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"When I say 'He', I mean the vocalist. 'There's a place where everyone can be happy, it's the most beautiful place in the whole fucking world.' To me, he's talking about the world itself in this part. If everyone got along just fine and dandy, everyone around us would be happy. 'It's made of candy canes and planes, red choo-choo trains and the meanest little boys, and the most innocent little girls, and you know, I wish that I could go there, it's a road that I have not found, and I wish you the best of luck dear, drop a card or letter to my side of town.' Here, he's summed up how he feels, that he's not satisfied with himself, or the world around him for that matter. And there is someone who he thinks will be moving to a better place, and he's wishing that person luck in starting a new life. ' 'cuz there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend, but baby I'm amazed by the hate that you can send and you, painted my entire world. But I, don't have the turpentine to clean what you have soiled... and I won't forget it.' Now he's saying to that person that they left an impact on his life. And it's not necessarily a good one either. The "turpentine" means he wants to cleanse himself of what was in the past, and move on from it. Yet somehow he can't because he doesn't have it. So it means he won't forget it no matter what. 'There's a place where everyone can be right, even though you remain determined to be opposed. Admittance requires no qualifications, it's where everyone has been and where everybody goes. So please try not to be impatient, for we all hate standing in line. And when the farm is good and bought, you'll be there without a thought. And eternity my friend, is a long fucking time.' I think he means 'equality' when he says 'there's a place where everyone can be right.' But, there is someone who is always having opposing views on any matter at all. When he says 'admittance requires no qualifications', he means anyone could be right on anything, but not always do people think like this. The 'farm', he is referring to is the Earth itself, I think, as we're going to be on this planet for eternity, until the sun dies anyways. The chorus repeats itself and then a guitar rift says the song is over. I pretty much summed up what the lyrics mean to me, hopefully someone will understand it, and thank you." -Gremio
"The song is talking about heaven (not that I believe in it). 'when the farm is bought' that means when you die everything just points at heaven." -Dixx
"I think that 'you' is an amazing song, sounding like it comes from deep within, aimed at everyone, everything, the government, the multitudes of humans, the industrialized society, everything he sees and everything he hears: its reality. And reality, for Greg (and for many others), is grim. Its 'painted' his 'entire world', and can't be changed ('...don't have the turpentine... etc') and the only alternative is what he describes: its death/heaven thus the 'don't hurry' and 'eternity my friend is a long fucking time'. This is only how I see it, and gremio's explanation is just as good." -Another Ape
"This is my favorite BR song of all time. I think it means eh that this place Graffin speaks of could heaven (na!) or even a better place. 'Candy canes plains and bright red choo-choo trains' but this is different dowt heaven will have this. But what does he mean 'the hate that you can send?' do no." -RonGriffen
"This song was the first that I heard from BR, and it made me want to really know Bad Religion, it's a real deep song, to me, it has a meaning like this : When he says, there's a place where everyone can be happy, I think he means the generic human illusion, the idea of heaven, or even the dreams that we have about a solution to our problems, that part about the meanest boys and innocent little girls really makes me wonder, I don't know exactly what that means... There's some kind of key to this song when he says 'admittance requires no qualifications, it's where everyone has been and where everybody goes', that seems to confirm that what he says in the song is about all of us humans, all of our lives have been painted and we can't clean it, we all dream of better places, better lives, and so on. There are many ways to interpret this song, depends on what verses you focus, so it's kinda hard, I just wrote a few of my most solid commentaries about this song, I'd love to know what you people think, share your thoughts!" -Lord Ha-Ha-Ha
"Well, this may be a rather long entry... 'There's a place where everyone can be happy, it's the most beautiful place in the whole fucking world' is talking about heaven. I picked this up almost instantly. 'you know, I wish I could go there, it's a road I have not found, I wish you best luck dear, drop a card/letter to my side of town' possibly means Greg/Brett (whoever wrote it) wishes they could go to heaven, but can't, and when they go separate ways with others, they hope to not be so distant. Then the chorus. 'Baby, I'm amazed at the hate that you could send and you painted my entire world, but i don't have the turpentine to clean what you have soiled, and i won't forget it' is talking about hate. obviously, because he says it right there! The hate he has seen throughout his life affects him so negatively, and he will never be able to recover from what he experienced. 'there's a place where everyone can be right' utopia! 'when the farm is good and bought, you'll be there without a thought, and eternity, my friend, is a long fucking time' buying the farm means dying. Being there without a thought, possibly means once you're there, and you don't have any reason to be in heaven... why should you? Then, you will be sent to Hell, forever, and you don't want that since, indeed, 'eternity, my friend, is a long fucking time'" -Hampster Wheel
