Winners Never Quit

Wow, some of you people read too much religious meaning and not enough human/moral meaning into this album!

To me, as pointed out by others on this site, this album clearly tells a story of 2 brothers. One was always considered the 'good brother'. He is a politician who uses religion as his political platform and believes himself to have a special place [a mansion] reserved in heaven. But he also buys his political power and buys sex, and he ignores the plight of those around him, including his brother.

The second brother was always thought of as 'the bad brother'. He is an alcoholic who has never been able to 'stay on the straight and narrow'. He tries hard, he doesn't want to be the one to disgrace his politician brother or his family, but still, he gets arrested for driving drunk.

While his brother is in jail, the politician comes to a breaking point and ends up killing his wife and then committing suicide. The politician sees the murder of his wife as justified because she no longer believed in his cause - which he sees as being on the side of god. He also sees himself as a martyr for God's cause.

The second brother gets out of jail to go to his brother's funeral. He watches his father despair because he has lost 'the good son', and because bad things should not happen to good people in a world where there is a god who cares about us personally and who, if we just worship him, will intervene on our behalf. So the father questions god, asking how he could let this happen when both the father and the good son went to church etc.

Which brings us to this last song. I think it's contrasting the brother who never quits (the politician) with the brother who must quit (the alcoholic). The brother who succeeds in this story IS the one who quits, not the one who keeps on going with an eye on the finish line [see 'Never Leave a Job Half Done']. The second brother should be thankful that he wasn't the 'good brother', that he was enough of a failure that he now has the chance to redefine himself, without the good brother to be compared to and without the 'bad brother' stigma from his parents. He has a second chance.

There is nothing overtly religious in this second chance if you ask me. Nor is the albumm a glowing recommendation for religious furvour. I think it is a deep and wonderful examination of the gray area of moral rightness, and that it clearly questions blind faith or how faith can be used as an impetus to do horrific things. Or if not an impetus, at least an excuse. No, Bazan doesn't question the existence of God, since God smiles and looks the other way, but he does clearly question the idea that humans have any idea what He wants, if anything. And he questions the idea that the religious amoung us are more moral than those of us who are struggling or those who arent religious.