Among the headstones you played as boys
Crypts and tombs like a roomful of toys
Just up the river from the smoke and the noise
Gethsemane
And there's war-whoops and secret signs in the trees
Estuary smells coming up on the breeze
O perfect endless days like these
O Gethsemane

Sailboat on the Cadie, pushbike on the quay
In your eyes there's fire, in your hand destiny
â??O be something, be something fine!'

Just down the river, into the noise and the smoke
Being daring with the staring, uncaring folk
Who laugh with you, laugh at you, you'll never get the joke
Gethsemane
And they broke your spirit there in the marines
Flushed your head down in the latrines
Frozen in your sacrement, derailed in your teens
Never saw the enemy

And those bosses betrayed, soon let you go
The fire in your eyes, how could they know
â??O be something, be something fine!'

Now you've got your own boys, hell bent for leather
Dead before they're 18, or bitter old men forever
They never saw the halo moon rise over the river
Of Gethsemane
Now there's a pain in your head puts lead in your shoes
Better get it seen to, it's going to be bad news
How did the perfect world get so confused
O Gethsemane

Who sucked out the freedom, days without end
Under the weight of it all you must bend
â??O be something, be something fine!'

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Lyrics submitted by albowlleysinheaven

Gethsemane Lyrics as written by Richard Thompson

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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Gethsemane song meanings

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Screed has the essentials. The only thing l would add is that it is a song about betrayal but not in a personal sense. It describes the experience of many ordinary men brought up in a world de-industrialising (the smoke and the noise the song's protagonist grew up with) who joined the armed forces as the newer industries are located elsewhere, require different skills and favour women. But even this does not appear to be an option for his sons - hence the reference to being dead at 18. In my view its a much better song than 'Shipbuilding' which covers this sort of subject but does not really grasp the way a globalised economy leaves many people behind.

There are lots of things l like about this song. I like the way it appears specific (the smell of the estuary) but is not like and the way that the people in it have little understanding or view of what has happened to them and the song writer only expresses his own view indirectly in that one word: 'Gethsemane'.

But none of this would have really mattered if it had not been for the ways the song is built around a simple but powerful guitar phrase.

A very fine song indeed: one of Richard Thomson's best.

Screed has the essentials. The only thing l would add is that it is a song about betrayal but not in a personal sense. It describes the experience of many ordinary men brought up in a world de-industrialising (the smoke and the noise the song's protagonist grew up with) who joined the armed forces as the newer industries are located elsewhere, require different skills and favour women. But even this does not appear to be an option for his sons - hence the reference to being dead at 18. In my view its a much better song than 'Shipbuilding' which covers this sort of subject but does not really grasp the way a globalised economy leaves many people behind. There are lots of things l like about this song. I like the way it appears specific (the smell of the estuary) but is not like and the way that the people in it have little understanding or view of what has happened to them and the song writer only expresses his own view indirectly in that one word: 'Gethsemane'. But none of this would have really mattered if it had not been for the ways the song is built around a simple but powerful guitar phrase. A very fine song indeed: one of Richard Thomson's best.

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jon1017485on September 29, 2014 Link
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