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Give It a Day Lyrics
Increase Mather told her daddy,
"I roundly disagree with you,
Your vocal style's too preachy
All the yokels mock your teaching"
But Cotton, he was just oblivious
To all their cutting pleas
Soon, the townfolk took to it
In every pew, they looked to him
For guidance just like eyeless lambs
Awaiting that old kebab stand
As skeptics formed, a nation's born
Wants to have at Cotton's tree
But Increase had the map to them
They burned on open fires
So the word spread just like smallpox in the Sudan...
The gentry cried,
"Give it a day" (6x)
Years and years have passed
Since the Puritans invaded our soul
Just like those evil terrorists
You'll never know
But today the gods can't make us quake
We see our lives as situations
Eyes are eyes and teeth are teeth
Well, mine are rotten underneath
I got two ways you can separate from the clan...
If I could fly
I could fly
I hope you profited from this bulletin
And it stabilized your land
Your gentrified, your Alzheim' clan
But your father is another one of 'em
I don't wanna mention him again
'Cause I talked to him last night
He hates my guts, we had a fight
And he called you a slut
Girl, why's that, what did you do to him...
To make him think,
He...
"I roundly disagree with you,
Your vocal style's too preachy
All the yokels mock your teaching"
But Cotton, he was just oblivious
To all their cutting pleas
In every pew, they looked to him
For guidance just like eyeless lambs
Awaiting that old kebab stand
As skeptics formed, a nation's born
Wants to have at Cotton's tree
But Increase had the map to them
They burned on open fires
"Give it a day" (6x)
Since the Puritans invaded our soul
Just like those evil terrorists
You'll never know
But today the gods can't make us quake
We see our lives as situations
Eyes are eyes and teeth are teeth
Well, mine are rotten underneath
I could fly
And it stabilized your land
Your gentrified, your Alzheim' clan
But your father is another one of 'em
I don't wanna mention him again
'Cause I talked to him last night
He hates my guts, we had a fight
And he called you a slut
He...
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I love this song, and the lyrics are some of the best I've seen. At least part of the song is referring to organized religion in the U.S., but I'm still not sure about the "I hope you profited from this bulletin..." verse.
Hey, prettyrad...sorry it took me so long to get around to correcting the "CAN'T make us quake" error -- there's ALWAYS some nuance in an SM lyric that goes (sometimes badly) misinterpreted, until the day you're mashing avocados to make guacamole, then accidentally get jalapeno juice in your eye, which causes you to suddenly, inexplicably make sense of some Pavement lyric that had baffled you for years. It's just the way it works, you know what I mean. Anyways, thanks! :-D
Hey, prettyrad...sorry it took me so long to get around to correcting the "CAN'T make us quake" error -- there's ALWAYS some nuance in an SM lyric that goes (sometimes badly) misinterpreted, until the day you're mashing avocados to make guacamole, then accidentally get jalapeno juice in your eye, which causes you to suddenly, inexplicably make sense of some Pavement lyric that had baffled you for years. It's just the way it works, you know what I mean. Anyways, thanks! :-D
increase mather was a minister in the 17th century during the salem witch trials who believed sexuality and witchcraft were linked. cotton mather was his more radical son.
Just have to say, I love this song, and it's probably the most well-constructed Pavement lyrics, up there with Shady Lane. Here are my thoughts:
The first verse concerns the Salem Witch trials, and actually Increase was Cotton's father. This really makes the first few lines confusing. If you ignore the fact that Increase was insanely Puritan and believed in witches, he was a rad dude, because he protested that the witch-burners were burning innocent civilians, and tried to get them to cut it out; whereas his father Cotton was a bit more zealous. The "smallpox in the Sudan" parallels Cotton's surprisingly progressive support of the new-fangled smallpox inoculation, at a time when smallpox was spreading throughout Boston.
The most annoying discrepancy in the lyrics as transcribed here completely alters the whole message. It should read: "But today the gods CAN'T make us quake" - the crux of the song is that man has less romantic notions, and everything is too real and un-magical nowadays... Times have changed, and we're far more scared of real things like terrorism, than evil spirits. That's not to say people aren't still evil, just a less exciting form of evil.
The last verse is also confusing, but it rolls off the tongue really well, in typical Malkmus style. I think it's just going back to the real world with its petty squabbles; juxtaposed next to the historics of the first verse, it's supposed to seem banal. It tails off exasperatedly.
This is an anti-male chauvinism song. Malk changes the birth order and sex of Increase to assist his narrative. Basically, the first verse sets out a young Puritan girl uncomfortable with all the fire and brimstone talk for good reason...it could lead to her and a bunch of other young girls on the fire pit. Eventually, the town gets swept up in the hysteria.
Later, the narrator indicates that he (we) are descendants of these Puritans and can't necessarily disown that heritage (see "the Puritans invaded our soul" and the bit about his rotten, i.e. English, teeth) even though it may be ugly.
The last part about calling the girl a slut brings it all home. This girl's father is a jerk for calling her a slut and her boyfriend is an insecure douchenozzle for letting it bothering him and actually calling her on it. Thus men are pigs as they were in the Puritan days.
This song is about how certain ideas can circulate society through tactics of enforcement by the governing body, like "arab terrorists". Juts like in the 17th century innocent people were burnt because of accusations of witches it still happens today even though "Years and years have passed" nothing has changed. The mainstream media being a good example from where false blame and group categorisation can stem, like giving arab's the reputation of being "terrorists". This in turn has the "yokels" sending their offspring as soldiers to war and it keeps the west supporting western imperialism in the east.
What's with the "Aych ay see two (half a canyon too)" in the lyrics at the very beginning?