Reverence Lyrics
I wanna die on a bed of spikes
I wanna die come see paradise
I wanna die just like Jesus Christ
I wanna die on a sunny day
I wanna die just like JFK
I wanna die in the USA
I gotta get my goal cause I'd hang for this
I think this song is just about wanting to go out with a bang and be remembered like JFK and Jesus, as in wanting to have a glorious death everyone remembers, which in turn immortalises you. That's how I see it anyway.
I recall this song was banned across the USA because it was deemed offensive. Bah!
This song is perfect. The whole doomed romantic outlaw myth of rock'n'roll nailed in 11 lines. Death / suicide, iconographic invocation of Jesus and JFK, universals that mean something to everyone, JFK with the associations to big fat convertable american cars, America the birth palce of rock'n'roll itself, damnation, the loss of one's soul, redemption ('die go see paradise'), rock'n'roll itself ('with the radio on). Everything is there. Except they've not managed to get Coke in this time. Genius.