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When the devil came
He was not red
He was chrome and he said
Come with me
You must go
So I went
Where everything was clean
So precise and towering
I was welcomed
With open arms
I received so much help in every way
I felt no fear
I felt no fear
The air was crisp
Like sunny late winter days
A springtime yawning high in the haze
And I felt like I belonged
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
He was not red
He was chrome and he said
Come with me
You must go
So I went
Where everything was clean
So precise and towering
I was welcomed
With open arms
I received so much help in every way
I felt no fear
I felt no fear
The air was crisp
Like sunny late winter days
A springtime yawning high in the haze
And I felt like I belonged
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Come with me
Lyrics submitted by eastcidskl
Track duration: 04:34
"Hell Is Chrome" as written by Mikael Jorgensen Jeff Tweedy
Lyrics © BUG MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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It's like Leonard Cohen's lyric "there's a crack in everything... and that's how the light gets in", or the episode of Community where Jeff and Troy discover a serene sanctuary that turns out to be run by a Nazi.
On a deeper level, it would be a postmodern suspicion of anything that seems to be perfect or pure. The belief that it's good that we no longer believe in a universal truth or single answer. And because we're talking about Jeff Tweedy, I don't think this is reading too much into it either.
The narrator is following his instinct, led by a sense of belonging into a situation he's been warned against. But his instincts tell him not to believe what he has been taught, and accept his new situation without trepidation. But will the siren song he hears instead lead him to his life's destruction?
Tweedy leads it up to his audience to deduce.
When really focusing on this song at one point I got a feeling that made a lot of sense of what this song meant. Read all of your previous comments but none seem to have the same idea that I got from it.
So what I gathered from it was that the devil and hell are obviously what they are, and most have a similar idea of what hell is and why it is hell. The devil is painted as a horrible red being and hell a firey pit of terror, hell being the most horrible place imaginable to spend eternity. Wilco's devil here was chrome which can be seen as entirely lacking any real color literally and characteristically. Where the devil brought him, everything was just good, clean, peaceful, free of fear or troubles one has to endure (I recieved so much help in every way) so in this place he is there is never anything wrong that he has to deal with himself as a person. he is perfectly accepted and everything is colorlessly clean; this is what I see as just devoid of what makes human life beautiful. Conflicts, problems, and obstacles (being accepted) which people experience in their lives give life its' complicated beauty. Meeting these conflicts and overcoming them in our lives is what make us human and gives us respect for what we find and what we accomplish. So where he is, is hell because the clean, chrome, conflict free environment that the devil brought him to is lacking of all that made human life interesting beautiful and worth living. So, Hell is Chrome because with perfect, colorless easy life we are robbed of what makes us human and there would be nothing to find joy in anymore. So Hell is Chrome, because perfect life can't be chrome, because experiencing and overcoming all of our troubles in life makes us human and makes life what it is.
definitely put a lot of thought into this because it deeply interested me, if anyone has any comments or thoughts, comment or even email me rd2nwr6661@gmail.com
In this scenario the main character is approached by the devil who looks not only clean cut but is also generous and welcoming and is asked to follow him to hell. The main character follows knowing that he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. So in doing so the devil takes him to hell but it's a beautiful place where people understand, help and accept him. As if to see the devil as, not necessarily evil, but, dark (as an opposite of God and heaven rather than good vs. evil)
It's a bittersweet feeling. Knowing that the world hates those who surround you and where you are but at least it is a place that you can call home and feel comfortable. How eerie the feeling is that you should feel "at home" in hell.
Which leads me to my next idea of what this song could be about...
That sometimes the best things come out of the worst situations. The journey through hell was a growing experience and that it helped him in so many ways. That even though it was "evil", it helped you in ways that "good" could never do for you. It's analyzing the idea of sin and how it can help you to become a better person. To make the idea clearer Wilco used the ultimate form of sin...the devil.
That's the best i can come up with b/c i don't see it at all making the devil out to be evil in any way towards the main character. If he was to be chrome and be a representation of temptation to get you to do something sinful just to bring about your downfall and such (b/c he's the devil and is "supposed" to do that kind of stuff) than why didn't he? B/c Hell turned out to be a wonderful place where people helped and understood the main character. It just doesn't fit in.
That's my take on the song.