Busy being born

I really enjoyed your interpretation of the single phrase "get born." It does sound as though it is a command, as do the other lyrics in that song. 

It also seems to connect quite nicely to the song that I am close reading for our group project, It's Alright Ma.

Possibly one of the more important lines in the song makes a similar statement:

 the hollow horn 

plays wasted words, proves to warn

that he not busy being born 

is busy dying

This phrase could be interpreted in a number of ways, but I'll focus on two: a general suggestion, and a political statement.

In context with the rest of the song, if you were to ignore political implications, this line seems to be saying that certain aspects of our society are corrupt, and we shouldn't simply swallow whatever we're spoon fed. We should occupy our time with attempting to discover who we are and what we believe, thus "being born." Otherwise, we'll lose ourselves and simply become one of the masses. 

This song is, however, not just a general statement. There are obvious political messages. I actually read this quote a while ago, but it was attributed to John F Kennedy. Al Gore also used it while campaigning for the presidency in 2000. I think it is saying that if we continue to be set in our stubborn, dogmatic ways rather than realizing when new ideologies are needed (with JFK I'm sure this largely concerns the civil rights movement), then we aren't going to grow as a country.

This song says quite a bit (it has to- it's seven minutes long!), but that line alone speaks volumes.