Lyrics for Evil Bee as interpreted by ahab3

Evil Bee Lyrics
I took a walk with an invisible friend
And on that walk, I gave my hand

O, to be a machine
O, to be wanted
to be useful

With this ring that I wear today
My whole world is your property

O, to be a machine
O, to be wanted
to be useful

I took a walk with an invisible friend
And on that walk, I gave my hand

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LazyKiddo2525
03-06-2007

Rated 0 
This song seems almost meaningless, but I think menomena just has a knack for referencing themselves. When he says that he gave his hand, I think back to the song before this one on the album, "boyscout'n". That song seems to be about blind faith for the most part. He mentions lending his hand to destroy a helpless man. Could be a stretch, but maybe the invisible friend is the supposed "savior" from the song before. Now using the bee metaphor, he feels needed because he is another cog in the machine. It doesn't matter what he's told to do, because he's wanted by the others. Sounds like a cult to me. but who knows.

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Lachrymal Cloud
03-12-2007

Rated 0 
I think that

the "With this ring" line is wrong, I think it has something to do with marriage, "With this ring, be my to thee", that's wrong, but something like that.

I think this song has to do with the previous song as well, he previously says, "Should my soul survive this fall, then I pray if I pray at all," well he obviously lost his soul. So now he's a machine. And now he's wanted and and useful, exactly what he wanted to be in Boyscout'N. Almost as if maybe when he did that, he became God... "my whole world is your property."

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dougeri
03-16-2007

Rated 0 
the lines "oh to be machine, oh to be wanted, to be useful," are so poignant, mostly to me because i don't think menomena mean them sincerely. Throughout the entire song you have these synthetic noises in tight cadences but all this punctuated by those saxophone like back-fires and farts as if 'the machine' is much more fun when its breaking apart, malfunctioning, all told, when it is anything but useful.

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irishfreakout
04-03-2007

Rated 0 
The invisible friend is the savior mentioned in the song before. The dichotomy between the two songs (calling him a traitor vs. friend) reflects the name of the album: Friend and Foe. The title reflects the whole album's message: a struggle with understanding life and understanding god.

A "machine" is: "any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks".
Being a machine is a metaphor for submitting to the will of his savior and act on behalf of him. By being a machine or tool of his savior, he gains meaning ("to be wanted, to be useful")

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ilvnasia
04-04-2007

Rated 0 
All the members in the band are Christians. This song is about having an invisible relationship with Jesus. And accepting him as your Savior and the ruler of your life. Christians usually say that they are married to Christ and he is their bride (hence the ring).

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ahab3
04-08-2007

Rated 0 
im not so sure about that. I'm almost positive that two of them, justin harris and danny seim, were raised christian and went to christian high school together, but they're not really into it anymore. I don't know about brent knopf. For evidence, Danny wrote a list for Pitchfork of his favorite cassettes that he was allowed to listen to as a kid, and it's all christian rock, but he's making fun of it the whole time. here--> http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/10262-guest-list-menomena-my-favorite-cassettes-i-was-allowed-to-listen-to-age-7-15

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ahab3
04-08-2007

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im not so sure about that. I'm almost positive that two of them, justin harris and danny seim, were raised christian and went to christian high school together, but they're not really into it anymore. I don't know about brent knopf. For evidence, Danny wrote a list for Pitchfork of his favorite cassettes that he was allowed to listen to as a kid, and it's all christian rock, but he's making fun of it the whole time. here--> http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/10262-guest-list-menomena-my-favorite-cassettes-i-was-allowed-to-listen-to-age-7-15

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ilvnasia
04-09-2007

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I have talked to the all 3 of the boys personally and know that they are still Christians like I. There is a type of conservative Christian that some Christians don't like. Like Justin, Brent, and Danny, I make fun of this Christian all the time too(I am a Christian myself). The Christians they make fun of are the ones that are sticklers for the rules, only listen to Christian music, & basically have no fun and are pricks.

