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Where to Now St. Peter? Lyrics
I took myself a blue canoe
And I floated like a leaf
Dazzling, dancing
Half enchanted
In my Merlin sleep
Crazy was the feeling
Restless were my eyes
Insane they took the paddles
My arms they paralysed
<b>Chorus</b>
So where to now St. Peter
If it's true I'm in your hands
I may not be a Christian
But I've done all one man can
I understand I'm on the road
Where all that was is gone
So where to now St. Peter
Show me which road I'm on
Which road I'm on
It took a sweet young foreign gun
This lazy life is short
Something for nothing always ending
With a bad report
Dirty was the daybreak
Sudden was the change
In such a silent place as this
Beyond the rifle range
<i>(Chorus)</i>
I took myself a blue canoe
And I floated like a leaf
Dazzling, dancing
Half enchanted
In my Merlin sleep
Restless were my eyes
Insane they took the paddles
My arms they paralysed
So where to now St. Peter
If it's true I'm in your hands
I may not be a Christian
But I've done all one man can
I understand I'm on the road
Where all that was is gone
So where to now St. Peter
Show me which road I'm on
Which road I'm on
This lazy life is short
Something for nothing always ending
With a bad report
Sudden was the change
In such a silent place as this
Beyond the rifle range
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As a Vietnam Veteran (1966 mostly around the DMZ) I immediately identified with the lyric 'It took a sweet young foreign gun'. Indeed. The courage of those 'peasants' standing up to the most vicious military in history (not at all how I saw it at the time!) was a wake-up call for more than just some of us Vets. The relatively comfortable life of working people in advanced capitalist countries contrasts sharply with what I saw in SE Asia and the Philippines. And, I always heard the words 'This lazy life is yours' and not 'short'. I now know that, ultimately, capitalism has had nothing to offer humanity since the 1890's and THAT realization was sudden, dirty, and violent. And whether the lyrics mean I'm dead or not one thing is for sure : "I understand I'm on the road where all that was is gone" and I'll continue on that road until it ends.
@Roadster Wow! Thank you for sharing such a powerful insight. My older brother was in the Vietnam War in the early days of reconnaissance, and after. I only knew him after he came home, as I was born when he was away. He never shared much except that he was left with anger so intense that he lived in fear of it getting out. In his seventies, he admitted that he lived with PTSD. What a burden of truth, ... and the discovery of lies to have to live with. But also to know reality as stark...
@Roadster Wow! Thank you for sharing such a powerful insight. My older brother was in the Vietnam War in the early days of reconnaissance, and after. I only knew him after he came home, as I was born when he was away. He never shared much except that he was left with anger so intense that he lived in fear of it getting out. In his seventies, he admitted that he lived with PTSD. What a burden of truth, ... and the discovery of lies to have to live with. But also to know reality as stark as you have witnessed is mind and soul-altering. Again, wow. I imagine there is no 'thank you' or 'I'm sorry' big enough to even nick the enormous weight these memories must hold.
thats the second verse the first one is about an drug aduict
It's about someone who's been killed in war.
This was from a detailed review of the album and seems like a good explanation:
"Where To Now St. Peter" benefits from some tremendous Gus Dudgeon production. The song, which features a soldier killed in action as he faces St. Peter, revolves around an ethereal theme, so Dudgeon adds echo to John's stunning falsetto vocals and swirls them around the speakers as Caleb Quaye's guitar licks flicker like the flames of hell itself."
http://www.toptenreviews.com/scripts/eframe/url.htm?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyvault.com%2Ftoc.php5%3Freview%3D4260
It is generally thought that Taupin, the lyricist, had in mind a soldier killed on the battlefield, either in the (U.S.) Civil War or in World War I, and finding himself drifting toward the afterlife, asking (St. Peter), "What comes next?"
The song it about a soldier being shot in the Civil War. His journey from the battlefield to the afterlife. It's not about WW1 or 2, not about Vietnam. Remember the album it came from and what Bernie was trying to do. At that time the "Band" was writing real American roots music and Bernie wanted to write his version of that time period. Tumbleweed Connection is a great album and this is one of the classic songs from that record. As always, this is my opinion but from what I have researched this is the real meaning.
@Boydman Yes they were both heavily influenced by The Band and that's what also comes to my mind when reading the lyrics. Songs about the American Civil War, about death and whether life has meaning. It's interesting that at this time 1970 the Vietnam War was raging and dividing many people. Artists like Elton & Bernie, Bob Dylan & The Band were trying to make some sense of it all using the beauty of artistry in both lyrics and music.
@Boydman Yes they were both heavily influenced by The Band and that's what also comes to my mind when reading the lyrics. Songs about the American Civil War, about death and whether life has meaning. It's interesting that at this time 1970 the Vietnam War was raging and dividing many people. Artists like Elton & Bernie, Bob Dylan & The Band were trying to make some sense of it all using the beauty of artistry in both lyrics and music.
I love this song. I am not sure what the meaning is, but who cares.
I believe that it was written about a drug addict who is committing suicide by overdose. The blue canoe is his vessel to another place in time. Or that the blue canoe Is the drug. ? He is experiencing a comforting high......'.floated like a leaf, dazzled and dancing, half enchanted, in my merlin sleep'........ (mystical prophet).......as he is fading through his thoughts he makes reference to his life being in a poor situation and now that he has come this far there is no turning back..... on the road to where all that was.... is gone. I don't...
