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.