Spreading the Disease

i had a roommate that once told the story of how the nicest, prettiest, popular girl in school really wanted to date him, and it would have been okay had he not been completely disgusted at the idea of being touched by another person.  i'm reminded of that on this listen.  that, and how badly his and my friendship imploded, at least in part because of his difficulties in balancing the "no judgment" attitude he claimed to have with his own damage.

damage is the word that this song first and foremost brings to mind, deliberately, crafted specifically for its audience.  perhaps a little heavy-handedly, it creates what is today almost a cliche of circumstance to form our most important secondary character -- and the only one for which a new singer is brought out.  Mary.

the song begins with a low, rippling drumbeat, falling with a guitar down into a series of arcing progressions, not all ending lower, but implying sinking and feeling turbulent.  these resolve, the drumbeats speed up, and the narrator takes over the momentum with an almost cruel, lascivious tone.

She always brings me what I need
Without I beg and sweat and bleed
When we're alone at night
Waiting for the call
She feeds my skin

the first impression is that it's something sexual... until you remember that Nikki is a heroin addict, and that he is being given some (other?) drug to control him.  without his drugs, he goes into withdrawal.  "she feeds my skin" is less a sexual reference -- though it is almost drawled, or even growled, as if it were -- it's all about the drugs.

but "she" brings him the drugs.  she is involved somehow with a dealer, or a dealer herself?  she is perhaps involved in The Cause?  many questions immediately taking form with this one.  they are alone at night, waiting for the call -- this is the "wait by the phone" of the title song.  Nikki is waiting for another assignment, and he's using his addiction to pass the time.

he's in deep, both in The Cause and in his own substance abuse.  given the "just say no" 80s, this is also a deliberate challenge to the government / dominant paradigm / establishment to "put your money where your mouth is."  addiction is even today (30+ years later) seem as a moral failing on the part of the addict, not a disease, not a compulsion, not a symptom of unmet needs.  more and newer studies are showing that this is one of the reasons for our drug problem continuing -- that we attack the wrong aspect.  all that has succeeded is the overpopulation of our jails and the creation of career criminals.  he needs this drug in his "skin" and his centers of feeling and sensation, not just as a concept.  it means that he has unmet basic needs that are being self-medicated with things that artificially create the natural positive or high that so many other people take for granted.

it's not a coincidence though that it's a carnal, base desire confusing the issue here.  "feeds my skin" is what this song is really about... including how it affects out characters and their past.

Sixteen and on the run from home
Found a job in Times Square
Working Live S&M shows
Twenty-five bucks (a fuck)
And John's a happy man
She wipes the filth away
And it's back on the streets again

every New Yorker hearing this song today will say the same thing: "hey! Times Square isn't bad anymore!"  and that's another calling card of the times.  back then, it was the center of seedy.

"sixteen and on the run from home" -- young, scared... fleeing something?  we know nothing of her before this, but if this is an acceptable alternative to going home, then what was it like there?  it's one of my major criticisms of using such a song for quick character establishment -- this isn't light material, but she's an accessory to Nikki, so her complicated backstory only sees a slight flash where it's needed to establish the complicated morals and underlying immorality of the plot.  she's equal parts character and device... but the same can be said for how Nikki, in his broken and needy way, treats her.

the wording here is interesting.  "filth."  again... she is disgusted with the work, with herself, with everything here.  but it's better than going home.

as an overview... she becomes a hardcore live-pornography performer, and a cheap prostitute, and gets no rest.  just to live, she needs to become a device for the base carnality of others.  the "feeds my skin" line is right at home here.

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see

the 80s oversat the AIDS epidemic (back when it was GRID, when it was unknown to many but devastating to certain communities, back when the government turned a blind eye to the outsiders in society when they needed help.  the most vocal criticisms i've heard of Reagan usually start at Iran-Contra but segue pretty quickly to AIDS.  it wasn't even until an old friend of the president (Rock Hudson) was diagnosed that the White House had any real reaction at all... and then it was more of a "too little too late" kind of situation.

so using "disease" in conjunction with sex is not only indicative of the times, but also a harsh wake-up call much like many had in the 80s.

the advent of birth control created (or heavily contributed to) the sexual revolution.  but the proliferation of unprotected sex brought back a large volume of STIs.  by the end of the 80s, those who had parties a little too hard in the 70s were seeing consequences for their actions, and the aforementioned moral panics of the religious right were brought to bear again.

but it's not just any disease.  it's the disease "everybody needs"

i'm usually just as cautious about a piece (whether it be a song or a poem, movie or short story) using the words "society" or "everybody" or any other blanket term.  broad generalizations have a way of being inherently wrong.  but it's an indictment of the media-fueled 80s culture.  the disease everybody needs is their own pleasure, and really that's just the aggrandizement and validation of their own selfishness.  still, it's a private thing -- so regardless of how common, it's not supposed to be talked about or acknowledged.

Father William saved her from the streets
She drank the lifeblood from the saviour's feet
She's Sister Mary now, eyes as cold as ice
He takes her once a week
On the alter like a sacrifice

introduction of a new character.  in four lines we go from seeing nobility and heroism to utter disgust, from the public face and known deeds to being no different (or perhaps worse).

