| John K. Samson – Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Pretty self explanatory, once you realize that the 'Ninette San' refers to the Manitoba Ninette Sanatorium. Sanatoriums were basically places people went to be cured of (or die of) tuberculosis in the 1900s. All accounts I can find of the Ninette Sanatorium are quite positive, with many former patients going on to work there later. Drangey is an island in Iceland, and Grettir is an Icelandic folk hero. Anyway, it seems to me that the narrator is a recent immigrant from Iceland who has developed TB and now lives in the Sanatorium. He (or she, but I'll use he for simplicity) is writing to a sibling(?) about his life there, starting the letter off fairly positively, but unable to stop thinking about his illness. He tells his sibling to seize the day by leaving the people and things that weigh him/her down behind. |
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| The Decemberists – Rox in the Box Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I agree that this is definitely a song about gold mining; I was just wondering what people thought of the chorus? Personally, I like to imagine it as sort of a threat. The counting ('one, two, three') is the number of gold nuggets the man has found, and 'ten' nuggets is the point at which the narrator is willing to kill him to steal them. This would make sense with the assertion that the man 'won't make a dime', and about other men dying as well. |
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| The Decemberists – June Hymn Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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According to the Decemberists' website, the last verse is: And years from now when this old light Isn’t ambling anymore Will I bring myself to write “I give my best to Springville Hill” The meaning changes dramatically if you take these as the correct lyrics. At first, with the reference to a 'lie', I thought the song might be a continuation of the January hymn, with the protagonist having given himself over to the delusion of having his love with him (perhaps explaining why she never shows up directly in the song), with 'rye' meaning whiskey (his refuge when the delusion no longer holds). But with the new lyrics... well, the song becomes much less twisted. :) |
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