The protagonist's generation of adults have f##ked up the world and built human systems which make it a generally horrible place (the "gulag", which in history is the ultimate example of the horrors people inflict on one another). They have done this to their short term profit but long term detriment.
The protagonist feels he is about to die - by his own hand, perhaps, or at least unwillingly ("pass me that lovely little gun", "the light is dim" etc). At the same time, he and his peers have had the shocking realisation that they have lived worthless lives and made the world a worse place by forgetting their original values ("poor old Jim's white as a ghost/he's found the answer that we lost")
He is speaking to his child, trying in his way to apologise and warn the child about the world that the adults have created.
He knows deep down that the message won't get through to the child ("there ain't nothing we can do to protect you"), and that the same type of people he once was (the "cleaners") will come to the child, and convince it that the ways of the world are good and correct, and that as an adult the child will subsequently participate in building and maintaining the very same system, the "gulag" - so "here take these before we run away/the keys to the gulag", i.e. the world, such as it is, is yours now.
The "cleaners" will make is all seem like it is the right way for things to be by hiding the blood - "the cleaners have done their job on you/they've hosed you down, you're good as new" - i.e., when the child makes the same choices that the protagonist did, it will be because society is structured in a way that hides the true costs of those choices until it is too late. Consumerism, supporting corrupt governments, "righteous" wars, etc etc. To me the "cleaners" are governments, corporations, the media, and other manipulative people/groups who profit from the current system.
I find the gospel part at the end to be intentionally ironic - after selfishly wrecking the world and abandoning his child to its fate, he now has the temerity to ask God (or whoever) for salvation (getting him to "the Kingdom"). I think this part highlights that this is said slightly mockingly: "we're happy Ma, we're having fun, the train ain't even left the station", i.e., his generation have forgiven themselves and found 'salvation' and now they're back to having fun even though the "train" isn't necessarily going anywhere. But there is also a real fear in there - "have you left a seat for me? is that such a stretch of the imagination?", i.e., after all I've done, is it even possible that I could be redeemed?
I think this song ties together with another great line from this album: "I went to bed last night and my moral code got jammed/I woke up this morning with a frappacino in my hand". There's a theme of obsession with success clouding our vision of what is really important
caitsith01 Thank you so much for your interpetation. I love this song so much along witn most of Nick Cave's songs and couldn't figure this one out. That makes so much sense to me.
caitsith01 Thank you so much for your interpetation. I love this song so much along witn most of Nick Cave's songs and couldn't figure this one out. That makes so much sense to me.
I see it like this -
The protagonist's generation of adults have f##ked up the world and built human systems which make it a generally horrible place (the "gulag", which in history is the ultimate example of the horrors people inflict on one another). They have done this to their short term profit but long term detriment.
The protagonist feels he is about to die - by his own hand, perhaps, or at least unwillingly ("pass me that lovely little gun", "the light is dim" etc). At the same time, he and his peers have had the shocking realisation that they have lived worthless lives and made the world a worse place by forgetting their original values ("poor old Jim's white as a ghost/he's found the answer that we lost")
He is speaking to his child, trying in his way to apologise and warn the child about the world that the adults have created.
He knows deep down that the message won't get through to the child ("there ain't nothing we can do to protect you"), and that the same type of people he once was (the "cleaners") will come to the child, and convince it that the ways of the world are good and correct, and that as an adult the child will subsequently participate in building and maintaining the very same system, the "gulag" - so "here take these before we run away/the keys to the gulag", i.e. the world, such as it is, is yours now.
The "cleaners" will make is all seem like it is the right way for things to be by hiding the blood - "the cleaners have done their job on you/they've hosed you down, you're good as new" - i.e., when the child makes the same choices that the protagonist did, it will be because society is structured in a way that hides the true costs of those choices until it is too late. Consumerism, supporting corrupt governments, "righteous" wars, etc etc. To me the "cleaners" are governments, corporations, the media, and other manipulative people/groups who profit from the current system.
I find the gospel part at the end to be intentionally ironic - after selfishly wrecking the world and abandoning his child to its fate, he now has the temerity to ask God (or whoever) for salvation (getting him to "the Kingdom"). I think this part highlights that this is said slightly mockingly: "we're happy Ma, we're having fun, the train ain't even left the station", i.e., his generation have forgiven themselves and found 'salvation' and now they're back to having fun even though the "train" isn't necessarily going anywhere. But there is also a real fear in there - "have you left a seat for me? is that such a stretch of the imagination?", i.e., after all I've done, is it even possible that I could be redeemed?
I think this song ties together with another great line from this album: "I went to bed last night and my moral code got jammed/I woke up this morning with a frappacino in my hand". There's a theme of obsession with success clouding our vision of what is really important
Absolutely unbelievable song.
caitsith01 Thank you so much for your interpetation. I love this song so much along witn most of Nick Cave's songs and couldn't figure this one out. That makes so much sense to me.
caitsith01 Thank you so much for your interpetation. I love this song so much along witn most of Nick Cave's songs and couldn't figure this one out. That makes so much sense to me.