The priest "saves her" and she joins the church.  this means she no longer has to do what she did before, no more "filth" -- except now it's less cheap prostitute and more kept concubine.  he treats her as his -- a man of the cloth, a man sworn to celibacy (and she as well if she actually is "Sister Mary" in all ways).

the important line here is "eyes as cold as ice."  it's not just playing on the stereotype of the severe nun.  she is profoundly damaged, distant, cold.  she's got all the hard edges and all the distrust of someone who had suffered severe abuse.  and it's continuing.

even with supposed consent, abuse of a position of power -- particularly a double one where there is a perceived debt and a potential parent-figure -- removes the ability to give consent properly.  this supposedly celibate holy man is, in effect, semiconsentually raping a trauma victim who had taken a vow of celibacy under the trappings of his office and his religion.

if that does not make your skin crawl, if she's the agent delivering the drugs to Nikki, it implies that perhaps the priest -- her superior and the only other character she is mentioned in connection with -- is the dealer.  think of the damage to families that drugs like heroin do, and the crime both the abuse and the trade propagate... and remember that groups like AA and NA have an inherently religious basis, and are often run out of church meeting halls.  junkies in need might come to their priest as a first line of seeking help.  abuse of that kind of authority changes all these pathways, and gives the dealer access to more prey.

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see

the spread of hypocrisy, of corruption, of that aforementioned "filth" all wrapped up in its varied forms.  no-one wants to see that.  it's disturbing.  we'd rather such things were not a part of the world, and   the chorus comes up again, drops in tone, and resolves in a low, almost tom-tom drumbeat.  when the vocals join in again it's almost whispered, spoken... a chant... another assertion by Nikki, the dogma he's been stewing in as he's waited for the phone to ring... the litany that has conditioned him to be okay with the hit-jobs he now routinely takes on.  the whispered chant has the feel of a secret truth, the truth "no one wants to see" being exposed to the light by the heroic warrior doing his duty.

Religion and sex are powerplays
Manipulate the people for the money they pay
Selling skin, selling God
The numbers look the same on their credit cards
Politicians say no to drugs
While we pay for wars in South America

directly equating religion with sex is interesting.  both in that they are nobody's business but yours, and that in the 80s they became politicized and divisive.  saying that both are "power plays" and "manipulating" reduces (what to some people are) the most private and important aspects of life into a great trick.  not that they are inherently corrupt, but their usage in the modern era and the people who use it against you are doing so in order to take advantage of others.

pretty sure there are plenty of megachurches that can be viewed this way.  i know that the adult entertainment industry is often seen as such.  with the advent of the televangelists coinciding with the introduction of affordable cable tv, maybe the capitalist media-domination of everything might be an easy-to-reach conclusion.  how different, really, is it from the youtube pastors and their ridiculous assertions, the cable tv news, talk radio, and the cesspool of internet news comment sites, "manipulating people for the money they pay" is a pretty safe declaration that once might have sounded profound or shocking.

easier to draw a parallel here after the Ashley Madison scandal -- an internet site built on the supposition that men want to cheat on their significant others, who offered for a premium degrees of privacy they did not actually provide, who were hacked and their clients list (90% of non-employee accounts were male, most of the women on the site were fictitious accounts maintained by staff, making it a legal scam) was leaked to the internet.  they promised secrecy.  there were congress members, a notable christian reality tv figure who had just been involved in a scandal after it was revealed he had molested his sisters, and plenty of others.

they were manipulated into paying for a service that never lived up to its hype.  they were sold skin, privacy, and fantasy.

how different is that, really, from our politicians funding drug cartels in their attempts to undermine hostile governments, then turning around and telling us that the real fight against drugs is on us?

Fighting fire with empty words
While the banks get fat
And the poor stay poor
And the rich get rich
And the cops get paid
To look away
As the one percent rules America

were one to fight a fire with empty words, the charred corpse would be the answer of effectiveness.  only, we're the ones in danger.  those who are supposed to protect us put us in harm's way when they allow empty words to be their sole reaction to danger.  if the words are empty because they want us calm, but they want us to not fight the results of the danger, it makes the problem worse.

occupy wall street was a direct response to the financial institutions that created the financial crisis having made billions off of the situation, then having a safe way out as regular americans were losing their houses.  "the banks stay fat" is not the problem, it's when the bans prosper at the expense of everyone else.  the relfection here is "and the poor stay poor" -- that the banks are able to prosper despite others not having the same opportunities.  this leads to the third -- "and the rich get rich" -- seen as a result of the other two, meaning that the rich are effectively taking from the poor, either money or opportunity.

and what was their rallying cry?  "i am the 99%."  just as here, it is declared that "the one percent rules america" while the cops could enforce the law fairly and at the same level, but are paid not to.

sadly, it's not just the one percent today.  opportunity is assumed by a select group.  other groups might be unaware of the opportunities they are missing, only that they are chronically unable to easily rise to the top as others are.

Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see
The way society
Keeps spreading the disease

what exactly is "the disease?"

it's what Alfred P Doolittle would call "middle class morality" -- the assumptions and expectations of the dominant culture's expectations.  that you do not talk about certain problems.  that you are expected as a guy to chase women.  that you are expected as a girl to resist, to flee from sexuality or be branded "one of those girls" and given even less respect by the men.  that you are supposed to graduate, go to college, and get a job after you get your degree despite all the pitfalls that might actually happen.  that Mary never had a shot, because whatever she was running from was still not worth going back to, and that kind of lack of support (to outright damage) comes as a package deal with other problems.

it's the hypocrisy of being conditioned to want and being ashamed of those desires, of judging people for certain choices or activities and then finding out the full story, of inserting onesself into a bad situation and forcing other essentially good people be forced to judge you for it...

in other words, inescapable when there are double standards and different levels of expectation set for different classes.

i will say, just as Times Square has cleaned up, so have many of our other institutions.  perhaps "cleaned" is not the right implication here, but opened up.  people are more likely to talk to other about certain things left secret before.  a bad fanfic-based faux-romance novel was turned into a major motion picture including its bdsm bent.  and multiple studies showing a link between the availability of pornography and lowered sexual assault incidences.  though we have less crime than the late 80s anyway, the media reporting belies that fact.  we came out of this feeling, entered into it again with the bush 00s, and have come out of it again.

Speak

every so often, i hear something that reminds me of the whisper in the chorus, a thrill of underlying message, an important idea that escapes firt notice.  this song, perhaps out of the first half, has always had the most effect on me.

it's a turning point.

we establish Nikki's dissatisfaction, we watch him get involved with the Operation, and then we see what he has become.  in no other song do we get the same manic zealotry.  the outsider has been invited in, handed a purpose, and suddenly feels the joy of having a cause -- into which he jumps feet-first without care of what is underneath the water.

eventually, it catches up.

the beginning is a noise of a crowd, a soundbyte of countless voices moving back and forth.  beneath the garbled chatter, a single quiet voice starts shouting -- at first almost too quiet to hear.

'Hey!  Hey!  Listen to me!"

and then a fast-and-high guitar riff takes the momentum of the song.  aside from "the Needle Lies," this is perhaps the most traditionally metal song on the album, and in large part to the guitar work in the beginning.

They've given me a mission
I don't really know the game yet
I'm bent on submission
Religion is to blame
I'm the new messiah
Death Angel with a gun
Dangerous in my silence
Deadly to my cause

we have the passion of a new recruit, but the wisdom of a piece of toast.

i have a purpose, i'm not quite sure what i'm supposed to be doing or why... but i know it's the right thing to do!  then an enemy to hate -- religion -- and using its motifs against itself.  a Death Angel with a gun, he thinks of himself as.  and he will be deadly to his old god, using his newfound power and purpose to try to hollow out the corruption in the system.

Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us

speak to me -- tell me, like i've told others.  i'm here for you.  i will listen to you, as i've found someone who hears my worries and fears.  speak the word -- revolution, a whisper underneath -- and allow the fires of change to flow forth and make this world a place in which we belong.  speak to me, and i will tell you that it's ok to what what you want.  take that first step, and watch the next one get easier, and watch change spring forth.

how naive.

admirable, but completely unrealistic.

I've given my life to become what I am
To preach the new beginning
To make you understand
To reach some point of order
Utopia in mind, you've got to learn
To sacrifice, to leave what's now behind

Utopias are a tricky thing.  there's a reason that Dystopias are far more common a device -- we recognize that "too many cooks spoil the dish."  we want one thing, someone else has a different idea, compromise gets neither of us what we want, and so a mess ensues rather than a perfet society.  add one Stalin, one power-hungry sharp-minded pragmatist as a wolf amongst the naive sheep, and every good idea is a tool to be used by the leaders.

a "new beginning" is a common religious theme.  but... isn't he deadly to religion?  as usual, it's a replacement of one with another.  just as he has "seen the light" he wants others to find the same freeing happiness that has changed his life.  what is the center of this?  order.  stability, that is -- a thing that street-rat Nikki may have never really had.

all you need to do to be as happy as i am is to let go of the old way of doing things, almost a sacrifice, in the name of a greater future.  sound vague?  definitely.

Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us

Universality.  the word is all of us.  mirroring, again, religion -- "the Word" here being that whisper of "revolution" instead of John 1:1 -- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"

if anything shows us what Nikki's real personality is, it's a combination of the zeal and the need here.  the word is all of us.  we are all together.  i am together with you, and i belong there, and you belong there.  it's ok, and we are ok, and all we have to do is to acknowledge that change is happening and we'll have enough to get us out the other side.

the word is all of us.  revolution, change, doing something good to help the world, that's all of us, so why don't you join me and we will see what we can do?

Seven years of power
The corporation claw
The rich control the government, the media the law
To make some kind of difference
Then everyone must know
Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow

now we have the current events.  seven years of power -- reagan's administration in 87 when this was released.  under Reagan, corporations were given freer reign, and the wealthy made more money.  but the average person was handed platitudes and promises, the hopes that prosperity would "trickle down" and that our sacrifices would be needed to defeat the communists.  what's more, the emergence of the media-friendly gaining preferential treatment instead of honest reporting, a byproduct of the oppressive feeling of nationalism, made pariahs of those who disagreed.  you don't want to be different -- if you're too different, the communists win, and it's your fault. 

the media are working, perhaps conspiratorially, with the government.  they shape our ethics, and those translate into shifts in law.  of course, just like any conspiracy theory, it's based at best on ghosts and boogeymen.  

