Us

I agree, though I think that in the process of edifying them, the people who made the statue/named the city created something else.
The depiction of them (their love, or what have you) has taken on a life of it's own and now means many things to different people; even things that it was never intended to represent.

I really really think its nothing about love or a couple who loves each other that much that they are going to be immortalized with a statue... Come on, regina never use to speak about love in that simple way... i guess it has many more about URSS; how something that was done expecting to be a good thing for everyone came out wrong... the references about the Quran and the Bible with "den of thieves" and "rummaging for answers in the pages" are a very good ejemplification that it has happend before (with a lot of religions) and that is going to happend again in the future... i dont know maybe it has someting to do with the stupid american war agains "terrosism" that has become a great excuse to invade every country who has oil...

I always thought of parents talking about how the way their children look at them changes as they grow up.
At first, when the kids are little they put them on a pedestal(make a statue of us and put it on a mountain)I thought it was kids becasue they were talking about bubble gum and fun and how they take pictures of the statues, but it says tourists take the pictures, so you know that like tourists, the children won't stay there forever and look at you that way forever.

Then as they grow older( teens and early 20s)The parent's will have had a bigger influence on them, but they feel anomosity totowards them, because you know how kids blame their parents for their problems(i know I do sometimes...)Then they'll give them a talking to, like scolding them or complaining to them how they've ruined their lives, becasue the kids just know SO much more than parents.
The Den of theives refers to the world stealing their innocent children away, and how the parents flip through the pages of the bible or parenting books, trying to figure out where they went wrong and the children flip trhough the pages of literature and try to broaden their horizons, searching for the meaning of life.


The parents think of how their little innocent children made a statue of them when they were younger but the nose begins to rust, and the statue isn't quite as beatiful, and the kids don't see their parents as the beautiful amazing statue anymore.
Then when they say it's contagious, I think it means when the kids have children, the same thing is going to happen and repeat throughout generations.
like when you hear people say they'll never be like their parents, but they end up saying the same things they swore they never would.

It sounds a little bit sad though, to me. I don't know why.
It's a beautiufl song, though.

I like the way you put it anna

Anna, you could be wrong.
I feel like this song has a much more sad and deeper meaning.

"They made a statue of us and put it on a mountain top." - They (family and friends) built us up
"Now tourist come and stare at us." - Now anyone who sees us has a false image of us.
"They named a city after us" - going along the same path that the first line did.
"Then later say it's all our fault." - post break up.
"Then they'll give us a talking to, 'cause they have years of experience." - They'll tell us what we did/where we went wrong.
"And it's contagious." - now it's everyone's business.

Just something to think about.

I wondered about the "Us"/"US" relationship, I'm glad you mentioned it.

"Den of thieves" is a argument that you could use to describe basically any government so I think it's probably feasible to interpret either way.

I'd assume that it would be more likely that "Us" refers to a formerly prominent leader that is being heavily criticized by the rest of the world ("they"), a leader that has a statue and a city named in his honor.

It may be even more likely that "Us" is a general term for the group of people associated with this leader-maybe those who supported a form of government no longer popular (communism/socialism/etc). "Our parts" refers to the instruments of government: people, institutions, ideologies, etc. They're slightly used but there are new ones to replace them which, ironically, are used for "slave labor."

The "pages" could refer to the pages of history or the political writings of philosophers like Confucius, Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Jefferson, etc. They hold all the answers but still, goverments are corrupt and people are abused.

I would guess that the point, in any case, is that political criticisms and ideologies are rarely as simple as "Your government is bad, let us fix it with this new form of government." People will always be abused regardless of the specific form that government takes because people in power are usually corrupt (a den of thieves).

If this is correct, its an interesting perspective that I can appreciate (but don't totally agree with).

@nelsito I really enjoyed this particular interpretation about the perspective US and us, as I am teaching it today to a class of Speaker of Foreign Languages. Thank you!

In Nevi'im is also:

'Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of thieves?' Jeremiah 7:11

Being as Regina is Jewish I'd assume she would have taken it from this source, of the TNKh, which I happened to stumble upon during my reading recently.
It was a moment of complete and utter reSpekt for her, amazing.


FURTHER,
Jeremiah refers often to worshiping icons and statues, and the way it's disgraceful to G-d. I do not think it's coincidental that Regina mentions statues in this song...

Myriads of interpretations, won't waste this space with my own cause they'd ramble; just wanted to put this in here!

@littlescrooge Do you think imperialism is evil?

Interesting. You can certainly interpret the song however you want, but I really thing this song is more of a political commentary than a love song. I suppose if you view your relationship in that context: living in a den of thieves, blamed for wrongdoings, a rusting monument, then actually it could be a romantic song, if slightly melancholy song. Nothin wrong with a little melancholy! ;)

And hey, lots of people think Flightless Bird, American Mouth is a romantic song!

I like your comment. The majority of the comments here point out the song as a social and political commentary. They are mostly very valid and probably correct. But music is not just about lyrics, its about how it sounds too. And this song has a very sweet romantic lovely sound. Well, in my opinion and apparently yours, anyway. So why put political commentary in this format? Perhaps its somehow connecting the relationship of these two people with the relationship between certain countries. Im not sure though. Well done for exposing the romantic side of the song though because it is definitely present and a stranger to the song would never see it coming if he looked through most of the comments here. I'm gonna go through the rest of the comments now. Perhaps someone better explains this contrast or similarity between the two 'aspects' that this song seems to radiate.