Heads Will Roll

The title and the lyrics in the first verse, I think, are definitely references to our mortality. I think that the first verse is saying that conventional wisdom is that we die when god calls us home. I think that reference to the winning hand is a reference to Pascal's wager- the idea that it is better to believe in god and go to heaven rather than not believe and risk going to hell. But, then the question is asked- 'What if no one's calling?' i.e. what if we just die and there is no god?

I'm not exactly sure how I'd interpret the verse about, 'If I ever met you, I'd stare you into the ground'. Maybe it's directed at Pascal and his stupid wager?

But, the next verse about the 'bottom dropping out' and 'times are the times I love' and 'that's when all the lights go out' definitely seem to be references to mortality being all there is. So, 'Oh yes, did you know I came so close?' seems again to be about Pascal's wager being lost.

Then the chorus again that questions whether or not god is actually calling us home.

I always thought the "If I ever met you.." verse was a challenge directed to God. I guess Ian was reading a lot of Nietzsche. (See the last verse of Ripeness: "I've discovered my Nietzsche." )

Also, I heard the last two lines of that verse as: The value of my face The value of my race (Presumably meaning the human race, not White people.) But there were a lot of lyrics on that album that I misheard.

One of their cooler songs and no comments...pitiful!

OFF OFF WITH HEADS. DANCE, DANCE, DANCE 'TIL YOU'RE DEAD.

The additional verse in the "Summer Mix" goes like this:

When all the bottom has dropped out And sadly times are the times I love That's when all our lights go out Oh yes... did you know I came so close

I suspect this extra verse was edited out of the album version because it's just not very good, and doesn't really make much sense within the context of the rest of the lyrics. And it may even be taking the POV of God himself, saying something like, "I tried to take control of everything, but I failed, so now I'm really depressed." If so, that POV switch is confusing and sort of detracts from the rest of the lyrics.

Overall, the whole impression is unclear and indistinct anyway - though that may be intentional, so as to avoid upsetting religious people too much.

Ultimately I think this song is supposed to be about how religion corrupts politics and human society in general. The word "call" is used in the sense of "summon," as in "if God isn't summoning us to some higher purpose, then God has lost His power over us and religion must be losing its grip on political power in society." The line about "the value of my face" is another way of saying "face value," as in "you can take what I say at face value," which is something you can't (or shouldn't) do with religion.