The Media Elite, the book that started the argument that "mainstream media" has a liberal bias, was published in 86.  the idea that the media would be beholden to the gains of the publishers or the mindset of the times was always an issue -- from Benjamin Franklin's own editorials to Hearst's yellow journalism leading to the Spanish-American war -- but never was it one large ideology.  this, and the perception of new laws such as the War on Drugs, added to the many Moral Panics that arose in the 80s, would yield a (flawed) perception that our morality (and thus out legal system) was beholden to the new media bias.

and through it all, the fear of corruption -- "the rich control the government" -- and the effect of that on the average person is stil a central theme.  whether this take the form of tax cuts on the wealthy, political donations being rewarded with favors, or illegal actions taken by people in power, it's a definite concern for the average citizen.  moreso when those abuses of power lead to the reaping of wealth by the abusers.

in 88, George Carlin did his famous bit attacking conservative republicans.  he asserted that "225 different people in the Ronald Reagan administration have either quit, been fired, been arrested, indicted, or convicted of either breaking the law or violating the Ethics Code! 225 of ’em! And Edwin Meese alone… Edwin Meese alone has been investigated by three separate Special Prosecutors and there’s a fourth one waiting for him in Washington right now. Three separate Special Prosecutors have had to look into the activities of the Attorney General, and the Attorney General is the nation’s leading law enforcement officer!"

if that's not "the rich control the government" and lead to corruption, i'm not sure what is.  Meese made millions, was never formally tried, but resigned from various positions.  later, there was an issue regarding using his position of power to politically benefit friends and allies -- "special prosecutor James McKay cleared Meese of criminal wrongdoing, but criticized him for ethical lapses, especially regarding bribes to Israel not to attack an Iraqi oil pipeline which benefited associates of the Attorney General."

perhaps, with these as warnings, the Enron execs and the Financial Sector bailouts were wholly predictable.  perhaps Cheney's billions from Halliburton were predictable.

The system we learn says we're equal under law
But the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall
Let's tip the power balance and tear down their crown
Educate the masses, We'll burn the White House down

not being in the in, the rest of us suffer.  

this section follows another very metal guitar solo.  where it cuts to vocals, they hold a sneer and a declaration.  it's scorn for believeing what you're told, not what you learn later.  the system we learn, the statements and platitudes and suppsoed rights we have, are important right up until we all know they aren't what actually happens.  his insistence that "the streets are reality" is another tie-in to Nikki's past, his down-on-his-luck status, his street rat cred.  the streets, the harsher end of life, the other lost and downtrodden, see that weakness and poverty are harsh factors that weed out anyone less resilient.

saving those people could be seen as a noble, even knightly, defense of those weaker.   what's the primary target?  government.  let's attack those allowing this to happen, burn the white house down.  it's the rise of the proletariat just as much as the resurgence of the common people.  educate the masses, implying that they are not educated now, kept from information.  or, perhaps, teaching them the dogma of the Operation.

Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word (Revolution)
The word is all of us
Speak the word (Revolution)
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the Word
The word is all of us

SPEAK!!!

Lamestain

i grew up with the 80s in stark delineation, the movies and media of the time not understood by me yet still prominent.  my first R-rated movie was Maximum Overdrive when i was five, we owned a copy of Thriller, and a Thompson Twins album, and tv held a compliation of Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island reruns in constrast with Diff'rent Strokes and the Cosby Show.

because of an army brat i dated whose dad was stationed in Germany, i own a piece of the Berlin Wall.  i remember having nightmares of World War Three, and hearing about Iran-Contra on the radio.  i started playing D&D at 6 (in 84), and had to wax in the numbers on the dice in the red box.

all that shaped and changed me.                                                                                                                  

in 87, when Operation: Mindcrime came out, i was nine.  i was way too young to know why the anticommunist rhetoric was so passionate, or why so many people hated Reagan's stance on social issues.  it was the same year that Star Trek came back to tv, and the nation was afraid.  from movies, i got that ther were a lot of poorer people, some rich people, and who your friends were was really important.

musically, i was woefully uninformed.  at that point, whatever was popular on the radio was what i heard, and i hadn't really made much my own.  that year, in fourth grade, i learned about David Lee Roth and Def Leppard, and it was the first year that i was aware of social cliques.

Nikki's screaming at the start of "Speak" itself is reminiscent of the echo chambers of modern politics and punditry.  but also of the individual finding their own voice, even if it's a bad or detrimental one, as a young adult.  "Listen to me!" each says, with clothing or music or the political stands taken.  each group, each clique, each stereotype lived up to or rejected screams it as we use what we see to figure out who we really are.

the 80s were, in retrospect, a time of social upheaval.  the world shifted, and came to rest in a different configuration by the end of its time.  as a kid, i was saved from most of the worry it caused.  but in many ways, the current and recent struggles are no different.  the reagan-era did much to embolden the top earners and to magnify their influence, but also disenfranchised the young, the poor, and those who stumbled into the job market at the wrong time... having no upward movement as Boomers held on until retirement, feeling stuck and lost without opprotunity.  so too did the bush-era and past leave a whole generation behind.  in each, a potential Nikki.  in each, a lost soul who could become the victim of a manipulator.  in each, all of us at our lowest, looking for a way out.

