| Shiny Toy Guns – When They Came For Us Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Ugh, half of the comment types amount to the same thing. Actually, I believe "When They Came for Us" is an antiwar song. It is about war, probably WWII, from a child's perspective. Firstly, the title, "When They Came for Us," (which I would assume holds meaning anyway because the line never appears in the song) is most likely a reference to the famous WWII speech-turned-poem "First they came..." by Martin Niemöller. In the speech, Niemöller makes a statement about the inaction of German people during the Holocaust.The last line reads "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." Similarly, "When They Came for Us" seems to be an antiwar statement. The symbols of the song, then? The "robots" are people; I think that is agreed upon by everyone. We are robots - obedient, programmed, unfeeling machines - because war turns entire nations, from the soldiers to their families, into a machine, all set on the purpose of defeating the enemy. Meanwhile, we keep up the pretense of humanity and civilization, despite the purpose of war: destruction and killing. (Again, robots tie in here: robots are usually portrayed as the destruction of humanity, while still looking like humans. Skynet and all that jazz.) "Lightning" - and the lyric is "lightning" - is the destruction of war. Bombs and such, you see. "The beach" could be any beach in any war. However, D-Day and the beaches of Normandy generally come to mind when discussing beaches in relation to war, which is part of why I'm thinking this is about WWII specifically. "The children" refers to two groups, I think. First, the literal children - those who were caught in the crossfire. Seeing as this is from a child's perspective, and the child remains mostly innocent and ignorant throughout, I don't think that STG means that the children lost their innocence. I do, however, think that STG intended that interpretation for the second group: the soldiers - boys, really - who fought in the war. The "shiny toy guns" are interesting. The toys do represent innocence; they refer to a time before the war when the U.S. was mostly isolationist and very naive in terms of war. But WWII brought the atomic bomb, the Holocaust, the U.S. into a position of unprecedented global power, and an entire generation of kids who had suffered through a devastating war. We were no longer able to play at war or play with toy guns; too much had been seen and learned. In addition, the guns are ironic. With an actual war going on, children are playing at guns. People are dying, and we played. This isn't as profound a statement, but is the more literal interpretation when taken into account that the song is told from the point of view of a child. So, the whole song: The first stanza is just after the end of the war. Actually, the whole thing is, but the speaker remembers various times as well. The robots are sad because of the destruction of the war, but the child doesn't know that. The child interpreted the fighting as being in trouble, and just thinks that since the lightning - bombs and such - stopped, nobody is in trouble anymore. (The fighting was synthetic because it was emotionless and meaningless, as well as unreal and unimaginable to the innocent child.) The chorus is pretty much self-explanatory if you read this far. The second verse is about the bewilderment of civilians and people in general. What was the purpose of all this death? What do we have left now? The third verse is also fairly self-explanatory, but it reinforces the idea of the child's innocence. He/she still doesn't know the ramifications of the war, or even the reality of it. But his/her father died in the fighting, and his/her mother is trying to hold on to the child's naivety. So, it's an antiwar song. I freaking suck at conclusions. If you actually read this whole thing, I applaud you. |
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