Lyrics for Automatic Man as interpreted by oofus

Automatic Man Lyrics
He's the latest superhero with powers so profound.
He can leap a dotted line in just a single bound.
I know you must have seen him in books and magazines.
He's the quintessential mindless modern epicine.
His life is meaningful because he gets things done.
Bang bang he's dead, chalk up another triumph for our hero,
The.
It's true you must have met him, he's your best friend and your foe.
His opinions are determined by the status quo.
A true creature of habit, he smokes three packs a day.
When he has an original thought, he forgets it right away.
He's a paradigm of carefree living.
He's our mentor, disturb him if you can.
He's the answer if your peace of mind is lacking.
He's our savior, he is the common man.
So if you are troubled by the daily bump and grind,
Then take a careful look around and brother you will find...
The.

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  • 13 Comments
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_punk_in_drublic_
07-26-2002

Rated 0 
I love this song. It's very straight forward as most BR songs are.

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weaselfierce
08-05-2002

Rated 0 
Its a great song. Rocks :) And its pretty obvious yeah

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Madcappunk
08-27-2002

Rated 0 
yeah, Bad Religion's songs are usually self explanatory. But they all totally rock.

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wrinkledPhole
03-13-2003

Rated 0 
no they are not. most bad religion take days to decipher and understand completely. "self-explanatory" is an insult to bad religion.

if they are then whats the meaning behind American Jesus?

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Madcappunk
03-24-2003

Rated 0 
I don't think that it is insulting to say they are self explanatory, and even though it could "take days" to really squeeze all the juice out of a bad religion song, they all have similar themes and stuff. If you wanna see what other people and I have to say about American Jesus, go check out the comments at that song.

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wrinkledPhole
04-18-2003

Rated 0 
yeah I was using American Jesus as an example because it is so lyrically rich and the theme not-so-obvious. it takes time to fully decipher most BR songs. you have to take the song apart and then analyze every part you've broken up. Then once you've come up with a potential answer for each part, that runs parallel with all the other parts you've taken apart can you put the song back together again. If it doesnt follow a logical path of thinking, then begin the whole procedure again. Its sounds more complicated than it is.

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sacrifice_for_life1
02-22-2005

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"He's our saviour, he is the common man" - that line always stuck out to me. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what BR means by it, but I always took it as a statement on how the common everyday man is the person that can bring change in the world, not the simple belief in someone you don't even physically know (possibly Jesus).

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ryan6strings
06-12-2006

Rated 0 
isnt american jesus about authority?

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maxben
04-05-2007

Rated 0 
Not exactly :) but thats not the point as this is not American Jesus.

BR song usually float around the same concepts per se, butt that is because they are punk rock. I mean, it's not like they will suddenly start talking about how big a girl's ass is or how much money they have or something. What makes BR unique is the ability to truly bring images and ideas into similar concept that are different in each song. Hence the complicated vocabulary and the need to take a while to truly understand every hidden meaning and reference.

Similarly, this song is just such a song. I've been listening to the song over and over again and the best explanation I can give for it is that it refers to the kind of person we could become if we stopped thinking for ourselves. When all our actions become "automatic" do to things like the status quo. That is my understanding so far.

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wexenhex
07-05-2007

Rated 0 
im think this is mostly about the ego of modern society

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wexenhex
07-17-2007

Rated 0 
this is what The Answer(bad religion encyclopedia) has to say about it...

"It is about the danger of not thinking before acting or more concisely, complacency in general"

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pinkfade
10-29-2008

Rated 0 
exactly. it is the ego of modern society.

This is just an example of one individual.

"He can leap a dotted line with just a single bound."

-that line stuck out to me. Just like ones grow accostumed to getting up at 6am every morning(I couldent do that to save my life.) even when your mind and body and everything is telling you no..please

its the same concept. Ones grown so accostumed to doing strenuous tasks such as this that after a while they become "automatic," routine...which is looken highly upon..and is the ego of modern society

even though these strenuous automatic actions we are told must be done have no thought behind them..

we all have to get up sometime..most people mornings...

but the point is this same concept carrys over into every daily task ..until you find people like "the automatic man" ...who can do amazing things.. but if you look deep they reveal to be quite mindless..

thats my take on it

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DJgif
05-08-2009

Rated 0 
"His life is meaningful because he gets things done." I always thought this song was about how people are respected for things that really aren't anything, similar to above. Like in high school how it's somehow cool to wear expensive clothes and smoke pot, when anyone can do those things.

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