I believe she is addressing a handful of critics that at the beginning of her career discarded her as a simpleton for her quirky fashion sense & off the cuff honesty that they couldn't readily categorize, so they were quick to label her as contrived, plastic and insincere rather than accept that she was truly being herself - fun loving and playful with an inner beauty to match her outward appearance and a well read lust for knowledge demonstrating a bright intellect to be guiding her emotional grasp of the human condition and her physical presence within it.
As for the unforgiving place she alludes to: it's no secret that the recording industry is a cute throat world. Rolling Stone contributor, Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
No, Ms Faith ain't no fool. She's steady as she goes - she knows exactly where she is; what she's doing and how to negotiate the sea of sinister eyes glowing as she gets on along that plastic hallway. I believe she's quite content with being her own person.
Let me end here with this quick note; Paloma is a wonderfully refreshing free spirit, and I love that she's upside down.

Bocephus refers to American country singer-songwriter and musician, Hank Williams, Jr., son of country music legend, Hank Williams. His father nicknamed him Bocephus (after Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield's ventriloquist dummy).
Williams began his career by following in his famed father's footsteps until he challenged the country music establishment with a blend of country, rock, and blues that made him a legend in his own right, earning him considerable recognition and popularity both inside and outside the country music industry.

Actually it was spelled "Curtis Loew" by lyrisist Ronnie Van Zant when it was first released on the band's 1974 album, Second Helping.

The Scorpions song "Winds Of Change" is featured in the widely controversial film The Interview. The dark comedy basically explores the toppling of Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea), by a sleazy reality TV host (James Franco) and his equally unscrupulous friend and producer (Seth Rogan).It has sparked an outcry from that country's military regime in the way it portrays the treatment of their own people at the expense of trying to become a top nuclear power on the world stage.

Released in 1982, this is Elton and lyricist Bernie Taupin's musical tribute to John Lennon, who was shot and killed outside his New York apartment one and a half years earlier.
Lennon and John were close friends, and in 1974, Lennon appeared on Elton's single cover of the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," the B-side of which was Lennon's "One Day at a Time".
After Lennon's death, John was concerned that a tribute song to the late Beatle would be "clumsy" ---until he saw Taupin's lyrics.
The song is titled "Empty Garden", as Lennon's last live performance was at Madison Square Garden (ironically with Elton John in 1974). It has been said that the line "Can't you come out to play?" is a reference to Lennon's song "Dear Prudence."

Moët et Chandon is one of the world's largest champagne producers and a prominent champagne house. The company currently holds a Royal Warrant to supply champagne to Elizabeth II, of England. The winery was established in 1743 by Claude Moët, and has supplied monarchs around the world with fine champagne ever since.
Moreover, the Moët surname was prestigious before the winery's establishment; King Charles VII ennobled brothers Jean and Nicolas Moët (Claude's ancestors) in 1446.

King Louis XVI kept his wife, Marie Antoinette, content with a steady flow of bubbly hoping that would keep her nose out of his affairs of state, but to no avail. Her callas remark, "Let then eat cake" when asked about feeding the humble masses of France, went viral and eventually led to the King & Queen's fate in the neck slot of the guillotine.

In the larger sense he is talking about the super powers (and even smaller countries) possessing nuclear arsenals that could easily wipe out civilization as we know it, but also to a lesser extent he is talking about inner-city violence and hand guns on the street, drive by shootings and hate crimes. The world has become unstable and it's all around us. And remember this was written back in the early 1980's. Even then there were rumors that the world would erupt into chaos at the stroke of midnight January, 1, 2000.

Yet through all this impending gloom and foreboding doom hangs over us like ominous storm clouds he is still determined to live life to the fullest right now while there is still time to do so.
The end could come tomorrow, let's party tonight!

The final verse is a direct condemnation of the cult of "hero worship" that grew out of the World War II Japanese fighter pilots known as The Kamikaze meaning "spirit wind" or "divine wind." albeit spirit directly translates as "kami" making that a more accurate term.
The tradition of death instead of defeat, capture, and perceived shame was deeply entrenched in Japanese military culture. It was one of the primary traditions in the samurai life and the Bushido code: loyalty and honor until death.
Neil Peart, alarmed by the growing problem of youth suicide and the tendency to romanticize it, was very passionate about dispelling any and all myths that there is honor in taking one's own life for whatever reason. Stating directly that there is no honor and nothing heroic about suicide.
This song is about the tragedy of teen suicide and the myths that have been discovered to rationalize it as a heroic or noble act, like kamikaze pilots or suicide bombers that wear explosive vests into crowded public areas and detonate the device based on the premise of "entry into heaven" for their sacrifice.
Teen suicide is a worldwide tragedy that this song addresses without shame. It was meant to help kids that are dealing with sadness and depression, and it has been shown (i.e.,YouTube comments/praises) to have saved countless young lives since it's release in the early 1990's.

The first four lines in the chorus are Neil Peart's homage to nineteenth century poet, playwright and wit, Oscar Wilde. It comes from a line in the third act of Wilde's vastly successful play entitled, Lady Windermere’s Fan, a renown Victorian-era comedy that has continued to be performed on stages throughout the world ever since it opened in February, 1892. The sardonic line reads:
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Both the original and Neil Peart's more contemporary update (a 20th century twist) express the essence of an artist's soul in the desire to find wonder and beauty even in the most unlikeliest of places.