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The Postal Service – This Place Is a Prison Lyrics 14 years ago
To anyone who has spent any time in a party scene, the meaning of this song is completely obvious.


This place is a prison
And these people aren't your friends
Inhaling thrills through $20 bills
And the tumblers are drained
And then flooded again and again

This is talking about using the combination of cocaine and alcohol. Many people who start out as drinkers will use coke to give themselves a boost and let them drink for much longer than they'd be able to normally. Many people who use coke as a party drug end up finding themselves associating more with the people who have coke(or will pay them for coke). Since people on coke are often completely self-absorbed and generally don't care about anyone else, it's fairly common for people to hate the people that they party with, but stay with them because of the drugs. (this combined with the physical addiction is the prison)

There are guards at the on-ramps
Armed to the teeth
And you may case the grounds
From the Cascades to Puget Sound
But you are not permitted to leave

An on-ramp is an entrance. What armed guards would be guarding the entrance to your party? Armed coke dealers. The rest is simply talking about the fact that although when you are partying, the exhilaration experienced is truly amazing... but the freedom is deceptive. You've actually only got complete freedom within fairly strict confines and the difficulty of breaking the physical and social habits of your lifestyle seem insurmountable.



I know there's a big world out there
Like the one I saw on the screen
In my living room late last night
It was almost too bright to see

As with most addicts, he knows that most people don't live this way, but it seems *so* different and change is *so* difficult that it's impossible to imagine trying.




And I know that it's not a party
If it happens every night
Pretending there's glamour and candelabra
When you're drinking by candlelight

In most of these coke party scenes, people will convince themselves that what they're actually glamorous and classy party people.... when in actually they're just coked up drunks.



What does it take to get a drink in this place?
What does it take, how long must I wait?

Coke makes you impatient and self absorbed, and what's a party without a drink in your hand?

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