| Regina Spektor – Back of a Truck Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I believe that “Back of a Truck” is about an obese woman who suffers a terrible fate when her porch balcony collapses under her enormous weight, down onto the Brooklyn sidewalk below. The "dowg" / "monument" was the hot dog she ate just before the accident. As she lies there, badly injured, she has streams of consciousness and visions of some of the things she has seen from her front porch over the years (street commerce, immigrant sweat shop workers walking home, police brutality, etc) . Meanwhile, numerous virtually useless factoids of information that she has apparently heard on the news continue to cloud her mind. As “the story gets hazy” and the “bad song” (i.e. the end of her life) begins to play, she starts to lose consciousness, but she has the realization that she has suffered a very serious head injury (the “hair gets too long” is a metaphor for the stream of blood coming from the back of her head). Her subconscious asks for the back of her head back during this portion of the song, because she wants to be made whole again. But it really is much too late, just as the paramedics had said earlier in the song. The final moments of the song are the woman passing away, with a rather sensual moan. In the anti-folk music tradition, there is some commentary about social problems.....such as New York City's failed educational system and the self-centeredness of people, in general ( i.e., people putting their own egos ahead of their important professional responsibilities), like the woman’s former gym teacher who apparently did a very poor job of teaching her about good nutrition and physical fitness when she was in school, because he was too caught up in himself. Also, “geraniums", when portrayed in art and literature, often imply that their owner is a rather unsophisticated person. Yet, it's ironic, that even the geraniums in Brooklyn fancy themselves to be out of this world (i.e., "alien pods"). Anyway, that is what I got out of this song. It happens to be one of my favorite songs of any genre. This song is the epitome of left-brain creativity by one of the most gifted artists I know. It is absolutely brilliant and still brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it. |
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| Regina Spektor – Back of a Truck Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I believe that “Back of a Truck” is about a very obese New York woman who ate a hot dog (i.e. “dowg", “monument") and suffered a terrible accident when her porch balcony collapses under her enormous weight, down onto the sidewalk below. As she lay there, badly injured, she has hallucinations and visions of all the things she has seen from her front porch over the years (street commerce, sweat shop workers walking home, police brutality, etc) . Meanwhile, numerous virtually useless factoids of information that she has apparently heard on the news channel continue to contribute to her streams of consciousness. As “the story gets hazy” and the “bad song” (i.e. the end of her life) begins to play, she starts to lose consciousness, but she has the realization that she has suffered a very serious head injury (the “hair gets too long” is a metaphor for the trail of blood coming from the back of her head). Her subconscious asks for the back of her head back during this portion of the song, because she wants to see herself made whole again. But it really is too late, just as the paramedics had said earlier in the song. The final moments of the song are the woman passing away, with a very sensual moan. In the anti-folk tradition, there is some social commentary about problems.....like New York's failed educational system and the self-centeredness of people, in general ( i.e., people putting their own egos ahead of their important professional responsibilities), like the woman’s former gym teacher who apparently did a very poor job of teaching her about good nutrition and physical fitness when she was in school, because he was too caught up in himself. Also, “geraniums", as portrayed in art and literature, often imply that their owner is not-so-smart. Yet, it's ironic, that even the geraniums in New York fancy themselves to be out of this world (i.e. alien pods). Anyway, that is what I got out of this song. it happens to be one of my favorite songs of any genre. This song is the epitome of left-brain creativity by one of the most gifted artists I know. It is absolutely brilliant and still brings tears to my eyes when I listen to it. |
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