Song Meaning

The lyrics paint a picture of a world steeped in superficiality and a desperate pursuit of status, labeled as "Babylon." The narrator observes a scene where "much class and much glamour" are paramount, to the point where people are willing to debase themselves ("eat my ass") just to fit in, but only if a certain person says so. This highlights a cynical take on social climbing and the validation sought from specific individuals within this scene. The song juxtaposes high-minded artistic references with crude, almost absurd imagery. We get "Andy Porras, Paco Warhol, fourteen damned artists" alongside "camels, donkeys, tractors" and "Walt Disney's balls." This jarring mix suggests a critique of how the art world, or a scene perceived as such, can be both pretentious and nonsensical, filled with figures who are perhaps more interested in shock value and their own perceived coolness than genuine substance. The repetition of "Babylon" and "glamour" reinforces this theme of a decadent, perhaps morally bankrupt, environment. The narrator seems to be an outsider looking in, or at least someone disillusioned with the "glamour." The line "The avant-garde is the first thing that reaches the pile of shit / And fills its nostrils with glamour" is particularly cutting. It suggests that the cutting edge, the supposedly most sophisticated elements, are the first to succumb to and exploit the very superficiality they might claim to transcend. The final lines about the Mona Lisa laughing at