This is a fantastic song that paints a direful picture of the future with very few words. Most of you have got it pretty much right on. The only thing I would like to add is that the first verse is a little confusing in the context. "Cat's foot iron claw" is a description of those old bathtubs--they're literally called clawfoot tubs and were often made of iron. At this point those tubs are antiques. You rarely see them anymore. I think here they are intended to inspire an image of something old and outmoded . . . like war. But they also suggest something violent--a cat's claw is its primary weapon and means of killing its prey. It's an incredibly effective image when you put it into the context of the rest of the song.
The other thing wanted to point out was that the line "Innocents raped with napalm fire" is a direct reference to the Vietnam War, particularly that famous photo taken by Nick Ut of the naked little Vietnamese girl running down the road with Napalm burns on her body. It's arguably the most famous image from that war.
This is a fantastic song that paints a direful picture of the future with very few words. Most of you have got it pretty much right on. The only thing I would like to add is that the first verse is a little confusing in the context. "Cat's foot iron claw" is a description of those old bathtubs--they're literally called clawfoot tubs and were often made of iron. At this point those tubs are antiques. You rarely see them anymore. I think here they are intended to inspire an image of something old and outmoded . . . like war. But they also suggest something violent--a cat's claw is its primary weapon and means of killing its prey. It's an incredibly effective image when you put it into the context of the rest of the song.
The other thing wanted to point out was that the line "Innocents raped with napalm fire" is a direct reference to the Vietnam War, particularly that famous photo taken by Nick Ut of the naked little Vietnamese girl running down the road with Napalm burns on her body. It's arguably the most famous image from that war.