I would like to clarify some things in the debate about the meaning of this song and add in some of my own views.
"I like to party fucking hard. I like my rock and roll the same. Don't give a fuck if I burn out. Don't give a fuck if I fade away." -- I am not sure what to make of this line. Chris may be speaking sarcastically...
"So back to the Motor-League with me before I'm forced to face the wrath of a well-heeled buying public who live vicariously through tortured-artist college-rock and floor-punching macho pabulum." -- According to some of the posts below, Chris used to work at a travel agency called the Motor League in his hometown. He would apparently prefer to work there than feel pressure from record executives to sell "music" to a decadent population with too much extra spending money and nothing to do (which is what many "sensitive artists", "indie" bands, and what are according to Chris intellectually devoid New England hardcore bands).
"Back to the Motor League I go. Once thought I drew a lucky hand. Turned out to be a live grenade of play-acting "anarchists" and Mommy's-little-skinheads, death-threats and sycophants and wieners drunk on straight-edge." -- Chris thought he got lucky when he discovered the punk scene, but it turned out that many people involved participated without substance. Not just little kids but people of all ages get into stupid movements because they are bored or feel the need to belong; oftentimes, this is accompanied by totalizing systems of thought that eliminate the individual's ability to think critically and independently.
"Fuck off. Who cares? I'd rather hi-lite Trip-Tiks than listen to your bullshit. Fuck off. Who cares about your stupid scenes, your shitty zines, the straw-men you build up to burn." -- According to the below posts, Trip-Tiks are the maps travel agencies give you so you know where you are driving (in the days before Google maps and smartphones). Also, the straw men burning line is a reference to the Burning Man Festival. It began as an unsanctioned gathering of artists in the desert but has since become a part of the system in two ways: its growing popularity means many people attend because it is trendy, and because it is officially regulated by local and state laws which allow the authorities to control the event.
"It never ceases to amaze me and as I'm suffering your perfection it reminds me of my own race to redress my own sad history of mouthed feet. Eaten hats. Teated bulls. Amish phone-books. Drunken brawls." -- Don't forget, Chris (he says to himself), you too have plenty of regretted statements and things you said were impossible but happened anyway. His life is full of contradictions and shortcomings he is constantly dealing with.
"But what have we here? 15 years later it still reeks of ‘Swill and Chickenshit Conformists with their fists in the air; like-father, like-son "rebels” bloated on korn, eminems and bizkits." -- Best line of the song! 15 years after what? Two things. First, Propagandhi formed in 1986, fifteen years before this album was released. Second, Dead Kennedys released Bedtime for Democracy in 1986, which featured songs like “Triumph of the Swill”, “Chickenshit Conformists”, and “Anarchy for Sale”, all of which expressed lament for the corporate direction punk was moving (i.e. punk was being co-opted into the capitalist system by major labels and moderate politics). Chris obviously believes that nu metal and other mainstream rock music is just the latest incarnation of "government music".
"Lord, hear our prayer: take back your Amy Grant mosh-crews and your fair-weather politics." -- This line criticizes christian hardcore bands with a reference to the "The Queen of Christian Pop".
"Blow-dry my hair and stick me on a ten-speed. Back to the Motor League. I guess life is just a popularity contest. Success, the ability to perform within a framework of obedience. Just ask the candy-coated Joy-Cam rock-bands selling shoes for venture-capitalists, silencing competing messages, rounding off the jagged edges." -- A Joy-Cam is an easy to use Polaroid camera that prints instant photos; the metaphor here is that government music bands just crank out "hits", which are essentially carbon copies of each other, unoriginal and vacuous. Silencing competing messages means marginalizing critical voices so people primarily hear messages approved by the system; rounding off the edges is a metaphor that means making something smooth, reducing friction, and making something "pleasant" or non-confrontational.
"Today is good day to die." -- Just see the Wikipedia entry on this quote.
I think you're pretty much right on with everything except the straw man line being about burning man. I think it is much more general than that. A straw-man is a common fallacy, and a rhetorical device used in argumentation. You basically create a flimsy stance for your opponent that they don't actually hold and can be easily argued against, then you argue against the stance you created for your opponent instead of having to address their actual arguments. So "the straw-man you build up to burn" in my opinion is referring to the 'enemies within the establishment of...
I think you're pretty much right on with everything except the straw man line being about burning man. I think it is much more general than that. A straw-man is a common fallacy, and a rhetorical device used in argumentation. You basically create a flimsy stance for your opponent that they don't actually hold and can be easily argued against, then you argue against the stance you created for your opponent instead of having to address their actual arguments. So "the straw-man you build up to burn" in my opinion is referring to the 'enemies within the establishment of power' in punk songs who we should all be fighting to destroy, when really the bands and fans themselves are the ones upholding and participating as members of the establishment.
