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QuikSand · 03-31-2010, 08:24 PM

Well, to be honest, I didn't really know/remember all the words to the song when I got to thinking about the story/meaning. I was really just stuck on the *obvious* hook lyrics in this song (especially with the urgency in the delivery):

Come on and get the minimum
Before you open up your eyes

At first the sense I got with that (and the later presence of the word "borderline") had me thinking about illegal immigration. But I kept thinking about situations where someone is getting or settling for too little (kept thinking "minimum wage") and started thinking about the military.

Then, pasting in the full lyrics, it's fairly obviously loaded with military references...army, soldier, warfare. And all that fits, too.

So, my basic theory is that the theme is something connected to the recruitment of young, dumb kids to get into the military, where we go on to overuse them, underpay them, and subject them to lives all too full of psych and medical problems.

There are a number of things in the lyrics that seem to superficially fit... and that's often enough with too-clever-by-half genre of "smart guy music" like this. And, admittedly, there's also plenty that seems nominally to be more mundane relationship-type stuff, so this might be completely red herring style stuff, too.

Still a great song, and album, in my book.

03-31-2010, 08:24 PM	#18
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Well, to be honest, I didn't really know/remember all the words to the song when I got to thinking about the story/meaning. I was really just stuck on the obvious hook lyrics in this song (especially with the urgency in the delivery): Come on and get the minimum Before you open up your eyes At first the sense I got with that (and the later presence of the word "borderline") had me thinking about illegal immigration. But I kept thinking about situations where someone is getting or settling for too little (kept thinking "minimum wage") and started thinking about the military. Then, pasting in the full lyrics, it's fairly obviously loaded with military references...army, soldier, warfare. And all that fits, too. So, my basic theory is that the theme is something connected to the recruitment of young, dumb kids to get into the military, where we go on to overuse them, underpay them, and subject them to lives all too full of psych and medical problems. There are a number of things in the lyrics that seem to superficially fit... and that's often enough with too-clever-by-half genre of "smart guy music" like this. And, admittedly, there's also plenty that seems nominally to be more mundane relationship-type stuff, so this might be completely red herring style stuff, too. Still a great song, and album, in my book.