I love this song! the line "We're concerned more with a car than with the fact the light had changed" is so great.

Holy crap... why isn't everyone listening to this song??? Ted Leo rocks!

"But after listening all morning, as I drove down 95
To a story of detainees who were barely kept alive"

This is about the prisoners at Abu Graib who were tortured.

"I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves
But not with interference from the power lines above "

This means that pigeons on the powerlines were messing up the signal, so the driver couldn't listen to the report of Abu Graib.

"And if I told you I felt ageless, would you tell me I'm not old? "

Telling someone that they aren't old when they say they feel ageless is a sure-fire sign that you haven't been listening to what they said. This means that the person feels misunderstood.

I think the line, "I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves
But not with interference from the power lines above" means that there are a lot of people who claim they are pacifists and they are against military action etc. (doves), yet they do nothing about it (pigeons). Also, by interference from power lines above, I think he means that no one really takes information into consideration and forms their own opinion, they are simply taking a stance based on pop culture and are perpetuating their existence as pigeons.

If you listen to the whole album, it deals a lot with activism and doing something about how you feel. The song "Shake the Streets" displays this.

This however is the song that turned me on to Ted Leo and it is still one of my favorites.

I just heard this song for the first time today and it might sound harsh but I don't care what it's about because I think that it's amazing and really made me turn and see what song it was on my Launchcast.

"I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves
But not with interference from the power lines above"

I'd say that uideltbush is pretty dead on about the first line although I'd guess "but not with interference from the power lines above" is in reference to government interference.

yeah the lyrics are awesome, but the thing that strikes me as the most amazing thing about this song is how easily ted leo and the band switch between styles of music. Theres some heavy rock, some acid rock in there, some reggae at the end. it blows my mind how easy they make it seem.

while i can see the political meaning behind this song, i'm kind of shocked no one noticed the religious symbolism behind the line

i could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves/but not with interference from the power lines above.

well, most people who act they are "religious" really are truly pond scum (pigeons acting like they're doves), and i know from experience (catholic school does that to you). and, if you know your christianity, it states only god can determine who is truly faithful (the power lines above). it has to be one the best use of religious symbolism i've ever heard.

This is an amazing song : )

the best on the album

who's mr.mellor?

reading through the whole lyrics, it seems like they're talking about the destructive impact people have on the world.

"Accidents mean no one's guilty, ignorance means someone's killed"

we're too ignorant to see what we're doing to everyone or everything, and we don't know that it's us so we just consider it an accident. especially in the last few lines..

"And I'm thinking about New England, and I'm missing old Japan"

it seems like they're looking back at when everything was pure and civil. the "old japan" may refer to the point in time when the eastern asians had their own culture before the imperialistic era. connecting it to "new england," when england created towns and whatnot in this new world and "civilized" people came over to occupy it, fits the whole argument since he misses old japan when he thinks about new england.

i don't know if any of that made sense..

i think mr. mellor may be a reference to joe strummer's birth name, john mellor, but i'm not sure.

Although there are obviously infinite ways to interpret a song, I've interpreted a couple of the lines in terms of war protest considering that it is a running theme of many Ted Leo lyrics.

"Innocence, it don't come easy - in a sense it never will
Accidents mean no one's guilty, ignorance means someone's killed"

The first two lines can generally mean the tone of diplomacy and international relations during a tragedy. Many people will try to simplify problems by trying to designate one party as innocent while the other party is the complete cause. However as indicated by the first line, few will be competely innocent; most nations involved in a conflict will each have had a contribution to creating said conflict.
As it relates to the current state of the US, Americans might want to pin all the blame on Saddam and Osama as reasoning for the tragedies that have occured in the War on Terror, however the United States has its own share of guilt.

"Were concerned more with a car than with the fact the light had changed"

This line describes those who care more about the means and method, rather than the plain facts about whether or not it can happen; he car represents a way to achieve a goal, while the (stop)light represents its plausibility. That could be a reference to the government's readiness to enter Iraq: while the Bush Administration crows about how it will instate democracy and bring freedon to a former dictatorship, it seems that there was little forethought about how the American version of democracy could ever be integrated into Iraqi culture.
The car could also simply represent materialism of most Americans, whereas the light represents their goals and direction.

