Im not an american, I'm actually Mexican and I hope I don't offed anyone but here are my thoughts:
I think this is in many ways a big republican bash. Adam mentions cowboys on the radio (republican talk shows), he mentiones "blue-eyed baby boys" (George Bush), he mentiones the president not being able to sleep because those cowboys are killers (many republicans are pro Irak)...
He also talkes about nobody being able to sleep beacuse of the satellites (general fear of terrorism and uncertainty in the US)...
I think he can't look at america right now, he feels he is nothing as an american, he knows the country weeps ("but I can feel, I can feel") and looks for comfort in religion ("God who'll welcome me cause I believe"; some very conservative republicans cling to religion as justifcation for questionable actions)
I think his whole album is a kind of cry of dissapointment because of the way america's culture the natoin's political sistem have gone awry in some aspects.
In several other songs from the album he brings up themes related to america's past and present ("I'm a Russian-Jew american native african what I would like to be is Indian Jamaican", or something like that can be heard in 1492) and ("why'de you wanna talk to me when your vision of america is crystaline clean" he sings in Micheallangelo)...
I don't think Adam hates his country (He keeps singing about Omaha and Reno and Miami and all sorts of american destinations) but I do think he has a list of "what it should have been" and right nos is not, he'se just "not seeing it"..
I'm also a Mexican (half native american, half jewish, but born in Mexico). I think you're on the right track; multiple readings of any piece of poetry are valid, and your reading makes sense, as there are certainly allusions (satellites, Lincoln's head=pennies=economy, cowboys, "a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep"). But there's also another way to read the song--as something about a man's personal breakdown. I see it this way: a cowboy is a musician, a gun is the instrument (guitar, piano, microphone, voice, whatever) that connects you to the music. "I bought...
I'm also a Mexican (half native american, half jewish, but born in Mexico). I think you're on the right track; multiple readings of any piece of poetry are valid, and your reading makes sense, as there are certainly allusions (satellites, Lincoln's head=pennies=economy, cowboys, "a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep"). But there's also another way to read the song--as something about a man's personal breakdown. I see it this way: a cowboy is a musician, a gun is the instrument (guitar, piano, microphone, voice, whatever) that connects you to the music. "I bought a gun 'cause it impresses all the little girls I see and then they all want to sleep with me..." That makes the rest of the song a little more beautiful and tragic, I think--it's about the way doing violence to art by using music as a weapon to impress women doesn't get you what you want, it leaves you alone and watching, as the person you consider yourself to be is really just an object to you, you don't know who you are or where you disappear into. So in the end he's saying "well, if I'm a cowboy, I might as well do what the cowboys do and go wait for the showdown at high noon, and to hell with her, and to hell with everyone else, but god damn it I believe..."
Im not an american, I'm actually Mexican and I hope I don't offed anyone but here are my thoughts:
I think this is in many ways a big republican bash. Adam mentions cowboys on the radio (republican talk shows), he mentiones "blue-eyed baby boys" (George Bush), he mentiones the president not being able to sleep because those cowboys are killers (many republicans are pro Irak)...
He also talkes about nobody being able to sleep beacuse of the satellites (general fear of terrorism and uncertainty in the US)...
I think he can't look at america right now, he feels he is nothing as an american, he knows the country weeps ("but I can feel, I can feel") and looks for comfort in religion ("God who'll welcome me cause I believe"; some very conservative republicans cling to religion as justifcation for questionable actions)
I think his whole album is a kind of cry of dissapointment because of the way america's culture the natoin's political sistem have gone awry in some aspects.
In several other songs from the album he brings up themes related to america's past and present ("I'm a Russian-Jew american native african what I would like to be is Indian Jamaican", or something like that can be heard in 1492) and ("why'de you wanna talk to me when your vision of america is crystaline clean" he sings in Micheallangelo)...
I don't think Adam hates his country (He keeps singing about Omaha and Reno and Miami and all sorts of american destinations) but I do think he has a list of "what it should have been" and right nos is not, he'se just "not seeing it"..
Anyways, my thoughts
I'm also a Mexican (half native american, half jewish, but born in Mexico). I think you're on the right track; multiple readings of any piece of poetry are valid, and your reading makes sense, as there are certainly allusions (satellites, Lincoln's head=pennies=economy, cowboys, "a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep"). But there's also another way to read the song--as something about a man's personal breakdown. I see it this way: a cowboy is a musician, a gun is the instrument (guitar, piano, microphone, voice, whatever) that connects you to the music. "I bought...
I'm also a Mexican (half native american, half jewish, but born in Mexico). I think you're on the right track; multiple readings of any piece of poetry are valid, and your reading makes sense, as there are certainly allusions (satellites, Lincoln's head=pennies=economy, cowboys, "a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep"). But there's also another way to read the song--as something about a man's personal breakdown. I see it this way: a cowboy is a musician, a gun is the instrument (guitar, piano, microphone, voice, whatever) that connects you to the music. "I bought a gun 'cause it impresses all the little girls I see and then they all want to sleep with me..." That makes the rest of the song a little more beautiful and tragic, I think--it's about the way doing violence to art by using music as a weapon to impress women doesn't get you what you want, it leaves you alone and watching, as the person you consider yourself to be is really just an object to you, you don't know who you are or where you disappear into. So in the end he's saying "well, if I'm a cowboy, I might as well do what the cowboys do and go wait for the showdown at high noon, and to hell with her, and to hell with everyone else, but god damn it I believe..."