Frozen out of focus, the Sunday crowd
Started dreaming of television turned up too loud.
Coded conversation, half baked and tired,
Left us sleeping on blacktops burning the motor mile.

And underneath the arcade, details collide
There's good shopping, but all those patrons have too much style.
And moving in slow motion the boulevard started seeping
With them half-ravers and techno bars.

It is like below the neon sign
All speeding past the line and thrashing, I'm in paradise.

Sealed in concentration, the lantern lights
Started shrinking on dead men drinking white liquor wine.
And I asked the complication, the methane gas (? )
Started leaking on bastards burning half red and black.

We can't ride on ________________ time
All speeding past the line and thrashing, I'm in paradise.

And standing at the gates of nc state fair,
Saw you smoking with all those new friends you've got to spare.
And melting back in focus the Sunday crowd
Started sleeping with white trash heroes, tv's turned down.

In their eyes, below the neon sky (? )
All speeding past the line and thrashing, I'm in paradise.
We can't lie below ___________ time
All dreaming of the white trash heroes on the boulevard. it is like below the neon sky (? )
All speeding past the line and thrashing on the boulevard.
We can't lie below ___________ time
All dreaming of the white trash heroes, I'm in paradise.

Edit Lyrics

Lyrics submitted by xpolystyrenex, edited by SephNite

White Trash Heroes Lyrics as written by Mark Andrew Price Eric Emil Bachmann

Lyrics © Songtrust Ave

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

White Trash Heroes song meanings

Add Your Thoughts

10 Comments

+2
My Interpretation
I agree spifly has the closest lyrics yet, wish it felt a little more certain regarding the chorus(es) though, because even the corrected version still seems a bit vague to me... tough to pick out at times. But we've basically got the lyrics thing covered for the most part now so I'd like to switch to some interpretations of the song, yours too but I'll go ahead and kick things off. I'm currently leaning toward it being about Southern life in general, more specifically Southeastern US weekends and/or night life.

But before we get further into that, a little bit of back story. I remember reading an interview with Eric several years back where he was talking about some of his family being real simple, down to earth, maybe even a little 'backwoods' type of people, so he wanted to make sure no one took offence, or took the White Trash Heroes title as a slight or anything, because it wasn't meant in a mean spirited way. They were from North Carolina, and some of that shows here... specifically the NC State Fair line, but more in general elsewhere as well. IIRC he even said those relatives were big NC State (Wolfpack) sports fans, but in this instance and the aforementioned line I'm pretty sure he's referring to exactly what it says, the NC State Fair and fairgrounds in Raleigh NC. Which is now where my interpretation, just as the song does a bit, might start going all over the place. Apologies.

Ordinarily when I hear the term "motor mile" I tend to think of a main strip of road in Southern towns where there are several different car lots or dealerships kind of all lined up in a row, but in this instance it seems to me that he's more referring to NASCAR and/or dragster type race tracks. There's also a 'Speedway' track right over the NC state line up in Martinsville Virginia known as 'The Motor Mile,' so between all the speeding past, colliding & crashing talk, and the fact that most of the big NASCAR races are held on Sunday afternoons/evenings, I gotta think that really is a big part of the lyrics believe it or not. And of course the races are LOUD from the roar of the engines... it could simply be that the race car drivers are the white trash heroes in question, being adored by all of their sunday crowd of fans, who are in paradise watching all of the drama unfold, in person or via television.

Also, back to the fair thing, just google image search 'NC State Fair.' You'll see two trends: Bright neon lights from all of the carnival rides at night, and (LOL) pictures of literal livestock, judged cattle competitions (or something involving cows, who also produce a lot of methane 'gas'). Combine both of these last two paragraphs with the fact that the Martinsville VA NASCAR race is generally held in late October, which is also when the NC State Fair is annually held, and we're getting somewhere. Seems to me Mr Bachmann & Co might have had themselves one big ol redneck weekend extravaganza one year! Heh, complete with Carnival rides and NASCAR racing. Either that, or were just in the same towns and watched all the people milling about, going to watch their white trash heroes on full display in both arenas, and hitting the town for more fun and games beforehand, or drinking and barhopping and such afterward. I don't know, just a bunch of random thoughts, I do get the vibe that he's watching everything unfold more from an outside looking in type perspective on second thought.

A couple more random thoughts from lines: "Encoded conversations" could be referring to the headsets that NASCAR drivers and their pitcrews use to talk to each other during races on different frequencies, and the fans can buy their own versions to listen in... or maybe he's listening to the fans discuss it amongst themselves, or talking about other things in general, using words and phrases he doesn't understand, almost as if they're speaking in code. (I know there's been a lot of NASCAR talk here and some of ya will think there's no way the song could possibly be about that, but trust me... while I'm no fan of it personally, it really is a big deal to some and part of Southern culture, along with college football, grits and sweet iced tea!)

