“Antichrist Television Blues” by Arcade Fire
The original working title of this song was actually “Joe Simpson (Antichrist Television Blues)”. The Joe Simpson referred to is the father of Ashlee and Jessica Simpson, both of whom are famous professional singers.
Well in researching Joe Simpson online, there doesn’t seem to be anything especially telling about his character. Yes, he did reportedly make a tasteless sexual comment about Jessica, his own daughter’s, breasts. And many people also seem to be under the impression that he’s gay. But there doesn’t appear to be anything amidst warranting him being compared to the antichrist per se.
Yet such a direct comparison is apparently beside the point. For as Jeremy Gara has explained, the lyrics of “Antichrist Television Blues” are speaking more to a certain type of character as opposed to a specific one. And such a character would be, in the words of Win Butler, “fathers [who] grow up to manage their daughters”.
Meaning of the Lyrics of “Antichrist Television Blues”
So we will take the aforementioned understanding into our analysis of the subject at hand. Initially he comes off as being sort of a lazy individual. In other words him exclaiming, continually, that he has no desire to “work in a building downtown” can be seen as a metaphor for him not wanting to get a formal, serious job at all.
But even beyond that he is presented as being some sort of religious extremist who also views metropolitan areas as being cesspools of sin or something like that.
Indeed as implied by the title, this song has a strong religious undertone. However, it is not in regards to harping on “the Antichrist”, one of the Bible’s most-pronounced embodiments of evil. Rather it is centered primarily on the singer/narrator, who presents himself as “a good Christian man” that fears God and just wants to do good in life. But the caveat is that his words and actions do not agree.
For instance, on top of being arguably slothful, the narrator then decides to introduce his 13 year old daughter, who “don’t act her age”, to show business. Yes, she is in fact talented. But the implication is that he is going through some type of inner, moral conflict in regards to making this decision – for instance trying to rationalize said actions to God. But the deeper deduction is that his potential to make money over her trumps his moral obligations.
Indeed the narrator possesses a rudimentary, naïve form of faith, if you will. Or another way of stating the previous sentence is that he is expecting God’s will to conform to his own as opposed to vice versa. Or stated otherwise yet again, in the back of his mind he knows that what he is putting his daughters through in the name of generating income is having a negative toll on their wellbeing.
Moreover said actions go against his own deep-rooted beliefs. But still he’s going to still do so because, after all, the money is damn good.
In all…
Ultimately the best way of describing this song is not about being about Joe Simpson per se, even if it is based on him. Rather as stated earlier, it deals with a personality type. And that would be the kind of person who does something for money even though in their heart they feel that what they are doing is wrong.
That is why at the end of the day the vocalist must seriously ask if he is actually a “good Christian” or “the Antichrist”? Or stated more bluntly, is he as upright as he likes to be believe or actually evil for using his daughters in such a manner?
Quick Facts about “Antichrist Television Blues”
The production and composition of this song is credited to the following members of Arcade Fire:
- Win Butler
- Will Butler
- Richard Parry
- Sarah Neufeld
- Tim Kingsbury
- Jeremy Gara
- Régine Chassagne
This track can be found on “Neon Bible”, Arcade Fire’s second album. This is a project which reached 2nd place on both the UK Albums Chart and Billboard 200 and earned the band quite a few accolades.
The song’s release date was on 3 March 2006, being done so by Merge Records.
The aforementioned Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are husband and wife. And Will is Win’s younger brother.
