| The Genocide Approach – Yes, I Know Zachary Taylor Was A Great War Hero And All, But That Doesn't Mean For A Second He Can Cut My Hair Lyrics | 8 months ago |
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@[jb014:53595] Your post is very much like my own take on the song. (I was planning to put something up, but now it's been done!) I had been looking at older posts and they all seemed to have grabbed the wrong end of the stick; I don't think JT would write a song about freewheeling young things who go on to live a long and productive life and call it 'Never Die Young'. In 2015 he told Rolling Stone, "It's a sad song, but also hopeful and celebratory." Well the sadness is only there if you read between the lines and realise what ultimately becomes of them. And the last line, "But our golden ones sail on, sail on / To another land beneath another sky" would have to be the saddest and loveliest depiction of death that I've ever come across. Just how they died is anyone's guess, but the lines "Everyone used to run them down / They’re a little too sweet, they’re a little too tight / Not enough tough for this town" and "with their backs up against the wall" certainly hint that they came to grief at the hands of unfriendly locals. But maybe they were indeed hippies and JT, writing the song in 1988, was remembering events of the late 60s and that it was a drug OD that brought them down. Either way, this is my favourite James Taylor track. But then, I always was a sucker for a sad song. |
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