Solution: Burn It!

I have a few corrections...

He's gonna burn you once again An old, familiar friend who puts a red hot ember upon your lip, she'll hurt you til it ends, and one day it ends So go, and cry, and cry upon your mother's shoulder She'll make a spark within the dark, Sing her infinite wisdom like a lark She's your first and your last! God said I'm gonna burn you just for the sake of it ..........? just try to understand this man and his tribe, ..........? broken tribe, bloody clan [I've only heard this in the studio version - live he usually just repeats "his tribe, his tribe and his clan"] ..........? stand up again So go cry cry cry, upon my shoulder and I'll love you all the more, you're every thing that I adore ..........? Listen here He's gonna burn you once again He's done it before and he'll do it again The father (father), the father (father), the father, the father of civilised man! This time he's.............? he's gunning for the end! So go and cry, cry upon you mother's weary shoulder And she don't want you anymore Unless of course you take up love in your arms and stand and defend someone's .....? And it's you, you, you.....

That's all I got. I've used the studio and live recordings to try to figure this out and there are some differences between them.

This is the best compilation I managed to do, I can't add lyrics made by myself cuz' I'm not that good at english. I love Ezra, but he sings like if he had a potato in his mouth.

She's gonna burn you once again An old, familiar friend who puts a red hot ember upon your lip, she'll hurt you til it ends, and one day it ends So go, and cry, and cry upon your mother's shoulder She'll make a spark within the dark, Sing her infinite wisdom like a lark She's your first and your last! God said I'm gonna burn you just for the sake of it in in flaming fire today just try to understand this man and his tribe, when you see it's over his tribe and his clan a poor glistening child stands again so cold rah rah rah!!! i love you, oh lord, you're everything that I adore!! you're everything and when Listen here He's gonna burn you once again He's done it before and he'll do it again The father (father), the father (father), the father, the father of civilised man! this time we got no starting for an end. So go and cry, cry upon you mother's weary shoulder And she don't want you anymore Unless of course you take up love in your arms and stand and defend someone's sin. And it's you, you, you.....

the Academic Industrial Complex has cast a lasting shade on all our lives. the narrator of this song seems to lament the ways in which this lasting shadow distorts not only our lives but Love. (yes, I really think this is what the song means, i’m not just disseminating my own political ideas.)

I am getting some major Freudian vibes here.

I think this guy lost his girlfriend, some lover, and is going haywire over it. He wants to go back to his "mother's shoulder" and find that affection/connection once again. [According to Freud, we are always trying to recreate the relationships we had with our parents in our adult life. ] He find himself feeling like he did as a child, "a poor glistening child stands again so cold". [Freud also writes of our pains as a reflection of the needs that were not met as children.] This line "she was your first and your last" is particularly interesting, as it sounds like it's about the lover. But in this Freudian interpretation, it is more likely the mother. She is the one he is trying to find in his romantic life. Then there's this other layer. All of these images of God come into the song. This too points to Freud, who claimed that religion was a neurosis. This guy is getting sent on a psychological trip upon experiencing this loss. Freud's book Totem and Taboo (wikipedia description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud_and_religion) mirrors the song pretty well. The images are the same.

I don't know how exactly to make sense of everything, other than to say that the narrator was triggered into this bizarre and internal psychological experience. And the way it sounds is so perfect. It's got this eerieness, this driving energy, and a general essence of chaos. A fucking awesome tune.

Ezra is so intense, more like screaming than singing, sometimes. I think he'd love Warmer's music.