Passion Colors Everything!
Almost there folks – just two more songs after this one!
“This is my toothpaste moment, oh I need to flash a smile! I’ll be the super-absorbent man, watch them flock to me in single file!”
Everything’s falling apart now. Our hero, the icon of the revolution that’s been going on for most of the album, is entirely disillusioned by what he really knows. At this point, his role in the revolution is entirely a falsehood, a cosmetically enhanced icon and propaganda piece. A hollow shell around a core that’s preparing to turn against it all, and back to what he originally stood for.
“I dance in tune with what I fear, to due adrenaline. Completely wrapped with what I hear, when passion colors everything, the songs I sing, from way up there, to deep within! The face I wear behind my grin, the price I pay for my original sin!”
Working in threads from prior songs, our hero is remembering what he stood for, what he used to be before the revolution became the cause, and not the means to achieve it. Wrapped up in the superficial glory of his position, he plasters over the inner turmoil, made worse by his reawakening heart and goals. His love for Miss Impossible, his knowledge that the system has fallen apart, and his guilt over being the one who set all of this in motion.
“I have a mind for simple things, but things are not all mine to simplify. There’s always some newborn technicality, you buy until you pay, until you die! And money doesn’t bring me joy, it’s more a darling dead-weight….”
This time, rather than breaking down the system entirely, he tries to use his power to fix it from the inside, to tear down the walls that the new regime is creating. Unfortunately, he can’t do that entirely. The wealth and prosperity he’s earned in the course of being the revolution’s darling, furthermore, isn’t pleasing him – it’s a reminder of how badly he’s sold himself out – and sold himself out, ironically, for love, back around the Ultimate Fling.
“I dance entangled with my dear, she pulls my every string! Completely trapped, yet never here, when passion colors everything!”
While he’s gotten everything he thought that he wanted, he’s been destroyed by it. He’s still a puppet, no more free or autonomous than he’d been when all this started – it just looks like he is, to the outside world.
“And when I’m finally brought to my senses… afraid to rain on my parade… Before I’m back to my defenses… to watch the whole thing escalate!”
Here is where it all finally breaks down. He comes to his senses and, before he gets the chance to re-justify it in his mind, sees that it’s time to step out and speak out against what he’s become….
Which leads us into ‘Save Me,’ next week.
