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Primitive Radio Gods – Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand Lyrics 12 years ago
Makes sense. I wrote my interpretation without reading any others, but I think many can co-exist logically. I write about wasting one's time and the shortness of life, you focus on meaning in life and struggling to understand it. These are largely the same thing, how should one spend their short life? I really dig your interpretation, thanks.

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Primitive Radio Gods – Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand Lyrics 12 years ago
I mention time/life a lot because that is the main focus of the song IMHO, not because each quoted lyric contains a reference to such.

My interpretation:

Jan lays down and wrestles in her sleep
Moonlight spills on comic books
And superstars in magazines"

Seems to me that this implies that Jan is preoccupied with fiction and celebrity. Is that the best use of one's time/life?

"We sit outside and argue all night long
About a god we've never seen
But never fails to side with me"

He argued all night long with a friend who flew in to see him. He argues so adamantly, but does he really know about a god he's never seen? Again, is this the best use of the short time with a friend?

"Sunday comes and all the papers say
Ma Teresa's joined the mob
And happy with her full time job"

"Am I alive or thoughts that drift away?
Does summer come for everyone?
Can humans do what profits say?
And if I die before I learn to speak
Can money pay for all the days
I lived awake But half asleep?"

These are all questions the author has, in contrast to the people he's commented on in the song that think of pettier things. These are the types of things they need to think of. Summer, a time when people generally do what they really want to, does not come for everyone as some will die before. Don;t put off the things that really matter for a later time(summer).

I'm not sure he means "mob" as in "THE Mob", but it doesn't matter much. Mother Teresa is quitting what she was doing to make a difference to be employed and get money. Is that the best use of ones time?

"A life is time, they teach us growing up
The seconds ticking killed us all
A million years before the fall"

Pretty clear talk about life and time. Perhaps the talk about the "seconds ticking" and "the fall" is about the futility of our existence, either as individuals or a species. We are destined to end, a million years before the end even comes.

"You ride the waves and don't ask where they go
You swim like lions through the crest
And bathe yourself on zebra flesh"

People largely just stumble through life without considering how they spend it or asking what it really is to live. They "swim like lions through the crest", stuck on their path even when circumstances fight against that path, but they don't change or reevaluate. They make up for the lack of fulfillment, or drown the sorrow caused by the struggle, by indulging. Is this the best path or the best use of ones time?

"I've been downhearted baby,
Ever since the day we met"

This combined with the title of the song brings the thing full circle. The whole song is a conversation he want's to have with someone. Perhaps he's been downhearted because the last time they met it did not end well. Perhaps that person is the same one in this song that flew in to see him but they focused on their differences instead of enjoying each other. The "Broken Phone Booth" could be literal, or just an obstacle that stops one from actually taking that next step. The question is, does he overcome this and call, or just put it in a song and continue on?

Great song.

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Strapping Young Lad – Love? Lyrics 15 years ago
I think he is pointing out that love, while portrayed as beautiful, is about control and being needy. Ultimately, one only seeks to ensure the affection of the other through control. Control of their partners emotions and needs, using their partners addiction to affection(being needed) to satisfy their own. Both feed off of each other. Love is a paradox because it can be beautiful and fulfilling while also being manipulative and needy. Great song!

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Strapping Young Lad – Detox Lyrics 15 years ago
To me, this is about a person trying to fit in. He is trying to fit in with the wrong people. I don't know exactly why they are the wrong people, it could be because they are immature/judgmental or just different than him. The protagonist is not "good around people", he knows this and wonders how he got himself into this situation.

As someone who is socially retarded I know the feeling, you try to put yourself out there only to fail again and feel even more alienated or different. Your aspirations are "nothing but puke" because you can't achieve them if you are not sociable or outgoing.

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