| The Cowboy Junkies – Murder, tonight, in the trailer park Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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No comments on this amazing song? "Murder, tonight..." talks about the way an act of violence in the periphery of a town, in a trailer park, of no one particularly important, explodes outward in a series of trajectories. Mrs Annabelle Evans is the victim; then we meet her neighbour Peg, who sees the body and "lets out a hollow kind of sound" -- this is a sort of aural cue that the story is going to echo outward. The next verse is sung from (probably) a man's point of view. It's got a bullying, hasty tone -- "Pack your things, Anne Marie, we're heading west/ Gonna make a fresh start". Is this narrator the murderer? Why does he want to leave upon learning of the murder? Is it just the last straw in a series of things pushing him out of the grubby town he's in? We don't get any answers, we're just offered a series of reactions or non-reactions, or just-pre-reactions, as in the next verse, where Annabelle's husband George is drunk in the bar of a cheap hotel, bragging and gambling, when "There's been a murder in the trailer park tonight" seems to burst in like a bully, shattering normality and changing George's life, though we don't get to see his reaction: the murder echoes onward through town and the narrative camera changes scene. The last verse is also ambiguous. A "faceless man, counting crumpled bills" is in another cheap hotel (or the same one?). Is he the murderer? He doesn't seem affected by the news of the murder, or at least he doesn't want to hear about it. He's a compulsive gambler waiting to learn the results of his bets, but did he get his money from Annabelle Evans' Airstream? We aren't told. But this song might be about the way a murder affects everyone around it. The neighbour, the husband, the unknown man who wants to get out of town with his girlfriend, the gambler -- they all represent the world around the murder. "Murder, Tonight, in the Trailer Park" is about death and loss, and the way it changes the living. In its specificity -- the victim and her husband have name and surname, and we can understand Anne Marie's reluctance from the bullying way her unnamed boyfriend is talking to her -- it reminds us that every life has its value and every murder has its effects on those around it. |
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| The Cowboy Junkies – This Street, That Man, This Life Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song is always attached, in my mind, to the killings by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, in St Catherine's and the hinterland of Toronto -- and specifically to the death of Kristen French, a murder that left an indelible impression on me as a boy growing up in Toronto at the time. It talks about the secrets behind the doors of the houses, and inside one of those secret houses lurks an evil man who secretly does evil things. From the bridge we can infer that the singer is a parent, and what the evil man has done is to kidnap and kill her daughter. The final verse throbs with loss and regret, "soft and distant, calling/ like a fading memory". One of the saddest songs I know. |
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| Aimee Mann – Ballantines Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think this is a song about a manager getting fired. It's got the form of a drinking song, and in fact a sort of Oktoberfest German beer-hall tuba punctuation fills it. But as usual with Aimee Mann, the upbeat music acts as an ironic comment on the lyrics. If you listen to the song with the idea of a boss getting fired, it all makes a lot of sense: It must be hard, ringing the bells of doors that don't swing wide Anymore It must be hard, hearing the sound of voices just inside Of the door In other words, the guy was once inside, and doors would fall open for him, but now he's outside, stuck listening to the voices of those who used to be his peers. And men who couldn't hold your coat Once hung on every anecdote So it must be hard watching the fellows gloat This is why I think it's a boss who's been fired. He used to be surrounded by servile yes-men, the "men who couldn't hold your coat", who "once hung on every anecdote", and these are now gloating at the downfall of their former chief. Maybe he's done something specific to get himself fired; gotten drunk at a big company do, stood up and said something awful. "It must be tough knowing your stuff can only horrify the elite." In response, he's told everyone to get lost. Another hint that he's been fired is the line "It must be tough getting the same heave-ho". It sounds like a drunk getting tossed out of a bar, but it might mean that our hero is getting fired, just as he has fired others. When we reach the bridge verse, the theme of ostracism gets even clearer: The patrons at the bar In Lexington, Kentucky Once sprung for every drink you downed But things the way they are It's not that kind of party If what you've got just might be going around You know how it is when you have bad luck and suddenly no one wants to know you. Obviously now the hero's been fired, the barflies in Lexington aren't paying for any more drinks. "But things the way they are, it's not that kind of party." And bad luck is contagious: "if what you've got just might be going around." And fat cats won't be getting thin Seeing the kinda jam you're in But will angels dance on the head of another pin Ballantines? Ballantines Ballantines! The other bosses aren't losing sleep, or weight, over the hero's suffering. The song ends with a question, "will angels dance on the head of another pin", or will another miracle happen? Will he get another job? In the meantime, Aimee's oracle answers with the offer of a beer. Not to get too lit student on it, but it's just like the message that finally arrives in the Renaissance epic "Gargantua and Pantagruel", in which the heroes embark on a long adventure to find the legendary Oracle of the Bottle. When they do find it, it gives a simple message: "Trink", drink. |
