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President Dead Lyrics
this is for the people, they want you
this is for the people, they want you
getting high on violence, baby
President Dead is clueless
and he's caught in a headlight, police-stated god
and his skull is stained glass
incubated and jet set
the bitter thinkers buy their tickets
to go find god like a piggy in a fair
and we don't want to live forever
and we know that suffering is so much better
this is for the people, they want you
this is for the people, they want you
getting high on violence, baby
give the bills time to work
we all could be martyred in the
winter of our discontent
(getting high on violence, baby)
every night we are nailed into place and
every night we just can't seem to
ever remember the reason why
(getting high on violence, baby)
and we don't want to live forever
and we know that suffering is so much better
this is for the people, they want you
this is for the people, they want you
getting high on violence, baby
and we don't want to live forever
and we know that suffering is so much better
this is for the people, they want you
getting high on violence, baby
and he's caught in a headlight, police-stated god
and his skull is stained glass
the bitter thinkers buy their tickets
to go find god like a piggy in a fair
and we know that suffering is so much better
this is for the people, they want you
getting high on violence, baby
we all could be martyred in the
winter of our discontent
every night we just can't seem to
ever remember the reason why
and we know that suffering is so much better
this is for the people, they want you
getting high on violence, baby
and we know that suffering is so much better
Song Info
Submitted by
ice On May 17, 2001
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NOTE:
"President Dead" is 3:13 long.
In the Zapruder film, frame 313 is where JFK's head explodes. See?
A lot of MM's lyrics mention the theme of people gaining celebrity after they die. Someone above got it right when they said the president is a controlled, useless figurehead rather than a true leader- a celebrity, if you like. IMO this song is about JFK in particular (see Lamb of God) and how after he died, he was idolised by the American people, as he had been assassinated at the height of his fame- kind of in the same way Jesus Christ became a celebrated figure because of his death rather than what he did in life. "Give the bills time to work" and the idea that "martyrs" don't know why they are considered so great might be a reference to the fact that JFK didn't have much time to carry out real change during his presidency, despite his aspirations- who knows, he could have turned out to be a terrible president, but he died before he cold become unpopular in the mainstream. I see the reference to a "stained glass skull" as more evidence of this.
People buying tickets in order to find God sounds like a criticism of the commercialised form of religion that is promoted in some countries, as well as noting that people tend to worship pop culture figures, politicians and embodiments of patriotism as gods. I would argue that JFK himself was all three of these things- a martyr for American values, an idealist politician and a popular figure all at the same time. It's drawing parallels between religion, celebrity and death like so many of MM's lyrics do, in order to further criticise religion and the seedy underbelly/hypocrisy of American society.
I know this is long, sorry :P I just wanted to share my thoughts.
this song is about uselessness of the president
Um... I think it's a bit deeper than that.... president dead isn't just the president of the US, It's a metaphor for an ambiguous public figure, that really doesn't do anything. He just sits in the spotlight and looks pretty.
it's 3 times :
"this is for the people, they want you "
very good "happylittle.." he makes that clear in the phrase " and he's caught in a headlight, police-stated god " he can not do anything because he is controlled by the powers that put him there in the first place
I think this song is about how a president has a lot of power but only puts the power towards violent purposes as opposed to doing other things to please people. apart from acting like a trigger happy mother fucker, the president does nothing
Sounds a lot like George W. Bush-asshole
"give the bills time to work we all could be martyred in the winter of our discontent"
Tax money is going into war Our bills pay for bombs Nuclear winter
"give the bills time to work we all could be martyred in the winter of our discontent"
Tax money is going into war Our bills pay for bombs Nuclear winter
The lyric is actually “give the pills time to work”, I checked the lyrics that come with the CD. Its pills not bills, another drug reference.
Also, George W. Bush became president around the time this album was released, so I doubt it refers to him specifically.