Giving Up the Gun

First of all, I want to say I think that a lot of these interpretations have legitimacy. No single interpretation can claim a monopoly on the meaning of a song, and all I want to do is add another one to the mix.

So I'm going to agree with the people commenting on the Japan allusions. It seems pretty definite to me, and if you've seen the music video for the song, there's only more allusions to Japan. On the other hand, I don't think the song should be restricted to some esoteric commentary on Japanese culture/politics/etc. Rather, I think the allusions are just vivid images to strengthen the more universal backbone of the song, which I believe has to do with excellence.

Think about it, Japan's traditional sword-fighting techniques were up there with any civilization/group that has ever grasped a blade. But ultimately in the post-Tokugawa era, and even to some extent before that, the swords of the samurai were being replaced with Western guns to keep Japan from falling to imperial expansion and allow Japan to do some expansion of its own. Viewing it that way, the metaphor of giving up the gun is a return to an older practice, an older part of a culture, and a shift towards something almost mythic.

Take that and apply it to your own life. If you're older now, say out of college, and you're working full-time for some business/corporation when your dream through high school was to be a different profession, say a professional sport, then I think the metaphor can be easily applied to your individual life. Giving up the gun is returning to the thing you loved to do, the thing that you cared about and valued, the thing that gave you meaning. You can see older people talking about that one football game in high school where they scored the game winning touchdown, or a last-second goal to avoid overtime (if you're not in the US :) ), and it's much the same thing - the past actions have been mythicized and are looked upon fondly.

There are a lot of vocal references that I think support this. "Locked up like a trophy." For one, this references your former successes, your trophy, and at the same time it's a reference to the fact that you are no longer actively engaged (at least not the way you were) in the activity. The fact that "your sword's grown old and rusty" also implies this weakness from disuse, as does the idea that one is "right back where you started from." All the same, there's a sort of ecstasy coming from those two lines, because all it takes is a little oil to unrust a sword, and if you're back where you started from, that also means you can regain your skills (maybe not all the way, but there's still potential for growth).

But again, the songs more complicated than that. The fact that one's ears are "blown to bits" from the gun, and the craving of "that sound" also implies that what you're doing now has worth, and you do enjoy it. So what do you do? The speaker encourages you to shine, to go on. And I think that's saying, you should return to your old passion, but you don't have to completely give up what you're doing now (but I guess that option is open, if you want to completely "give up the gun").

Also, for anyone that has seen the music video, I think the girl playing tennis and beating the other nations sustains the Japan references above-mentioned, but I think it's also sort of a dream for the girl (reliving her glory). The ultimate finish is playing herself and self-overcoming, sort of finding her way again.

Anyways, my analysis certainly isn't perfect, so if someone has some other ideas to help this interpretation of the song develop, please share.