Clint Eastwood

PEOPLE, LISTEN. BEAR WITH ME.

I don't know why you all reply to each other with stuff like "You're interpretation can't be true, it can't be about drugs, it HAS to be about spaghetti westerns and gold and stuff."

or

"You're interpretation can't be true, it can't be about spaghetti westerns and gold and stuff, it HAS to be about drugs."

or

"Guys you're all wrong, it's about God, and seeking a higher spiritual strata."

or

"Guys you're all wrong, it's about how we blind ourselves from the awful truth of reality with various illusions that are man-made."

Why can't it be about, um, ALL OF THESE THINGS?

Check it:

In the rap portion of the song, the "ghost" who is possessing Russel hints that he is more than just a "ghost" "possessing" someone in the following bits:

1: "Look, I'll make it all manageable Pick and choose Sit and lose All you different crews Chicks and dudes Who you think is really kickin' tunes?"

2: "I'm in them, every sprouting tree every child apiece, every cloud you see"

The ghost is saying in this bit that he's God. Personally, I'm an "Atheist" in the sense that I don't believe in "God" as he is presented in organized religions. However there are more abstract definitions of God that I find somewhat more agreeable.

I've met people who believe that the universe itself IS GOD, and that we are all his "cells". Bear with me here. God is simultaneously one creature and many creatures. "He" (obviously God has no real gender) is "his" own creation, and "he" is all by "him"self in Existence (because "he" IS Existence itself), and "he" deals with this by essentially going crazy and dividing "him"self into an infinite number of personalities. Who are these personalities? We are. Every animal, every human, every microscopic creature, in this theory, are all pieces of the greater Godmind. This is called a pantheistic view of God, where instead of separating the creator from the universe, you decide that the creator WAS the universe all along, and that "he" is just as powerless to "him"self as we are to "him."

In this vision, the universe is just a writhing creature who fluctuates through all the possibilities as he lives his infinite life, which is filled with every emotion, feeling, and thought imaginable. People throughout history, especially shamans, witch doctors, and people who experiment with drugs and hallucinogens have tapped into this "idea" of God, which is that we are all the same single soul, experiencing itself in different forms, 'cause what else is a creature with infinite life gonna do?

NOW, back to the song. The "Who you really think is kickin' tunes?" lines kind-of invokes the idea of God. It's basically saying "Go ahead, meesly little human. Spend your life however you want. "Pick and choose" friends. "Sit and lose" all the time you've got. You're not really making any choices, you're just a set of chemical reactions part of something bigger than yourself. Your "individuality" is just an illusion that you use to keep yourself comfortable, because the person who's really playing the 'symphony' we call "the universe" is GOD.

"Who you think is really kickin' tunes." is just a musical metaphor for "Who do you think is really pulling the strings?" which is just a puppeteer metaphor for "Where do you think this all comes from?"

Russel's "ghost" (you know, the one who's controlling his mind) goes on to suggest that he's a part of more than just Russel in the lines.

"I'm in them, every sprouting tree, every child apiece, every cloud you see."

Who or what would be a part of everything? Everything, of course. What's everything? The universe is, by definition. And if the universe is alive as a whole, and knows it is, then by a stretch of the imagination, we can call the universe "God."

Think about this for a second, every "choice" you make is actually electrochemical signals travelling through your nervous system, manifesting themselves as knee-jerk reactions to YOUR ENVIRONMENT. Which, since you're made of matter and energy, you are A PART OF. You ARE your environment, your environment is you, all of it happens automatically, and we only pretend we have 'control' in hindsight, in order to feel like we have a reason to be here other than "shit happens" or "God was lonely".

Don't believe me?

Watch this: vimeo.com/20368410

Back to the song, again. If Russel's ghost is truly the driving force behind the whole universe, then that means he's controlling the whole band, and by extension, all music. He is kickin' all the tunes, simultaneously, and all the tunes are kickin' him right back.

So we've got God and the problem of existence and the trippy rap lyrics out of the way, what about drugs and spaghetti westerns?

Well, that shit's obvious. The song is called "Clint Eastwood," it uses sounds from his movies, and there are lyrics such as "righteous with one toke," which suggests that the mind-altering effects of drugs like marijuana can bring someone "righteousness," which is an idea that has its roots in philosophy and religion. In short, one can bring oneself away from the illusion of reality through just "one toke." I can't really analyze that any deeper.

In short, this song is awesome because it's pretty much about everything you guys are talking about, not just one of them.

And isn't what life is ultimately? Everything?

All is bittersweet, all is intangible, all is absurd, and most of all...

All is not.

And that's the joke the universe plays on itself, now and forever.

I leave you with this one last thing:

The "definition for what life is" is this:

That which is going to be dead. To understand something, you must understand its opposite. And once you know this, "to know the definition for what life is," you are left feeling kind of lifeless. Hence those lines.

Drugs can bring you down this rabbit hole, and it can be scary, but the key is to venture into the rabbit hole without getting stuck there. You can still have fun while you're decaying. Maybe fun is just the process of decaying faster than usual.

Hahahahahahahahaha.