| Alabama – Song Of The South Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This is a description of how the welfare state killed the small Southern farmer. The first stanza evokes the lifestyle of the rural South in the era following the First World War--the affluence of the 1920s didn't extend to the agricultural and poverty-stricken un-Reconstructed South. In only a few more short stanzas, the family's house is foreclosed on and the father gets a job with the Tennessee Valley Association. Despite the fact that the economic policies of the Roosevelt Administration are the direct cause of the family's prolonged hardship, the entire family's hardline Southern Democrat sensibilities are reinforced. It is heavily implied that all of them become even more ardent supporters of the very same political party that increased their impoverished condition *and* put a ring in their nose. "Sweet potato pie and I shut my mouth" is an accurate descriptor of the end result of the New Deal. As long as people had enough food, and were better off (in their minds) than they were before, they would accept whatever was given them, despite the hit to their paycheck, their pride, and their independence. "Ain't nobody going back again," indeed. |
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| Idlewild – Once In Your Life Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This song appears to be about a state of despair, longing, and regret. The intense, heavy, ominous guitar work, and buildup to the plaintive refrain ("Maybe the life waits over the hill/Over the hill while I wait") indicate a sense of utter disillusionment and detachment prevalent in other songs Idlewild has done (for example, the aptly-named "Disconnected.") | |
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