I think, as it was mentioned, that the song is about two friends (or two people who were in love) that had a common goal of defying the system and being rebellious ("waiting for the world to end"). Maybe it started when they were growing up.
But then one of them starts to change, gets a job ("got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage "), slowly climbs up the latter, and before they know it he is the one who bends and makes the rules they once went against ("now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend, you crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again").
I think the chorus, in essence, is that the writer of the song still loves this person and will lift them up no matter what happens. He is successful, climbed the latter, and now has control of everything ("mechanical bull, the number one") and yet he is used by everyone around him ("you'll take a ride from everyone, everyone wants a ride, pulls away from you"). The writer is still there to pick him up, to love him anyway. They both started out as black sheep, wanting to go against the system, and even when one of them climbed to the top he still finds himself isolated and used by everyone else. (Hence the title, Black Sheep.)
I think, as it was mentioned, that the song is about two friends (or two people who were in love) that had a common goal of defying the system and being rebellious ("waiting for the world to end"). Maybe it started when they were growing up.
But then one of them starts to change, gets a job ("got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage "), slowly climbs up the latter, and before they know it he is the one who bends and makes the rules they once went against ("now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend, you crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again").
I think the chorus, in essence, is that the writer of the song still loves this person and will lift them up no matter what happens. He is successful, climbed the latter, and now has control of everything ("mechanical bull, the number one") and yet he is used by everyone around him ("you'll take a ride from everyone, everyone wants a ride, pulls away from you"). The writer is still there to pick him up, to love him anyway. They both started out as black sheep, wanting to go against the system, and even when one of them climbed to the top he still finds himself isolated and used by everyone else. (Hence the title, Black Sheep.)