this time, too, was a shift in music.  as much as Queensryche has never been much for the glam (though the video for "Queen of the Reich" is pretty 80s hairtastic), they were a seattle band around when seattle changed the landscape of their industry.  they never wore flannel, they didn't really reincorporate punk into their repertoire, they created and performed a rock opera instead of having concerts that were just glorified jam sessions.  but they were at the crux of a paradigm change.  perhaps Operation: Mindcrime was itself a great signpost, pointing at the reasons why Grunge arose -- it incorporates elements of dissatisfaction, lostness, drug abuse, powerlessness at the hands of both traditional society and those who reject societal norms, the rise of the individual looking for meaning,

every so often, i'm reminded of the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the significance that video had on music.  the lighting, dim sepia instead of the brighter tones... the black-clad cheerleaders with red anarchy signs on their uniforms, an ultimate subversion from the stereotypical 80s "popular crowd" gatekeepers... a band that looked homeless and unkempt, but playing with such passion and ferocity that it was impossible to look away... the crowd in the bleachers, also unkempt grunge-clad skateboarder-style everymen-and-women forced to be there, suddenly included and supported instead of hanging out in disinterested knots at the back...

it was as if suddenly, another voice was heard over a loudspeaker.  not the cheerful announcer who told you daily about all the great fun you should be having, but a lower voice telling you it was ok to not do what you aren't into, and that you were still alright, and that there were others like you.  in a small conservative town, it was like a life preserver.

oh well, whatever, nevermind.

and it was ok.

that's Nikki, in a nutshell -- all he ever needed was someone to tell him it'd be ok, and to respect him, and to help him get his feet.  instead, he fell in with the wrong people and got worse, ending with the wrongest of wrong who used him for their own gains.

Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime... title song

perspective is important.

we begin with one of the few telling moments of time -- the sound of an old phone, perhaps a payphone, maybe an old ratchet-dial, definitely a corded older-style phone unit.  a minor detail, but telling.

(phone rings)

Hello?

*riff* (whispered) mindcrime

(sharp intake of breath)

(phone rings again)

the phone is a tie to the outside world, to new characters, to an assumed network and a government-run piece of infrastructure, but that doesn't matter to the main character despite his railing against the system.  what does is that he's connecting with people who have a plan and are doing something.  he is finally in contact with Dr. X and the Operation, and now we see how someone else sees him.

the music picks up... a four-note upward progression, with an adjoining mostly-amphibrachal bassline (O OoO OoO OoO0) sets up a driving, certain rhythm.  when the music makes room for the voals, it's with a different voice -- one full of confidence and condescension.

It just takes a minute
And you'll feel no pain
Gotta make something of your life boy
Give me one more vein
You've come to see the doctor
Cause I'll show you the cure
I'm gonna take away the questions
Yeah I'm gonna make you sure

and immediately, we should be uncomfortable with this suave, determined, charismatic leader.

"it just takes a minute" and "give me one more vein" implies a treatment or drug (and later, "The Needle Lies" doubles down on this).  whatever they are asking of him to join up, it involves medication or some other alteration.  that this is given as "the cure" by a doctor also implies an abuse of position and trust.

and why would someone do this?  "gotta make something of your life boy."  our main character is, as we saw before, lost.  has no goals, has no future, has nothing but short-term survival and struggle.  he has the shred of morals (stating that he'd only kill for a cause), but morals can be replaced with ethics and molded to fit someone's needs.

"i'm gonna take away the questions" -- here's the cause he could kill for.  here's the answer, instead of the confusion.  *just trust in me* the charismatic  leader purrs *and i'll take away your doubts.*

A hit man for the order
When you couldn't go to school
Had a skin job for a hair-do
Yeah you looked pretty cool
Had a habit doing mainline
Watch the dragon burn
No regrets, you've got no goals
Nothing more to learn

we now see how others see our main character.

"when you couldn't go to school" -- uneducated
"had a skin job for a hairdo" -- just some skinhead punk
"yeah you looked pretty cool" -- concerned with appearance and looking tough, but without substance
"had a habit doing mainline" -- a junkie.  now we see an aspect we didn't before.
"no regrets, you've got no goals" -- this ties back to the lost and floating street punk idea we saw before.  only now it's not a matter of not having found a direction to go in, but having given up.  here, hearing it from Dr. X, we see that our main character is looked down upon by others.  he's just a junkie, just a punk, just trash.  just.  and a lifetime of just has made him the discontent he is -- as well as the perfect person to manipulate for the Doctor's own goals.

the bridge and chorus.

Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to...

I KNOW that you won't refuse, becuase i know you... or those like you... and i already have my hooks in.  i'm already working on you, and soon you'll be another loyal soldier with delusions of grandeur.

besides, you cannot refuse.  you have a task and purpose now, and arguing would take you away from that.  do you really want to go back to your unhappy, empty, drifting life now that i've given you a sense of belonging and purpose?

this Operation: Mindcrime is a cult.  i wonder if the amphibrachs are a reference to Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat," written with references to scientology (Cohen claimed that he got interested because he ehard it was a good way to meet women... meaning that Mary, later, could even be a reference to that, and this main character could double as "one more thin gypsy thief" in the context of the love triangle between himself, the Operation, and Mary.  i wonder, too, if references to events like the Patty Hearst kidnapping... the SLA and its violent leftist opposition to the "established order" (which in the late 80s was starting to crumble from the strong move to the right with Reagan) would be a proper parallel, and the brainwashing would pair up nicely.  it'd be something that the writers would have known about.

also... "you've got nothing more to lose" -- you're already at the bottom of the barrel.  you're already a loser.  so make something of yourself by fighting for a cause.  what cause?  THE cause.

Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign

the chorus is more of this.  promoting the group, detailing the protagonist's newfound membership and meaning in his life.

Hey Nikki you know everything
That there is to do
Here's a gun take it home
Wait by the phone
We'll send someone over
To bring you what you need
You're a one man death machine
Make this city bleed

Finally, we have a name for the protagonist.  Nikki.  not "Nicholas" or even the more familiar "Nick."  diminutive, childish form.  he's even here treated like a lesser.  but "Nicholas" was the patron saint of children (and pawnbrokers... but that's separate).  and the name translate's to "People's victory."  what else better for such a grassroots underground cult with "nothing to sign" (rejecting contracts and business and the entrapment of the red tape of "the system" -- giving him a place in a new system, of their own making).

there are only a few references that do not work today.  one of them is here -- while the sound of the ringing telephone was off from modern expectations (unless you go retro), the line "wait by the phone" is an obvious connection to a time before cellphone ubiquity.  minor, but worth noting.

the last declaration is perhaps the most important.  "you're a one man death machine" -- from having reservations about killing for no reason to being praised for his murderous skill (or at least potential for such).  we see that Dr. X has completed his brainwashing, and now Nikki is waiting to be given instructions so that he can "make this city bleed" for the Operation's goals.

this also tells us everything we need to know about this group.  and now, just as we learn how dangerous and potent they are, Nikki is caught in their net.

Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to

Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign

Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
If you come to see the doctor
Yeah he'll give you the cure

Operation : Mindcrime
Make something of your life boy
Let me into your mind
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in the system boy
With nothing to sign

in the repeating bridge and chorus, perhaps the only line left of note is "let me into your mind" -- this implies that Dr. X knows exactly what he is doing (and thus makes him our antagonist, our manipulator, even if Nikki doesn;t realize that yet).  but it also implies that his hold on Nikki is not perfect.  he needs to be let in, he's not there already.  perhaps Nikki has some inner reserve of energy or resilience that, if committed to a pure cause, might allow him to resist?  nah... he's just a weak-willed skinhead junkie with no future... if he's anything more than that, it's because we have turned him into something new.

this brings to mind Wright's Native Son... from the main character used and abused at every facing by all around him, the lack of goal and education and power, all the way to being trapped by a changing environment.  still, Bigger Thomas is treated well and not manipulated (though perhaps he is used as a showpiece for a cause) by those who take him in to start.  Wright was an extreme leftist, so perhaps using Nikki (whose race has not been and is never an issue, though the use of the skinhead motif implying by a white band in the 80s that he's probably caucasian) as an example is meant to mock or parallel Bigger's descent into worse cruelty.

All in all, Nikki might create sympathy in the earlier pieces, but this one shows us exactly how his superiors (those in charge) feel about him.  he's a pawn, worthless unless he is performing for them.

authorship

i will get back to the Queensryche analysis later.

i have a moment's thought about the placement of narrator, editor, author, and character.  specifically, the relationship these htings have with personalities.

the average person is the author of their story.

they have the opportunity to shape the course of their lives, they have the choices to make that extend the plot forward, and they are not awlays bestsellers.  more importantly, some of the choices made create new paths and choices to make, just like laying a plot down for a character.  we also understand that conflict is interesting, and that a story without conflict is unreadable.  thus, we know that we will get involved in situations, learn from them, and continue on.  we sometimes sabotage ourselves, much like an author writing in hardships for a character, but we rise out of them or succumb to them just as characters do.  in the end, we have control and intent, but sometimes the story leads us in a direction we originally did not intend.

but a narcissist is a hero -- or a tragic suffering protagonist -- in their own tale, and someone is making sure that they are always put into situations where they are on stage and on display.  often, they do what is necesssary to assume that center-stage role, always first, always most important or most noble.  sometimes, though, it is another who chooses to put us there so that others can revel in our suffering.

for the average person, fate is at least a slight curiosity.  we can not help what happens to us, but it's not like there are factors plotting against us.  it's actually more like an author with a direction they need to go, and they are not creating a mary-sue.  we are not always the most important.  sometimes, important plot points need to occur and our characters and our surroundings suffer due to the direction the story needs to go.

but the narcissist... they are unhappy with this idea.  the bigger picture is less significant -- the only part that matters is that they are aggrandized by the events, and all else is diminished in comparison.

it's an important difference.

take, for instance, the rise of Donald Trump in politics and media.  sure, a wealthy businessman who has been in and out of the public eye for years is not the best example for humility.  but the air of bulletproof arrogance that perhaps has made him appealing as a leader to those who flock to the brash who appear strong is telling -- he legitimately thinks that he's the hero of this story.  David Tennant mentioned on a talk show that "Trump doesn't see himself as the villain" in the same news cycle that the Don lies to cover his tracks after mocking a disabled reporter.

if there are consequences, he will see them as someone's actions against him, and he will be the tragic hero, noble to the core and braving hardship because others are jealous of his success.  there will not be a moment of humility where he admits that perhaps he shouldn't incite violence in others if he wants to be a respectable leader or even a remotely decent human being.

we all have our unreliability.  there are blind spots we all have, to ourselves and others, and sometimes these are needed to keep order.  no one person can look at the world from the eyes of everyone else -- in fact, the mere suggestion that some people dare to consider how other might might feel is met in certain circles with outrage and scorn.  after all, that's all feminism is as it handled by non-extremes (and those actual extremes are far more rare than its critics would imply).

we are all in control of some aspects of our lives.  those who deny it are either of so much privilege and security that they have never needed to acknowledge this, or those who have early on learned that life is hard and nothing can be counted on.

