| The Beach Boys – Heroes and Villains Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| *his children | |
| The Beach Boys – Heroes and Villains Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I agree with your interpretation that it's about American pioneers during the 19th century but I'd say cotillion is probably referring to the dance. My guess is that the cotillion part refers to Margarita from the cantina part of the song. "Once a night cotillion squared the fight" means that every night the fighting stopped because everyone would be in the cantina drinking and watcing Margarita dance, but one night a fight broke out and Margarita was killed when she got caught in the crossfire. This is what the line "Heroes and villains/just see what you've done" refers to. Perhaps the man from whose perspective the story is told is the one who accidentally killed her? I'm thinking about the line "You're under arrest" and "My children were raised". The second line sure sounds like he didn't raise his children himself, maybe because he was jailed for the murder? The lines "My children were raised/You know they suddenly rise/They started slow long ago" make it could refer to the fact that he's been gone for a long time and did not see his children grow up. So basically it's about a man who leaves some city in the north and goes to live in a town near the border. There's a lot of fighting but he knows that there will one day be peace even though he might not live to see it ("Stand or fall/I know there shall be peace in the valley"). He falls in love with Margarita who performs at the cantina. She might also be the girl he has children with. One night a gun fight breaks out in the cantina and he accidentally kills her and is arrested. While in jail he's children are raised by other people, maybe a relative, a friend or complete strangers, and when he's finally free again they're all grown up and living ordinary, peaceful lives ("Head to toe healthy wealthy and wise"), probably up north. Now he's old and writes about his experiences so that people may learn from the mistakes made by the "heroes and villains". What do you think? |
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