I believe that it was written about a drug addict who is committing suicide by overdose. The blue canoe is his vessel to another place in time. Or that the blue canoe Is the drug. ? He is experiencing a comforting high......'.floated like a leaf, dazzled and dancing, half enchanted, in my merlin sleep'........ (mystical prophet).......as he is fading through his thoughts he makes reference to his life being in a poor situation and now that he has come this far there is no turning back..... on the road to where all that was.... is gone. I don't think 'sweet, young foreign gun' is a weapon. I think that he was talking about always being blamed for bad outcomes that were not his fault. He has accepted death and on his way out asks himself the universal question........Where to Now? and he is not fearful
I think it's about someone being executed by lethal injection and slipping off into death. The blue canoe is the gurney. They "took the paddles" because they're killing him, they "paralyzed his arms" because they're strapping him down. The change from day-to-day life in the prison to the silence of the execution chamber (away from the rifle range of the guards) is so sudden.
Also, it seems he's being executed for murder committed with a "sweet young foreign gun," taking something for nothing like that ends with a bad report, a conviction.
Also, it seems he's being executed for murder committed with a "sweet young foreign gun," taking something for nothing like that ends with a bad report, a conviction.
This song is on the album Tumbleweed Connection, which is a theme album based on the American "Old West." So, I think it has to be interpreted in that context. For that reason, I don't think its about lethal injection, but, like poetry, it can be interpreted however you want, so go with it.
This song is on the album Tumbleweed Connection, which is a theme album based on the American "Old West." So, I think it has to be interpreted in that context. For that reason, I don't think its about lethal injection, but, like poetry, it can be interpreted however you want, so go with it.
When Taupin wrote this song, lethal injection didn't exist, the concept was barely even known. "Blue Canoe" was probably LSD. It was suggested at the time that the song was about the assination of Robert Kennedy, the "sweet young foreign gun" being Sirhan Sirhan.
When Taupin wrote this song, lethal injection didn't exist, the concept was barely even known. "Blue Canoe" was probably LSD. It was suggested at the time that the song was about the assination of Robert Kennedy, the "sweet young foreign gun" being Sirhan Sirhan.
Your interpretation hinges on the words "took the paddles" which isn't what is sung. The words are: "Insanely took a paddle" as in paddling in knee-deep water. I am more inclined to agree with zameron that it about drug use. The Blue Canoe is a narcotic which leads to a feeling of floating like a leaf, seeing dazzling, dancing lights then not being able to save himself (because of paralysed arms) after falling in the water while taking a paddle. Quite how the last verse connects with the others is a puzzle. I have always thought that it...
Your interpretation hinges on the words "took the paddles" which isn't what is sung. The words are: "Insanely took a paddle" as in paddling in knee-deep water. I am more inclined to agree with zameron that it about drug use. The Blue Canoe is a narcotic which leads to a feeling of floating like a leaf, seeing dazzling, dancing lights then not being able to save himself (because of paralysed arms) after falling in the water while taking a paddle.
Quite how the last verse connects with the others is a puzzle. I have always thought that it relates to someone taking a walk in the danger zone beyond the targets of a rifle range and being struck by a stray bullet. That of course is only my personal perception and I may be completely off target. (Pardon the pun) It's also possible that Bernie's lyrics may be deliberately obscure, or unfinished or have had verses removed to make the song shorter. The only thing I am sure of is It isn't about an execution. Many people draw conclusions about this album's lyrics on the flimsy basis that there are some American Civil War images on the sleeve so they throw soldiers and firing squads into the meaning. The major images on the sleev are photos taken at an English preserved railway station so why not use these as a basis for interpreting the lyrics? The fact remains that Taupin wrote the words out of his own imagination and the album artwork was probably the last artistic contribution to the whole project. He didn't select the images and then write songs about them.
@OpalEyedEssence Execution by lethal injection didn't even exist when John and Taupin wrote the song in the late 1960s. It's about a young English infantryman in World War I who is killed in battle ("a sweet young foreign gun") and wakes up to find himself dead, asking St. Peter what his afterlife fate will be.
@OpalEyedEssence Execution by lethal injection didn't even exist when John and Taupin wrote the song in the late 1960s. It's about a young English infantryman in World War I who is killed in battle ("a sweet young foreign gun") and wakes up to find himself dead, asking St. Peter what his afterlife fate will be.
Opal Eyed Essence ... This song was released in 1970 and using Lethal Injections as a form of capital punishment do not begin until sometime around the mid-1990's. So although insightful, probably not correct.
My take is it is clearly about death - I think we all can agree on that. I feel the two verses are about two ways one may die - but the result is the same - we "are on the road to where all that was is gone" - the lyric acknowledges that your identity and memories are gone. The song offers no answer to what lies beyond but because of the lyric I quote, I feel that Bernie was trying to accept that it may be nothingness.
The first death in my mind was drug related - at first a pleasurable experience and then it goes bad with paralysis and death. Song writers - like Steely Dan's Deludin in Gaslighting Abbie - like to make up new names for drugs, hence Blue Canoe. Remember the narrator in the song took it voluntarily - it wasn't forced on him like in an execution. The second death feels like the Civil War - which would be in keeping with the historical period expressed in many of the other songs on Tumbleweed Connection. Of course you must accept that foreign means the other side of the conflict ( I can see how it may be interpreted as a WW1 or WW2 death ). Final though I just love the use of the double meaning of the word report - the sound of a loud gun - and a summary of one's life.