This song makes the most sense to me as being an indictment of the commercialization of punk culture, rebellion, and self destruction that was taking place in the music industry throughout the 1990s.
The imitation picks you up like a habit
Writing in the glow of the TV's static
Taking out the trash to the man
Give the people something they understand
seems to be about a lack of artistic integrity, producing a cheapened, fake art
A stickman flashing a fine-line smile - a stick man is one dimensional, has no depth
Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a style - a junk bond trader sells a worthless commodity as the next big thing
Rich man in a poor man's clothes - adoption of street culture as a style, erasure of its original meaning
The permanent installment of the daily dose
The second verse seems to deal with the tired, but real cliches of experience that people who live outside of mainstream culture seem to share. The last two lines:
Brought down like an old hotel
People digging through the rubble for things they can resell
are about record companies and style-makers, or maybe artists, rummaging through the wreckage of people's/their own lives for marketable trash
The bridge seems like a paraphrase of various 'anti-' attitudes being packaged for mass consumption 'won't take your medecine' 'don't want nobody else' 'I can do it by myself'
The final verse shows the punk artist fully appropriated, working as a police man to keep everything running smoothly in the status quo, living cheaply to make a few dollars while their fake rebellion remains in style
This song makes the most sense to me as being an indictment of the commercialization of punk culture, rebellion, and self destruction that was taking place in the music industry throughout the 1990s.
The imitation picks you up like a habit Writing in the glow of the TV's static Taking out the trash to the man Give the people something they understand
seems to be about a lack of artistic integrity, producing a cheapened, fake art
A stickman flashing a fine-line smile - a stick man is one dimensional, has no depth Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a style - a junk bond trader sells a worthless commodity as the next big thing Rich man in a poor man's clothes - adoption of street culture as a style, erasure of its original meaning The permanent installment of the daily dose
The second verse seems to deal with the tired, but real cliches of experience that people who live outside of mainstream culture seem to share. The last two lines:
Brought down like an old hotel People digging through the rubble for things they can resell
are about record companies and style-makers, or maybe artists, rummaging through the wreckage of people's/their own lives for marketable trash
The bridge seems like a paraphrase of various 'anti-' attitudes being packaged for mass consumption 'won't take your medecine' 'don't want nobody else' 'I can do it by myself'
The final verse shows the punk artist fully appropriated, working as a police man to keep everything running smoothly in the status quo, living cheaply to make a few dollars while their fake rebellion remains in style