"But after listening all morning, as I drove down 95
To a story of detainees who were barely kept alive"

As some people have already mentioned, this refers to prisoners of the War on Terror who have been reportedly tortured in prison camps.

"I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves
But not with interference from the power lines above"

The pigeons are those Americans who feels as though they are saviors (doves), although they have done nothing to help.
The narrator also (sarcastically?) takes the stance of a typical American citizen in our society; he states that he can stand the hypocrisy of pigeons acting like doves, however can't stand "interference with the power lines." I think the line about power lines could be a reference to the blackouts in New York.
I remember hearing reports that many Iraqis were either outraged or though it bitterly funny when they heard that New Yorkers were going ballistic with the power outage while most of the infrastructure of Iraq had been down for almost a year.

"And oh, precautions, yes precaution
But if you're playing with a gun, you could kill someone
And in the dark it's hard to know a friend"

This seems to be about the typical nuclear age "diplomacy talk," in other words, the policy of brinksmanship. We try to make treaties like SALT I and SALT II, but it still leaves the possibilities of war. And as said simply in the song, with guns (and torpedos and anthrax and ballistic missiles) involved, violence is never gone no matter the precautions, no matter if it's just "playing."
The darkness is the ambiguity of behind-your-back treaties and secret partnerships. With all these underground dealings, it's hard to know who allies are.

"As I went on
Wondering if I've got a soul and
Counting down the hours 'til it goes"

The chorus seems to be about how it feels to live during this War on Terror. Similar to the Cold War, it's all about paranoia and living on edge. His wondering about a soul is connected to wondering about what will happen if he dies. This leads him to lie in wait, counting the hours until death finally hits, whether it be a suicide bomber or a hijacking; the fear caused by the war makes the concepts of terrorism and death inextricable from one another.

That's pretty much all that I could decipher myself.
I'm really curious about what the whole Mr. Mellor thing could be about- it seems to be either a personal, or very obscure cultural reference.

This is just one of many protest songs Ted Leo has written. Below is my interpretation of it.


"Innocence, it don't come easy, in a sense it never will. Accidents means no ones guilty, ignorance means someone's killed"

This represents the Bush administration's refusal to take blame for entering into a war we shouldn't have begun in the first place. This lays the premise for the rest of the verse.


"So I asked our Mr. Mellor how one gets to where one's going
And he points to his survival, and he points me down the road"

This is, in fact, a reference to Joe Strummer. Ted Leo identifies with Joe Strummer as both a musician and activist. Ted, finding it difficult to rise above his feelings of despair resulting from the war, finds inspiration in Joe Strummer overcoming the same personal obstacles.


"On a dark wet night in April, on a street in Jersey where
I went looking for some writing that I knew would not be there"

April 2003 saw the climax of the War in Iraq with the fall of Baghdad and Saddam's regime. I believe the writing that Ted is talking about is a report on finding Weapons of Mass Destruction, which many people didn't believe existed, however if they did they were expected to be found around this time. This also gives relevance to the next lines...


"And a punter from the Pelhams and the police, in the rain,
Were concerned more with a car than with the fact the light had"

The car represents the war in Iraq and the light represents the reasons for going to war. With the lack of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the light had changed from green to red. A punter is a gambler who bets against the house(used metaphorically in this sense to represent his opposition to who he's arguing) and the police is also metaphorical, representing an individual or organization that supports the government. The Pelhams is a middle class suburban area just outside of New York City. Both are arguing about the war but neglecting the fact that the very reasons used to go to war are now invalid.


"But after listening all morning, as I drove down 95
To a story of detainees who were barely kept alive
I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves
But not with interference from the power lines above"

The first 2 lines are pretty self explanatory. I believe the pigeons acting like they're doves is trying to illustrate hypocrisy, perhaps on several levels. The hypocrisy of those who were outraged at the torture scandal but aren't outraged at the war in general and perhaps the hypocrisy of the people have become involved in the anti war movement because it's a popular movement yet ignore other social justice issues throughout the world. I believe that the interference is partisan political commentary that clouds core issues with personal opinions and the power lines are the media.


"And oh, precautions, yes precaution
But if you're playing with a gun, you could kill someone
And in the dark it's hard to know a friend"

I believe the above poster, liondanslepres, is spot on with his interpretation of these lines.