"With the 'meanest little boys and the most innocent little girls' If you look at the whole verse with the 'place everyone can be happy' I think he's stereotyping what people want the world to be. And mean little boys and innocent little girls is once again a stereotype of little kids. The classic sugar and spice stuff. He's just drawing a very fake plastic society, and then saying 'Hey good luck if you get there' Cuz it doesn't exist." -King-O-Pork
"To me, this song is definitely about death. The last few lines really nail it for me. 'Please try not to be impatient... we all hate standing in line...' Meaning, don't try to kill yourself to get to death, we all hate waiting but we'll get there eventually. 'And when the farm is good and bought you'll be there without a thought...' When the farm is bought, or in other words, when you're completely dead, you'll have made it to death and you'll be there forever. 'Eternity my friend is a long fucking time.'" -Tinusch
"Ever since I heard the song in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, being somewhat familiar with Bad Religion (at that point I didn't have any albums but had read some lyrics and heard a few tunes), I thought it was another one of their songs bashing Christianity. The opening verse and chorus were enough to prove this for me. "There's a place where everyone cane be happy..." was to myself obviously about heaven. And the the chorus of "you...created my entire world" was referring to god. Then I find this site and read Brett's interpretation. He says its a reverse love song about a girl he was pissed off at. Hmm, now there's a new spin on the words. The thought had never occurred to me, but I see how it is possible, since the lines "and I wish you the best of luck dear, drop a card or letter to my side of town" had puzzled me because I couldn't figure out how that figured into the whole heaven idea. Now I do, sort of, but I still can't see Brett's view entirely." -Ben
"FYI, 'there's no time for fussing or fighting, my friend' is a line from a Beatles song." -McDeus
"I think this song is one of Bad Religion's most cryptic. When I first heard it, the line that stuck out in my mind was 'eternity my friend is a long fucking time.' Try to contemplate eternity, even an eternity in heaven. It's still amazingly overwhelming. And when you try to contemplate an ETERNITY of torture, really think about what that experience would be like, you start to realize that absolutely no one, not even genocidal monsters like Hitler and Pol Pot, deserve ETERNAL suffering. But there is obviously more to the song then defeating the classical religious notion of morality through contemplation of eternity. I think it is also about heaven in the sense of heaven on earth, or a seemingly enlightened mind state, that may or may not be understood by an outside observer. Let me clarify. I read Gurewitz's interpretation and he said it was sort of a reverse love song. I think people who are very critically thoughtful with nihilistic tendencies (like me) tend to be susceptible to a certain type of girl. This is very difficult to get across, but i think the song might be about the singer's recognition that this girl, whoever she was, gave him a glimpse of a different world, a less troubling mind state, but ultimately it didn't matter, the protagonist was only left tainted with regret by his vision of a better world. The song also seems like an affirmation, albeit a nihilistic one, that this girl from a better world wasn't all that special, in that all she could offer him was hope, and no actual substance. But I think the song is relating this idea of people experiencing the world differently to the idea of mortality and the inevitability that eternity awaits everyone." -SALTATE!
"First let me state two things. One: This song is perhaps my favourite Bad Religion song of all time, as it was the first one I ever heard by them (thank u Tony Hawk 2) Two: I agree with most of the posts on this thread. Now, let me try to break the song down, and not sound too repititious in the process. The lyrics leading up to the bridge and the chorus in the first verse are all about heaven obviously; and Greg and Brett's lack of belief in it. The line "I wish that I could go there, its a road I have not found", says that, like all of us, we would like to get into heaven, but not only is there not a true and definite path to the pearly gates, but there is very little proof that such a place exists. So Greg wishes you the best of luck in your quest to find it, but when you dont find what you're looking for, dont come whining back to him. Or maybe he's saying DO come running back to him, so he can rub it in your face lol. Now, I think the chorus has ! to deal with someone who instead of living their life to the fullest, are spiteful and generally hard to get along with. There's no time for fussing and fighting because truly life is too short to live it being an asshole to everyone. So get off your ass, quit whining, and try to make your mark in society. The last verse is pretty deep metaphorically. Greg is stating that its "where everyone has been, and where everybody goes." I think that means that to everyone, or every religious person anyway, he/she believes they are self righteous, and will get into their "heaven" no matter what, "addmittance requires no qualifications." Then the last lines hit home with Greg basically saying that, when you die, and you finally discover that there is no heaven, and that you'll be in eternity "without a thought", without consciousness, then you will truly be sorry for living your life the way you did. Dont be in a rush to get to heaven people; it's a doomed journey with no real r! ewards, but death (which isnt much of one), so make the best ! out of what you have in this life because once your gone, thats it." -CrazyCanuck2k |