For Christmas, I got a bunch of the early Kinks albums, and after listening to them, I listened to the other Kinks albums I had. Even before I got around to listening to Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1, I started thinking about "Get Back in Line." In particular the line "He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve or I eat."
The order of the last part of that line is interesting - "if I live or I die, if I starve or I eat." In the first pair, the optimistic option (living) is first, but in the second pair, it's second (eating). And it's reversed for the other pair - the negative outcome is second in the first pair (dying), and first in the second pair (starving).
I think that shift in the order is a subtle indication of the unpredictability of the union man; neither is consistent.