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ahab3
04-12-2007

Rated 0 
Thanks for the clarification. But im kinda iffy at least on this song, because if the "invisible friend" is in fact Jesus, then the "o, to be a machine" part would be seemingly saying that his followers are like machines.

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acepilot3
04-17-2007

Rated 0 
well this song is probably related to Boyscoutn in some way,because as I stated in my idea of Boyscoutn, it seemed like it had something to do with Judas, and this song might be the after affects and how no one wants him anymore because he betrayed Christ.

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Lachrymal Cloud
04-22-2007

Rated 0 
I have actually emailed them recently, and this is their reply back:

Hey Mitch,

Thanks for the nice email. We were all raised in Christian homes, with
varying levels of repression, so I guess you could say a lot of the
spiritual content on the album reflects this upbringing. Now we're at
three different levels - one agnostic bordering on atheist, one
non-denominational bordering on agnostic, and one non-fundamentalist
christian. So, it's still there whether we like it or not. And the
"rot in hell" thing is a figure of speech, but I suppose you could read
into it more deeply, based on the previous sentences of this email.

Thanks for caring!
best,
Danny / Menomena

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Lachrymal Cloud
04-22-2007

Rated 0 
So yeah, taking them all as a whole, the lyrics are probably written in an agnostic format since none of them are heavily religious anymore or even sure if they agree with it.

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keith s
06-18-2007

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"O, to be a machine
O, to be wanted
to be useful"

I translate this lyric to mean that he feels that if he is like everyone else that he will be wanted or accepted in society. maybe the songwriter has a sense of insecurity.

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keith s
06-18-2007

Rated 0 
"O, to be a machine
O, to be wanted
to be useful"

I translate this lyric to mean that he feels that if he is like everyone else that he will be wanted or accepted in society. maybe the songwriter has a sense of insecurity.

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antennas
09-04-2007

Rated 0 
Best song on the album, hands down.

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Lucifiel
09-21-2007

Rated 0 
Wow, did anyone see the video? It was totally creepy and cast the song in an interesting light.

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terb
10-01-2007

Rated 0 
Some Christians are born Christians and subsequently use religion to have meaning in their meaningless lives. This song is about the mindless followers who now have a sense of being wanted and feeling useful to the religion machine. It can be applied to most machines of the sort and groupthink, etc.

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muzaklvr4life
10-25-2007

Rated 0 
couldn't it be a metaphor for soldiers? that soldiers are just worker bees. it seems to me that this whole album is brimming with political commentary.

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wrat
11-18-2007

Rated 0 
I think yr right, muzak: marrying man with machine to produce an army of cyborg soldiers

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miminothing
02-06-2008

Rated 0 
i think he is wistfull. he wishes he was wanted and useful, but is not. its a bitter song. i know because one day i put it on when i was feeling unwanted and unuseful, and i felt my same emotions radiating from the music. contriversial view maybe

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Sky1
03-15-2008

Rated 0 
I've had the benefit of the video to clarify this. It's about a worker bee, in a production line making life fuel for others. The natural way of copulating in the flowers has been replaced by the dark drudgery of the production line. The bee escaping to breed is part of the overlords (birds) plan, their production line to produce more workers. The bees are all party of their production line, their machine.

People ALL have a need to be needed. Anyone who has worked for while will see that people don't work for money after taking care of their basic needs. It's for the status money buys and a meaning in life. Our need to be wanted is our need to have a purpose and the Western Machine we are born into is the invisible friend we give our hand to, giving our soul to it because we need a purpose in life and it needs us. Sadly even people rebelling is part of the machine

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Ninsaneja
04-07-2008

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Just to be difficult, the video does NOT have the bee escape - It is the dying bee dreaming of escaping, and becoming a machine used for its original purpose (making light) once more.

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Farenyth
05-19-2008

Rated 0 
I think the song is jabbing at capitalist society; Like Sky1 said, we demand a purpose in our lives and we use a scale of societal status via how much gold we have.

"I took a walk with an invisible friend
And on that walk, I gave my hand"

Some may think that I take this too literally, but I think this line is making a reference to the invisible hand in free market economics.

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