In a nutshell, the song is about screwed up priorities. More specifically, it's about how people are at their most pathetic when they're working to make themselves immortal.
The key to this one is the Woody Allen paraphrase at the end of the chorus: "I'd rather be immortal by not dying." The preceding parts of the chorus are about foolishly trying to achieve that mortality through things that won't last. "Paint a picture on a subway train" evokes the image of artwork that will speed by so quickly that nobody will see it, and that will be cleaned off in short order. "Carve my name in a video game" is more interesting; this was the Atari era, when most game creators weren't even credited and the games themselves were simple little pong clones. "Live 'til the bubble pops" isn't just eerily predictive - the late 80s suffered an economic downturn much like the current one (although quite a bit shorter.) "Hold my breath when the big one drops" is a dated reference; it refers to the Cold War fear that, at any moment, the world could be annihilated in surprise nuclear attacks.
The verses are the more interesting part, in my opinion. The first tells of a dancer who dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. She never gets her big break, and since she devoted her whole life to dancing and never worked to better herself in other ways she finds herself worse off. The second verse is about a scientist working to cure a disease, not to help the sick but to make himself famous. Unfortunately, he isn't good or lucky enough to achieve his dream, and the failure literally drives him mad.
Please, Steve Taylor. I'm begging you. There's so much more for you to say, and nobody else to say it. Please record another album.
In a nutshell, the song is about screwed up priorities. More specifically, it's about how people are at their most pathetic when they're working to make themselves immortal.
The key to this one is the Woody Allen paraphrase at the end of the chorus: "I'd rather be immortal by not dying." The preceding parts of the chorus are about foolishly trying to achieve that mortality through things that won't last. "Paint a picture on a subway train" evokes the image of artwork that will speed by so quickly that nobody will see it, and that will be cleaned off in short order. "Carve my name in a video game" is more interesting; this was the Atari era, when most game creators weren't even credited and the games themselves were simple little pong clones. "Live 'til the bubble pops" isn't just eerily predictive - the late 80s suffered an economic downturn much like the current one (although quite a bit shorter.) "Hold my breath when the big one drops" is a dated reference; it refers to the Cold War fear that, at any moment, the world could be annihilated in surprise nuclear attacks.
The verses are the more interesting part, in my opinion. The first tells of a dancer who dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. She never gets her big break, and since she devoted her whole life to dancing and never worked to better herself in other ways she finds herself worse off. The second verse is about a scientist working to cure a disease, not to help the sick but to make himself famous. Unfortunately, he isn't good or lucky enough to achieve his dream, and the failure literally drives him mad.
Please, Steve Taylor. I'm begging you. There's so much more for you to say, and nobody else to say it. Please record another album.