Nikki, in Operation Mindcrime is the latter -- some smalltown punk who gets in way too deep, because he's never learned any other way.  his perceptions are broken, though in a different way that Trump's.  he might not be a narcissist (or, at first, a sociopath), but he is a casualty of our society.

Operation MIndcrime thoughts, track 3

looks like the older me didn't know where the tracks changed.  being that my first exposure was a cassette, it's an understandable mistake.

Anarchy-X stops with a trailing-off of the earlier noise and music.

begin Revolution Calling.

a low stacatto series of hi-hat and drums set a baseline.  beats skip off in a pattern, but off from what one might expet.  music rises with a guitar declaring the main theme of the piece.  two rise-and-fall patterns, and the guitar makes way for the vocals.

we start with a declaration of the main character as he sees himself.  he's not a hero, just an average guy... maybe average for what he sees daily, but maybe a bit edgier than the rest of us.

For a price I'd do about anything
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Then I heard of Dr. X
The man with the cure
Just watch the television
Yeah, you'll see there's something going on

"for a price" he would do almost anything but kill somoene.  this is a person on the outside of the law.  maybe not caught, maybe no record, but definitely detached from the isolated middle class peace.  He's perhaps dangerous, but again -- he himself does not brag or boast or try to seem like anything more than an "average joe" in his own world.

also almost immediately, we see a refernce to "the man wuth the cure" -- Dr. X.  someone with a point of view that is insinuating itself on our narrator.

this is the source of danger.  we have the uninformed and discontent, and we have a person who seems to have all the answers and a strong personality.  you dont get to be "the man with the cure" unless people believe in you.

we then shift to the immediate deflection.  the blame for the discontent is easy to see.  it's "society" and "something is wrong"  -- because vagueness is how such paranoia gains a foothold.

what's next?  that deflection finds a place to rest, a source of blame.  given that it was the late 80s, the problems in the Reagan years were fermenting, and the polarization based on party had started to divide the nation, it's not a surprise.  the "law and order president" that reagan was had so many members of his staff indicted on various charges.  ollie north took the blame for the iran-contra, because reagan himself "couldn't recall" what actually happened.  

Got no love for politicians
Or that crazy scene in D.C.
It's just a power mad town
But the time is ripe for changes
There's a growing feeling
That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due

it is the duty of those granted authority to remain beyond the impression of doubt or bias.  the problem is that there's a tendency for some -- those who should be trusted least with power -- to abuse it when they receive it.  they, above all, make it critical for the public to have no doubt in their credibility and their reliability.  that we assume that all politicians lie, but "those people's" politicians lie worse, makes this complicated.  there should never be even the appearance of a conflict of interest if at all avoidable.  still, the 80s saw growth adn development and the US winning the cold war... in part because of some exploitative actions on the part of our politicians.

perhaps there is a reason why in most elections, most people i know vote against a candidate or a party instead of for one.  "there's a growing feeling that taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due" is a great sentiment.  the old vision has not worked.  the old way has only led us into problems.  maybe doing something new, especially is if shakes up the status quo, will solve all the problems we have had already.  usually, though, all it does it create more.

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

"the media" has been a convenient scapegoat for a long time now.  whether it be the misrepresentaiton of the "liberal media" or the active opposition of the "conservative media," our literacy of current events took a sarp downturn once partisan news became a regular thing.

how can you trust "the media" to tell you the truth when they are corporations owned by people, and therefore both have corporate interests to look after and the opinions and beliefs of the people in charge to steer them?

if you start to believe that nobody can be trusted, then you look toward strength.  you find someone to guide you, a beacon of ideals, a rock of dependability.  here, we already know that that's going to be Dr. X.  imagine that money and corruption control the situation, and your faith in the established order will disappear.

it's important again to mention the narrator's position in society.  the average person does not draw the line at being a hitman -- that's pretty far down the morality chain.  before the get two sentences of plot action, we know that he's already down there.  what comes with crime?  poverty, struggle, desperation, and factors that drive a person toward instability.  the ACE survey (Adverse Childhood Experience) draws correlations between trauma and instability as a child and a number of other problems as an adult, notably here incarceration, drug addiction, violent crime, and a lack of adult stability.

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

revolution is an interesting word.  originally, it meant a movement around in a circle, the return to the past.  that there would be upheaval, but that upheaval would lead to a new order and a new stability.  the problem with the immature revolutionary is that they do not understand just how terrible that instability might get for others, and sometimes have no idea how to rebuild a stable order.

revolution is clalling you.  those who know, or understand, or are enlightened, or the like will be aware of the changing times and will force it to finally occur.

we now have the part i had to blurb out when i brought this track in to be played in 8th grade, by my english rteacher during writing time.  the narrator gets more aggressive, more accusatory.  as he buys into Dr. X's rhetoric, he also gets more focused on eactly who to blame for the problems.  by the end of this song, he is so discontent and focused on the negatives that one positive from the wrong person and in the wrong direction would be dangerous... meaning that the fire is set up just waiting for a spark.

