High life
If I were alive
If I were real
Would you survive?
What would you feel?
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
As sentimental as our broken dreams
Let me die for rock and roll
Let me die to save my soul
Let me die, let me die, rock and roll
Let the world forgive the past
Let all the girls kiss the boys at last
Let me go, let me go, rock and roll
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
We're the metal in their metal machines
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
If I were dead
Would my records sell?
Could you even tell?
Is it just as well?
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
It's elemental to all the rust it brings
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Let me die for rock and roll
Let me die to save my soul
Let me die, let me die, rock and roll
Let the world forgive the past
Let all the girls kiss the boys at last
Let me go, let me go, rock and roll
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
We're the metal in their droning schemes
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Will I survive?
Is it up to me?
Could you understand
That it's not yours to keep?
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
If I were real
Would you survive?
What would you feel?
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
As sentimental as our broken dreams
Let me die for rock and roll
Let me die to save my soul
Let me die, let me die, rock and roll
Let the world forgive the past
Let all the girls kiss the boys at last
Let me go, let me go, rock and roll
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
We're the metal in their metal machines
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
If I were dead
Would my records sell?
Could you even tell?
Is it just as well?
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
It's elemental to all the rust it brings
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Let me die for rock and roll
Let me die to save my soul
Let me die, let me die, rock and roll
Let the world forgive the past
Let all the girls kiss the boys at last
Let me go, let me go, rock and roll
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
We're the metal in their droning schemes
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Will I survive?
Is it up to me?
Could you understand
That it's not yours to keep?
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
Heavy metal, heavy metal machine
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More Featured Meanings
when rules change
Life in Your Way
Life in Your Way
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Sounds to me like it's about someone who loves to make music for the sake of music trapped in a place where everyone around him seems to want him to pump out stuff and make money off him. The line "If I were dead would my records sell? Could you tell?" sounds like it's referencing how record companies will release things after an artist's death to capitalize on their legacy. Plays into the same theme as discussed before. The idea of someone being pressured to make music to make money. Being trapped in a heavy metal machine and being willing to die to escape. "Let me die, rock and roll". Also the lyric' We're the metal in their metal machines further drills the same point in. They are simply just a cog in the corporate "heavy metal" machine> So to boil down everything I just said, this song may be about the pains of being a mainstream music artist being forced to push out music for the sake of making the record companies money. A droning scrap of metal in their heavy metal machines.