is to say something
Uhh... you gotta say it
And I still don't remember a thing
Since that funny gas came out of that
Pipe next to me
I guess they didn't OK it
Cut my thumb off at the knuckle
On a broken band saw
Didn't see the belt buckle
Or the blade slip
And I remember when the doctor
Did it up with a stitch
funny thing...
Where my thumb was
Now I've brought the same piece of chicken
In a bag to work every day
For the last twenty years or so
And I really don't mind
Work assembly line
And the latest on the baseball scores
Come around every Friday
Well I get a paycheck
Take the same road home that
I come to work on, heck,
It's a living
I got a barbeque, pink mustang, fenders chrome
And at nine o'clock I sit there in my chair
And I don't know why I lose my hair
And then I go to
And then I go to
And then I go to sleep
When I do it and I do what I'm doing
'Cause I don't know what to do
When I'm not doing it
My father told me I could grow up
To be anything I really wanted to be
Anything
For my lost digit
Still got that funny scratch
So maybe when I find it I can itch it
For the kids to wade in
And I...I...I...I...I...I?
Got a little backyard, pink mustang, fenders chrome
At nine o'clock I'm in my chair sat down
just lately when my wife talks back to me
I slap her around
And then I go to
And then I go to
And then I go to sleep
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This is probably the most chilling and depressing of all of Wall of Voodoo's kind of tongue in cheek, dark humored songs.
Since it is a narrative, there's not too much to interpret here. A man in his mid-life looks back on his work at the factory. A boring repetitive job that has sucked all of the joy out of his life over the past couple of decades. He no longer has any ambitions, but reminisces about a time when he did.
"My father told me I could grow up to be anything - I really wanted to be anything" is probably the most depressing lyric in the song, and the key to the whole moral of the story here.
A suburban husband and father with thinning hair hates his job and takes it out on his wife. Just a little ditty about a fella who needs some anger management classes and a good hair-grower
One of my favorite songs ever. Totally depressing and hopeless and also just fabulous fucking lyrics. I miss WOV a ton. One of the best bands who never got famous but should have been.
@gandydancer They were and still are @Stan_Ridgway -- saw 'em last at the 25th Anniversary tour of this marvelously insidious album.
@gandydancer They were and still are @Stan_Ridgway -- saw 'em last at the 25th Anniversary tour of this marvelously insidious album.
It's "uh" not "i"!
And the key bit is 'another factory back home', how the man himself has become an automatic machine, capable of very little in the way of independent reasoning. He brought the same piece of chicken to work for 20 years or so.
To me this always sounds like the middle-aged version of the guy from "Me And My Dad" on the previous album.