"standing at the gates of NC State fair, I saw you smoking with all those new friends you've got to spare." To me that line always reeks of jilted lover, as if he's solemnly watching an ex-girlfriend have a good time hanging out with other people, and feeling left behind.

Alright, enough from me, wrap the novel up already! What are your thoughts, feelings, interpretations or just general observations about the song??

I agree spifly has the closest lyrics yet, wish it felt a little more certain regarding the chorus(es) though, because even the corrected version still seems a bit vague to me... tough to pick out at times. But we've basically got the lyrics thing covered for the most part now so I'd like to switch to some interpretations of the song, yours too but I'll go ahead and kick things off. I'm currently leaning toward it being about Southern life in general, more specifically Southeastern US weekends and/or night life. But before we get further into that, a little bit of back story. I remember reading an interview with Eric several years back where he was talking about some of his family being real simple, down to earth, maybe even a little 'backwoods' type of people, so he wanted to make sure no one took offence, or took the White Trash Heroes title as a slight or anything, because it wasn't meant in a mean spirited way. They were from North Carolina, and some of that shows here... specifically the NC State Fair line, but more in general elsewhere as well. IIRC he even said those relatives were big NC State (Wolfpack) sports fans, but in this instance and the aforementioned line I'm pretty sure he's referring to exactly what it says, the NC State Fair and fairgrounds in Raleigh NC. Which is now where my interpretation, just as the song does a bit, might start going all over the place. Apologies. Ordinarily when I hear the term "motor mile" I tend to think of a main strip of road in Southern towns where there are several different car lots or dealerships kind of all lined up in a row, but in this instance it seems to me that he's more referring to NASCAR and/or dragster type race tracks. There's also a 'Speedway' track right over the NC state line up in Martinsville Virginia known as 'The Motor Mile,' so between all the speeding past, colliding & crashing talk, and the fact that most of the big NASCAR races are held on Sunday afternoons/evenings, I gotta think that really is a big part of the lyrics believe it or not. And of course the races are LOUD from the roar of the engines... it could simply be that the race car drivers are the white trash heroes in question, being adored by all of their sunday crowd of fans, who are in paradise watching all of the drama unfold, in person or via television. Also, back to the fair thing, just google image search 'NC State Fair.' You'll see two trends: Bright neon lights from all of the carnival rides at night, and (LOL) pictures of literal livestock, judged cattle competitions (or something involving cows, who also produce a lot of methane 'gas'). Combine both of these last two paragraphs with the fact that the Martinsville VA NASCAR race is generally held in late October, which is also when the NC State Fair is annually held, and we're getting somewhere. Seems to me Mr Bachmann & Co might have had themselves one big ol redneck weekend extravaganza one year! Heh, complete with Carnival rides and NASCAR racing. Either that, or were just in the same towns and watched all the people milling about, going to watch their white trash heroes on full display in both arenas, and hitting the town for more fun and games beforehand, or drinking and barhopping and such afterward. I don't know, just a bunch of random thoughts, I do get the vibe that he's watching everything unfold more from an outside looking in type perspective on second thought. A couple more random thoughts from lines: "Encoded conversations" could be referring to the headsets that NASCAR drivers and their pitcrews use to talk to each other during races on different frequencies, and the fans can buy their own versions to listen in... or maybe he's listening to the fans discuss it amongst themselves, or talking about other things in general, using words and phrases he doesn't understand, almost as if they're speaking in code. (I know there's been a lot of NASCAR talk here and some of ya will think there's no way the song could possibly be about that, but trust me... while I'm no fan of it personally, it really is a big deal to some and part of Southern culture, along with college football, grits and sweet iced tea!) "standing at the gates of NC State fair, I saw you smoking with all those new friends you've got to spare." To me that line always reeks of jilted lover, as if he's solemnly watching an ex-girlfriend have a good time hanging out with other people, and feeling left behind. Alright, enough from me, wrap the novel up already! What are your thoughts, feelings, interpretations or just general observations about the song??

Reason:

7H353U5on February 25, 2011 Link
- 1 Reply Log in to reply
There was an error.

@7H353U5

I think this is really a spot on interpretation of the song. My interpretation of it was always that it was about a trip to the state fair and a race (NASCAR, NHRA or whatever), but you add a lot of interesting insights that I hadn't considered. <br /> <br /> Having grown up in the south myself but also having been apart from some of its cultural aspects, I think the song really captures the feeling of observing something that's at once both familiar and alien. The "saw you smoking..." verse really underlines the feeling, in my opinion. I could be just projecting though.

unlon November 09, 2011