@anderspa Better explained than Chris would bother to, lol. Good job. Although Chris loves Slapshot, and that's the band fronted by Choke, from Negative FX even before the first Slapshot EP (which was in 1985). I don't think he dislikes Boston hardcore, he enjoys some Converge, Punch and also Slapshot obviously, those are the ones I know for sure....notice how they're not the typical overly straight edge bands, Slapshot since 1993 has only had Choke himself straight edge...and that guy is "more fucked up than you'll ever be." Look at the video for I Told You So, haha, one of...
@anderspa Better explained than Chris would bother to, lol. Good job. Although Chris loves Slapshot, and that's the band fronted by Choke, from Negative FX even before the first Slapshot EP (which was in 1985). I don't think he dislikes Boston hardcore, he enjoys some Converge, Punch and also Slapshot obviously, those are the ones I know for sure....notice how they're not the typical overly straight edge bands, Slapshot since 1993 has only had Choke himself straight edge...and that guy is "more fucked up than you'll ever be." Look at the video for I Told You So, haha, one of a kind.
@anderspa thanks so much for the explanation. I always admired the music in this song but only years later am I reading the (interpretable) lyrics. It describes true heroism, the kind that never gets celebrated. True he's bragging... but he's bragging about being the person who never gets to brag about his job to parents and socialites, because he was too proud to keep his mouth shut. I take him at his word that he had opportunities to "clean up his act" and get paid well to make sanitized music for angry kids. I have a corporate job in finance...
@anderspa thanks so much for the explanation. I always admired the music in this song but only years later am I reading the (interpretable) lyrics. It describes true heroism, the kind that never gets celebrated. True he's bragging... but he's bragging about being the person who never gets to brag about his job to parents and socialites, because he was too proud to keep his mouth shut. I take him at his word that he had opportunities to "clean up his act" and get paid well to make sanitized music for angry kids. I have a corporate job in finance and sometimes I think it's too much for me but somehow I manage to keep being a good German.
I would like to clarify some things in the debate about the meaning of this song and add in some of my own views.
"I like to party fucking hard. I like my rock and roll the same. Don't give a fuck if I burn out. Don't give a fuck if I fade away." -- I am not sure what to make of this line. Chris may be speaking sarcastically...
"So back to the Motor-League with me before I'm forced to face the wrath of a well-heeled buying public who live vicariously through tortured-artist college-rock and floor-punching macho pabulum." -- According to some of the posts below, Chris used to work at a travel agency called the Motor League in his hometown. He would apparently prefer to work there than feel pressure from record executives to sell "music" to a decadent population with too much extra spending money and nothing to do (which is what many "sensitive artists", "indie" bands, and what are according to Chris intellectually devoid New England hardcore bands).
"Back to the Motor League I go. Once thought I drew a lucky hand. Turned out to be a live grenade of play-acting "anarchists" and Mommy's-little-skinheads, death-threats and sycophants and wieners drunk on straight-edge." -- Chris thought he got lucky when he discovered the punk scene, but it turned out that many people involved participated without substance. Not just little kids but people of all ages get into stupid movements because they are bored or feel the need to belong; oftentimes, this is accompanied by totalizing systems of thought that eliminate the individual's ability to think critically and independently.
"Fuck off. Who cares? I'd rather hi-lite Trip-Tiks than listen to your bullshit. Fuck off. Who cares about your stupid scenes, your shitty zines, the straw-men you build up to burn." -- According to the below posts, Trip-Tiks are the maps travel agencies give you so you know where you are driving (in the days before Google maps and smartphones). Also, the straw men burning line is a reference to the Burning Man Festival. It began as an unsanctioned gathering of artists in the desert but has since become a part of the system in two ways: its growing popularity means many people attend because it is trendy, and because it is officially regulated by local and state laws which allow the authorities to control the event.
"It never ceases to amaze me and as I'm suffering your perfection it reminds me of my own race to redress my own sad history of mouthed feet. Eaten hats. Teated bulls. Amish phone-books. Drunken brawls." -- Don't forget, Chris (he says to himself), you too have plenty of regretted statements and things you said were impossible but happened anyway. His life is full of contradictions and shortcomings he is constantly dealing with.
