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I had a friend, who kept a candle in his pocket,
He used to touch it when the wind was blowing high,
I guess it mad him feel like he could buck the system
And when it flickered out we laid him down to die,
Turn on the light,
Turn on a million blinding brilliant white
Incendiary lights,
A beacon in the night,
I'll burn relentlessly until my juice runs dry,
I'll construct a rock of tempered beams and trusses
And equip it with a million tiny suns,
I'll install upon the roof on my compartment
And place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls
Turn on the light,
Turn on a million blinding brilliant white
Incendiary lights,
A beacon in the night,
I'll burn relentlessly until my juice runs dry,
And I'll burn like a roman fucking
Candle, like a chasm in the night, for a minuscule duration,
Ecstatic immolation, incorrigible delight
He used to touch it when the wind was blowing high,
I guess it mad him feel like he could buck the system
And when it flickered out we laid him down to die,
Turn on the light,
Turn on a million blinding brilliant white
Incendiary lights,
A beacon in the night,
I'll burn relentlessly until my juice runs dry,
I'll construct a rock of tempered beams and trusses
And equip it with a million tiny suns,
I'll install upon the roof on my compartment
And place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls
Turn on the light,
Turn on a million blinding brilliant white
Incendiary lights,
A beacon in the night,
I'll burn relentlessly until my juice runs dry,
And I'll burn like a roman fucking
Candle, like a chasm in the night, for a minuscule duration,
Ecstatic immolation, incorrigible delight
Lyrics submitted by Alucard, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Track duration: 01:25
"Turn on the Light" as written by Brett Gurewitz
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I take this song more literally than most interpretations here.
*I hear it mocking survivalists.*
I think when the survivalist friend touches the candle, when it looks like a climate catastrophe is coming, the friend is reassuring himself he'll be okay b/c he won't need electric lighting.
I believe this behavior, like so many BR mocks, is such a pitiful attempt at survival that it disgusts the singer, who has long ago put aside weak gestures like saving candles for doomsday and has ambivalently accepted the presence of electricity in his home. I think the "wreck of beams and trusses" is a not-so-hyperbolic way of describing a skyscraper. The "million tiny suns" refers to the millions and zillions of light bulbs we now use everyday to light up everything.
I believe the "miniscule duration" is a reference to the relatively small interval of human history in which fossil fuels will be available to power electric lights.
One really has to respect how well the lyrics and the music work together in most BR songs, and this one is a prime example!
This song is about one thing: metaphorically lighting your mind, body, and spirit on fire…so that everything unique, powerful, and wonderful about one’s very essence rages…
With that said, let’s take an interpretive look at the lyrics:
“I had a friend, who kept a candle in his pocket,”
Remember, we’re talking about fire as a metaphor for one’s life force. So he starts out by talking about a friend who ‘kept a candle in his pocket’. That is to say, he had a friend who kept what was most vibrant and alive about himself---in ‘his pocket’. The pocket deprives the fire of oxygen; the pocket deprives everyone and everything from the experience of his friend’s fire. A fire cannot be seen nor sustained in such an environment.
“He used to touch it when the wind was blowing high,”
That is to say, when the world was most threatening to his life force (wind as a threat to fire) his friend did not elect to fearlessly confront the wind with his fire…but merely puts his hand in his pocket and touches his weak little fire…comforting himself…by reminding himself that the fire is indeed still there.
“I guess it made him fill like he could buck the system,”
Brett surmises that his friend believes a screwed-up world of burdensome institutions has sapped him of his vibrancy; that this weighted world has successfully worked against him; that this weighted world is in conflict with his very core.
Brett then implies that his friend’s touching of his candle when the winds are blowing high is nothing more than a delusional self-comfort…as if his friend were trying to remind himself that he still has some fight left in him.
However, Brett says this dismissively---as if his friend were doing nothing more than comforting himself by placing his hand on a gun for which he had no bullets. Put directly, Brett believes his friend was actively deceiving himself by pretending his life force was something other than muted impotence.
“And when it flickered out we laid him down to die.”
