Genius | Song Lyrics & Knowledge

Chased down like dogs, we run from
Your grasp until the sun comes up Rise Against – Re-Education (Through Labor)

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For some people the 9-5 legal hustle workday is impossible/not enough so they turn to illegal methods of making money which in turn lead to the police hunting them down.

Some believe “the system” is set up and ran like a police state.

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White needles buried in the red
The engine roars and then it gives
But never dies Rise Against – Re-Education (Through Labor)

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The “white needles buried in the red” refer to car needles being pushed to the limit. The lines are talking about people though saying that even if a worker is pushed all the way to the point of giving up they never really do because of their will to survive.

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100

5 months

This could also be interpreted as the protagonist and the listener in the process of escaping

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11 months

@PCjabber I wonder if there’s some sort of possible wordplay here with the other kind of redlining:

Redlining - Wikipedia — Wikipedia

In the United States and Canada, redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services ( financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as "hazardous" to investment; these neighborhoods have significant numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, and low-income residents.

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842

10 years

“car needles” = tachometer (engine RPM gauge). “In the red” refers to redlining.

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Video Games Lana Del Rey – Video Games

Song Bio 7 Contributors ?

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Considered Lana Del Rey’s breakthrough hit, “Video Games” served as the first single off the artist’s wildly successful sophomore studio album and major label debut, Born to Die. The song was notably certified 2x multi-platinum by the RIAA in 2021 — ten years after its release.

“Video Games” is a baroque, downtempo pop ballad in which Del Rey, although ignored by her significant other, resolves to love him anyway. The song’s lyrics refer to two broken relationships in the singer’s past. In a statement, the American artist said of the song’s meaning:

The verse was about the way things were with one person, and the chorus was the way I wished things had really been with another person, who I thought about for a long time.

It’s a song about letting go of my musical ambitions and settling down into a simple life with a person I loved. We had a mutual love for the community of New York, art and hard work.

The accompanying music video was directed and edited by Del Rey herself, combining scenes of her performing the song filmed on a webcam with clips of archive footage.

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Considered Lana Del Rey's breakthrough hit, "Video Games" served as the first single off the artist's wildly successful sophomore studio album and major label debut, [*Born to Die*](/albums/Lana-del-rey/Born-to-die). The song was notably certified 2x multi-platinum by the [RIAA](https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=Video+games#search_section) in 2021 --- ten years after its release.

"Video Games" is a baroque, downtempo pop ballad in which Del Rey, although ignored by her significant other, resolves to love him anyway. The song's lyrics refer to two broken relationships in the singer's past. In a statement, the American artist said of the song's meaning:

> The verse was about the way things were with one person, and the chorus was the way I wished things had really been with another person, who I thought about for a long time.

> It's a song about letting go of my musical ambitions and settling down into a simple life with a person I loved. We had a mutual love for the community of New York, art and hard work.

The [accompanying music video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE6wxDqdOV0&ab_channel=LanaDelReyVEVO) was directed and edited by Del Rey herself, combining scenes of her performing the song filmed on a webcam with clips of archive footage.

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Re-Education (Through Labor) Rise Against – Re-Education (Through Labor)

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The song “Re-Education (Through Labor)” is off of Rise Against’s fifth studio album Appeal to Reason.

Lead singer Tim McIlrath described the song saying “It’s talking a lot about the 9-to-5, dog-eat-dog lifestyle, and what we are asked to do to simply make ends meet nowadays, and I think it’s a feeling shared by people all around the world and especially in this country.”

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You should never argue
With a crazy mind-mind-mind-mind-mind-mind

[Pre-Chorus]
You oughta know by now
(You oughta know by now) Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

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Our narrator warns that if a person is set in their ways and wants to risk what they have for more than they can practically achieve then they’re not going to be convinced otherwise.

Is it really worth it?

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123

2 years

I thought it was “You should never argue with a crazy, mama-ma-ma…”

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364

3 years

I always heard it as “crazy man” but I don’t want to argue…

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And if that's what you have in mind
Yeah, if that's what you're all about
Good luck movin' up, 'cause I'm movin' out
I'm movin' out Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

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Our narrator respects the decision; he understands the principles of grinding for money, but would personally prefer to live a more comfortable lifestyle.

Maybe this is him agreeing with Mama Leone about moving to the country, as proposed at the start of the song.

Bet the property taxes here aren’t much!

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You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime
Is that all you get for your money? Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

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The United States Government’s mascot, Uncle Sam, is ultimately the one who always gets richer; no matter how much you earn a percentage goes to the United States’s taxes. So earn as much as you want, all you’re going to get is a higher tax bracket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGVJfcSckUs

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Tax man

1 year

He’s just saying you can pay what you would have paid in tax by making more.
Not to get too much into taxes here but you’d only pay higher % (bracket) on the additional dollars earned in that bracket.

