When I saw Marie Antoinette, this started playing in the very beginning and I literally checked to make sure I was in the right movie.
I love this song, it was the first G4 song I ever heard and Entertainment! is definitely one of the best albums I've ever heard. What's funny about this song is that it is nothing like any of the other songs on the album. I would definitely call it the most different. It still has the classic G4 element though of constant repetition of one line.
It was actually a good song choice for Marie Antoinette because of it's lyrics. What I get from it, is that it's looking at people who have the good life and all the time in the world and no idea how to spend it. People who are in the public eye and a look their private lives. And how often people like this turn to the more sinful indulgences to take up their time (fornication makes you happy), but we only hear about it more with them because they are famous and being watched. It's almost an exagerated look at our own lives.
And they dream of having the perfect life, which people think they can achieve through money. I think "The body is good business" in relation to "Economic circumstances" though alludes to the relationship between sex appeal and power that there is in society, two subjects which can often seem mutually exclusive. How people who have the body for it, use it to gain power (why is Pamela Anderson so famous?), and people who have the power use it to get things they normally could never have (why does Hugh Heffner have so many gorgeous young girls with him all the time?). "We all have good intentions/But all with strings attached" is a criticism towards both ends of that sex/power spectrum.
The singer concludes of this system: "This heaven gives me migraine." That's his sarcastic way of saying that such a 'perfect life' isn't worth it.
The title means, there is nothing natural about the way these people live their lives, there's no escape from society for them. Also these people can indulge in whatever they want (a market of the senses) and this is both too overwhelming and separates them from the way regular people live.
"The problem of leisure/What to do for pleasure" is a way of saying that having too much time can be a really bad thing. Look at the way celebrities spend their time and their money just because they have nothing else to do with it.
"Coercion of the senses/We are not so gullible/Our great expectations/A future for the good" I think more or less is a way of someone trying to say that they aren't like the rest and they can't be seduced by such indulgences, they're going to be better than that. It might also be pointing out the way normal people criticize celebrities, like they wouldn't be so susceptable to that seduction if they were that famous. The next lines though are 'Fornication makes you happy/No escape from society.' No escape from society has a double meaning in this context. Meaning, sex makes you happy just like everyone else, you are a product of your society and subject to the same evils we are whether you like it or not. But also it's talking about how these people, famous people, virtually never get a moment alone.
The line 'Sell out, maintain the interest' has to do with the fact that even as much as this life isn't good for these people, they go to great lengths to keep it. They will sell out to maintain the interest. This is why the Lot's wife comment is relevant as well. Lot's wife looked back on everything she was leaving behind and the angel had warned against this. Even living in a place that was being destroyed and corrupt, she looked back, wanting to keep her life. This furthers the idea that G4 are pointing out the love these people have for the chaos, they know their lives aren't the best way to stay happy, but it's hard for them to stop living that way.
In short I think this song is a look at how most people in the public eye live the most imperfect lives, and I think it's sort of a thought process behind their actions.
Sorry if this is a bit long winded and disorganized. And perhaps I'm wrong about the whole thing, who's to say. Enjoy.
"This is why the Lot's wife comment is relevant as well. Lot's wife looked back on everything she was leaving behind and the angel had warned against this. Even living in a place that was being destroyed and corrupt, she looked back, wanting to keep her life. This furthers the idea that G4 are pointing out the love these people have for the chaos, they know their lives aren't the best way to stay happy, but it's hard for them to stop living that way."
"This is why the Lot's wife comment is relevant as well. Lot's wife looked back on everything she was leaving behind and the angel had warned against this. Even living in a place that was being destroyed and corrupt, she looked back, wanting to keep her life. This furthers the idea that G4 are pointing out the love these people have for the chaos, they know their lives aren't the best way to stay happy, but it's hard for them to stop living that way."
thank you so much for explaining this. i have very little knowledge of the bible and had always wondered what "remember lot's wife" meant.
