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All we are is entertainment
Caught up in our own derangement
Tell us what to say and what to do
All we are are pretty faces
Picture perfect bottled rage
Packaged synthesized versions of you
We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
Can't you see the end is coming soon
Come one come all the new sensation
Guarantees that obligations
Spotlights follow every single move
Basking here on ten-foot stages
Pouty lips and oh, so jaded
All as if we have something to prove
Despite these petty fortunes we still can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
But can't you see the end is here
And if we cared at all
About this unknown plight
Then we'd do something more
To finally make this right
Is this only entertainment?
Pull the curtains, places please
We've learned to sing and dance and cry on cue
But this is more than entertainment
In a world so sick with pain
This is the only thing that's real or true
We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream bloody murder over graves already dug
But can't you see the end?
Caught up in our own derangement
Tell us what to say and what to do
All we are are pretty faces
Picture perfect bottled rage
Packaged synthesized versions of you
We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
Can't you see the end is coming soon
Come one come all the new sensation
Guarantees that obligations
Spotlights follow every single move
Basking here on ten-foot stages
Pouty lips and oh, so jaded
All as if we have something to prove
Despite these petty fortunes we still can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream California and its toppling empire
But can't you see the end is here
And if we cared at all
About this unknown plight
Then we'd do something more
To finally make this right
Is this only entertainment?
Pull the curtains, places please
We've learned to sing and dance and cry on cue
But this is more than entertainment
In a world so sick with pain
This is the only thing that's real or true
We've all made petty fortunes but we can't afford a life
Confined to pull-out quotes and hotel rooms
They all scream bloody murder over graves already dug
But can't you see the end?
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if landlines werent so useless and out of date i wouldnt even bother having a cellphone
Well this might reference to how those people at the desks in hotels look all cheery and nice like, going back to the quote "All we are are pretty faces, picture perfect bottled rage" these people are so god damn annoyed at the job they hate it. Also " We've all made pretty fortunes but we can't afford a life" the clerks might make a lot of money but is never truly happy working there.
I dunno I'm new to this song meanings thing :D Rise Against FTW :D
still good song but its not the same
i mean - where is that thing that made you think for a while and to interpretate lyrics on your own and when every single person could have his own interpretation that wasn't same as any other - now its just plain what the song is about."
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Funny you seem to think this song is so clear, then you post something like that.
From what I get out of this, this song is about how as a band they are expected to act and sound a certain way, and a lot of fans expected this album to be just as hard and fast as their other albums.
I think this is their way of saying they won't conform to your expectations, and it shows that they can be who they want to be regardless of their fans expectations. This album is showing us they are still Rise Against, but they won't be told how they should play their music by anyone other then themselves.
great song :)
And if they change it's "they shouldn't have changed, this is shit"
You can never please EVERYBODY
This song is talking about the hollywood entertainment industry that has us wrapped around its little finger.
"All we are is entertainment caught up in our own derangements
Tell us what to say and what to do."
--> This part here is saying how we've become too caught up in the entertainment industry. We've stopped thinking for ourselves and now we're trying to be like what we see... We're trying to become entertainment (Trying to look like an actress or a singer, etc.)
"All we are are pretty faces, picture perfect, bottled rage.
Packaged synthesized versions of you!"
--> This is sort of a follow up to what I said. Entertainment cares about 2 things, its image and making money. Entertainment has to look good, even if it means replacing every part of your body with artificial substances and limbs (so to speak). We all want to look like a rock star, or a model.. so we change everything about ourselves to become this.
"They all scream California and its toppling empire,
but can't you see the end is coming soon?"
--> We all scream for California, in the sense that we all want to be what California is. We all want to be like the people we see on TV, we all want to become them. and when he says "And its toppling empire" I believe that pretty much speaks for itself. Cali has become an empire of its own and its toppling over us... nowhere in the world can you get away from it. The Hollywoodian industry is everywhere!
The entire second verse is just completely destroying the Hollywood scene and what its appearance. Just saying, again, that it's trying to preserve an image of falseness and insecurity hidden behind pride.
To me, it's more than just an angry hate song towards artists and actors. It's a song about how we have to snap out of this charade! We have to disconnect ourselves from these projections. It's insane (when you think about it, injecting yourslef with botox, which is a poison, to have tighter looking skin is pretty fucked up!), it's immoral and it's killing us. It's killing who we are as human beings. It's unhealthy, degrading and embarassing.
That's my opinion, but I really think he's voicing a call to the californian empire that has become too big... too important in our lives... it has become an unhealthy role model and even more, it's portraying a false sense of reality. It's ubstructing our view on the rest of the world, on more important things happening.
lol sorry if this is long, but it's harder to explain than it looks :)
the entertainment industry has way to much power right now
if you become a muscian you want to sing your opinion and things that are true to you.
you act to be someone else and experience something different and explore possibilities of anothers life.
you become a photographer to show the world its beauty in a different way or show it the unseen truths.
why does it all have to be about money?....commercialism... having pecks the size of bloody bread rolls and skin as brown as a bloody roast chicken...
hmm..
lol i liked the circus bit... i laughed my head off... but it just made me want to listen to it again and again...
"And if we cared at all about this unknown plight
Then we’d do something more to finally make this right"
yea my .2 cents..=l