The first verse is about how all the wars of the past and the differences they were fought over don't really matter any more. Perhaps they never did. Those kings are all dead and they can't tell lies anymore. They don't have power to send people to their death anymore, but inside, he knows that people haven't changed much at all. It can all happen again. It's a thin line that separates us from that old barbarity.
But what are we supposed to do about it? The second verse addresses the question and the nihilism it comes from. How are we going to leave the world for the next generation? "What we couldn't do, or what we wouldn't do, it's a crime, but does it matter?" Our inaction is a crime but who cares? But no, Yes, it really really matters.
The last verse is the same old pattern happening again. A leader tells the people to go to war "break their hearts and break their heads." Is there nothing we can say or do? Just shrug and accept it as a never ending cycle? "Blame the future on the past, always lost in bloody guts" But no, that's all history and those people are dead. It's me and you now. We can do something. This is on us for letting it happen. We're always living on a thin line and only our actions will decide on which side we fall.
EDIT: And yes, I am just now watching The Sopranos. I think in the context of the show, the meaning of the song changes to the thin line Tony has to walk between his morality and the code of the family. Ralphie is a monster and Tony knows it, but he can't do anything about it because he's a made man. His inaction costs Tracey her life and Tony has to live with that. We see his guilt at the end of the episode in the therapy session. "A work related death. It's sad when they go so young."
Which brings us to the girls. The song plays at the beginning and end of the episode, when we are first introduced to Tracey and at the end her replacement. These girls live on a thin line. They're disposable in this world. The parallel is drawn in the episode with Meadow and how she falls in love with Noah only for him to break up with her out of the blue. But obviously the stakes are much lower for her. Meadow is about the same age as Tracey, but their lives and the stakes are worlds apart.
It's an anti-war song.
The first verse is about how all the wars of the past and the differences they were fought over don't really matter any more. Perhaps they never did. Those kings are all dead and they can't tell lies anymore. They don't have power to send people to their death anymore, but inside, he knows that people haven't changed much at all. It can all happen again. It's a thin line that separates us from that old barbarity.
But what are we supposed to do about it? The second verse addresses the question and the nihilism it comes from. How are we going to leave the world for the next generation? "What we couldn't do, or what we wouldn't do, it's a crime, but does it matter?" Our inaction is a crime but who cares? But no, Yes, it really really matters.
The last verse is the same old pattern happening again. A leader tells the people to go to war "break their hearts and break their heads." Is there nothing we can say or do? Just shrug and accept it as a never ending cycle? "Blame the future on the past, always lost in bloody guts" But no, that's all history and those people are dead. It's me and you now. We can do something. This is on us for letting it happen. We're always living on a thin line and only our actions will decide on which side we fall.
EDIT: And yes, I am just now watching The Sopranos. I think in the context of the show, the meaning of the song changes to the thin line Tony has to walk between his morality and the code of the family. Ralphie is a monster and Tony knows it, but he can't do anything about it because he's a made man. His inaction costs Tracey her life and Tony has to live with that. We see his guilt at the end of the episode in the therapy session. "A work related death. It's sad when they go so young."
Which brings us to the girls. The song plays at the beginning and end of the episode, when we are first introduced to Tracey and at the end her replacement. These girls live on a thin line. They're disposable in this world. The parallel is drawn in the episode with Meadow and how she falls in love with Noah only for him to break up with her out of the blue. But obviously the stakes are much lower for her. Meadow is about the same age as Tracey, but their lives and the stakes are worlds apart.
[Edit: Sopranos]