I'm tired of all this bullshit
They keep selling me on T.V.
About the communist plan
And all the shady preachers
Begging for my cash
Swiss bank accounts while giving their
Secretaries the slam

an enemy to blame.  sometimes that's the spark.  the psyche of the US was so scarred by the cold war, the focus on the enemies lurking on the other side of the world waiting to take all we had worked for.  even thday, though, the "communist plan" fearmongering continues by those same people./

that he immediately leads from "the media" to "the tv talking about communists" to "televangelists" hints at (a) being steered by someone else's rhetoric and (b) a sense that in every instance there are factors working against you.  greed, corruption, lies, false prophets, crooked politicians --

 where does it end?

hypocrisy is another factor.  it's not just that politicians lie, or that the media lies, but that the religious leaders are in direct violation of the morals they are trying to spread.  they beg for money, then store it in swiss bank accounts (a longtime symbol for hoarding wealth in secret), and have affairs (adultery).  

They're all in Penthouse now
Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
Fame fifteen minutes long
Everyone's using everybody, making the sale

then rather than feel contrite, they sell their own stories to publishers and make millions on a book deal that makes them rice -- fooling people, fleeecing them, then using their own gluttony and tendency to muckrake or relish the suffering and downfall of others by selling the rights to stories about their indecencies.

the average person cannot do that.  only someone with no morals and huge greed.  and the impression that "everyone else" is exploiting the system of right and wrong that we follow in order to make money fast only leads to jealousy, self-righteousness, and disillusion.  should i be a sell-out too?  should i bother to hold morals when nobody else does?

it's the generalization that's dangerous.  no, not "everyone" is doing it.  maybe even just a few.  but there's still the impression, and that causes doubt.

I used to think
That only America's way, way was right
But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies

the 80s were the culmination of the cold war.  they weren't the only time when we had a redefinition of culture, or when we struggled with a foe, but they came with a sense of urgency -- a president elected based on his convictions to oppose communism, with a potentially suicidal economic plan designed to play chicken with our enemies.  that it worked may or may not excuse the damage it did.

with that time period rose a new nationalism, connected to (and perhaps rooted in) the "greed is good" ideas of extreme capitalism.  "the Holy Dollar" became almost a religious icon, the pursuit of wealth a drive unlike ever before.  the telling line here is "doesn't matter who dies" -- that surrender of classic morality (or, again, at least the appearance of doing so) that comes with extremism.

some have assumed that this is set in a dystopian future of extremes.  it's a bit exaggerated.  but for someone feeling like an outsider who has lived with a code of behavior and always seeing others pull ahead, or narrator may be just seeing through a clouded lens.

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

"I Remember Now" and "Anarchy-X" -- the frame narrative at work

The Song (spoken) "I Remember Now"

the album starts with a set of hospital sound cips i've heard everywhere from Scrubs to a host of movies.  back then, though, it sounded like a real hospital.

"Dr. Blair, Dr Blair.... Dr. J Hamilton, Dr. J Hamilton..."

a nurse walks into a ward.  cheerful.

"Why are you still up?" she trills with a slight british accent.

(indistinct sounds.  she turns off the tv.  more sounds.)

"That should do it.  Sweet dreams....

(with loathing) you bastard"

the music rises from nothing to a low undercurrent.  Geoff Tate, singer, voice of Mickey, mutters low:

I remember now
I remember how it started
I can't remember yesterday
I just remember doing what they told me [echo].

The Plot

instant curiosity.  Who is he?  where?  why is she filled with such hatred?

and what exactly did *they* (who?) tell him to do?  he's sedated, he's effectively a prisoner.  is she overreacting, or is he dangerous?

this would read differently today.  in a post-columbine world, we treat potential dangers with more rigidity.  especially in the era it most matches, the Bush early 00s, when the nation was riding a streak of all the worst effects of blind nationalism and fear -- he would probably have been "shot while fleeing" by the cops.  

it erupts into music at the end, segueing into the next track.  it leaves a sense of interest while letting the audience knew two vital things: that our main character has done something unforgiveable, and that he was perhaps not the real source of fault.  

it will also allow us to view his rise and fall, and the reason behind his effective imprisonment.

Effect

mostly, as mentioned above, this is a setup for the frame narrative

Questions

too many to ask right now.  mostly, we are curious about what he did, and who *they* are.

Questions answered (none yet)

Track 2 -- instrumental: "Anarchy-X"

the music rises into a strident snare-beat  

a low guitar melody follows the whole track

sounds of a speaker declaring indistinct excitement to an audience, who join him in cheers

a high guitar melody that rises above, leads us over a lull in the rest of the music, and becomes a strummed series of chords before the action picks up again and leads us to the major theme... and transitions into the first full track.

Effect

crowds have passion, but good causes and hate groups sound the same when you can;t make out the words.  a speaker could rally people to solve injustices, or to perpetuate them.  the guitar sounds like the voice of the narrator, trying to leave a mark against the noisy backdrop.  the use of prevalent rhythm sounds like a clock ticking too fast, like time and events getting away from you while the crowds chant slogans and you can;t change the direction of the masses.  

it's an instrumental, but it's vital to establishing the main character.  confused, buffeted by undercurrents in society, unclear of his own footing.  even before we hear from him in the nextr track, we already have expectations that this journey of his will involve politics, isolation, a need to be heard, and dissatisfaction with his position.

... more to come as the next track begins