| Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I can see that perhaps the narrative is from the perspective of a dealer who has started snorting his profits (and he's in deep guano now), which doubtless could bring on such paranoia. But then again there could be a million reasons a dealer/gangster/whatever would be paranoid and anxious. The Geto Boys don't say, and that's smart. The best way to ruin any character is to get too much into "the story behind it all." While this whole song kicks fucking ass, the first and last verses stand out to me. Consider the first verse. It all takes place in the consciousness of the speaker while he's "staring at a woman on the corner." He's lying awake at night, all alone, and he's confronted with the gravity of his own being. Like whenever you're a child and you were put to bed early, and it was dark and you tried to make yourself go to sleep, but you can never do that. It is inescapable and horrible insomnia. That is what this character (as well as Richard III and Macbeth, I might add) experience. More generally, this song isn't about addiction as such. It just isn't. That might play a part in it, but there is something far deeper at work. It's about a gangster (or three different ones - the fourth is a Geto Boy, I assume) who is coming to terms with his lifestyle. All the people he's beat the shit out of ("thought he had cane, but it was Gold Medal flour"), killed, or left (the woman who he realizes he loves). And the narrator knows he is more and more alone, with more and more enemies each day. I don't know much about this lifestyle. But the Geto Boys have, intentionally or otherwise, incorporated the philosophies of Emmanuel Levinas and Henri Bergson, as well as the stunning psychological realism of Shakespearean tragedy. So, to me, this song is the major esthetic achievement of rap, and indeed, songwriting in general. The beat is sick. The narrative is amazing. Nuff said. |
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| Neko Case – Margaret vs. Pauline Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| It seems likely to me that she draws a bit on Louise Erdrich's novel, Tracks. Margaret and Pauline are two of the main characters. Margaret isn't a girl though - she's an older Chippewa woman trying to survive on a reservation in North Dakota. Pauline is a half-Chippewa, half white Canadian girl who becomes very white in respect to her religion and culture. Pauline sort of sets herself against some of the people on the reservation and seeks to convert them to Christianity. It's a real culture battle, and Pauline comes off as a very horrible, self-made martyr. I am not sure this story is what Neko is after, though. Pauline's real enemy in the story is Fleur, who is sort of the Chippewa's defender and keeper of the old Chippewa ways. Fleur is also supposedly in league with a lake monster/man who gives her power over the winds. Other than the names of the characters and the lake monster reference, I think the song mostly has nothing to do with the novel in any specificity. Thief's comment seems to be a fair interpretation. | |
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