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Interpretations:Chess Piece Face

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Chess Piece Face is a mobster.

The narrator of Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal says, "Chess Piece Face's patience must be wearing thin / Because they haven't played my song on the air." In the context of that song, the narrator was expecting to get rich after his song got popular on the radio. Without radio play, there was no money, so the narator was presumably testing the patience of a loan shark.

In the song named after Chess Piece Face, the narrator crossed CPF, or was set up to take the blame. He is now in hiding for fear of retaliation.

"All I know could be defaced by the facts in the life of Chess Piece Face" In this line, it sounds like the narator is an informant.

"I don't know where he lives/ Or if he knows to sail" The narrator has gone overseas to hide, and doesn't know if CPF is pursuing him.

"Or if little schemes like this one ever cross his trail/ But I don't believe he's dreaming/ Or if he cares to know" These lines suggest that the narrator was set up. "Dreaming" might represent CPF being fooled by a double-crosser into laying blame on a patsy. "If he cares to know" could mean CPF doesn't need to find the guilty person, he just needs to make an example of the person perceived by the underworld as guilty.

"So I shudder in my lampshade" A lampshade is a poor hiding place. The narrator doesn't feel safe.

--AntiEgo

My interpretation of this song is similar to AntiEgo's; however, there is another element to it. I believe Chess Piece Face is part of a major underground criminal organization along with such figures as Rabid Child and The Big Duluth(see my interpretation for Rabid Child) and the narrator in Chess Piece Face is an informant who ratted on Chess Piece Face. Chess Piece Face is now seeking revenge, but the informant is in the protective arms of the Witness Protection Program and has been shipped overseas. Still, though, he is nervous about Chess Piece Face's vengeance.

01-jul-03 - According to Flansy, this song was inspired by a former employer of his, whom he no longer remembers. - Charlie Coniglio

It's not an interp, but this song's always been the creepiest of the album to me. The surreal lyrics combined with the ominous music-just kinda unsettling. I like the mobster interp.


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