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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There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Amazing
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Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
A lot of Styx songs don't have that "deeper meaning" that people try to find in songs. Sorry, many just DON'T have it...the meaning is directly in the lyrics, and usually has no depth whatsoever...not all Styx songs, but many. This isn't an insult to them, and although it is usually considered to be a trademark of a rather non-imaginative lyricist, Styx pull it off very well.
That being said...they're absolutely fantastic. Excellent vocal and musical work make the classic songs hundreds of times better than most modern music.
"keeping my eye to the keyhole" refers to, in this particular lyrical context, working a bad job and listening through the upper staff's door keyholes (literally) to hear about new job advancement opportunities.
This song is fantastic...but attempting to draw depth from it is a lost cause.
spiegelglanz, nice interpretation, but I'm sure even you can see it's stretched razor-thin. I wonder if Styx intentionally did this, to make people wonder about the lyrics, because people always have for as long as music with vocals has existed.
Then they would be keeping their ear to the keyhole, not the eye. It's about opening the third eye through ritual sodomy.
@madnesslover_89 not having a "deeper meaning" is absolutely NOT a sign of an "unimaginative" lyricist, and you're A) just making shit up and B) kicking an easy target, as all the Cool Sheep constantly dump on Styx for whatever reason.<br /> <br /> Yeah, there's some schmaltz in their recordings ( courtesy of Dennis DeYoung, usually, although he's also written great stuff too), but I've head laughable lyrics in my day, and Styx, at their best, do not have laughable lyrics normally. <br /> <br /> Pieces of Eight was one of my first lps and when I first head BCM & Renegade, I just thought they were hot shit, and I still do. Trust your inner 12-year-old, where there's no overthinking. If it rocks, it's good, critics be damned.