This song is about the news and how it was used to mess up american opinions / "knowledge" during the iraq war, which was about oil. You can't deny it, especially the part about september 11th: "The longest night new york had never slept"
first, the intro talks about how we came into there by creating the image of somebody surveying "the glittery borders [of a] new radius, in search of a city of mud (duh, middle east, baghdad, formerly babylon, on the floodplains of mesopotamia) and crushed velvet (meaning fancyness)" teh rest is self explanatory in this part.
(gotta warn:the lyrics posted on this site for now are kinda off, listen yourselves)
the song kicks in talking about "cutters of the pie" or, americans coming in with their collars-popped (being cocky), waving jolly rogers (the skull and crossbows pirates flew when doing piratey things). "snuck a jimmy (not a jammy, a jimmy is what pro car theives open your car with) through the red tape in Bristol fashion" ..bristol being a reference to a british medieval (and still existing) town, and red tape is an aphorism for "political barriers". The british reference may be calling us 1800s british colonizers or medieval christian crusaders coming illegally / for questionable reasons to Iraq.
the rest of this verse has similar themes, mentions citronella for algernon, which is a reference to the book "flowers for algernon" about a scientist playing god with a lab rat in a maze, and citronella is not only mosquito repellant but also rat poison, I figured I'd talk about this part since it's the title of the song, and it is a metaphor about how we poison the middle east, which is already a lab rat we've been putting in a political maze and playing God in a way since the Gulf War.
The rest of the song is similar, more on the side of making fun of americans / the army (the whole paragraph starting with coming in in an armored car to the arms bazzar (which lyrically is amazing, the buzzy words and the way he says them conjure up imagery of a big stupid hummer coming in). Clone-tards are soldiers, still clutching their teddy bears, etc. "Babylon burns beta till the end" is an amazing line, babylon as I said is one of the first cities in the world, if you remember history.. and while we're there it "burns beta" - beta is a stage of development in a project like rebuilding an online website that comes after the first stage (alpha), it is the stage where you implement the design and watch out for any kinks / things going wrong.. remember facebook beta? ok. In this context it is a reference to how we tried to implement our "democratic" system in "babylon" and its a project burning in its beta stage until the end.. how we dont really have a good exit plan, etc.
this song is one of aesop's ..if not the number one for me.. best uses of complicated lyrics and references, and awesome messages. It is not simply about Iraq, it is about the media, and here's where I explain, for those still with me, that..
"and when the radio stars climbed up out of the floors to murder the medium that shot 'em 30 years before they said...
(kill the television. kill the television. kill the television. typical, isn't it?)"
in this part he talks about talk radio hosts coming up to denounce the television, which killed the medium of talk radio, which is something that kinda happened when it became more clear pop news channels like fox were just that: news channels, not journalism... journalism being reporting of the truth, the news being an entertaining way to view the truth that can easily be shaped by biases and political ties with network leaders, etc.
this song is not too hard, and well worth looking up any referrences you don't understand. In general, you can check out that movie "farenheit 9/11" if you dont understand what Im talking about or think I sound like a conspiracy theorist / idiot who wants to tell you all about their political views.
wow. great review. i had a similar interpretation but there is no way i could have put it into words as beautifully as you just did. its good to see some intelligent aesop rock fans :)
wow. great review. i had a similar interpretation but there is no way i could have put it into words as beautifully as you just did. its good to see some intelligent aesop rock fans :)
Fox being extreme conservative, whilst Michael Moore being extreme liberal. You're looking at it from one angle, I like to view things from both perspectives.
Fox being extreme conservative, whilst Michael Moore being extreme liberal. You're looking at it from one angle, I like to view things from both perspectives.
This song is about the news and how it was used to mess up american opinions / "knowledge" during the iraq war, which was about oil. You can't deny it, especially the part about september 11th: "The longest night new york had never slept"
first, the intro talks about how we came into there by creating the image of somebody surveying "the glittery borders [of a] new radius, in search of a city of mud (duh, middle east, baghdad, formerly babylon, on the floodplains of mesopotamia) and crushed velvet (meaning fancyness)" teh rest is self explanatory in this part.
(gotta warn:the lyrics posted on this site for now are kinda off, listen yourselves) the song kicks in talking about "cutters of the pie" or, americans coming in with their collars-popped (being cocky), waving jolly rogers (the skull and crossbows pirates flew when doing piratey things). "snuck a jimmy (not a jammy, a jimmy is what pro car theives open your car with) through the red tape in Bristol fashion" ..bristol being a reference to a british medieval (and still existing) town, and red tape is an aphorism for "political barriers". The british reference may be calling us 1800s british colonizers or medieval christian crusaders coming illegally / for questionable reasons to Iraq. the rest of this verse has similar themes, mentions citronella for algernon, which is a reference to the book "flowers for algernon" about a scientist playing god with a lab rat in a maze, and citronella is not only mosquito repellant but also rat poison, I figured I'd talk about this part since it's the title of the song, and it is a metaphor about how we poison the middle east, which is already a lab rat we've been putting in a political maze and playing God in a way since the Gulf War.
The rest of the song is similar, more on the side of making fun of americans / the army (the whole paragraph starting with coming in in an armored car to the arms bazzar (which lyrically is amazing, the buzzy words and the way he says them conjure up imagery of a big stupid hummer coming in). Clone-tards are soldiers, still clutching their teddy bears, etc. "Babylon burns beta till the end" is an amazing line, babylon as I said is one of the first cities in the world, if you remember history.. and while we're there it "burns beta" - beta is a stage of development in a project like rebuilding an online website that comes after the first stage (alpha), it is the stage where you implement the design and watch out for any kinks / things going wrong.. remember facebook beta? ok. In this context it is a reference to how we tried to implement our "democratic" system in "babylon" and its a project burning in its beta stage until the end.. how we dont really have a good exit plan, etc.
this song is one of aesop's ..if not the number one for me.. best uses of complicated lyrics and references, and awesome messages. It is not simply about Iraq, it is about the media, and here's where I explain, for those still with me, that..
"and when the radio stars climbed up out of the floors to murder the medium that shot 'em 30 years before they said... (kill the television. kill the television. kill the television. typical, isn't it?)" in this part he talks about talk radio hosts coming up to denounce the television, which killed the medium of talk radio, which is something that kinda happened when it became more clear pop news channels like fox were just that: news channels, not journalism... journalism being reporting of the truth, the news being an entertaining way to view the truth that can easily be shaped by biases and political ties with network leaders, etc.
this song is not too hard, and well worth looking up any referrences you don't understand. In general, you can check out that movie "farenheit 9/11" if you dont understand what Im talking about or think I sound like a conspiracy theorist / idiot who wants to tell you all about their political views.
you dont sound like an idiot. that made total sense.
you dont sound like an idiot. that made total sense.
wow. great review. i had a similar interpretation but there is no way i could have put it into words as beautifully as you just did. its good to see some intelligent aesop rock fans :)
wow. great review. i had a similar interpretation but there is no way i could have put it into words as beautifully as you just did. its good to see some intelligent aesop rock fans :)
Fox being extreme conservative, whilst Michael Moore being extreme liberal. You're looking at it from one angle, I like to view things from both perspectives.
Fox being extreme conservative, whilst Michael Moore being extreme liberal. You're looking at it from one angle, I like to view things from both perspectives.