"But I'm not angry, I won't be forever angry
As I'm walking toward tomorrow with a rifle in my hand"

I believe here Ted Leo has resolves the feelings he had earlier in the song (see my interpretation of Mr Mellor). Walking toward the future with his rifle (his music, or more specifically how he uses his music to confront social and political issues).


"And I'm thinking about New England, and I'm missing old Japan"

He's thinking about the effects of imperialism on the world (the name New England is itself a remnant of the British Empire's imperialist aspirations) and he's longing for a time or place where imperialist ideals didn't exist or were intensely opposed.


"And a mountain in California where a spring runs hot and cold"

I'm not sure exactly if he means a specific place here or if he's just missing a place where he could be at peace in general.

This is what I believe the song to mean.

It's also important to note in reference to the Mr Mellor line that Ted Leo considers The Clash to be his biggest influence.

Negatyve is 100% right about the Mr. Mellor line. The song is actually about Ted reconciling his feelings on the war and the world around him and finding the strength to carry on. Here's a quote from an interview he did:

There's a real legitimate question, "What's the point?" and I've certainly asked myself that, on this trip actually. Sometimes it just gets to be such an insane grind and you're not getting the feedback that helps you keep your own energy and momentum up. And you're just like "what is the point, man?" ya know? George Bush just won the election again. People are dying left and right. You're burning gas on the high way and making more petroleum products for people to stick in their cd players, what's the point? In many more words than that I put that question on my website and within 3 hours I got hundreds of emails from people who were like "There's a point, and you're making that point and you better keep making that point" and I was like "ok". Maybe I don't know what the point is necessarily and maybe that's the only point, that it's not about effecting things on such a grand scale that the grand scale artists try to effect things on. What it's about is establishing connection and community among individuals. It's not about stopping a war, it's about helping each other live through a war.

i dont think anyone has suggested this yet, but ive always thought of the line about missing old japan as a reference to world war ii and the dropping of the atomic bombs as the ultimate symbol of the destructiveness of war

i dont think anyone has suggested this yet, but ive always thought of the line about missing old japan as a reference to world war ii and the dropping of the atomic bombs as the ultimate symbol of the destructiveness of war

I doubt this is what Ted Leo meant, but the line about Japan makes me think of people missing the days when wars (i.e. WWII) were fought against a clear-cut enemy, a specific nation, rather than the faceless shadow known as Terror. Also, in those days Americans were united in the war effort instead of being harshly divided as in Vietnam or Iraq.

ted leo used to live in japan and new england, to clear that part up. he may have referenced something else there also but i think it's just that simple.

"if i told you i felt ageless, would you tell me i'm not old?" is probably my favorite line in the song. it's just about being carefree and not attached to anything like a name, age etc (ageless), and someone telling them they're not old, so they know whatever age they are, it doesn't matter, because they're not going to die soon anyway. like, whatever my age is, at least i'm not old.

also "innocence it don't come easy, in a sense it never will" is a really powerful opener to a song. aside from the meaning pertaining to war protest it has a lot of other meaning in life in general. it's hard to be innocent only because it's hard to stay innocent in our day and age. and then: in a sense, it never will become easier as the world progresses, or, as one's life progresses.

This song is amazing in every way. People who listen to top 40 love it because it's catchy while it's lyrically superior to anything on the radio.
It's also quite universal. It doesn't require interpretation because it means something different to everyone and none of it is incorrect.

negatyve hit the nail on the head basically, but i always took "and if i told you i felt ageless, would you tell me i'm not old?" to be ted, after getting over his sadness regarding the war, and hyping himself up by thinking about globalization/imperialism (new england/old japan), and the destruction of he natural world (mountain in california), asking somebody if he's too old to still be combating these things, because he doesn't feel that way.

"Accidents mean no one's guilty, ignorance means someone's killed"
This could mean that in labeling things we have given a pass for people to get away with doing atrocious things.
"So I asked our Mr. Mellor how one gets to where one's going
And he points to his survival, and he points me down the road"
This refers to how most people want someone to guide them through their lives but that there is no proven way to get through the maze of life. Instead they must go about obtaining an answer on their own.
"Were concerned more with a car than with the fact the light had changed"
This reveals that society spends so much time labeling a person that it doesn't take into account the fact that all of the circumstances surrounding that person have changed.

This may just be a load of crap but I needed to add my two cents lol