StarDestroyer.Net BBS

one of my english teachers used to do this as an asignement. I have seen many sites on Lepplin lyrics, and I still get pissed off about Reagan calling "Born in the USA" an endorsement of "Christian American Values"

ok example 1

Reagan's favorite song of inspiration and American Values:

born in the usa wrote:Born down in a dead man's town.
first kick I took was when I hit the ground.
living like a dog that's been beat too much.
you spend half your life just covering up.

sounds like child abuse by alcoholic parents to me.

got into a little hometown jam.
so they put a rifle in my hand.
sent me off to a foriegn land.
to go kill the yellow man.

had a choice of either a prison sentance or to serve in veitnam.

came back home to the refinery.
the Hiring man says son if it was up to me.
went down to see my VA man
he says son don't you understand.

no GI bill, lots of unemployment, reduced medical benefits.

I had a brother at Khe sahn fighting off the Veit Cong.
they're still there he's all gone.
he had a woman he loved in Siagon
I have a picture of him in her arms.

The US military did nothing for the spouses and children they left behind in Vietnam.

Down by the shadows of the Penetentiary.
by the gas fires of the refinery
ten years burning down the road
got no where to run got no where to go.

So there's no jobs, except to work in the prison, or be one of the prisoners. note he probably can't get a job as a prison guard since he got busted in the first verse.

I remember studying Bob Dylan's "Lonesome Ballad Of Hattie Carroll" in Year 11 (what American folks would call Junior year) English. I also remember answering "Steve Harris!" when asked who wrote The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner . Needless to say, my teacher wasn't an Iron Maiden fan and didn't appreciate my response. Peasant...

Ananlysing song lyrics is no different from, and often a damn sight more fun than pulling poems to pieces and trying to figure out what the author wanted to say about society. Hell, there are whole history and sociology textbooks in the words of Paul Simon's songs, and probably a postgrad thesis or two in Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime as a critique of the Reagan administration.

DD

No shit people, someone else contribute?