When I saw Marie Antoinette, this started playing in the very beginning and I literally checked to make sure I was in the right movie.
I love this song, it was the first G4 song I ever heard and Entertainment! is definitely one of the best albums I've ever heard. What's funny about this song is that it is nothing like any of the other songs on the album. I would definitely call it the most different. It still has the classic G4 element though of constant repetition of one line.
It was actually a good song choice for Marie Antoinette because of it's lyrics. What I get from it, is that it's looking at people who have the good life and all the time in the world and no idea how to spend it. People who are in the public eye and a look their private lives. And how often people like this turn to the more sinful indulgences to take up their time (fornication makes you happy), but we only hear about it more with them because they are famous and being watched. It's almost an exagerated look at our own lives.
And they dream of having the perfect life, which people think they can achieve through money. I think "The body is good business" in relation to "Economic circumstances" though alludes to the relationship between sex appeal and power that there is in society, two subjects which can often seem mutually exclusive. How people who have the body for it, use it to gain power (why is Pamela Anderson so famous?), and people who have the power use it to get things they normally could never have (why does Hugh Heffner have so many gorgeous young girls with him all the time?). "We all have good intentions/But all with strings attached" is a criticism towards both ends of that sex/power spectrum. The singer concludes of this system: "This heaven gives me migraine." That's his sarcastic way of saying that such a 'perfect life' isn't worth it.
The title means, there is nothing natural about the way these people live their lives, there's no escape from society for them. Also these people can indulge in whatever they want (a market of the senses) and this is both too overwhelming and separates them from the way regular people live.
"The problem of leisure/What to do for pleasure" is a way of saying that having too much time can be a really bad thing. Look at the way celebrities spend their time and their money just because they have nothing else to do with it.
"Coercion of the senses/We are not so gullible/Our great expectations/A future for the good" I think more or less is a way of someone trying to say that they aren't like the rest and they can't be seduced by such indulgences, they're going to be better than that. It might also be pointing out the way normal people criticize celebrities, like they wouldn't be so susceptable to that seduction if they were that famous. The next lines though are 'Fornication makes you happy/No escape from society.' No escape from society has a double meaning in this context. Meaning, sex makes you happy just like everyone else, you are a product of your society and subject to the same evils we are whether you like it or not. But also it's talking about how these people, famous people, virtually never get a moment alone.
The line 'Sell out, maintain the interest' has to do with the fact that even as much as this life isn't good for these people, they go to great lengths to keep it. They will sell out to maintain the interest. This is why the Lot's wife comment is relevant as well. Lot's wife looked back on everything she was leaving behind and the angel had warned against this. Even living in a place that was being destroyed and corrupt, she looked back, wanting to keep her life. This furthers the idea that G4 are pointing out the love these people have for the chaos, they know their lives aren't the best way to stay happy, but it's hard for them to stop living that way.
In short I think this song is a look at how most people in the public eye live the most imperfect lives, and I think it's sort of a thought process behind their actions.
Sorry if this is a bit long winded and disorganized. And perhaps I'm wrong about the whole thing, who's to say. Enjoy.
"This is why the Lot's wife comment is relevant as well. Lot's wife looked back on everything she was leaving behind and the angel had warned against this. Even living in a place that was being destroyed and corrupt, she looked back, wanting to keep her life. This furthers the idea that G4 are pointing out the love these people have for the chaos, they know their lives aren't the best way to stay happy, but it's hard for them to stop living that way."
"This is why the Lot's wife comment is relevant as well. Lot's wife looked back on everything she was leaving behind and the angel had warned against this. Even living in a place that was being destroyed and corrupt, she looked back, wanting to keep her life. This furthers the idea that G4 are pointing out the love these people have for the chaos, they know their lives aren't the best way to stay happy, but it's hard for them to stop living that way."
thank you so much for explaining this. i have very little knowledge of the bible and had always wondered what "remember lot's wife" meant.