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| Aimee Mann – Little Bombs Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think this is a John song, and the "notice on my door" that he finds on the 22nd floor is an eviction notice from his room, his "cell in the Lennox Hotel". Not a particularly nice hotel room, then. Maybe the undercurrent here is of hopelessness and poverty. The "perspective lines converging", from his picture window far above Atlanta, seem to underline his remoteness from ordinary life and human contact. John seems uncertain whether or not the trees are little bombs, little destructive agents, or little pom-poms, cheering him on. It's a more widespread ambiguity for him -- as if he doesn't understand fundamental differences in his own life, can't distinguish the good things from the bad things. Halfway through the song, when he finds the notice on his door, he notices the sun shining indifferently on the "little bombs", the "little pom-poms", and this underscores his remoteness. The trees aren't bombs or pom-poms, they're just trees. It's up to him to interpret what he wants them to mean for him, and he can't decide, but they make him think about the emptiness and anticlimax of his life, "not with a bang but a whimper" as several of you have said. Not even his failure is a mushroom cloud, just a fizzle. Both characters in the songs on this album seem gradually to be fading out of existence. They note their fading, but don't stop it and perhaps can't. |
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| Aimee Mann – Going Through the Motions Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is Caroline talking about John's addiction. He repents and goes sober for a while, but the underlying addiction keeps its grip on him and so he's just "going through the motions" of rehab, while as soon as he's out of the program he'll "go under like a submarine". And he lacks self-awareness so much that he "won't see it coming". She, on the other hand, can see some bad end coming -- "the big finale" -- that is the direct result of him just miming sobriety. The song begins with an arresting exclamation, "Something isn't right!" and carries on with a lot of strength and force. Often in other songs we find the voice of Caroline speaking almost as if stunned, in short declarative sentences, but here she is perceptive and cynical, not buying John's "dog and pony show", his salesman's patter. She is trying to offer him a shiny alternate future, "up there in San Rafael", but unless he really confronts his addiction she'll "never see him well". Then she warns him of the negative future she can see if he doesn't change his ways. This is one of Caroline's strongest songs as a character. |
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| Aimee Mann – I Was Thinking I Could Clean Up for Christmas Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It does seem to be a song about suicide. The narrator, an alcoholic boxer named John (which we know from the rest of the album, "The Forgotten Arm"), is going to go sober for one last Christmas and then he's "through", "done". The most poignant part is at the end: And that once upon a time I believed it was a victimless crime This might refer to John's alcoholism, or his imminent suicide, and it seems to recognise that Caroline will be the victim in either case. He says he's sorry "that I made you a witness to my moral decay". The song is shot through with weariness and self-disgust, which is in ironic counterpoint to the honkytonk piano and generally upbeat sound, almost as if John were singing his own lyrics to a song he was listening to in a bar. |
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| Aimee Mann – Dear John Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The song begins with the beginning of a relationship, when Caroline (the narrator, whose name isn't given in the song but which we know from the rest of the album) sees John boxing at the fair in Richmond, Virginia. But there's a big leap in time and events halfway though, with "But numbers come up". So at some point John was drafted and in Kuala Lumpur (!), and Caroline is singing this from some time far in the future with respect to the beginning of the song. Now the midway itself is gone and it would seem that the memory of John himself is fading. So the song brackets the beginning and the epilogue of a relationship. But what happened? How did John get drafted, how did they lose touch? The song doesn't tell us. What is left is a memory of a memory, and a pervasive melancholy. |
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