What does 21st Century Schizoid Man mean?

King Crimson: 21st Century Schizoid Man Meaning

Album cover for 21st Century Schizoid Man album cover

21st Century Schizoid Man Lyrics

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door.
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Polititians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid...

  1. anonymous
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    Aug 11th 2013 !⃝

    I think it may have been about Spiro Agnew and the vietnam war, but the line,"nothing he's got, he really needs, to me, is about the materialism in the U.S., how our culture places so much of a definition of 'success' by 'what' you have, and not 'who' you are and what kind of principles you live by, If your 'stuff' makes you 'who' you are, it's pretty empty. Get a big house out in the 'burbs',drive the 'right' car, have 2.4 kids? and throw in a white picket fence and you have 'arrived'!! That's why there are more rich assholes in this country swallowing bullets, because they beleived a lie!!

  2. anonymous
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    Nov 5th 2011 !⃝

    The song is evidently about the destructive forces of war and greed on the human psyche and on innocents.

    At a concert in 1969 Robert Fripp dedicated this song to Spiro Agnew; that doesn't mean the song was written specifically about the man.

    Fripp was likely prompted to dedicate the song to Agnew, as the VP was a staunch defender of Nixon's Viet Nam policy and routinely maligned anti-war protesters. He later proved to be a greedy criminal as well, resigning the vice presidency after being charged with tax evasion and accepting bribes.

  3. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 18th 2011 !⃝

    The song is about Spiro Agnew and Viet Nam.


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