Symphony of Destruction

Big Jim Hawkings leaned back in his tufted leather desk chair and lit a cigarette. The hinges and springs that secured the seat of the chair to it’s carriage-like base squeaked and groaned as he pushed his sturdy frame hard against the back of the chair, stretching his long legs out straight in front of him- and crossing them at the ankle.

He had done it.

Oh, they liked to think they had done it. But they knew, just like Big Jim knew, they could never have done it without him.

True, they had taken him out of a wheat field in the Northern Plains. They had funded and backed and bribed and funded some more until the face of Big Jim Hawkings was as casually accepted as the man of the people as was a trusted relation.

But it was Big Jim that endeared himself to the people. Sucked them right in- like marrow from a bone.

It was Big Jim with his slow southern drawl, and his well worn Carhartts. It was big Jim with his work hardened hands and his prayer callused knees.

It was Big Jim that had applied the oil to all the appropriate orifices, and Big Jim that had looked on and done nothing when they slammed the double edged sword of their ulterior altruism home- before the people even knew they were being bent over.

But more importantly, Big Jim had been there when the time came to lick the wounds he had greased the way for them to inflict. There to apply the salve of his own smooth tongue- when the people realized how brutally they had been ravaged.

And now it was Big Jim they would listen to. Big Jim they would trust.

So tomorrow when he called upon the people to rain down like fire from the heavens and cleanse the earth of the very corporate scum that had seen fit to create him- he had no doubt the people would follow his direction. No doubt that based solely on his utterances, the people would be willing to lay down their lives.

Oh, they had opened this window to the stars, alright- the night they chose him to be the face of their menace.

Big Jim chuckled to himself as the carriage-like base of his chair cried out, yet again for mercy.

“Now, I’d like to see ’em try an close it.”

 

Symphony of Destruction

You take a mortal man
And put him in control
Watch him become a god
Watch people’s heads a’roll
A’roll, a’ roll

Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes
Swaying to the symphony
Of destruction

Acting like a robot
Its metal brain corrodes
You try to take its pulse
Before the head explodes
Explodes, explodes

Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes
Swaying to the symphony

Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes
Swaying to the symphony
Swaying to the symphony
Of destruction

The earth starts to rumble
World powers fall
A’warring for the heavens
A peaceful man stands tall
Tall, tall

Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes
Swaying to the symphony

Just like the Pied Piper
Led rats through the streets
We dance like marionettes
Swaying to the symphony
Swaying to the symphony
Of destruction
Writer/s: Dave Mustaine

Symphony of Destruction was written by Megadeth founder and frontman, Dave Mustain. The song is about not only political leaders who act as puppets for the powerful organizations that control them, but also very much about We The People that blindly follow.

 

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and common sense.”

― paraphrase of words credited to the Buddha 

 

This is my response to Jim Adam’s call for songs containing the words, Give, Get, Take, Receive or Send on this weeks Song Lyric Sunday.

The lead-in fiction was inspired by the three phrasal prompts offered on the OLWG #89. The phrases were:

he leaned back and lit a cigarette
Window to the stars
ulterior altruism

 

 

 

27 thoughts on “Symphony of Destruction”

  4. Fantastic lead in and fantastic song choice. I’m glad Dave was kicked out of Metallica or we might never have heard the likes of “Countdown to Extinction”. My favorite from that album is “SweatingBullets”. \m/

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  8. Jim Hawkins is a fictional character and the protagonist in Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island. He is both the protagonist and main narrator of the story. I read that this song is about political leaders who are essentially puppets for the powerful organizations that control them.

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  9. Timely song, very few leaders exist out of that mold. Any time one arises, the combined powers of evil converge to destroy them. The mindless followers need to wake up before it’s too late for us and our mother earth.

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