Since 30 years ago at a time when I was facing redundancy, I have interpreted the lyrics as something to do with the freedoms and release, had that nasty stuff happened to me - the flip side of all the bad stuff being that I could find simple relaxation in just being myself, released from all the daily pressures of being just a ‘numbered cog’ in some corporate machine, in favour of just messing around with my old cars (‘grease on your fingers, oil on your face’…?). As things turned out, I lasted a further 10 years within the system before finally getting out, after which I did indeed get to enjoy grease on the fingers, oil on my face….oh, and free to poke Two Fingers at the oppressive hierarchies which had previously enslaved me !
Since 30 years ago at a time when I was facing redundancy, I have interpreted the lyrics as something to do with the freedoms and release, had that nasty stuff happened to me - the flip side of all the bad stuff being that I could find simple relaxation in just being myself, released from all the daily pressures of being just a ‘numbered cog’ in some corporate machine, in favour of just messing around with my old cars (‘grease on your fingers, oil on your face’…?). As things turned out, I lasted a further 10 years within the system before finally getting out, after which I did indeed get to enjoy grease on the fingers, oil on my face….oh, and free to poke Two Fingers at the oppressive hierarchies which had previously enslaved me !