Ian stated many times that this song is about art and how we percive it, he says he refrenced statues because it's interesting how we'd rather look at a piece of art rather then look interally at ourselves and anylise the human exsparience directly. It's about the horror we are addressed with when we look internally and speak truthfully about being human. Humanity is like a bunch of headless horses lying to ourselves and others, and as soon as we speak the tuth it's too hard to hear. We'd rather observe from afar in the form of disconnected artworks.
"It's about the way people would sooner look at statues than themselves. We revere things that tell us about ourselves. It's that thing of how we think art is very important. A life without art, who knows what that would be like? We think the Mona Lisa is this thing that's valuable, when something else isn't." "It's about, are we statues or are we human? Not like The Killers' thing but it's about heart and soul: 'Jimmy Brown, made of stone.' I'm not Jimmy Brown, I'm someone else. I'm the one who's just shivering and saying 'the words of every lie I've heard.'" - Ian McCulloch
Ian stated many times that this song is about art and how we percive it, he says he refrenced statues because it's interesting how we'd rather look at a piece of art rather then look interally at ourselves and anylise the human exsparience directly. It's about the horror we are addressed with when we look internally and speak truthfully about being human. Humanity is like a bunch of headless horses lying to ourselves and others, and as soon as we speak the tuth it's too hard to hear. We'd rather observe from afar in the form of disconnected artworks.
"It's about the way people would sooner look at statues than themselves. We revere things that tell us about ourselves. It's that thing of how we think art is very important. A life without art, who knows what that would be like? We think the Mona Lisa is this thing that's valuable, when something else isn't." "It's about, are we statues or are we human? Not like The Killers' thing but it's about heart and soul: 'Jimmy Brown, made of stone.' I'm not Jimmy Brown, I'm someone else. I'm the one who's just shivering and saying 'the words of every lie I've heard.'" - Ian McCulloch
[Edit: Wanted to calrify my points further.]