| Florence + the Machine – Dog Days Are Over Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| It is probably wrong, but the first thing I thought of regarding the dog days and horses was the American plains tribes. They labored much harder when they only had dogs and they were no different from the other tribes, one day the horses came and things profoundly changed for them for the better and they soon ruled the plains. I see it as symbolic of a sudden and vast improvement to her life from which she desires to run. Like love. | |
| The Decemberists – The Island: Come and See; The Landlord's Daughter; You'll Not Feel the Drowning Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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While it is tempting to simply believe they are three unrelated lyrics, I have a hard time with that the way the piece is titled. So, my interpretation is: Sailors discover an unmolested and beautiful island and go ashore One sailor exploring, comes across the landlord's daughter After finishing with her he drowns her near the shoreline I explain the "little ugly" part as her appearance after being beaten. All swollen and purplish. And her being "a fool" for having resisted him. He is telling her "You'll not feel the drowning" as something he heard from his captain that sailors do when they know the ship is going down and he is almost mockingly whispering to her, like a lullaby as he drowns her, this advise. |
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| The Decemberists – Eli, the Barrow Boy Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Although the lyrics as posted on the Decemberists website have "Eli the barrow boy you're the old town" and "she is crying" instead of "he", the lyrics in the booklet that comes with the CD are "Eli the barrow boy of the old town" and "he is crying" not she. Listening to the song itself, it is clear to me the CD booklet is correct and not the lyrics as posted on the website. He still clearly references his true love being dead and gone and lying, (note: not necessarily burried) in a pine grove. I lean toward believing he killed her. Also, I don't think everything in this is necessarliy symbolic, sometimes coal is just coal as are corncobs and candlewax. Eli was simply a poor man. That is my opinion. |
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| The Decemberists – Eli, the Barrow Boy Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I really like this song. It is a stand out track to me on this album. I interpret it differently though than what I have read here. I suspect old Eli might have killed his love. I can imagine her as a woman who nagged Eli..."Why can't you afford to buy me a fine robe!?" If only he could have bought her a fine robe, he would not have killed her in a passing fit of anger...and she would have been happy. Instead she lies burried in a pine grove in some secret spot only Eli knows. Then guilt drove him to suicide. (And to the comments about church burials and suicide...how to you know it's a suicide when someone has drowned alone? Maybe that is one reason suicide by drowning was popular in those times.) Anyway, I see Eli continuing to push the cart after death in ghost form as punishment laden with a heavy dose of guilt for killing his love and then suicide. There is clearly not overwhelming evidence for my interpretation, but it feels right to me. A lovely dark and folkish song. |
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| The Decemberists – E. Watson Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| What I find of interest about this story is the theme of "murdering murderers". Is murdrering a murderer murder? Edgar Watson presumably killed this Cox fellow who was a murderer. When we returning to Chokoliksee was killed. I feel the song hints at the fact he may have simply been gunned down by the crowd. Was this murder? How is it any different than waht E. Watson had just done? If you want to add an addtional layer of ethics, is killing a killer of a killer murder? I think the narrator has a guilty conscience as being part of the crowd that gunned him down without a trial or process of law, outlaw or not, the narrator clearly feels it was murder in my opinion. A reminder that there is never a time when savagery is justified and when the rule of law is discarded, it makes murderers of us all. | |
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