| Okkervil River – A Favor Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| anyone else suspect this song details the same narrative as It Was My Season? | |
| Okkervil River – It Was My Season Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I love the impact of the last line of this song, when suddenly you realize that it's more than just the story of two teenagers in a typical forbidden relationship. When you realize that both parties are presumably male, suddenly the penultimate verse becomes SO depressing. "When I look back on it now, remember how mixed up I got before they got me sorted out...." He looks back and ignores the passion he felt earlier in the song, saying he was just "mixed up" for having feelings for another man. When he says "all that head filled with doubt," the doubt he's experiencing is the relationship itself. Convinced that his feelings were immoral, he hardly thinks about them anymore. An appropriate narrative for a song taking place in a small town during the 80s. I love the detour the song takes to talk about Jason's dad and his experience in the war. It seems completely unrelated, but it emphasizes the character's strained home life and also mirrors the main theme of the song. The line "They crossed his wires completely when they made him fire that gun" shows how social expectations can rob your comfort. The war took away Jason's dad's peace of mind, just has homophobia took away the narrator's security in his romantic feelings. Another interesting thing I realized about this song is that it's really similar to "A Favor" from their EP "Sleep and Wake Up Songs." A story of two teenagers in a vague romantic relationship, contrasted by descriptions of one character's father in the war. The line "I would be anything that you wanted me to be, but how could I change my body?" makes a lot of sense if you assume the speaker is a man uncomfortable with his feelings for another man. |
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| Blue October – Any Man In America Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I really like this song, but it makes me so uncomfortable. Courts actually tend to favor men in custody cases, when both parents fight equally. I'm not saying Justin's individual case wasn't judged unfairly, but the last thing we need is a song liberating men to "take back [their] control." They are still very much in control of our society. | |
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