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All the latest toughs, you’ve got to shrug them off or shut them off. With ten-thousand-time-told truths, you’ve still got to ask for proof. Ask for proof, because if you’re dying to be led they’ll lead you up the hill in chains to their popular refrains until your slaughter’s been arranged, my little lamb, and it’s much too late to talk the knife out of their hands.
Well, I woke up on a foggy morning. Hiding from the sun, he was hiding from the sun. But it came out and it shot its rays down. Burning everyone, it was burning everyone. But they were dying, anyway, to turn to ash, to feel their feelings flash and finally fade away, in a fabulous and fiery display.
Look, though, I don't know what notes you want to hear played, I can't think what lines you'd like me to sing or say, and I'm not sure what subjects you want mentioned. So pause and add your own intentions. We've included a form you can print out and fill out and send below:
All the latest toughs, well, we have seen that stuff, and we have seen enough blood in dying coughs, which means that we have lost. We have lost, and if you’re crying to be tossed they’ll toss you down the oubliette with all the old things that you let yourself forget because you’d like to love a star who’d throw you down below the ground he thinks you are.
Well, I woke up on a foggy morning. Hiding from the sun, he was hiding from the sun. But it came out and it shot its rays down. Burning everyone, it was burning everyone. But they were dying, anyway, to turn to ash, to feel their feelings flash and finally fade away, in a fabulous and fiery display.
Look, though, I don't know what notes you want to hear played, I can't think what lines you'd like me to sing or say, and I'm not sure what subjects you want mentioned. So pause and add your own intentions. We've included a form you can print out and fill out and send below:
All the latest toughs, well, we have seen that stuff, and we have seen enough blood in dying coughs, which means that we have lost. We have lost, and if you’re crying to be tossed they’ll toss you down the oubliette with all the old things that you let yourself forget because you’d like to love a star who’d throw you down below the ground he thinks you are.
Lyrics submitted by gflores
Track duration: 03:11
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The power can also extend outside the purely political arena to include ultra-charismatic CEOs or Wall Street types hyping their companies or the next bubble, respectively. Could also be an actor or a musician convincing people to get behind a cause they support. Or, more simply, a charismatic friend who can get you to fulfill his will. Or even a boss or teacher or professor.
I think the broader interpretation is supported by the following lines:
"I can't think what lines you'd like me to sing or say,
Not sure what subjects you want mentioned.
So pause and add your own intentions."
To me the point of these lines is to tell the listener that this charismatic individual will emerge throughout your life in many different forms, in many different areas of your life. He/she will unhesitatingly lead you to act in his narrow interest which is not necessarily aligned with yours and, when and if necessary, he/she will cut you loose in the end -- for example, send you to die in battle (blood in dying coughs), vote for politicians whose agenda is actually opposite your self-interest, get you fired, get you arrested, etc..
There is something very Nietzschean ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra") about the lyrics, and, yes, Ayn Randian (don't think that's a word :-) )
Ultimately, it's a cautionary tale to look out for yourself because those entrusted to do so will always put their own interests ahead of yours.
This reads like a anti-politician song; a comment on politicians who use slogans (refrains) and charisma/celebrity to get regular plebs to vote for them, though the regular folks don't even know they're voting against their own best interests by putting them into power.
I think the "hiding from the sun" parts refer to the manufactured glory of megastar politicians who cynically spout 'plain-folk' altruisms although they don't have the interests of the common man in mind.
The song was written in a contentious election year (2004) and is so much more relevant today.
the alliteration in this song is amazing.
that is incredible.
if you do you will understand exactly what hes saying
JOHN GALT LIVES!
"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."
Whether or not Sheff is an objectivist (and I suspect he is on one level), this song definitely has huge objectivist undertones, cautioning the listener not to blindly follow so-called leaders into their own destruction, and, instead tells the listener to always "ask for proof. Ask for proof."
Atlas Shrugged, among other things, is an attack on collectivism. Sheff's Last Toughs is a cautionary warning to those who will blindly follow so-called leaders:
"They'll lead you up the hill in chains to their popular refrains
And then your slaughter's been arranged, my little lamb,
And it's much too late to talk the knife out of their hands."
I don't intend to debate here Rand's philosophy nor Sheff's as each of their path's to the perfect state probably differ greatly, but I think Rand would certainly agree with the lyrics in The Latest Toughs.
Personally, I think there is more Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra) in these lyrics than Rand, but there is a lot of Nietzsche in Rand and all three overlap on the danger of collectivism to the individual (Nietzsche) and society (Rand).
While I think it would be overly generous to even describe Rand's theories and worldview as a "philosophy" per se, even if you accept it as such, that doesn't mean this song has any connection with them. A lot of belief systems, of varying standards of completeness and quality, contain individualist or anti-authoritarian themes.
Whether or not Rand would agree with the lyrics of this song is kind of irrelevant. The point I was trying to make was that to a man with only a hammer, everying looks like a nail, and to fans of half-baked pop pseudophilosophy, everything looks like John Galt.
It follows Okkervil River's themes in their albums. It kind of referrences "A Stone" with the emotions that are being shown through this song, especially in the last lines.
kinda like theres those people (leaders ect.) who are always out there saying what they know you want to hear