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Yea, yea, yea
Ooh
I can feel it move me
Feel it shove me
As I break the law
Said yea
I can feel it's jabbing
Cuts the numbness then I
I come alive yeah
Twist of 'cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'cain
Make me come alive
'Cause it's a
Yea twist of Cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of Cain
Make me come alive
Said yea
I took it standing
Broke commandments
And he tumbled like a toy
Blood
Like a crimson highway
Spreading out
From his forehead to the ground
Twist of 'cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'cain
Make me come alive
'Cause it's a
Yea twist of 'cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'cain
Make me come alive
Wo-oh, yea
Wo-oh God above
Feel a twist of 'Cain
Inside a beating heart, well
Wo-oh
Want to know
Got a little twist of 'Cain
From the God below, yea
Yea
I know my breeding
Know my father
He was born of light
Said yea
Can't hardly stand it
Cuts me down the middle
Then I, I come alive yea
Twist of 'Cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'Cain
Make me come alive
'Cause it's a
Yea twist of 'Cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'Cain
Make me come alive
Come alive
Wo-oh, yea
Wo-oh
God above
Feel a twist of 'Cain
Inside a beating heart, yea
Wo-oh
Want to know
Got a little twist of 'Cain
From the God below
Wo-oh, wo-oh
Feel a twist of 'Cain
Inside a beating heart
Wo-oh, wo-oh
Got a little twist of 'Cain
From the God below, yea
Ooh
I can feel it move me
Feel it shove me
As I break the law
Said yea
I can feel it's jabbing
Cuts the numbness then I
I come alive yeah
Twist of 'cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'cain
Make me come alive
'Cause it's a
Yea twist of Cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of Cain
Make me come alive
Said yea
I took it standing
Broke commandments
And he tumbled like a toy
Blood
Like a crimson highway
Spreading out
From his forehead to the ground
Twist of 'cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'cain
Make me come alive
'Cause it's a
Yea twist of 'cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'cain
Make me come alive
Wo-oh, yea
Wo-oh God above
Feel a twist of 'Cain
Inside a beating heart, well
Wo-oh
Want to know
Got a little twist of 'Cain
From the God below, yea
Yea
I know my breeding
Know my father
He was born of light
Said yea
Can't hardly stand it
Cuts me down the middle
Then I, I come alive yea
Twist of 'Cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'Cain
Make me come alive
'Cause it's a
Yea twist of 'Cain
Yea drives my brain
Yea twist of 'Cain
Make me come alive
Come alive
Wo-oh, yea
Wo-oh
God above
Feel a twist of 'Cain
Inside a beating heart, yea
Wo-oh
Want to know
Got a little twist of 'Cain
From the God below
Wo-oh, wo-oh
Feel a twist of 'Cain
Inside a beating heart
Wo-oh, wo-oh
Got a little twist of 'Cain
From the God below, yea
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Here he seems to be doing something of a case study into the criminal mind. He feels "it" (we don't know what) move him, even forcefully "push" him to "break the law". Though it presents a presumably painful "jabbing" sensation, it "cuts the numbness" and makes him attain his ideal state of being. It make him "come alive". I believe that this "twist of Cain", which he identifies in the chorus that follows, is a drug of some sort. There is a pun on twist, I think, in that it twists his mind toward evil activities, and also suggests either him writhing, twisting from the drug or, maybe, the little pinch (or "twist", as in a small amount of, say, lime in one's drink) that was boiled in a spoon. Yet what giant effects this little "twist" has on him. Not naming the drug makes it all the more sinister, but the "jabbing" sensation is suggestive of a needle and, furthermore, it is "driv(ing his) brain". When drugs bet into your bloodstream and begin to affect your brain, you are essentially the vehicle for the drug you've taken. Some people, or some particularly dirty street drugs, can produce nights like the one documented here.
His night gets worse. Hearkening back to the Biblical character of Cain, who's name has become synonymous with evil (this song use Cain's name in this way, too", he kills a man. He was punched, maybe even first (though he is drug-addled and must be an unreliable narrator), but he "took it standing" and presumably kicked the ever-loving shit out of this poor, unnamed bastard. He acknowledges that he "broke commandments", which adds some depth to his character: he was raised with an idea of morality, maybe even went to church with a religious family. There is no remorse, however, as this man appears a "toy" (maybe a flailing ragdoll, synonymous with helplessness) for the narrator to toss around until there is a "crimson highway... From his forehead to the ground". This is beautiful, if you can stand the imagery, foreshadowing of the bloody road that lies ahead of this man. Destruction and carnage will spread out before him.
