stublues February 17th, 2006 09:50AM  
This song is about the differences in kids and their parents- as written from the kids view. It's about how, even though the parents are kind of cool, there's a lack of connection in all things pop culture and historic. It really resonated with Japanese youth due to the idea that you could conform to the parents' ideals (a biggie in Japan) but still have your own identity. ("Surrender, but don't give yourself away") Of course the "don't give yourself away" part can also mean that you SEEM to conform, but really don't...

anonymous August 3rd, 2008 10:01PM  
Amazingly enough, I have heard that the song is about syphilis (STD). Hence the correct lyrics "Heard of a soldier's falling off" (Guess what fell of the soldier?) followed by "Some Indonesian junk that's going 'round"
Also, mother warning Rick to "stay away, you never know what you'll catch." And mother having worked as a WAAC in the Philippines (Women's Army Air Corps, where she was probably a nurse and so a great many military men infected with STDs -- in the Philippines it is almost epidemic.) The long term effects of Syph is insanity, so who knows, maybe that's why he says mother may or may not have it, and the refrain "mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they just seem a little weird..." Surrender? Hmmm... Surrender to lust?

Skeet21 January 27th, 2009 01:01PM  
The anonymous one is right. Living in that era when the song came out you would understand it.

dino August 6th, 2009 07:08PM  
It's about how a teenager understands his parents - "they just seem a little wierd". Kids don't understand their parents anymore than their parents understand them. The narrator is trying to repeat their parents "wisdom" but it sounds like nonsense because he doesn't understand the context. He does his best to make sense of what they are saying and doing, but instead of "fighting the power", just agrees and then does his own thing.

Tom May 3rd, 2010 04:04PM  
I also believe the annoymous tip is close. In the club days of Cheap Trick the lyric "the WACs recruited old maids for the war." was "the WACs recruited old maids dykes and whores." True story.

ctrick99 May 3rd, 2010 04:29PM  
Not sure about Tom's comment that they actually sang it in clubs that way, but that was the original lyrics of the song. Epic required them to change it, just as they required them to change titles to two other songs. "The Ballad of TV Violence" was originally "the Ballad of Richard Speck". And "Love Comes a Tumblin'" was originally "Life Comes a Tumblin'" as it is about the death of Bon Scott from AC/DC. They also had much more explicit lyrics originally for "You're All Talk" off the In Color album, though what those were escapes me now...I have them somewhere from an old Cheap Trick newsgroup posting.