Black Sheep - John

After having listened to Black Sheep on youtube for an astronomical amount of times, the lyrics start to remind me more and more of Billy Pilgrim. Plus, the guitar solo is pretty amazing too.



Black sheep, come on
Black sheep, come on
Black sheep, come on


Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when
Our common goal was waiting for the world to end
Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick the past again

I'll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up, everytime, everyone, ooo, pulls away, ooo
From you

Got balls of steel, got an automobile, for a minimum wage
Got real estate, I'm buying it all up in outerspace
Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend
You crack the whip, shape-shift and trick, the past again

I'll send you my love on a wire
Lift you up, everytime, everyone, ooo, pulls a way, oo
Mechanical bull, the number one
You'll take a ride from anyone, everyone wants a ride, pulls away, oooh from you



A black sheep is commonly known as being a member of a group who is odd or disgraceful to the whole group. Billy himself is the black sheep as he is the only person that different from everyone else. He's the only one who lacks emotion and also he is able to travel through time. He can't feel normally like the other characters, such as his complete disregard for the death of his wife as well as the death of his father-in-law. Billy can also be seen as the disgrace of the group as depicted during his wartimes. Wearing his colorful clothes to the town of Dresden, he is made fun of by the doctor and many others. In a sense, all of the soldiers are the black sheep because as the soup lady says : "All the real soldiers are already dead." The ones who are left are the disgraces to the Americans because supposedly the only way to survive the war was by being cowardly.



The line : "Mechanical bull, the number one, You'll take a ride from anyone, everyone wants a ride" makes me think of how Billy is taken advantage of by everyone, having never made a friend, but rather being used to make others feel better. He is used by Valencia to make herself feel normal, since she is so obese that she couldn't possibly have a decent human relationship. With Billy around, it's basically a way for her to say to the world: "look, I can be one of you." But Valencia is not the only person who happens to be using Billy. Weary also uses Billy as a method of making himself feel superior to others. By comparison, Weary appears as a much more proficient and prepared soldier as opposed to Billy's weak and unarmed self. All the soldiers see Billy as the standard of the American troops and so use him to fuel their hate for America. Even their allies, the British troops frown upon seeing the American troops due to their weakness.