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The cash machine is blue and green
For a bundle of twenties and a small service fee
I could spend three dollars and sixty-three cents
On Diet Coca-Cola and unlit cigarettes
I wonder why we listen to poets when nobody gives a fuck
How hot and sorrowful, the machine begs for luck
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
We want a good life with a nose for things
The fresh wind and bright sky to endure my suffering
I'm a hole without a key if I break my tongue
Oh, speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come?
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I'm down on my hands and knees
Every time I hear a doorbell ring
I shake like a toothache
Every time I hear myself sing
All my lies are only wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I would like to salute
The ashes of American flags
And all the fallen leaves
Filling up shopping bags
For a bundle of twenties and a small service fee
I could spend three dollars and sixty-three cents
On Diet Coca-Cola and unlit cigarettes
I wonder why we listen to poets when nobody gives a fuck
How hot and sorrowful, the machine begs for luck
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
We want a good life with a nose for things
The fresh wind and bright sky to endure my suffering
I'm a hole without a key if I break my tongue
Oh, speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come?
All my lies are always wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I'm down on my hands and knees
Every time I hear a doorbell ring
I shake like a toothache
Every time I hear myself sing
All my lies are only wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new
I would like to salute
The ashes of American flags
And all the fallen leaves
Filling up shopping bags
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A man deems his life meaningless albeit the money he gains through his successful career. So this man seeks out an organization that fakes his death and gives him a new life by allowing him to inhabit the identity of someone else through plastic surgery, allowing him to have a different background, new friends, a new home. The man has a party and invites all his friends. He gets drunk and speaks of his former life, violating the companies rules. One of his friends is someone from the company observing him, and due his violation, he is faced with a harsh hidden from him about the companies intentions reality .
“I'm down on my hands and knees every time the doorbell rings I shake like a toothache when I hear myself sing”
Throughout the film, the man realizes that he cannot relive the moments he never had in his former life through a false Identity. It even dawns on him that the things he wanted that he missed out on actually are completely different then what he thought they would be.
-“ All my lies are always wishes”
He goes back to the company, asking for a new identity. Instead, the company decides to kill him.
-“I know I would die if I could come back new”
I think the last two lines describe the futility of the “American Dream” and how worthless money, possessions, and pleasures are and how they are constantly filling the void in our lives, but end up doing more harm for our naive minds, especially when faced with a terrifying reality( 9/11) that disillusion us from what we truly value and what makes us happy. But it is too late to scrap up the happiness we pushed aside and lost( death of loved ones).
- “I would like to salute the ashes of American flags”
When the truly important things are gone due to our absentmindedness, we feel we have nothing more to lose and decide to go back to the shallowness of our consumerist ways, to forget what has happened.
“And all the falling leaves filling up shopping bags”
Being that Tweedy was an avid Brian Wilson fan, and Brian was obsessed with the film, there is a possibility that the song references the movie.
A man deems his life meaningless albeit the money he gains through his successful career. So this man seeks out an organization that fakes his death and gives him a new life by allowing him to inhabit the identity of someone else through plastic surgery, allowing him to have a different background, new friends, a new home. The man has a party and invites all his friends. He gets drunk and speaks of his former life, violating the companies rules. One of his friends is someone from the company observing him, and due his violation, he is faced with a harsh hidden from him about the companies intentions reality .
“I'm down on my hands and knees every time the doorbell rings I shake like a toothache when I hear myself sing”
Throughout the film, the man realizes that he cannot relive the moments he never had in his former life through a false Identity. It even dawns on him that the things he wanted that he missed out on actually are completely different then what he that the would be.
-“ All my lies are always wishes”
He goes back to the company, asking for a new identity. Instead, the company decides to kill him.
-“I know I would die if I could come back new”
I think the last two lines describe the futility of the “American Dream” and how worthless money, possessions, and pleasures are and how they are constantly filling the void in our lives, but end up doing more harm for our naive minds, especially when faced with a terrifying reality( 9/11) that disillusion us from what we truly value and what makes us happy. But it is too late to scrap up the happiness we pushed aside and lost( death of loved ones).
- “I would like to salute the ashes of American flags”
When the truly important things are gone due to our absentmindedness, we feel we have nothing more to lose and decide to go back to the shallowness of our consumerist ways, to forget what has happened.
“And all the falling leaves filling up shopping bags”
Being that Tweedy was an avid Brian Wilson fan, and Brian was obsessed with the film, there is a possibility that the song references the movie.
I know I would die if I could come back new"
What an incredible line. He lies to impress... impress who? Himself, people around him, society... but the fact is he is living a lie to hide who he really is; which makes this an incredibly sad sad song.
And yeah, great connection to the materialistic world we live in as well - one which, we need to drive fancy cars, live in big houses, dress in expensive clothes to cover and hide, to prove a point. People driving around in cars they can't afford to make people think they are something they are not... they are living wishes, which ultimately are lies.
I also think it's quirky how Tweedy buys "unlit" cigarettes, further implying how useless bought possessions can be. "Fallen leaves filling up shopping bags" adds to this interpretation. We all know how fast dead leaves rot and whither away completely but they can sure fill up the void in your shopping bag.
The power in this song is left unmentioned though, the chilling sadness with which Tweedy sings the following lines leave me stunned every time I hear this song (and I've listened to it religiously for years).
"Speaking of tomorrow, how will it ever come
All my lies are only wishes
I know I would die if I could come back new"