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!!!