| Leonard Cohen – By the Rivers Dark Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is a retelling of Psalm 137. The Psalm is written by an Israelite mourning having been dragged into the Babylonian exile, and having lost Jerusalem. In the Psalm he and the other Israelites sit down by the rivers of Babylon and weep over the loss of Jerusalem and of the Temple, and the captors mock them asking for a holy song (presumably what would be sung in the Temple) and the writer pleads, "How can we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?" And then he says that if he forgets Jerusalem, his right hand should lose his skill (of playing the lyre) and his tongue should cleave to the roof of his mouth (so he can't sing anymore) and he has a fantasy about taking back Jerusalem and slamming the children of his captors against a rock. But it all ties in perfectly with this song. Instead, the singer is trapped in Babylon, and has been for some time. Long enough that he has "lived his life in Babylon" and has "forgot his holy song." This could be seen as losing faith or giving into sin. Then he is hunted by, I would presume, his conscience or God. His heart is struck and what is revealed is lawless (torahless) and his wedding ring, to Babylon. He runs from the realization, and truly becomes a citizen of Babylon by rejecting the Lord and his ways. But he is captured by God and his wedding ring is tossed away. So he regains his identity and faith "in a wounded dawn, by the river's dark." And remains in Babylon. Then it more directly references the psalm again when he says he must take his song from a "withered limb" which is his right hand, no longer able to play the lyre. But the big twist ending, is that his blessing should be gone not if he forgets Jerusalem, but if he forgets Babylon. Or, if he forgets how he forsook the LORD and his ways, and was brought back into his Faith, or Identity, or what have you. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Brompton Oratory Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"He goes in when it's Easter." No, obviously he's there for Pentecost. "Hail the pentecostal morn"? |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Easy Money Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think you all have it wrong. The singer is clearly a rich man. "It's difficult. It's very tough. I said to the man who'd been sleeping rough" The rich man's life brings "joy in diminishing returns." And he is cheating on his wife with a poor male prostitute. Who then turns him over and... well... gives it to him. Funny thing, all he can think of the whole time is how hard it is to be rich, while the prostitute has to sell his body for money. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Easy Money Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think you all have it wrong. The singer is clearly a rich man. "It's difficult. It's very tough. I said to the man who'd been sleeping rough" The rich man's life brings "joy in diminishing returns." And he is cheating on his wife with a poor male prostitute. Who then turns him over and... well... gives it to him. Funny thing, all he can think of the whole time is how hard it is to be rich, while the prostitute has to sell his body for money. |
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