Ok, I believe that all of you are way off. My interpretation is that the verses; "the candidate", "the beauty queens", " the catholic priest", and the rock star, all represent everything that is wrong with the world. The candidate represents lying, the beauty queens represent stupid decisions, the catholic priest represents leaving something important for something material, and the rock star represents one night stands and pre-marital sexual relations. The chorus " lovely girl won't you stay, won't you stay, stay with me? All my life I was blind, I was blind, now I see" represents how he has seen these things and given in to the unrighteous, therefore asking a pretty girl to stay the night with him. The song is titled "big parade" because all of these people mentioned would be in a big parade. Which implies that they are people to look up to, although the lyrics tell otherwise.
Ok, I believe that all of you are way off. My interpretation is that the verses; "the candidate", "the beauty queens", " the catholic priest", and the rock star, all represent everything that is wrong with the world. The candidate represents lying, the beauty queens represent stupid decisions, the catholic priest represents leaving something important for something material, and the rock star represents one night stands and pre-marital sexual relations. The chorus " lovely girl won't you stay, won't you stay, stay with me? All my life I was blind, I was blind, now I see" represents how he has seen these things and given in to the unrighteous, therefore asking a pretty girl to stay the night with him. The song is titled "big parade" because all of these people mentioned would be in a big parade. Which implies that they are people to look up to, although the lyrics tell otherwise.