On the Backs of Angels

It's so obvious that this is about the American greed, wars to "rule the world", the people that play "behind the scenes" of the world order, "the system" and many other factors..

"Standing on the backs of angels Destined to create Mounting the attack While heroes carry your weight"

The ruling families that "play behind the scenes" in the world order(as i said earlier) who are the only real benefactors from war and who don't care about the soldiers(heroes) who die.

"Riding out the wave Content to feed off the machine Bleeding us to death The new American dream"

This is more about following a sort of a "propaganda" that's driving everyone. And about the crashing economic system that people cannot really see and are led to believe that everything is fine and you're "free", everything is cool etc.. Thus "the new American dream".

The chorus seemed very metaphorical,

"Tears fall from the shameless, shelter me, guide me to the edge of the water"

People humbly asking for a safe place to call home..

"Selfless are the righteous, burden me, lead me like a lamb to the slaughter"

The same people put their trust blindly and are being lead down the hole..

I tried to be as objective as possible, sorry if anything was offensive to anyone. Hope you enjoy it

Cheers!

It's about the 2008 financial crisis in general, and the TARP bailout in particular.

The "angels" are the 99% (i.e., working folks) and the "shameless" protagonists are the bankers who caused the mess by "standing on the backs of angels" and "feed[ing] off the machine"

"tears fall from the shameless" is a reference to the crocodile tears of the heads of JP Morgan etc looking for federal bailout money. that's the "shelter me, guide me to the edge of the water" (i.e., get me to safe land.

The selfless/righteous angels are "burdened" with the bailouts because their taxes pay for it all.

...

I'm quite sure this is the main reason it was nominated for a Grammy. Wall Street is perhaps the one industry Hollywood fancies itself more noble than.

It's very vaguely political, but it feels like it could be generally about political corruption.

Heh, maybe it's about Anthony Weiner[/joke]

Raise The Knife?

Ok, It is about Atlas Shrugged. Standing "On the Back of Angels" means to be standing on the backs of the highest possible, the men and women who produce. The songs is wonderful but the line "Selfless are the righteous" doesn't fit. That line contradicts the entire philosophy DT puts forth in their entire discography, unless they are intending it to be a sarcastic line. Thoughts?

After watching the music video I can confidently say this song is about greed, American greed. Through the video the recurring themes are skyscrapers, money, and the white house. Skyscrapers in my opinion represent the corporations and being the most common of the themes I think they beleive they are the major source of greed in this country. During the video they raise from the grounds through gears in the earth. In the last stages of the video the building turn to what I thaught was a tombstone which represents the death of businesses or maybe even the death of America as they crumble down and pictures of ancient ruins are shown, some of them Roman. Perhaps this is Dream Theater saying that America will one day topple under its own greed much like the Roman Empire had. It could also be taken as the death of business and instead of the death of America, a new beginning and new ground to rebuild upon. This is just what I gathered from the song, and without an officially released meaning it is all just speculation.

I think the gears represent "the machine" that keeps all this bad stuff happening. On the sequence of its appearances, the gears spin faster and faster until something happens (an economical crisis, perhaps.. Just like that one from 1929, when everything was "running too fast") and the gears start spinning backwards. Thats is the moment when the buildings begin to collapse. My interpretation of the skyscrapers is that they represent the place where people "feed the machine" (I think that means to be inside the system), where everything seems normal inside of it (note that the lights are static and there is no movement inside the windows). However, the situation outside the buildings is the worst. Sorry for my bad english, I'm still studying it.

Just saw the clip again. The reason why the gears start spinning backwards could be a war and all its disaster.

It does sound political in a sense and it is always fascinating seeing what people interpret a song to be and what the musician’s interpretation of its meaning is in the end. Sometimes they are totally polar opposites of each other and I haven’t heard what this one is about yet, but can only ponder. Sometimes these musicians write stuff that has a life of its own and can be divinely or demonically inspired by various entities. Also when asked what it means they seem to keep the meaning hidden and talk around it. I have tried to crack this nut and who knows, but I’ll take a stab at it. I wasn’t seeing it in anyone else’s response and I’m sure someone will poke holes in it and call me crazy, but that is fine. I didn’t see anyone think of the New World Order and Freemasons? I noted some of the Freemason symbolism in DT’s records (all seeing eye). Some theorist believes we have a shadow government that is pulling the strings named the New World Order and I’m sure Wall Street is working hand in hand with them. The Illuminate (the enlighten ones) one who are in control of all the finances and have their roots in the occult which may be the reference to these angels. Don’t forget Satan was a fallen angel and had knowledge and capability to create and it appears we are puppets to him. Of course you have the Watchers and Nephilim which some theorist believe will be coming back soon for the apocalypse final battle between Satan and God and many people are on to this end time conspiracy as they establish a one world government. If it is based off fallen angels it may be making reference to occult Luciferian religion which contrary to our beliefs, our country is based on it. Look at the dollar bill and occult symbolism which is written all over it, the capital, and many other cities such as NY. Also, some theorists believe that Washington is tied in with London, and the Vatican. England holds the money, the Vatican is the religious arm, and the US is the military force. Freemasonry accounts for many of the founding fathers beliefs and ties to the ruling class in Europe. I may be reading way too deep into it, but it seemed to sound that way to me when I first heard it. They do have religious flare to many of their songs. Many people are caught up in the materialism of the system and what it offers is basically leading us to the slaughter. Think about it, we call it democracy, but it is not and we are basically prisoners to the banksters and they have laws to back them up which they fail to adhere to themselves, but make us do it. IF these guys thought this deep, they are pure freak'n genius!

I think the song more is about the welfare crowd feeding off the corporations and businesses and how the Bamster is all about making the businesses suffer. I mean, that's why the scene goes all dark and filled with rain during the video: they're suffering under the White House's (Obama's) rule. The bums are living off food stamps and shit while the businesses are being taxed like mad and can't offer jobs to anyone. (Little economic lesson: when businesses are taxed big time, they can't employ people because they don't have as much money as before; then you get layoffs and the lazy people who were bums to begin with get to sponge off the govt. programs.) The new American dream is an ironic statement. The original American dream was all about working hard, earning good money. The NEW American dream is all about how little a person can work and yet still get food, shelter, things they don't earn, through govt. programs. The righteous are selfless because they, according to the taxes they get, have to give a lot over to the govt. for welfare programs. Well, maybe. It's a rough idea, my last bit. Anyway, that's how I see it. And yeah, the welfare crowd are being led to destruction like a lamb led to slaughter, especially those lazy bums who sponge off the working middle class.