Oh my gosh, you won’t believe this! So, the title of the song is a reference to this super famous book called “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. And get this, the song is all about how there’s this crazy famine problem in the third world because farmers are growing biodiesel fuel for cars instead of food for their own people. Can you believe that? It’s like, priorities, people!
But wait, there’s more! The singer, Graffin, says that the song is actually about how our whole way of life in America is all about corporate profits and not caring about families. He says it all started back in the 80s and 70s when corporate greed was taking over. Like, American farms were failing because of it! And get this, corn is like the main thing we eat now because it’s used for sweeteners, feed for animals, and all that stuff. And the government even subsidizes it so much that small-scale farmers can’t grow anything else without losing money. It’s crazy!
And you know what’s even crazier? When Graffin drives across the country, he sees all these fields of just one crop, like corn, and no houses or anything. It’s like a whole different world out there.
Oh, and by the way, “Grapes of Wrath” is this novel from 1939 that’s set during the Great Depression. It’s about this poor family who gets kicked out of their home because of drought and stuff. They go to California to find a better life, along with a bunch of other people. And that line in the song, “from sea to shining sea,” is actually from this patriotic song called “America the Beautiful.” It’s all about how great America is.
So yeah, that’s the story behind the song. Pretty cool, huh?
This content was originally written by the badass contributors of thebrpage.net, the best superfan resource and website that exists for any band, let alone the best band in the whole entire world. I’ve been lurking on that site for over 20 years and if you’re into Bad Religion as much as I am, I’m sure you’re familiar. If you are not, go there right now and never come back to this site again. You should, and I totally understand.
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