#(nearly)

See, one of the songs I've been meaning to do an analysis on for a while is Metal Grave. Personally, that song probably meant the most to me out of all the songs on Chippin' In, because it sent one of the biggest messages in terms of waking people the fuck up. Unfortunately, saying "hey, corps are evil" on its own can start to sound meaningless, because a lot of people already fucking know that. Appealing to people's personal sense of why joining a corp will fuck up their lives? That tends to be way more effective.

So, when I was writing the first song for our next album, I wanted to really build on that. Where do you go next from being a corpo or would-be corpo and realizing that's fucked? You fight back, right? Burn it all to the ground. Or at least that's the message I was going for. Which is why The Ballad of Buck Ravers(the song, although it does kind of apply to the whole album) is pretty heavy on those themes.

Some of the band thought the lyrics were a little on the nose, but we worked on the music together, all ended up liking it in the end. Just didn't have a title at first. Think we were calling it Punch Out, decent play on leaving work versus fighting, but it just felt a little... meh. Little boring, little too wide of a meaning. Wanted something with a little flourish, something a little grandiose, because we wanted people to really pay attention to this one, y'know? "The Song of Corpo Simon" or somethin', just... less ridiculous.

Now, naming no names, but we know they've all fucked men, so, one of the other four used to screw around with some guy who was absolutely fucking loaded. Don't think "corpo" even covers it, man didn't even have to work. Couldn't stand him. His real name was some obnoxious shit like Barnaby Winter Forbes-Rockerfeller the Third, but I took to calling him "Buck", as in "bastard you fuck". So when I needed a fake corpo name for the song, I went with Buck, and changed from "Song" to "Ballad" for the alliteration.

Then Henry chimed in with "like Buck Rogers?" and we all thought he meant the Feeder song, but he meant the movie, we all got stoned and watched it, yadda yadda yadda. I may have started rambling about how technically the Draconians taking Buck in are kinda like the corps with the protagonist of the song or something? I don't know, but we couldn't call it The Ballad of Buck Rogers 'cause I wasn't sure how that'd work with copyright and shit. So we went with "Ravers" just for something that sounds cool, but also multiple meanings, again... rave as in "rant and rave" like complaining(about the corps) and also as in party(blowing up the corps).

So I guess to answer your question, Buck is a corpo who's probably spent years near enough digging his own grave(I'll do that Metal Grave analysis soon for those who aren't familiar) but has finally opened his fucking eyes to what's going on. He's mad, but he's fighting the system. Alongside us. Because as much as I talk about corpos having no soul, that starts with a person under there having their soul sucked out. Happy for Samurai's music to rehabilitate any of 'em who aren't all the way gone. The more people who can see the fucking light, the better. Ended up using it for the album too, 'cause... that message was so key to it.

Always think these explanations seem so long-winded when I type 'em out. But at the time, it was just all of us hanging, tossing ideas back and forth... was all pretty fun. Miss those days before I managed to just... I don't know, exhaust everyone. At first? y'know it was like all these strong personalities but the arguing was part of the fun. Over time it felt like mine and Kerry's fights just got worse and worse and everyone else just started rolling their eyes and giving in to me because I was too much work, and...