In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Give me a job, give me security
Give me a chance to survive
I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line
My God I'm hardly alive
My mother and father, my wife and my friends
You've seen them laugh in my face
But I've got the power and I've got the will
I'm not a charity case
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my eye to the keyhole
If it takes (all that to be just what I am)
Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Make me an offer that I can't refuse
Make me a respectable man
This is my last time in the unemployment line
So like it or not
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my back to the wall
If it takes (all night to be just what I am)
Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Keeping my mind on a better life
Where happiness is only a heartbeat away
Paradise can it be all I heard it was
I close my eyes and maybe I'm already there
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my back to the wall
(All that to be just what I am)
Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man
You don't understand
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my eye to the keyhole
If it takes (all night to be just what I am)
Well I'm bound be a blue collar
Gotta be a blue collar man
Gonna be a blue collar man
Believe it
Give me a chance to survive
I'm just a poor soul in the unemployment line
My God I'm hardly alive
My mother and father, my wife and my friends
You've seen them laugh in my face
But I've got the power and I've got the will
I'm not a charity case
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my eye to the keyhole
If it takes (all that to be just what I am)
Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Make me an offer that I can't refuse
Make me a respectable man
This is my last time in the unemployment line
So like it or not
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my back to the wall
If it takes (all night to be just what I am)
Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man
Keeping my mind on a better life
Where happiness is only a heartbeat away
Paradise can it be all I heard it was
I close my eyes and maybe I'm already there
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my back to the wall
(All that to be just what I am)
Well I'm gonna be a blue collar man
You don't understand
I'll take those (long nights, impossible odds)
Keeping my eye to the keyhole
If it takes (all night to be just what I am)
Well I'm bound be a blue collar
Gotta be a blue collar man
Gonna be a blue collar man
Believe it
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How did this become a conversation about how Styx got their name? Well whatever, here's what I think the song means: This is in the time of the great depression, where work is had to come by and people would line up in the streets to get food for their families. These unemployed men would hang their heads in shame as they walked through the line. Hence the "Unemployment line" He wants to not only find a job, but be the head of the job. A "Blue Collar" is a man who's usually a manager or a head. The workers would wear white button ups, and the blue collars were the managers. He wants to be a "blue collar man." He's wiling to work with everything he has to get financial security for his family, even though everyone may laugh at him as he walks through the line. He will take long nights, and every risk, keeping his mind on the goal ahead of him keeping his "eye to the keyhole." He's waiting for a job offer that will get him to his goal, that will finally make him a "respectable man." He dreams of a paradise where he isn't just scrapping by, but living his life without worry. He's "keeping [his] mind on a better life" knowing that the life he's sure he's destined for is ahead of him. How you take a song about someone working their everything into making a better life for him and his family and make it into a song about a "Male Escort" I have no idea. If this song is about that, then explain phrases like "Unemployment Line" and the very title itself. What does being a "blue collar man" have to do with prostitution? I know that some bands hide their song meanings under a guise of meaning something else, but Styx isn't that crafty, their quite to the point in their songs. Like "Grand Illusion" being about America's twisted idea of the "perfect life" and how it's, quite literally, the Grand Illusion.