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112

1 year

Uncle Sam is an indicator of there will always be someone who will take your money and you will not see a profit for yourself. Billy Joel is setting the tone that there are many unfair work opportunities for the lower working class and will have to deal with many significant consequences for the way the American government is set up. You can pick up as many shifts as possible to pay rent but in the end there will not be a huge turn out for yourself from the physical and psychological effects from being over worked. Billy is showing the audience that it is important to choose your battles when it comes to having money.

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McKinley

1 year

This lyric suggest the financial struggles that many americans are constantly struggling with on a day to day basis. There have been numerous studies to support the fact that citizens that fall into lower class brackets have a much higher likely hood of dealing with physical and psychological disorders than those who are in higher class brackets. Those who are in the lower class brackets constantly have to deal with paying the bills and managing to get food on the table, which will result in higher amounts of anxiety and depression.

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Yeah, and he's tradin' in his Chevy
For a Cadillac-ac-ac-ac-ac-ac

[Pre-Chorus]
You oughta know by now
(You oughta know by now)
And if he can't drive with a broken back
At least he can polish the fenders Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

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Cadillac is the luxury vehicle division of General Motors, a United States-based car company, and is considered a superficial status symbol in this song.

A Chevy, on the other hand, is a simple car, an iconic symbol of the American working class. Sergeant O'Leary is forgoing a humble life of honest work in favor of high rolling luxury, but at what cost?

Our narrator once again questions whether risking physical harm – in this case a broken back – is worth a shiny new luxury car. The potential harm would render Sergeant O'Leary paralyzed and he would be unable to drive it. Irony?

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295

1 year

my dad used to think Joel used a slur when saying “and if he can’t” lmao

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Marked this as a stretch ?

2 years

I don’t think it’s a reference to physical injury, but more about the risks of getting so caught up in work as a way to climb the ladder that you don’t enjoy life as it is.

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Evan R. Verret

Marked this as missing something ?

2 years

The step up from a ‘Chevy’ or Chevrolet all the way to a Cadillac is of particular note as to just how dramatic as transition. Typically someone looking to trade up from a Chevy within the General Motors umbrella would go to something like a Pontiac, or a larger step to a Buick or Oldsmobile. But almost never all the way to a top of the line Cadillac, such a symbol of wealth & excess, they even known at the time as ‘The Standard of The World.’

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1,629

3 years

A “broken back” is used here in a figurative, not a literal sense. The English idiom of “back breaking labor” stands for “hard work,” usually physical labor. So, “If he can’t drive with a broken back” figuratively may mean “if he is too tired to use or enjoy it,” then “at least he can polish the fenders,” means that he can still show it off to his friends as a shiny status symbol.

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Selina

3 years

It’s also saying it could metaphorically “break his back” to work so hard… but if he does “at least he can polish the fenders” so he may not be able to drive it but at least he can look luxe next to it. Yes, the fruits of the labor are NOT worth the reward.

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1,888

6 years

‘At least he can polish the fenders’ is saying he can appreciate the car he broke his back tog et even if he can’t drive it, but its a sorry subsitute for being able to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

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He works at Mr. Cacciatore's
Down on Sullivan Street
Across from the medical center Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

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Mr. Cacciatore’s (or Napoli Restaurant) was an actual place in SoHo, a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.

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1,629

4 years

Mr. Cacciatore’s was the now-defunct Napoli on the corner of Sullivan Street and Spring Street in SoHo (Not Bella Napoli, as in the photo). The medical center is also gone.

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2,633

4 years

The couplet also suggests a contrast between, and a separation of, the types of blue-collar jobs Anthony and O'Leary work and the realities of the post-graduate “educated class” professionals.

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Alex Merritt

6 years

Saying here that he works across from the medical center is important because it makes the following lines implicitly criticize the American healthcare system. It reveals that he can’t get medical attention not because there’s nobody around to treat him, but because he’s spent his money on the Cadillac and now can’t afford it.

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124

7 years

Napoli restaurant is not in soho at all. There are two locations. Both are downtown manhattan, but neither one is close to soho.

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Sergeant O'Leary is walkin' the beat
At night he becomes a bartender Billy Joel – Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

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Sergeant O'Leary is also representing the goals and aspirations of the working-class. He’s a police officer by day and bartender by night; working two jobs to make extra money.

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100

11 months

Another interesting thing about this lyric is that the Sergeant shares the same last name as Catherine O'Leary, a women who was believed to be responsible for the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 which destroyed 1/3 of the city, she was later officially exonerated 1997 due to a lack of evidence long after her death. According to one of her descendants, she died “With a broken heart”, overcome with sadness and grief after a life in the public eye, constantly blamed for the tragic incident.

This allusion expands on the song’s message of the danger and risk of moving to the city, by direct reference to what was a tragic urban accident that killed many and wiped out a 3rd of an entire city. Especially considering the fate that later befalls the Sergeant.

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Marked this as missing something ?

3 years

It’s also interesting to note that Sgt. O'Leary (presumably Irish) works for Mr. Cacciatore (presumably Italian). The feuds between Italian and Irish immigrants to the United States are the stuff of legend, but everyone was able to put differences aside when it came to making a buck together. It’s just another manifestation of the depth of “the hustle” that the narrator wants to “move out” from.