"But what have we here? 15 years later it still reeks of ‘Swill and Chickenshit Conformists with their fists in the air; like-father, like-son "rebels” bloated on korn, eminems and bizkits." -- Best line of the song! 15 years after what? Two things. First, Propagandhi formed in 1986, fifteen years before this album was released. Second, Dead Kennedys released Bedtime for Democracy in 1986, which featured songs like “Triumph of the Swill”, “Chickenshit Conformists”, and “Anarchy for Sale”, all of which expressed lament for the corporate direction punk was moving (i.e. punk was being co-opted into the capitalist system by major labels and moderate politics). Chris obviously believes that nu metal and other mainstream rock music is just the latest incarnation of "government music".
"Lord, hear our prayer: take back your Amy Grant mosh-crews and your fair-weather politics." -- This line criticizes christian hardcore bands with a reference to the "The Queen of Christian Pop".
"Blow-dry my hair and stick me on a ten-speed. Back to the Motor League. I guess life is just a popularity contest. Success, the ability to perform within a framework of obedience. Just ask the candy-coated Joy-Cam rock-bands selling shoes for venture-capitalists, silencing competing messages, rounding off the jagged edges." -- A Joy-Cam is an easy to use Polaroid camera that prints instant photos; the metaphor here is that government music bands just crank out "hits", which are essentially carbon copies of each other, unoriginal and vacuous. Silencing competing messages means marginalizing critical voices so people primarily hear messages approved by the system; rounding off the edges is a metaphor that means making something smooth, reducing friction, and making something "pleasant" or non-confrontational.
"Today is good day to die." -- Just see the Wikipedia entry on this quote.
This song is so awesome.
I think you're pretty much right on with everything except the straw man line being about burning man. I think it is much more general than that. A straw-man is a common fallacy, and a rhetorical device used in argumentation. You basically create a flimsy stance for your opponent that they don't actually hold and can be easily argued against, then you argue against the stance you created for your opponent instead of having to address their actual arguments. So "the straw-man you build up to burn" in my opinion is referring to the 'enemies within the establishment of...
I think you're pretty much right on with everything except the straw man line being about burning man. I think it is much more general than that. A straw-man is a common fallacy, and a rhetorical device used in argumentation. You basically create a flimsy stance for your opponent that they don't actually hold and can be easily argued against, then you argue against the stance you created for your opponent instead of having to address their actual arguments. So "the straw-man you build up to burn" in my opinion is referring to the 'enemies within the establishment of power' in punk songs who we should all be fighting to destroy, when really the bands and fans themselves are the ones upholding and participating as members of the establishment.
@anderspa Better explained than Chris would bother to, lol. Good job.
@anderspa Better explained than Chris would bother to, lol. Good job.
@anderspa Better explained than Chris would bother to, lol. Good job. Although Chris loves Slapshot, and that's the band fronted by Choke, from Negative FX even before the first Slapshot EP (which was in 1985). I don't think he dislikes Boston hardcore, he enjoys some Converge, Punch and also Slapshot obviously, those are the ones I know for sure....notice how they're not the typical overly straight edge bands, Slapshot since 1993 has only had Choke himself straight edge...and that guy is "more fucked up than you'll ever be." Look at the video for I Told You So, haha, one of...
@anderspa Better explained than Chris would bother to, lol. Good job. Although Chris loves Slapshot, and that's the band fronted by Choke, from Negative FX even before the first Slapshot EP (which was in 1985). I don't think he dislikes Boston hardcore, he enjoys some Converge, Punch and also Slapshot obviously, those are the ones I know for sure....notice how they're not the typical overly straight edge bands, Slapshot since 1993 has only had Choke himself straight edge...and that guy is "more fucked up than you'll ever be." Look at the video for I Told You So, haha, one of a kind.
@anderspa thanks so much for the explanation. I always admired the music in this song but only years later am I reading the (interpretable) lyrics. It describes true heroism, the kind that never gets celebrated. True he's bragging... but he's bragging about being the person who never gets to brag about his job to parents and socialites, because he was too proud to keep his mouth shut. I take him at his word that he had opportunities to "clean up his act" and get paid well to make sanitized music for angry kids. I have a corporate job in finance...
@anderspa thanks so much for the explanation. I always admired the music in this song but only years later am I reading the (interpretable) lyrics. It describes true heroism, the kind that never gets celebrated. True he's bragging... but he's bragging about being the person who never gets to brag about his job to parents and socialites, because he was too proud to keep his mouth shut. I take him at his word that he had opportunities to "clean up his act" and get paid well to make sanitized music for angry kids. I have a corporate job in finance and sometimes I think it's too much for me but somehow I manage to keep being a good German.