This song is meant to cite all that Oberst sees wrong with Americans in general. It's his take on the American dream and the road that most Americans take to receive "joy." We (Americans) avoid the things that we should be addressing like wars and our faulty leadership, yet we preoccupy ourselves with work, irrational spending, drugs, religion and failed relationships. He focuses in a lot on war specifically. We can do so much to avoid these wars but our current administration would rather just engage in a war even when history not only provides a way to get avoid war (communication/telephone) and pictures (camera lens) of the destruction (machine guns) war can cause to mankind. The last stanza is a synopsis of the typical American life. "I could've been..." He could have put anything there. He decided to put singer because he could relate to it more personally. But what he's trying to say is that we choose the road of apathy and indifference when it comes to things that matter most and raise hell (make some noise) about issues that are not even close to what we should be focusing in on.
By the way, this is my favorite BE song. He couldn't be more right on and this is a perfect example of the Delillo influences in Oberst coming through.
This song is meant to cite all that Oberst sees wrong with Americans in general. It's his take on the American dream and the road that most Americans take to receive "joy." We (Americans) avoid the things that we should be addressing like wars and our faulty leadership, yet we preoccupy ourselves with work, irrational spending, drugs, religion and failed relationships. He focuses in a lot on war specifically. We can do so much to avoid these wars but our current administration would rather just engage in a war even when history not only provides a way to get avoid war (communication/telephone) and pictures (camera lens) of the destruction (machine guns) war can cause to mankind. The last stanza is a synopsis of the typical American life. "I could've been..." He could have put anything there. He decided to put singer because he could relate to it more personally. But what he's trying to say is that we choose the road of apathy and indifference when it comes to things that matter most and raise hell (make some noise) about issues that are not even close to what we should be focusing in on.
By the way, this is my favorite BE song. He couldn't be more right on and this is a perfect example of the Delillo influences in Oberst coming through.