Stranger
Than Fiction
Slumber:
Slumber is one of my favorite song by Bad Religion. I am not entirely sure
if they are speaking to a boy or a fictional charicter, at any rate the
song expresses the idea that there is a reason to be here, and everyone
plays apart. No matter how shallow, deep, rich, or poor. He is proclaiming no
matter what happens he enjoys being; this is stated when he says, "there is
no time to parade aroud sulking, I would rather laugh than cry" it seems he
isn't allowed to give this info, but he feels it is for the best. the song
is either written for a friend who can't go on, or to suggest a new idea on
what is coming... (Kathy)
Better Off Dead:
To me Better Off Dead is a song where GOD talks to
someone ( a loser dude ). Whe he says "the next time I'll create the
universe..." GOD is ironic like taking the blame from the loser dude. The
perfect part at all is when GOD suggests suicide ( a smile on the lips and
a hole in the head ) and how the Loser must really give up on life ( take
it away cause there's nothing to miss ) This song is fantastic. (Andre Luiz (scheisser_batera@hotmail.com))
Tiny Voices: What I wanted to point out
here is my great admiration for Greg Graffin's poetic abilities. For
instance, when trying to convey "the sun is setting, it's time for bed,"
Greg writes with great beauty: "The brown and orange sky holds it's
breath, as the sun retreats to the distant horizon / And our hearts
palpitate anxiously as we soon will lay supine, and wait for sleep to
overcome us." Or instead of resorting to a dull "the sun is rising,
let's face another day," he writes "The billions of tiny pinhole embers
[i.e. the stars] fade into a morning sky filled with poignant, morose
wonder. / Waking, we bear a cosmetic peace that verifies the turmoil
that we carry deep inside."
Taking a crack at interpreting the song, I guess it's about how the
day-to-day, routinary lives that a lot of us live, lead to
claustrophobic or paranoid sensations of how we might be missing out on
something, and how we may feel that "recognition and recompense" are due
us. The song may also deal with the subject of how our wrongdoings
haunt our sleep ("[...] a mass of voices resonating it's screams of
forgotten victims [...]"). (Leandro Baca)
I've heard that this song is about the Bosnians and all the pain and
suffering that they have gone through, and how for a while, no one would
pay attention to them. (Elliot Imes)
Incomplete: This
song is about someone lacking something, although Im not quite sure who
or what. Maybe its Brett Gurewitz lacking a religion, or a kid without
identity of his own. Who knows?
Inner Logic:
I believe this to be a song inspired on Greg
Graffin's experience with education, and teachers, and how original thought
and analytic thinking are despised. In an essay by Graffin he writes:
Inner Logic is primarily about the college professors who Greg encountered,
but not entirely. The last verse, specifically, seems to be related to the
"I don't promote demonstrations" line, because the individuals in this
verse *are* demonstrating. The decorated warriors who drill harmless kids
on the pavement are clearly the US Military (or perhaps the National Guard,
in ref. to the Kent State situation in the 60s?). They protect the opulant
(the rich politicians in DC, perhaps, or simply those who feel that kids
protesting is bad) and stage moral standards (staging, instead of actually
living up to the moral standards they espouse; hypocrites) and yet, they
expect character growth and redemption (agreeance with authority; nothing
to *really* do with real character growth) from the protesters. (Michael Rohm)
Stranger Than Fiction:
This song (like "Marked") is simply showing a perspective of society. We put
so much emphasis on make-believe and forget about the few departing
truths in the world. It's true...many times truth is stanger than
fiction. (Stacy McIntyre)
Stranger than Fiction is about great writers and how they wrote great fiction
and stories about life when they failed miserably in their own lives.(John Grubb (MrBean995@aol.com)
Infected:
I think that the song is about one of there girlfriends and how they hate
trying in the dating game and how they're somehow bound to it. It shows their
frustration, and some times their love for it. It's one of my favorite song
on stranger than fiction.(HornToad12@aol.com)
Marked:
"points out the obvious
fact that no matter what you do, where you do it you cannot escape scrutiny
for it. It is also a stab at the religious types who speak of god's
omnipotence and his all seeing all knowing eyes." (Jack Smith)
Television:
"its a very well composed song. The chorus drones on and on just
as the TV itself does. The song itself is about how lazy the masses
have become. Instead of dealing with problems, most are content to
temporarily suppress them in the wonderful world of TVland." (Jack Smith)
"Students were rewarded
for thinking like the professor. Only rarely did the professors try to
educe original ideas from the students. More often we were rewarded for
regurgitating the same rhetoric on tests that they professed in the lectures"
The song is also
on other types of comformism in society, routine and oppression.
"Inner Logic is
about the 'underside' of our civilization. The way that it is presented
as so elegant yet it is driven by nothing more than greed. If viewed from
high enough our culture appears no different than a bunch of ants on the
sidewalk." (Jack Smith)
Of all lyrics, I love "Marked" the most. Simple, but yet so deep. Truly,
tremendous, beautiful lyrics. The song is an elegant definition of
"Socialization". (Ann Magritt Tronstad)
