(I believe he is talking about the state of the common family, and how explosive the close relationship can be in a family these days. It's not like it used to be, what with the "American dream" of a perfect life anymore. At the same time he is also talking about how families have TVs in their kitchen now, and have to hear all the doom and gloom of CNN)
You treat distraction like it's a religion
(A bit of a build from the last line, refering to the distraction of TV in the modern world. Most people sit and allow themselves to be absorbed by the television, to the point of treating it like a religion these days.)
With a rattlenake step in your rhythm
(No clue : P)
We do the best with the souls we've been given
(Humanity is losing is spirtuality, but people still want to feel something deep. Most people feel like they're missing something in their life, but don't do anything to change it)
Because you know we're nothing special to them
(Refering to other people, and how we don't think that "we" are special to other people in our lives. I really don't think this line is about terrorism)
We're going some place they've already been
(I think Beck is refering to "they" as the generation that birthed us, and how even though we hate them for ruining the earth for us, we keep doing the same thing to it)
Trying to make sense of what they call wisdom
(We're trying to understand the wisdom in our parents generation, but for most of us it doesn't make sense, especially because they grew up in generation X. Our parents generation has less wisdom than our grandparents did at that age, because they haven't been through a war, and now that our generation is in one, they have no wisdom for us.)
And this riff-raff ain't laughing with them
(Not entirely sure about this line, but I think it goes with the theme of things. Even the "white-trash/riff-raff" of our generation isn't laughing at the state of the world. But it seems like our parents our, because when they were young, this is exactly what generation X wanted.)
Hey what are you gonna do
When those walls are falling down falling down on you
Hey what are you gonna do
When those walls are falling down falling down on you
(I think the chorus has two meanings. Literally, he's talking about the world ending and the walls of our houses coming down on us because of all the war, famine and other awful things that are happening. Metaphorically Beck is talking about our generally delusive state of thinking that we've grown into, about how we let the government get away with ridiculous things because we are so focused on pop-stars, and other trival things. Once these walls are finally torn down and people realize what terrible shape the world is in, they might freak out hence: "what are you gonna do?")
You got warheads stacked in the kitchen
(I believe he is talking about the state of the common family, and how explosive the close relationship can be in a family these days. It's not like it used to be, what with the "American dream" of a perfect life anymore. At the same time he is also talking about how families have TVs in their kitchen now, and have to hear all the doom and gloom of CNN)
You treat distraction like it's a religion
(A bit of a build from the last line, refering to the distraction of TV in the modern world. Most people sit and allow themselves to be absorbed by the television, to the point of treating it like a religion these days.)
With a rattlenake step in your rhythm
(No clue : P)
We do the best with the souls we've been given
(Humanity is losing is spirtuality, but people still want to feel something deep. Most people feel like they're missing something in their life, but don't do anything to change it)
Because you know we're nothing special to them
(Refering to other people, and how we don't think that "we" are special to other people in our lives. I really don't think this line is about terrorism)
We're going some place they've already been
(I think Beck is refering to "they" as the generation that birthed us, and how even though we hate them for ruining the earth for us, we keep doing the same thing to it)
Trying to make sense of what they call wisdom
(We're trying to understand the wisdom in our parents generation, but for most of us it doesn't make sense, especially because they grew up in generation X. Our parents generation has less wisdom than our grandparents did at that age, because they haven't been through a war, and now that our generation is in one, they have no wisdom for us.)
And this riff-raff ain't laughing with them
(Not entirely sure about this line, but I think it goes with the theme of things. Even the "white-trash/riff-raff" of our generation isn't laughing at the state of the world. But it seems like our parents our, because when they were young, this is exactly what generation X wanted.)
Hey what are you gonna do When those walls are falling down falling down on you Hey what are you gonna do When those walls are falling down falling down on you
(I think the chorus has two meanings. Literally, he's talking about the world ending and the walls of our houses coming down on us because of all the war, famine and other awful things that are happening. Metaphorically Beck is talking about our generally delusive state of thinking that we've grown into, about how we let the government get away with ridiculous things because we are so focused on pop-stars, and other trival things. Once these walls are finally torn down and people realize what terrible shape the world is in, they might freak out hence: "what are you gonna do?")