Pay The Man

This song is sort of a conversation between an idealist and a realist. The idealist thinks that his life is his, and he should be free to do what he wants. The realist reminds the idealist that he is not completely free, and there is nothing he can do about it. He must be a slave to society and "pay the man".

See, I think that this song is supposed to represent resentment against any kind of drudgery from a higher power or authority, any kind of hampering, restriction, restraint. It's individual to the listener, it speaks to whatever it is you're most angry with, or take the most issue with.

Personally, I always found myself thinking about religion with this song. While lines like "The Man is making little bets, playing with our lives" could apply as much to the banking system as to Abrahamic religion, "All that I believe now/Anything is possible/A simple explanation/For the evil in this world/And in our souls" is to me more about the cop-out of attributing the world's evil to a single, easily explainable, easily SHUNNABLE source, instead of acknowledging our own duality.

omg... sorry...

This song, like many rock and roll songs, is just an anthem against "the man". "the man" of course being any figure of authority oppressing the narator, whether it is the government, the boss, the parents, God or whatever...

I'd have to agree it's a conversation (the realist/idealist), especially during the rocking part's chorus, the "woooaaah, woaaaahs" between the "shut up, you talk to much [woooaaah, hoooaaa], pay the man" lines are important, I feel like it's a call and response device between the two voices. The shut up is directed right at the woooahs.

This song is the reason I love the Offspring more than any other punk band. They are actually saying something. They're serving up a concept for us on a silver platter: Don't pay the man just for living. It's unnecessary

"the man" is the jester in the corner, laughing silently to himself, getting paid for nothing. The malady abounds in our souls. We invite the man into our souls to create disaster and mischief, AND WE PAY HIM for it. The voice of this idealist isn't the band talking to us, it's the idealist pontificating about the state of affairs in our lives.

Dexter's voice in the harder parts is sneering. "look at you, and your struggle for freedom". He is the jester. He's just playing with us - he has the power and he knows it.

The very last part is the fight. The idealist becomes powerful, and his whiny/ethereal woooahs become wails and screams of power. "my life is for me - " and the song just ends.

Dexter wants us to fight and convince our friends and family to never pay the man.

I don't know how everyone else refers to the Government, but around here we always referred to Uncle Sam as "The Man". I believe this track is anti-establishment against the Fed.

How I hear it, "The Man" governs how we all live via laws and police enforcement. The most obvious point being, the lines 'pay the man'. My opinion is this means taxes. I don't know, taxes seem very obvious to me.

Two things are certain: death and taxes.

This is my favourite song by the offspring - i used to listen to their old stuff quite a lot but i still listen to this. It's just really mellow. I think there's a mistake in the lyrics because the line "see the way the wind blows" - that's one of my favourite lines is missin'.......

See the way the wind blows Lives are interwined Watch the way the world goes The man deals out our plight

-the missin' verse from the start of the song

This is offspring's best. All of their songs are awesome. Although songs like this should have been more popular than "Pretty Fly For A White Guy", but oh well. The guitar in this song kicks ass! This is one of there most musical songs as well. Noodles and Dex can both play great guitar.

i agree this is one of the best songs they did. It's so true too...paying someone for what we do naturaly...living