I submitted corrections - but the lyrics I'm looking at now are messed.
Pretty sure the song's linear. Immigrant-makes-good, and works his way up from 'selling flowers at Penn station' to the big Wall St. world of high-finance. Every time in his life he comes across a challenge he needs to sort out, he "takes a walk". He brings his extended family over from a foreign country (not sons and daughters - we're talking uncles and brothers etc.) who - once here - scatter to the four corners of the globe to seek their own fortune, and just aren't there when our main character falls on hard times and needs some support of his own.
He brings his wife over and things are going well for the most part - he raises a family - tries to keep up with the Joneses - and for awhile is living the suburban upper-middle-class ideal. His wife is "from the old country" and doesn't start to complain once things obviously start going askew and doesn't complain (doesn't "flaunt her empty purse") and despite the fact things are falling apart, he wants to preserve the aura of normalcy to the point he has her invite the neighbours over and cook and "complain about the socialists" over the dinner table in conversation because that's what self-made, wealthy, American business people do -- despite the fact he himself now needs a bit of that 'socialist' help himself.
Each time he voices a personal hurdle he 'takes a walk'. As things stack up (including the mother-in-law moving in for yet another mouth to feed) he still has his 'old country' pride and can't bear to admit to himself that he can no longer keep up his lifestyle, and can't bear to destroy the illusion he thinks his wife and kids and friends love more than they love him. So, again, he 'takes a walk' - only this time it's a final walk that winds up a last step off the top of a very tall building (check out the official video - which bears this out.)
This song...floored...me. Haunted, almost. There's lots of pop sh*t out there but this one rings true in unsettling ways, and if you let your imagination drive for a few blocks...it'll probably seem just as 'real' as anything you'll find out there on any street in America.
I submitted corrections - but the lyrics I'm looking at now are messed.
Pretty sure the song's linear. Immigrant-makes-good, and works his way up from 'selling flowers at Penn station' to the big Wall St. world of high-finance. Every time in his life he comes across a challenge he needs to sort out, he "takes a walk". He brings his extended family over from a foreign country (not sons and daughters - we're talking uncles and brothers etc.) who - once here - scatter to the four corners of the globe to seek their own fortune, and just aren't there when our main character falls on hard times and needs some support of his own.
He brings his wife over and things are going well for the most part - he raises a family - tries to keep up with the Joneses - and for awhile is living the suburban upper-middle-class ideal. His wife is "from the old country" and doesn't start to complain once things obviously start going askew and doesn't complain (doesn't "flaunt her empty purse") and despite the fact things are falling apart, he wants to preserve the aura of normalcy to the point he has her invite the neighbours over and cook and "complain about the socialists" over the dinner table in conversation because that's what self-made, wealthy, American business people do -- despite the fact he himself now needs a bit of that 'socialist' help himself.
Each time he voices a personal hurdle he 'takes a walk'. As things stack up (including the mother-in-law moving in for yet another mouth to feed) he still has his 'old country' pride and can't bear to admit to himself that he can no longer keep up his lifestyle, and can't bear to destroy the illusion he thinks his wife and kids and friends love more than they love him. So, again, he 'takes a walk' - only this time it's a final walk that winds up a last step off the top of a very tall building (check out the official video - which bears this out.)
This song...floored...me. Haunted, almost. There's lots of pop sh*t out there but this one rings true in unsettling ways, and if you let your imagination drive for a few blocks...it'll probably seem just as 'real' as anything you'll find out there on any street in America.