I don't have a singular "theory" about this song, but I will say, it's probably one of my favorites on the album, although I do also LOVE Imagine, Counting Bodies Like Sheep & the Fiddle & the Drum.
Having said that, I've always been fascinated by this song as there's an internal dynamic slinking through the song even as the externally focused aspect of the song gets angrier & harsher. It's almost as if he's burying that optimism - he had mentioned that point in the beginning of the song = as he becomes closer & closer to giving up on other person/idea/group.
Now that could be, as some have suggested, due to his experiences with his mother & the feelings he had to deal with during all of that, or it could even be something as simple as his own battle with some part of himself that led him to finally saying, "FUCK IT".
I remember moments where my depression, becoming extremely hard to bear & "deal with" had me singing this song to turn away that darker part of my own psyche, as I finally said to it: "You fucking disappoint me" and basically shoved it away, buried it, whatever just so I could move on & get on with just simply living life.
But there's also that external sense that comes from having finally looking at someone else & realizing, maybe this is just where you are at & there's absolutely that I can, in this moment, either do or offer that will help you. It's not an easy feeling to deal with or point to come to, but sometimes people HAVE to WANT to help themselves, and there's NOTHING we can say, nothing we can do and nothing we can offer that will help that person. And that disappoint is sometimes the only impetuous that drives the other person to finally moving forward at some point. Or saves us the heartache that comes from being helpless as someone falls into that downward spiral that some people ultimately choose, no matter the reason...
And of course, it being on what amounts to a protest album, there's the implication that comes from finding oneself at an impasse with someone you had hoped you could work with to move things forward (ever the optimistic one). Seeing as America's political landscape has only grown MORE divisive and fragmented over the intervening years, it becomes more & more pertinent. As policies become ever more toxic & the rhetoric used to prop it up ever more dangerous & subversive against the "other", we see more & more people just walking away from those who have labelled them as "opponents", despite that they may have been close friends, family or loved ones. Like, "You fucking disappoint me" being shouted from one brother to another after a particularly bad argument over some piece of hateful nonsense or idea is not that far from the truth, especially now...
I don't have a singular "theory" about this song, but I will say, it's probably one of my favorites on the album, although I do also LOVE Imagine, Counting Bodies Like Sheep & the Fiddle & the Drum.
Having said that, I've always been fascinated by this song as there's an internal dynamic slinking through the song even as the externally focused aspect of the song gets angrier & harsher. It's almost as if he's burying that optimism - he had mentioned that point in the beginning of the song = as he becomes closer & closer to giving up on other person/idea/group.
Now that could be, as some have suggested, due to his experiences with his mother & the feelings he had to deal with during all of that, or it could even be something as simple as his own battle with some part of himself that led him to finally saying, "FUCK IT".
I remember moments where my depression, becoming extremely hard to bear & "deal with" had me singing this song to turn away that darker part of my own psyche, as I finally said to it: "You fucking disappoint me" and basically shoved it away, buried it, whatever just so I could move on & get on with just simply living life.
But there's also that external sense that comes from having finally looking at someone else & realizing, maybe this is just where you are at & there's absolutely that I can, in this moment, either do or offer that will help you. It's not an easy feeling to deal with or point to come to, but sometimes people HAVE to WANT to help themselves, and there's NOTHING we can say, nothing we can do and nothing we can offer that will help that person. And that disappoint is sometimes the only impetuous that drives the other person to finally moving forward at some point. Or saves us the heartache that comes from being helpless as someone falls into that downward spiral that some people ultimately choose, no matter the reason...
And of course, it being on what amounts to a protest album, there's the implication that comes from finding oneself at an impasse with someone you had hoped you could work with to move things forward (ever the optimistic one). Seeing as America's political landscape has only grown MORE divisive and fragmented over the intervening years, it becomes more & more pertinent. As policies become ever more toxic & the rhetoric used to prop it up ever more dangerous & subversive against the "other", we see more & more people just walking away from those who have labelled them as "opponents", despite that they may have been close friends, family or loved ones. Like, "You fucking disappoint me" being shouted from one brother to another after a particularly bad argument over some piece of hateful nonsense or idea is not that far from the truth, especially now...