[quote=JamesRiot]The first verse kind of makes me think it's about the fact that when you're young, the world is your oyster as far as you know. Then someone or something comes along and slaps you in the face with cold, hard reality or their take on it and suddenly you start worrying about what you can actually do.[/quote]

Sounds about right, also there's a kind of narrative about how we must face the future instead of dwelling in the past (philosopically thinking, not rejecting anything good from then), that this future is very uncertain and scarier the more you grow up and the more you know. A magnetic storm causing great damage to our power grid without any well-funded scientifically minded politiicians behind to prevent it, could happen and it would be a disaster, especially as even supposed "liberals" are now into cutting everywhere and disposing of knowledge in less than ethical ways (see how Canada treats its own scientists and the closure of 8 marine biology libraries owned by the governemnt where scientists were invited to pick up what they could/wanted, and everything else was thrown into trash....unnacceptable indeed. Sure, they say they have master copies they will digitize, but that's just taking away from the public domain, like if the public domain was a bad thing. I think something similar is happening in the US (digitizintg public domain for profit, trashing originals).e

That's a mouthful analysis for a barely 1 min long song but there you go. Future is uncertain, cool heads must prevail and apocalyptic predators (quoting Slayer's Not Of This God here) must be removed from power at all costs, because they simply don't care about the earth after they die, and who they take with them.

My brother suggests that this is about the moment Greg found out Brett quit the band (circa 1994). Not sure if this is true but it works. It was just a stall, though, it did not stop.

To me, it sounds like a song about loneliness. "Try to withstand a magnetic storm with no one to keep you warm". But, it sounds like someone really scewed him over with: " You marred my future with a sickly parasitic pall." It's tough to tell, but it reminds me a little of 1000 Memories. I don't know-my interpretation.

Greg Graffin opens his band's 30th anniversary with a question common to grown men who have been mired in youth culture their whole lives, "Do you remember when we were young, adventure had no end? Those were the days my friend." It's precisely the kind of thing you'd expect to come from someone trying to fly the flag of a long-in-the-tooth genre like punk, the sort of thing that appeals to wish-we-were-there upstarts and older fans who've traded their mohawks for mortgages. At approximately 9 seconds into the record, Graffin (with a quick wink of the eye, and a 'God, you must be joking,') turns those notions of nostagia on themselves: "...[i]but I'm not talking about that at all[/i]."

From the album's namesake to the artwork to Graffin's own fields of study, it's clear that this moment is about the evolution of something. Naturally this involves a healthy understanding of the past, but for the purpose of moving forward and focusing on the future. This same lyrical friend with such close ties to the singer's past is also the one that has prevented him from moving forward, effectively placing a burial cloth on any hopes for the future. This friend could be any of BR's usual targets, scientific thought, religion, conservative politics; but I think this is pointed at the punk audience. BR has changed sonic directions a few times in their career, and everything about this record indicates that it's happening again. They want to take a step forward and a portion of their fanbase says, "I liked you better back then." Be it HCHBAW, NC, or NMoH, if fans would rather see the band tread water than swim, then that's the day the earth stalled.

The first verse kind of makes me think it's about the fact that when you're young, the world is your oyster as far as you know. Then someone or something comes along and slaps you in the face with cold, hard reality or their take on it and suddenly you start worrying about what you can actually do.