This line of the song goes beyond the metaphorical death of a man when his fiery life force has passed (particularly after not having been oxygenated or thoroughly doused with gasoline).
It’s also about Brett setting the table for his proposition of an alternative way of ‘holding one’s candle’: By letting the mother fucker burn like a chasm in the night.
“Turn on the light,
Turn on a million blinding brilliant white incendiary lights,”
Here’s where Brett first proposes his alternative way of life: He’s commanding all to light up the fuckin’ world with your life force so powerfully that your immediate surroundings are bathed in your blinding light; that they begin reflecting such light.
“A beacon in the night,
I’ll burns relentlessly until my juice runs dry.”
. He finishes the chorus by expressing that the light of his life force will so powerfully contrast against the darkness of the night (i.e. those who do not feed their fires) that he will become something that infectiously attracts others (‘A beacon in the night); and that he will feed his light (i.e. burn relentlessly) with every fiber of his being until there’s nothing left of him to burn—until his juice runs dry…
“I’ll construct a rack of tempered beams and trusses,
And equip it with a million tiny suns.
I’ll install [it] upon the roof of my compartment,
And place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls.”
Everything in this refrain is about constructing something that both creates and reflects intense light. So what Brett is sharing with us is his intention to create an environment for himself that helps foster and reflect the light of his life force…the sort of compartment that would magnify the effects of one bad mutha fucka burning like a roman fucking candle.
“Then I’ll turn on the light…
After he creates an environment that’s suitable for burning like a roman fucking candle, well, he lets us know that’s just what the fuck he’s gonna do:
“and I’ll burn like a roman fucking candle,
Burn…like a chasm in the night…”
Now at this point one must remember there are multiple definitions for the word ‘chasm’. It doesn’t have to mean a ‘deep break or gorge in the earth’. It can also mean something that ‘emphatically breaks the continuity of a thing’. So what Brett means when he says that he’ll burn like ‘a chasm in the night’ is that the light of his life force will burn in stark contrast to the utter blackness of the night (i.e. the hoard of humanity living uninspired, unlit lives).
“For a miniscule duration,”
This is Brett’s simple acknowledgment that our lives---even those who burn like a roman fuckin’ candle---are over in the blink of a cosmic eye. So he’ll burn for just a brief moment. But how will that brief moment be?
“Ecstatic immolation,”
(Note here that the word ‘immolation’ literally means to kill oneself by fire.)
Let’s state the obvious: we all die. What Mr. Brett is sharing, though, is that he’s going to die, too---but that his death will be one of fire…and that the fuel for that fire will be his incredibly vibrant life force. This makes both his life and death a thing of pure bliss; ecstatic.
“Incorrigible delight.”
(Note that the word ‘incorrigible’ has several definitions---in this case it means something that cannot be made to conform.) Mr. Brett is now sharing that he knows his ‘life and death by fire’ will be in stark contrast to the hoard of humanity leading their uninspired, unlit lives. The fact that he will not conform his path to those of the uninspired hoard, well, that’s a thought that Mr. Brett finds rather delightful.
So that’s my take on the song…I hope ya got something out of it…and if you’ll excuse me, friends: I’ve got some fires to light!
i had a friend who kept a candle in his pocket
he used to touch it when the wind was blowing high
i guess it made him feel like he could buck the system
and when it flickered out we laid him down to die.
"I had a friend who kept a candle in his pocket"
to me, this seems like the author is beginning with a quick metaphor and image of the candle to allude to the candles lit in a church when people pray for something in particular. catholic church along with many others, recognize a small monetary donation and the lighting of a candle for a special prayer... kinda like a Jesus-wishing-well.
"He used to touch it when the wind was blowing high"
kinda illustrates my point. People pray and light candles when they are in rough times "wind blowing high".
"I guess it made him feel like he could buck the system"
is doubting the friend. The system is nature and the laws of physics... which-of course-care none for the wishes and prayers of man.
