| Okkervil River – Murderess Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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To me, this song uses nautical metaphors to describe the end of a peculiar romance. The narrator seems to be one of two or more men involved with a single woman in a polyamorous relationship. The woman is the "Captain" figure, a beautiful and overbearing character who demands that her loyal suitors "hang the rest" and sacrifice their own wishes for exclusivity. The relationship falls apart when the men, who genuinely care for one another, realize that they are living a lie. An order for a sailor to sink "a ship that's only passing through," in other words, to destroy something innocent, would seem immoral to most. But the Captain's word is law among pirates, and the penalty for all who refuse to obey is death. The end of the song evokes the blood oaths of pirates such as portrayed by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the literal end of the plot, the woman has emotionally crushed all her partners except the narrator, and he is begging for mercy. |
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