| Beirut – Elephant Gun Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Great song! I had to choose a song and relate it to something Iearned in History class, so here's my interpretation of Elephant Gun: “Elephant Gun” by “Beirut” is a simple song about an Aboriginal soldier who goes to war during World War I. He tells his story reflecting on his dream of escaping his hardships during the Victorian Era as a young boy when he states: “If I was young, I'd flee this town. I’d bury my dreams underground.” Although many English-speaking Canadians had a basic standard of living on farms and in small villages, many Aboriginal peoples found themselves displaced and isolated from society on their small reserves. Many of them were forced to farm, while Aboriginal children were placed in strict, overcrowded residential schools as part of the federal government’s policy of assimilation. Evidently, the boy’s dreams finally come true as he matures into an adult and war unfolds in Europe. Canada, being part of the British Empire, was automatically at war when Britain declared war on Germany; it became allied with the Allies. Within the first month, over 30 thousand men volunteered to fight oversees. Most of them volunteered because they saw it as an adventure, while others because they had no job and the war in Europe meant a chance to escape financial hardships at home. In the case of Aboriginal peoples and other visible minorities, most of them were not allowed to join, however, those who were able to overcome the discrimination were promoted within the ranks. As the Aboriginal man is finally “far from home,” he dreams of an “elephant gun taking [the enemies] down one by one.” The enemies were the Central Powers, specifically, the German troops who were trying to invade France through Belgium. The “elephant gun” he is also referring to was a long gun both the British and the Germans obtained from their African colonies in an attempt to break the stalemate in the trenches. As the two sides began to fight, primarily through trench warfare, the Aboriginal man compares the war to the changing of seasons when he states: “Let the seasons begin.” Just as seasons are a shift in weather, war is an unpredictable shift in a soldier’s life for what is yet to come. Regardless, the motive of a soldier during a war is to win in order to make peace, and in a sense, to “take the big king down.” The “king” that is being referred to is likely the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, which can be a metonymy for the oppressive German Empire as a whole. As the war persisted, so did the German tactics. On April 22, 1915, Germans used chlorine gas in the Second Battle of Ypres on French and Canadian troops. The Aboriginal man describes the chlorine gas as “[ripping] through the silence of [their] camp at night." Regardless, him, along with all the other Canadian troops, kept their guard. Overall, this song relates well to the idea that a solder’s expectations of war are far off from the realities of it, but in the end, they maintain their dedication with the hopes of making a difference. |
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