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dag's comments on lyrics on 1999 man

This is taken from the old Official Kåre & the Cavemen homepage

Since our recent transmutation into a mainstream rock act with proper songs featuring vocals, music journalists and others have asked us: What are your new songs about? How should the lyrics be interpreted? And so forth. As a service to fans and critics, I have decided to write a short account ot the themes of the three vocal tracks on our new 1999 man EP.

1) "1999 man" takes place in the near future, in the early 21st century. The 1999 man has just discovered that he has become a latter-day Don Quijote, an anachronism riding around in a black MC leather outfit (as depicted on the EP cover) on his Rocinante, most likely a Yamaha or Mitsubishi motorcycle, chasing windmills and clinging to a distorted conception of reality. He has long been a ridiculous and ridiculed advocate of irrelevant standards. He may well be a rock or film critic. His response to his newly aquired self-insight is at first denial, then frustration, and finally acceptance. At the end of the song, he makes new friends and develops saner perspectives on his existence.

2) "The Ballad of Kirk and the Jerks" is about trying but failing to mature. The setting is a semi-isolated mid-sized village where rural and urban subcultures clash. The deviant Kirk suffers ostracism, and his amorous relationship is made impossible by intrigues and his own self-hatred. Kirk strongly wants to quench his adolescent insecurity and feelings of impotency and seek greener pastures, yet subconsciously he wants to punish himself, and he stays in the infested village. But Kirk is young, and time will tell if he eventually overcomes his low self-esteem and breaks loose, or if he becomes a drunkard at the local bar mentioned in the second stanza.

3) "Party Animal" describes a day in the life of a self-proclaimed public enemy, an angry young man violently refusing to conform to his own bourgeois background. It is an odyssey of fighting and fleeing the fierce monsters of Society, such as the tax man, the military draft board, the police and over-eager customs officers. Driven by his libido, the protagonist is on a constant search for stimulation, for emotional and sexual fulfilment, hence the title. The extreme pressures, recurring failiures and shortcomings eventually put him in a severe state of paranoia.

The intention of writing the songs on this EP has been to examine feelings of alienation, isolation and frustration in different social contexts and at different stages in life. The lyrics are based partially on our own experiences and partially on observations of others. Earlier claims that our lyrics are meaningless post-modern clusters of words and syllables are hereby declared null and void.

* 17 - 11- 99 *