I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
obviously there isn't a whole lot to talk about here because it's the chorus and basic but i also think it starts off a very innocent, basic premise: little boys showing off for their mothers or friends, essentially; harmless little tricks they know, which kind of sets a precedent for how childish they are.
Look at me, look at me
Hands in the air like its good to be
Alive and I'm a famous rapper
'like' it's good to be alive more like we have been alive for so long we cannot die we must go on
Even when the paths are all crookedy
I can show you how to dosey doe
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
i like this idea that their powers are somehow limited. they can bend the world to their will, but are they really truly omnipotent??
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
this is probably going to sound strange as fuck but i associate the brothers (particularly mw) with sexuality, namely because of the intense sensations related to it, which makes this interesting because of the idea that if you can tie a knot in a cherry stem with your tongue you somehow have extra prowess with kissing or something
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And "I'm proud to be an American"
Me and my friends saw a platypus
Me and my friends made a comic book
first off who are ur friends lol (*cries*)
they, together, have manipulated and shaped the world into an almost cartoonish version of itself. they made THE WORLD a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want 'cause look
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone
the bragging gets a little bit more exaggerated here with lines up with their fall from grace, if you will: they can do things that fuck with reality. it is physically impossible to see a face on a telephone. but they can, if they want.
Look at me, look at me
Just called to say that its good to be
Alive in such a small world
it's good to be alive more like we have been alive for so long we cannot die we must go on
I'm all curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine
64 miles to the gallon on gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computer survive aquatic
Conditions I know how to run the business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no resistance 'cause
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
even without their magic havok powers just think about how fucking manipulative and smooth-talking they can be???
And I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule
Look at me, look at me
Driving and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be alive and on top
this sort of freaks me out because of the continued repetition of 'good to be alive'. the vocals of the song continue to be apathetic as all hell but here it finally seems, to me, more like an honest admission that it is good to be alive. it wasn't, then, but now they they have Everything, they can finally sort of enjoy endless life again. until they get bored.
My reach is global
My tower secure
who the hell is going to stand up to them?
i've always found this really interesting because of their lack of a real cause beyond havok and curing their own boredom. do they regard that cause as noble or have Secret Other Goals? is it a callback to earlier days when perhaps they DID have one?
My power is pure
I can handout a million vaccinations
Or let em all die from exasperation
in my head this is just one of the brothers utterly breaking down. i can do anything. life hardly matters, i can control all of it. they begin to realize that there really are no rules for them and this adrenaline is powerful and dangerous.
Have 'em all healed from their lacerations
Or have em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like them
continued breakage, although now with a more active attitude: with vaccinations it was simply apathy, but here they are considering going out of their way to harm other people.
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command because
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
honestly i have very little to say about this - it speaks for itself, mostly, though the mild increase in the singer's energy is really intriguing to me in the context of mw and se because of how rarely they show emotion or lose their composure.Â
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
a return to the idea that, underneath the havok and evil and magic powers, they are essentially bored little boys.