Save Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2hkWSgJK60
And we’re back into the heavier rock, which I think is very intentional – starting with Miss Impossible, we had a shift from the softer tunes of Fragile and Clever Mind, gradually shifting more into the driving tones that exemplified More and Psychosis. This is the point where our hero rebels, albeit a little more quietly this time – trying to use his position to fix things from the inside. Unfortunately, it’s not taken all that well.
“If I want to be the man, should I open my wrists again, would that make it excellent? If I want to be the one, should I book me an interview, get me an audition? Save me, I’m my own worst enemy, runnin’ headlong to the wall, ’cause I want my freebie… save me, you’re the only one I see, and I need your love the most, when I least deserve it!”
This song is entirely about the struggle against the system he helped to create. He’s become as much a prisoner now as before, and he’s lost his support – he’s the symbol of the regime to fellow rebels, and a maverick fighting against the good of the people to the loyalists. Worst of all, he has to overcome his own desire for approval – he’s finally been accepted by the public, and his efforts to do what’s right are undermining that popularity. Constantly fighting against the temptation to go back to the regime, it’s when he’s at his weakest (‘when he least deserves it,’) that he needs the support of the people he’s trying to help.
His efforts being undermined by his supposed allies, he finds that he really hasn’t gained anything by his sacrifices – his popularity is a hollow shell, the love of the people forced in some cases, conditional in others, and never really willing.
“Did I really ask for all this, did I really cut open the goose, just to lose what’s in it?”
Finally, he realizes that he does need to go public with his efforts to fight the system – he needs to become a rebel publicly, not just working the system. It’s now, when he sees what everybody *else* sees himself as, that he really sees how empty he’s become.
From a musical perspective, this song isn’t the work of a sellout – it’s the work of somebody trying to recover their artistic integrity. And inside the context of the album, Save Me is the climax of our story arc… leaving Where do the Draw the Line as our conclusion for next week.
