submissions
| The Tragically Hip – Wheat Kings Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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The song "Wheat Kings", from Fully Completely, is mainly about David Milgaard. Milgaard, who was from Saskatchewan, was wrongly convicted of murder and served over 20 years in prison before being released. Wheat kings are the nicknames for those giant wheat silos you see on the prairies on farms and such. Gord probably got inspiration for the song title from the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Western Hockey League team in Brandon, Manitoba. In terms of "Wheat kings and pretty things", the Pretty Things were a band that the Hip used to listen to a lot when they were first starting out in 1983, and they covered a few Pretty Things songs in their sets way back in the beginning, so this line is probably a tribute to that band. The entire lyric "wheat kings and pretty things/lets just see what the morning brings" was probably written as if Milgaard himself was saying this as he's looking out his jail cell window, out at the prairies, hence the "wheat kings and pretty things" and his undying hope that he'll be exonerated, and his optimism towards this end: "Let's just see what the morning brings." |
submissions
| The Tragically Hip – Nautical Disaster Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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Few believe that the song is about a single theme, but it seems that one theme may be about the raid on Dieppe during World War II. Dieppe was a daylight, pre-D-day raid of a German held port on the coast of France. In the assault, carried out by Canadian troops, nearly 4000 men were killed out of a force of about 4800. The lyrics to "Nautical Disaster" are extremely close to these facts.
Gord Downie himself has alluded to the fact that the song is one long metaphor for a failed relationship, but the literal meaning has ties to Dieppe. |
submissions
| Neil Young – Old Man Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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awesome, awesome song...one of those that you never get tired of.... I always thought it was about a young man who's afraid that he disappointed his father, and he's asking his father to remember what it was like to be young and clueless about life. |
submissions
| Neil Young – Helpless Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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The town he's referring to is Blind River , Ontario, where he lived for awhile (he's from Manitoba), and in that town, he felt at home. |
submissions
| The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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I read in an interview with Jack White that this song is about gossip back home (and the title is a reference to Jack's chilhood..he thought the Salvation Army was called the Seven Nation army) |
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