Purina Hall Of Fame Lyrics
See the thing is is that with other bands you might be right. Propagandhi is usually fairly "in your face" with their lyrics, meaning that when they make a song about animal exploitation it's about animal exploitation.
I'll leave this here to show the actual intent in the song:
SBV: Can you tell me about the actual song meaning of ‘Purina Hall Of Fame’ and did Purina hear that song and if so what was their reaction? CH: When an animal saves a human life (like a dog saving a drowning baby for example), Purina adds them to their Hall of Fame. When a human saves an animal life (like a member of the ALF freeing a beagle from a vivisector) they are thrown in prison for the rest of their lives. It's a interesting difference. I doubt the animal exploitation industry cares that a band wrote a song about it. TK: Purina is a company that feed animal parts to other animals. But they have an award for heroic animals that save humans. I'm not sure if people at Purina heard it or not. I'm sure the money they make off their company eclipses any humane thoughts that might occasionally flitter through their minds.
check this out: http://www.saveascream.com/propagandhi.htm
"SBV: Can you tell me about the actual song meaning of ‘Purina Hall Of Fame’ and did Purina hear that song and if so what was their reaction? CH: When an animal saves a human life (like a dog saving a drowning baby for example), Purina adds them to their Hall of Fame. When a human saves an animal life (like a member of the ALF freeing a beagle from a vivisector) they are thrown in prison for the rest of their lives. It's a interesting difference. I doubt the animal exploitation industry cares that a band wrote a song about it. TK: Purina is a company that feed animal parts to other animals. But they have an award for heroic animals that save humans. I'm not sure if people at Purina heard it or not. I'm sure the money they make off their company eclipses any humane thoughts that might occasionally flitter through their minds. SBV: What were your thoughts going into the writing of that song — knowing that you were going to use a company name for the title? CH: I don't think it really crossed my mind! Should it have?
I am very impressed by the discussion here! I have learned a lot about this song from reading. I will here just attempt a synthesis of some of the more salient points below, and add a few ideas of my own.
It seems as though there are at least three ways to read this song: first, based on the interview Whitey666 posted; second, based on the explicit meaning of the lyrics; and third, as an analogy for human society.
First, based on the interview, it seems as though Propagadhi is highlighting the disparity between how society treats animals who save humans (from fires, drowning, etc.) and how society treats humans who try to save animals (from factory farming, slaughter, etc.). The animals are "rewarded" for their acts while the humans are seen as terrorists who should be punished. While these treatments are different, they are both produced by the needs of the status quo: animals saving humans reaffirms humans' superior status (or at least perpetuates the survival of the human species) while the animal liberator must be punished for disrupting business, destroying property, and causing disorder.
Second, based on the lyrics: I generally agree with Whitey666 on this one. I even agree with the interpretation of the solo, except I would like to add one thing. Guitar solos, as they made their way into rock from blues/jazz, worked as an expressions of spontaneity - unpredictable, free, and in a sense, chaotic. This particular rippin' solo, I think, expresses the chaos caused by the bomb going off (or to widen the reading, the disorder caused by radical social action). [The ending to this song is the ending of the album, and it seems somewhat optimistic. Propagandhi ends their next album, Potemkin City Limits, with the song "Iteration", which seems to be a much more pessimistic ending. For my interpretation of that ending, see http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858565166/].
Third, reading the song as a metaphor for human society (at least North American/European society). Much of what has already been said can be imported here, but one difference is how Purina as a corporation works: it doles out trivial prizes to obedient, loyal subjects (the pets who save humans), while at the same time mass producing animals in factory farms purely for the purpose of slaughter. Purina praises with one hand and murders with the other, just like the capitalists/the state/colonial power/insert your preferred oppressor. Furthermore, honoring pets creates the illusion that Purina is a "good company" and distracts from their true business model - slaughter.And Todd points out in that interview that "Purina is a company that feed animal parts to other animals." I think the same can be said of the US government (and probably others), that its acts of praise masks its acts of cruelty, and that those in power use people against others to maintain the system (war, wage labor, racism, sexism, neocolonialism, homophobia, etc.). So it is not necessarily the song that is a metaphor for human society, but the description of Purina in the song that is the metaphor (on this reading).
I'm pretty sure this song is pretty much saying that animals are quite often a lot better creatures than their human "masters".
This song is about a man witnessing a holocaust and deciding he has a moral obligation to intervene. At the To borrow from Albright Monument, Bagdhad, he stops being part of a human death machine, by hurling himself into the gears. He plants a bomb where he watches these boxcars of victims roll by.
The victims of this holocaust he is witnessing happen to be animals, used to make pet food.
Musically it's Propagandhi's best song and one of the better ones I've heard ever (and I listen to lots of Zep, and Cream and Hendrix too) with its blasting, haunting riffs and that heartbeat part. Whew! Lyrically, though, it doesn't let you down either. It's about animal rights, the way we treat them like...for lack of a better word, like animals. We keep them confined in our houses as pets and in slaughterhouses to be killed. When they happen to do something that saves our lives then they get commemorated with some petty honour (the origin of the title). It's also about violent 'animal liberationists'...('a package under a terminal bench and a short fuse to scatter) why Propagandhi chose to sing about bombing things mystifies me. I guess they think some causes are worth bombing for? Either way it's a great song. Dig it! Just hope you aren't as disturbed by te intro as some people are.
i dont think this song is entirely to do with animals just any kind of inethical treatment of life
Isn't Purina one of those companies that makes like dog food and shit? Well, the word may actually have a meaning I don't know.
man i freakin love this song! i agree with wat everyone said about it being about animal cruelty and i agree. We as humans dont appreciate anything that we are given and if something is of use to us, we exploit it and if it isnt, its as good as dead. I also LOVE the guitar solo, its probably amoung my top 5 fav solo's ever.