| Fair to Midland – A Wolf Descends on the Spanish Sahara Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song is about being alone, very alone. "If you're keeping score, then you are bound to win." If you are the only one playing, then you comprise all three parties: the score-keeper and the two competing sides. Clearly this is about being entirely alone. "A birds eye view of a burning bridge." Apparently the person in the song has isolated himself, he has burned his bridge to company. "You've gone through ghost towns set on pause, hoping the risk was worth the cause." The ghost towns could be old places that the person used to enjoy with others, or they could also be new places that still feel devoid of all humanity. "Sound off the false alarm." The person apparently cries 'wolf' to himself frequently. He thinks he has found a companion who is worth the time to be friends with, a kindred spirit. But it is just a false alarm. "but i make my own colleague from wood and from ivory, and reap the rewards of proximity. i will assemble my equal from what i like and require. and gather whats left of the company" This chorus is makes it evident that companion this person has found is not a companion at all. It's a very dubious relationship, because the person has taken all of the things that he wants to be and all of the things that he loves about himself and attributed them to the 'false alarm' companion. He is making the mistake of trying to find himself instead of another. "It smells like disaster, it looks like a trap." It smells like disaster, because it is. This person will be devastated to find that his false companion is not at all like the mental construction the person has attributed to the companion. It's like when you are dating someone that you really thought was interesting, then you realize that all the interesting things about that person were actually just interesting things about yourself that you chose to see in the other person. "So go by the way side and never look back" Looks like the person is only going to get lonelier. "If you could spare me forty winks" I have no idea on this line. "while you cry wolf, and i count sheep" See my previous 'cry wolf' statement. I think the counting sheep refers to the fact that the most common way to deal with loneliness is to sleep it away. "what good are ghosts in kevlar vests with backbones like a jellyfish" Indeed, such ghost would have all the worst parts of human beings and none of the good parts. This is how the person in the song views all the people he has met. How dismal. "Stomp on your land again" "If you're keeping score then you're bound to win, a bird's eye view of the main event" I'm not sure about these last two lines. |
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| Fair to Midland – (Ciperion) A Seafarer's Knot Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think this is a love song also, but I think you are way off the mark, audiotrance. "Lucky are the leaves of the clover" seems more like a reference to the 'he loves me, he loves me not game' that naive little girls play. "She's digging for chemistry with a butcher's tools" because she is in love with him and desperate for him to feel the same. Unfortunately, he is a gambler (i.e. a player). He has used his tricks to acquire her, and he congratulates himself for "a job well done". the "motions waving wishes to your confidence and eloquence" refers to the previous verse. He would not have been as interested in her, or as confident about gaining her love, had he not had an audience. His ability to ensnare her in love has turned him a-green and envious of greater glory. The "applied ambitious faith that can keep us all safe" is his distorted concept of love: if he were to allow himself to be as ensnared by her as she is by him, then he would be weak and unsafe. It's this ambition that keeps him distant in his relationships. I don't know what "invoking a blue" means, but I do know that what is "meant for us too" is the show. And, indeed, it is a show. He must have all those he actually respects know that he has captured a heart and has every intention to turn it to rain, or destroy it. Or one could say that it is the audience that ruins the relationship. If it hadn't been for us, perhaps he would have opened up to her. Perhaps it is our own vicarious viciousness that has brought this horrible fate to a poor unsuspecting girl. "Lucky is a deer in the headlights", for she has no idea yet what is about to happen: he will let her know just how unimportant he thinks she is. But why is she lucky? She is lucky because she is honest with herself, and he is not. "Those two are as thick as thieves," because neither of them really knows what is going on. They are in love, and yet they are about to ruin each other. "Shaky are the hands of the gunshy, he'd rather give up the ghost than stick by" -- The fact that he is gunshy shows that he is starting to realize that he loves her, but he still won't admit it to himself, so he'd rather give up the ghost (i.e. terminate the relationship) than admit to himself and to his friends that he has become vulnerable to her. So what will happen? Darroh doesn't tell us. And it's not important how the relationship winds up (whether he chooses to be a conqueror or a lover). What is important is we who have witnessed they whole thing. It's about to happen, so "gather 'round while we wait for high tide." We'll all "drink to love", but at the same time, we know that it is we who have ruined these two lovers. We have turned these small amazing things to rain, and now we have caused so much rain that it is high-tide. We observe the destruction we have brought about. Or maybe the love will win him over we'll be disappointed. Either way, we watch greedily. |
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| Fair to Midland – (Tibet) Dance of the Manatee Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Thought I'd add another possibility. Havoc is close, I think, but his analysis seems a little too vague still. This song is revolutionary: "Those told to hold: project on my cue." First: "They" refers to the pimps or the corporate machine. "He" refers to Darroh himself. And "we" refers to the prostitutes who are also prospective revolutionaries, including Darroh. The "shallow spot" is certainly the corporate world, and the "rat-race" makes this obvious: a rat-race is an endless pursuit that has no purpose. "Just wait until then" but the end never comes. The second part of this first verse is about the band's actual experience in the corporate world, i.e. the music industry. "Their heads are heaviest in operation, he still has not lost imagination." One can imagine that this refers to the ruination of music by the industry. For their own part, Fair to Midland have not lost their imagination. "I can hear him mouth the whole ending" means that even though the corporation is trying to suck "him" in, he has not lost his purpose, so "just wait until then." And now comes the great metaphor of the song: "We marys had ourselves a ball." The corporations are the pimps and the individuals they ruin are the prostitutes. We sell our souls to corporations just so we can take part in a lucrative rat-race, but how quickly we can forget what is lost. Similarly, a prostitute often forgets how much she is sacrificing. "Hang us those limbs, hold no virtue." It is now time to turn the tables and hang the pimps, and with no mercy. "Those told to hold, project on my cue." This line is a little arrogant, actually; Darroh sees himself as the leader, Tyler Durden style. The next verse begins with a play on the pimp/prostitute metaphor "whether a he or she put your mouth where your money is." I take this to mean that if you are taking part in the rat-race, no matter which end you are on, you deserve all the disgrace you bring upon yourself. The next line baffles me, honestly. "Their heads cast shadows like skyscrapers still small enough to fit up their asses" clearly means that the corporate execs and such think that have everything all figured out, or, to use the metaphor here, they have big heads. Yet, despite all their intelligence, they still have no idea what they have become -- their big heads are in their asses. And now the revolution: "Take a gander the bigger they are the harder they fall." Does the music industry actually make any music? No! Without the prostitutes, the pimps are nothing and they will be devastated when the prostitutes revolt. "Not needy as I come with open arms over trees" I'm not exactly sure on this one, but I'm fairly certain that it is an ironic taunt made to the (now) fallen corporate giants. This is probably the most important line in the song, so it's too bad that it is so difficult to interpret. Finally, the last verse. The rest of the song is hypothetical, a guarantee of what is to come. This verse is not hypothetical, it assumes that Darroh has convinced us, "listen to my proven guarantees while you're rolling up your sleeves, beating on your chest." He also ties the old metaphor back in "We marys had ourselves a ball" but it means something different now: the "ball" is no longer an ignorant partaking in the rat-race; rather, the "ball" is the revolution. "What they've done for you, they've done for me" this is supposed to be the coup-de-grace. It is supposed to drive home the whole song. |
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