When I first heard this song decades ago, I couldn't figure out whether Richard Butler was singing ironically about how stupid everything in both pop culture and underground culture was, or singing his heartfelt praise to all of it.
But I think the answer may be that it's both. Everything is stupid, everything is meaningless; that's the whole point of the entire album. Worshipping pop culture is as insane as worshipping the bomb, and Andy Warhol's Factory is no better than a manufactured top-40 group, it's an absurd, nihilistic world… but you can still have a good time there. Why else would he bother making pop music himself?
When I first heard this song decades ago, I couldn't figure out whether Richard Butler was singing ironically about how stupid everything in both pop culture and underground culture was, or singing his heartfelt praise to all of it.
But I think the answer may be that it's both. Everything is stupid, everything is meaningless; that's the whole point of the entire album. Worshipping pop culture is as insane as worshipping the bomb, and Andy Warhol's Factory is no better than a manufactured top-40 group, it's an absurd, nihilistic world… but you can still have a good time there. Why else would he bother making pop music himself?