There's this thing, you see, called ideology. The best way to describe it is that there's the real world - the world where real things happen - and then there's your world: what you think is happening. I know you think you see the real world, but you don't. I'm not saying I do either, or that the B-52s do. But sometimes, when people like new rock stars suddenly change positions in this world, they get a glimpse of how ideology has ruled them, and is ruling everyone else.
That's when you get a song like "Private Idaho," which is a criticism of ideology in middle class America. The images are banal - the pool, the patio, the driveway. It's just your regular old life, isn't it? And they're warning you of the dangers there. You are underground, unaware, deaf and blind, but still full of potential, like a "wild potato." Radium clock - the technology that fascinates you. Chlorine - the chemicals in everything you eat and touch. Idaho itself, that potato growing state, where nothing much happens except for American Nazism - the American Heartland. Nothing could be more obvious or simple. I've interpreted the song this same way since the first time I heard it.
Given the power of ideology, I'm not really surprised - just amused - at the many really creative interpretations I read in this thread. Some English or film courses would give you wild potatoes the opportunity to develop your very real abilities.
Get out of that state you're in. That's my advice.
By the way, its "the gate that opens on the fools.
There's this thing, you see, called ideology. The best way to describe it is that there's the real world - the world where real things happen - and then there's your world: what you think is happening. I know you think you see the real world, but you don't. I'm not saying I do either, or that the B-52s do. But sometimes, when people like new rock stars suddenly change positions in this world, they get a glimpse of how ideology has ruled them, and is ruling everyone else.
That's when you get a song like "Private Idaho," which is a criticism of ideology in middle class America. The images are banal - the pool, the patio, the driveway. It's just your regular old life, isn't it? And they're warning you of the dangers there. You are underground, unaware, deaf and blind, but still full of potential, like a "wild potato." Radium clock - the technology that fascinates you. Chlorine - the chemicals in everything you eat and touch. Idaho itself, that potato growing state, where nothing much happens except for American Nazism - the American Heartland. Nothing could be more obvious or simple. I've interpreted the song this same way since the first time I heard it.
Given the power of ideology, I'm not really surprised - just amused - at the many really creative interpretations I read in this thread. Some English or film courses would give you wild potatoes the opportunity to develop your very real abilities.
Get out of that state you're in. That's my advice.
By the way, its "the gate that opens on the fools.
Glad I could help.