"and when it flickered out we laid him down to die." the friend died... unsurprisingly to the world, but perhaps unsuspectingly of the friend... after all, he lit the damned candle right?
turn on the light
turn on a million blinding
brilliant white incendiary lights
a beacon in the night
i'll burn relentlessly until my juice runs dry
The chorus is the theme of the song. "Pray Pray Pray... when you don't understand something, don't worry and god will figure it out. Just have faith"... blind, dumb faith. Hell, you can pray that you are immortal... and when you finally die, it must've been because you just didnt have enough faith.
i'll construct a rack of tempered beams and trusses
and equip it with a million tiny suns
i'll install upon the room of my compartment
and place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls
"i'll construct a rack of tempered beams and trusses"
kinda saying something about faith again and how it must be super strong for these prayer jesus-wishing-wells to work.
"and equip it with a million tiny suns"
a million powerful prayers, candles, hope, faith
"i'll install upon the room of my compartment"
pretty self explanatory up to this part, if you have bothered to catch the overall theme.
"and place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls."
reflective coating for the entire room, so the candles(prayers) will be the strongest ever conceived.
and i'll burn like a roman fucking candle
burn like a chasm in the night
burn for a miniscule duration
ecstatic immolation incorrigible delight
Same overall theme, but the last two lines stand out the most.
"burn for a miniscule duration"
relative to the universe, human beings and their gods, faith, prayers, luck, talismans, and jesus-wishing-wells are but a tick mark on a mile long time line. insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
"ecstatic immolation, incorrigible delight."
to be happy that one is making this sacrifice, means that one must have dedicated, yet wasted their lives believing this... yet still people just don't seem to get it.
but what i don't get: for what reason did his friend die?
and whats meant with that: ecstatic immolation?
sry, my english is not the best..
in comparison: he will burn as bright as he can - so the best he can - and relentlessly - so as long as he can...
maybe im wrong with my "always do your best" but i think the interpretation of those lines could still be correct
"There was a man who had some hope and always counted on it when things were going bad. Having this hope, he felt like he could do anything, but he lost it and there was nothing left of him."
but not when things are bad.. rather the opposite cuz how i just said, its save to light a candle when the wind is blowing high (afaik wind blowing high means that only in high areas the wind is blowing and on the ground - where his friend is - its safe)
but after reading it, it very well could be about smoking
very well could be about hope.
I love Bad Religion.
But Pretentious Bullshit. One of my favorite songs.
i had a friend who kept a candle in his pocket
he used to touch it when the wind was blowing high
i guess it made him feel like he could buck the system
and when it flickered out we laid him down to die
There was a man who had some hope and always counted on it when things were going bad. Having this hope, he felt like he could do anything, but he lost it and there was nothing left of him.
turn on the light
turn on a million blinding
brilliant white incendiary lights
a beacon in the night
i'll burn relentlessly until my juice runs dry
Turn on the light, give some meaning to your life, give yourself something to believe in. Something that, even in the darkest times, will guide you. Believe in it until you can't anymore.
i'll construct a rack of tempered beams and trusses
and equip it with a million tiny suns
i'll install upon the room of my compartment
and place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls
Tinfoil is known for reflecting. Here he's saying that he will have his whole life full of hope, something good, some kind of meaning.
and i'll burn like a roman fucking candle
burn like a chasm in the night
burn for a miniscule duration
ecstatic immolation incorrigible delight
But there is false hope. And here it says it, he will follow this hope but will destroy himself with it.
i'll construct a rack of tempered beams and trusses
and equip it with a million tiny suns
i'll install upon the room of my compartment
and place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls.
I can't think of anything to support the smoking idea with these lines. He's gonna make a million cigarette smoking machine? hehe.
I think that LifeFadingAway is somewhat right. I don't know about hope but I think of it more as something to stand for. Whether that gives you hope or a reason to live is up to the individual. I think the last verse is just the realization that he's going to be so bright, stand for something and do it right.
At the same time he is stating that his ecstatic "self sacrifice" to the cause is either pointless because this provocation of wanting hope is a result of "Questions that besiege us in life are testament of our helplessness." The fact that we as humans sometimes tend to want to always find a higher truth is our "incorrigible delight".