The song definitely is commenting specifically on the American situation. I think the song should be associated with the American Industrial Revolution. The factory workers are presented as a type of corporate solidarity for the American ethos in general. We are "the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free" (Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus). We will work for that freedom, sacrificing our own selves to build up this land. Our salt, our sweat is as sweet sugar to the asphalt. Our hearts litter the topsoil--the blood sacrifice which the land requires of us. This song is about working. Working to build up America, to build our futures by the sweat of our backs, by sacrificing our own lives. "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how" (Nietzsche).
But what will we lose? What will we sacrifice along the way? In seeking to build a future for ourselves will we lose our very humanity and become a faceless, impersonal industrial machine? Community becomes the noise of a television in the other room. We have become a culture obsessed with a "pill mentality"--the right pill will fill the void we feel deep down inside--no need for God, no need for each other. Ignore your conscience, drown your humanity in alcohol (Speyside is a Scottish whisky), join the picket lines of the labor union protests so we can make more money. "Tune in and we can get the last call" might be a reference to workers waiting in crowds outside of factories for the chance to be one of the select few who would receive employment. [This is] Our lives. Our grain! Our coal! In forbearing the "how," will we lose sight of the "why" we live? In desperation, (I bled the) greed from my arm. Give it a rest, now.
The song definitely is commenting specifically on the American situation. I think the song should be associated with the American Industrial Revolution. The factory workers are presented as a type of corporate solidarity for the American ethos in general. We are "the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free" (Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus). We will work for that freedom, sacrificing our own selves to build up this land. Our salt, our sweat is as sweet sugar to the asphalt. Our hearts litter the topsoil--the blood sacrifice which the land requires of us. This song is about working. Working to build up America, to build our futures by the sweat of our backs, by sacrificing our own lives. "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how" (Nietzsche).
But what will we lose? What will we sacrifice along the way? In seeking to build a future for ourselves will we lose our very humanity and become a faceless, impersonal industrial machine? Community becomes the noise of a television in the other room. We have become a culture obsessed with a "pill mentality"--the right pill will fill the void we feel deep down inside--no need for God, no need for each other. Ignore your conscience, drown your humanity in alcohol (Speyside is a Scottish whisky), join the picket lines of the labor union protests so we can make more money. "Tune in and we can get the last call" might be a reference to workers waiting in crowds outside of factories for the chance to be one of the select few who would receive employment. [This is] Our lives. Our grain! Our coal! In forbearing the "how," will we lose sight of the "why" we live? In desperation, (I bled the) greed from my arm. Give it a rest, now.