My favorite part in "TOC", melodically, lyrically and conceptually, is when he addresses his "God above" only to declare that he has evil inside his "beating heart". He is of the race that God created in his own image, and to which he gave free will (which he denied even the angels) in order to see what non-mandatory love and respect looks and feels like. This narrator is telling him, actually. Free will has allowed him to feel this "twist of cain", this implacable rage and fury, inside of a heart that God fashioned for humanity to feel and to show their Creator love. Clearly, and interestingly, this narrator is not an atheist. He is a Satanist, as he informs God, gave him the drugs (or, if you don't buy the drug interpretation, just made him angry and destructive). I believe the "Want to know" should have question mark, as this goes along with the notion that this narrator is declaring to God the failure of the human experiment. As in, "Want to know?"; does God want to know that the "God below" (as he calls Satan, ascribing the same power and a purely geographical difference between them, which is another taunt to God) revels in the horrors of drugs, the men who would sell them and profit from their disease-like spread, and all of the men with such sorrow or anger or just pure moral apathy that necessitates the use of obliterating, stupefying and potentiallly/eventually FATAL drugs. Did God put them there to see if humans would be tempted, with the help of Satan's army of fallen angels disguised as pimps, prostitutes and dealers of all kinds, as part of his free will project. If so, this man wants to scream it to the night sky where God is silently alert and listening, raising his blood soaked fists to the sky and displaying the holes that he has poked in the complex protective layer that God, the jack-of-all-trades, weaved for us to keep us warm and to eject toxins? He wants let him know that his "Father... was born of light" (Lucifer was the "Star of the Morning", and Satan's favorite angel), informing God that not only does he consider Lucifer, the disgraced and castoff angel, his true Father, but that the battle between Good and Evil was not settled on the day that Lucifer's assembled 1/3 of God's angels, in revolt, tumbled from the sky and into their new domain: the fiery and frigid doldrums of Hell. It is a never ending battle, as Evil's leader was indeed "born of light", is an angel still, holds powers of seduction that already caused man to lose Paradise and be forever tainted, even at birth, with sin. Lucifer and his earthly followers know that, although the battle was lost, one only need look around to see how helpless the ignorant, apathetic masses would be as the snatching of souls (like a game of Jacks) begins. There are manifold ways to lead moronic, media-addicted humans down some rabbit hole to Hell. The ways to Heaven are long, boring and require patience, virtue, good will and faith. The narrator's arrogance, his brazen slaughtering of human beings and all of the pain of being "cut... down the middle" (the bi-polar life of a junky, and the sheer pain of injection once infection has set in, a vein has collapsed or only the tenderest of spots remain in which to stick a needle) to get fucked-up, oblivious while attuned to misery and the eventual downfall of man, hell- essentially just using drugs perpetuate this feeling of grandeur in his hatred. "Want to know?", God? Such a savage, sad and savagely, sadly true song. All with a backing track and a voice that scares the shit out of the listener.
Frank Sinatra has gone to hell for his philandering ways and for his ties with men who are straight descendants of Cain, and he came back to inhabit Danzig, to scream and croon in this metal band and to lay out a picture of the destruction of mankind. Does Danzig/Sinatra love it, identifying with this first narrator? Is this a cautionary tale? Is it simply there for us to decide, like many truly great works of art leaving the Creator's opinion hidden? You decide. What a great fucking opener, though. Eloquent, melodic yet harsh, scary, poignant and one-of-a-fucking-kind. Like him or not, he is so singular it's as if he's "Not of This World..."
It's a good feeling.
So, Twist of Cain as I recall was the first track on that amazing record (the first under that band makeup) and hence a bit of a tone-setting anthem. CAIN should be interpreted as evil, from it's origin in the bible. But not so much man's sin against God (which is more related to Adam and Eve biting the apple then being expelled from the garden), but man's sin against man, which is when Cain kills his brother, Abel.
Now, nobody in their right/healthy mind including me really honestly likes evil in and of itself (I hope!), or devil worship or any of that crap, however, you cannot deny we all have a little devil in us, a little "bad" sometimes - a little jealousy, rage, anger, and it's offspring like competition, pride, aggression, etc. that we have to keep under control. It's just part of our genetic makeup. It is probably there for a reason though, I am no biologist or anthropologist or psychologist, but if you think about it - you do need some of that shit in your being in order to (for example) defend yourself against aggressors, fight for your woman, protect your family, hunt food, etc. That is why humans survive (among other reasons) - they have claws and teeth and they know how to destroy things including their enemies, the rabbit they want to cook, etc. It's just part of life.
I think we project that onto our God concepts too, I think there is a reason God is not only a loving, creative God (in the bible) but also a destructive, vengeful God (flood story, Sodom and Gom, etc – he kicks ass) and it's not just the Judeo-Xian God, look at Hinduism - they have in certain earlier iterations like their three pronged Godhead with the creator god (Brahma) sustainer God (Vishnu) but yes their DESTROYER God (Shiva).
All I am saying is, it's part of life, we have to realize what the true/honest/genetic origination of what we label "Evil" really is...which I guess you could boil down to the OPPOSITE of "can we all just get along" which is "we cannot ALL always get along" i.e. there are sometimes threats and competition and needs (food) that you damn well better be prepared to do this (tap into it), and to do so, you need to get mean, detach from your empathy and kick some ass, you need to channel your dark side, sorry! I think all Danzig is saying is, son of a bitch, I am aware of that, and sometimes I tap into it to keep me alive, and that is how it is motherfuckers.
It's a good thing there were no big words in this song.
Perhaps the white supremacists commenting on this page also believe in Nazi eugenics and Compulsory sterilization.
If so, I'd like to refer you to the Dead Kennedys Lyric "In a real fourth reich you'll be the first to go" from the song "Nazi punks FUCK OFF".
As a matter of fact, I'd also like to refer you to the same song's title.
"Twist of cain", "Drives my brain" Taking ables brothers path of murder with a blade hence the lyric "I can feel the jabbing, Cuts the numbness"
Murdering feeling a rush "Come alive" making him feel powerful
"I can feel it move me" as a saying not coke. When something moves as in touches you as right.
"Broke commandments, And he tumbled like a toy, Blood" Obviously murder.
I cant believe all the people thinking this is about cocaine. Not hard to figure out though, the songs about committing murder, or the act of murder. Cain is referring to Cain and Abel and to Cain who was the first person to commit murder in the bible. Classic Glenn Danzig who was also a founding member of the Misfits and considered a founder of the "horror" subgenre of music.
This song reminds me of a Tom Waits songs where he goes: "I'm not able, Im just Cain" !
See, its a play on words, a joke that only works if you hear it... ah fuck it, never mind.