Misery

No no no. This is a song about the music industry, specifically the rock scene how it was in 1995, after Nirvana. What were bands like Soul Asylum doing but exploiting their own misery and selling it to poor unhappy teens? Pain and angst were really popular at the time. To underline the point, I believe the music video was a factory boxing up a whole bunch of Soul Asylum CDs.

if you think about the lyrics, it's pretty much true... misery loves company ... and the only way you can be put out of misery is if someone helped you thru it... comforted you.. etc etc ~ also, it's sort of like betrayal, friend being betrayd, because it says "did you satisfy your greed, get what you need"... so basically... yepsk ^_^ someone got betrayed [singer]

cherub, this may just be a stretched out bad pun if you don't understand the song, but if you had a brain you'd see this song is actually a knockout punch at the american /world pharmicutical business and how $$ is more important than lives

wow i never saw it like that your so right! anti-deperessants and uthenesia Frustrated Incorporated (Put me out of my misery) Frustrated Incorporated (I'd do it for you, would you do it for me) Frustrated Incorporated not that the government cares that much i mean their all fearing the day that baby-boomers become pensioners, they need all the deaths they can get so the "pensioner - taxpayers" rate is in balence and its true. were getting all these uppers and downer tablets but suiside is still on the rise

The ending of Clerks II made me rethink what this song is about. At the end the two main characters have their own company, they get to do what they want. Sure it's a shitty job but they're in control of it. I think this song is all about closure, everybody aspires to be something bigger to contribute to this "greater good" that they think exists. It's only when they're miserable that they realize how miniscule their own issues are. When they realize this they want to open up everybody elses eyes, making misery for other people so they can have a clearer outlook on their own lives.

incu, I like your interpretation. I am against that cause: pharms going for $$ and destroying lives, with all my life. and the song could have that take on it. Not sure if that's what soul asylum intended -- your take sounds like a more intellectual concern -- but it could have been that. Considering the target audience was not harvard med students(:D), the teen angst interpretation is a bit more relevant, but i like your interpreation a lot.

The first comment mentioned this, but everyone else is looking for some wider ranging theme. My take has always been that this song is about a relationship, and a bad one at that. The two people in the relationship make each other miserable, yet they can't pull themselves apart. They are so good at making each other miserable (we made the disease), that they might as well try and turn it into a business. They are still hopeful (we'll create a cure), but the singer is recognizing that their misery is so ingrained, it is actually incorporated into their relationship, which is another play on the incorporated aspect. The singer also wants something different (put me out of my misery), but doesn't know how to take the first step (I'd do it for you, would you do it for me). The suicide kings and drama queens line refers to the types of people who enter into these destructive relationships. The forever after is a play on the marriage vows that a couple would take, having committed to their mutual misery without realizing where it would take them. The last verse, "Did you satisfy your greed, get what you need/Was it only envy, so empty," is the singer questioning his partner, whose motives for entering into the relationship might be suspect. Maybe she saw him as a happy person and was envious, but brought out the worst in him. Certainly the repetition of "frustrated, incorporated" seems to make sense in a bad relationship context, where you are committed to a structure, but you have incorporated your sexual frustration into that structure.

This song is one of my favourites. I really like the lyrics to the song. Soul Asylum rocks too.

I just saw Clerks II this weekend and this is the song they played as it ended and went into the credits. I love it. Despite what it's about, for some reason I turn it into a feel-good song

Soul Asylum was a much better band up until Grave Dancer's Union.