| Sufjan Stevens – Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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[EDIT] Here's my take on the switched perspective theory. I think that an argument could be made that it isn't just the perspective of two people but three. I don't think the main speaker, Bobby, is a man who decides to cheat on his wife. I think he is a young man, in his late teen or twenties, single and lonely, in a dead end nowhere job as a bagger at the airport, in a town he'll never leave. He bristles against the fact that he'll never live up to the stature and self-abnegation of his father. The affair he pursues with a married woman is his way of rebelling against his father's image as well as his escape from the doldrums of Springfield. I disagree that he doesn't find fulfillment and/or escape through this affair. I believe the line "If my wife . . ." is a shift in perspective to the cuckolded husband who suspects his wife's infidelity. Then a shift to the wife who comes up with an excuse about shadflies in Bobby's hair. [Would've made for a TOTALLY different interpretation if I had let that typo stand.] |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Here's my take on the switched perspective theory. I think that an argument could be made that it isn't just the perspective of two people but three. I don't think the main speaker, Bobby, is a man who decides to cheat on his wife. I think he is a young man, in his late teen or twenties, single and lonely, in a dead end nowhere job as a bagger at the airport, in a town he'll never leave. He bristles against the fact that he'll never live up to the stature and self-abnegation of his father. The affair he pursues with a married man is his way of rebelling against his father's image as well as his escape from the doldrums of Springfield. I disagree that he doesn't find fulfillment and/or escape through this affair. I believe the line "If my wife . . ." is a shift in perspective to the cuckolded husband who suspects his wife's infidelity. Then a shift to the wife who comes up with an excuse about shadflies in Bobby's hair. |
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| Neil Young – Campaigner Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the song references the 1968 election. The speaker offers that the reason Nixon beat Humphries is because of charisma (this is a Nixon who who had lost to Kennedy because of his lack of it), and that this was his secret weapon. The lines: "Traffic cops are all color blind./ People steal from their own kind" seem to refer to the chaos at 1968 Democratic Convention or perhaps the turmoil of the late 60's where the police weren't just clubbing black Civil Rights protestors but white protestors as well, a period that also saw hundreds of cities plagued with riots. The question of who's the campaigner is ambiguous. I'm gonna say he's campaigning for Nixon, but it just as equally go the other way. He was too late to cause the stir of social unrest and calls of changes agitated by the protests. The fact that he's a lonely visitor may mean that he doesn't agree with Nixon, but is doing it to do something. But that fact that Nixon can win it is something that takes him by surprise. His significant other or friend wept at the election results and he has been unable to sleep from it all. |
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| Sublime – Eye of Fatima Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Sounds like a tour story. Dropping acid in Wyoming hotel rooms with the locals. Great song. I believe it's a Camper Van Beethoven cover. |
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| Frank Black and the Catholics – Bullet Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| It's a father addressing his son. It's clear that the old man isn't all there. His delusions are a mix of Norse mythology, aliens, and imminent violent revolution. Seems as though the guy knows he won't be able to make it, so he's going to commit suicide and pass the mantle on to his son. This is a very very dark song about mental illness. One can only wonder what the boy must have been going through. | |
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