The lyrics to this song bothered me when I first read them, for reasons I couldn't yet explain. The song is supposed to be about
women, how men use them for
pleasure, how
fragile they are deemed by
patriarchal society. But what I've gradually discovered, after sifting through lyrics and life stories, is that
Nicky and
Richey enjoyed putting up the front of writing about
political issues while many of their songs are about themselves - even
love, that tired old topic that Richey so adamantly decried.
The source of my initial confusion came at the end of one of the verses: after supposedly taking on the persona of a 'flaky' woman for the first few
stanzas, the
narrative of the song suddenly changes without warning: 'Your pretty face offends / because it's something
real that I can't touch.' Who is the '
I' here? Up until now, it's been assumed to be the empty woman ('My mind is dead, everybody loves me'). But the references don't hold up. Why would the woman be gazing at another
pretty face?
In interviews, Nicky had admitted that the entire song was Richey's except for the last two lines. Eventually, just as an experiment, I substituted Richey for the 'I' of the narrator.
Strange lines started to make
endless sense.
No one likes looking at you
Your lack of ego offends male mentality
They need your innocence
To steal vacant love and to destroy
Your beauty and virginity used like toys
Richey could really be talking to anyone here, but who did he think of as
impotent and
virgintile? Whose lack of ego clashed so often with his own?
My mind is dead, everybody loves me
Wants a slice of me
This sentiment speaks perfectly about the life of a
rockstar. Idolized and worshipped, Richey felt himself
decay while obsessive fans developed the '
Cult of Richey'. '
Slice' is a particularly
potent word in context of Richey's well known
self-injury.
Hopelessly passive and compatible
Need to belong, oh the roads are scary
So hold me in your arms
I wanna be your only possession
Mmm, interesting. Why would a random woman be '
on the road'? Rock bands, on the other hand, are always on
tour.
Used, used, used by men
'Men' can be used to describe the male
demographic, true, but in its more
archaic form, the word is representative of the entire
population - none of whom Richey felt close to (excepting one).
All they leave behind is money
Paper made out of broken twisted trees
Rockstardom makes you
rich, sure, but it's really just paper in the end.
Your pretty face offends
Because it's something real that I can't touch
Eyes, skin, bone, contour, language as a flower
Nicky was the only other band member using
language. See
Revol.
No god reached me, faded films and loving books
Black and white TV
All the world does not exist for me
It is well documented that Richey grew up in a religious
Catholic family, and yet his own faith was extremely limited ('No god reached me'). He made
straight As in school because he loved to read. Lyrics on
The Holy Bible are evidence of his being incredibly well-read.
If I'm starving, you can feed me lollipops
Your diet will crush me
Richey was
anorexic - something Nicky evidently failed to understand.
My life just an old man's memory
Does your dad ever
reminisce about '
classic' old bands you've never heard of?
Little baby nothing
Loveless slavery, lips kissing empty
Dress your life in loathing
Breaking your mind with Barbie doll futility
Although Richey was always expressing his
hatred of
love, he still used
sex as an
outlet.
Physicality was empty for him.
Little baby nothing
Sexually free, made-up to break up
Assassinated beauty
Moths broken up, quenched at last
The vermin allowed a thought to pass them by
This is perhaps the same reference to
Tennessee Williams'
poem as seen in
Removables.
You are pure, you are snow
We are the useless sluts that they mould
Rock 'n' roll is our epiphany
Culture, alienation, boredom and despair
Purity is a state that many anorexics strive toward, and evidenced in Richey's own words, it held a certain
divinity for him as well: '
Salvation is purity.' Clearly, there is someone Richey sees as pure, someone he cannot touch, someone who makes him a 'slut' in comparison. The 'Little Baby Nothing' turns out to be Richey himself.
The last lines are Nicky's and, ironically, speak of one of the only ways Richey could voice his opinions and come to inevitable conclusions: 'Rock 'n' roll is our epiphany.'
Indeed.
Lyric source: http://www.staybeautiful.net.