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Swan Swan H Lyrics
Swan, swan, hummingbird
Hurrah, we are all free now
What noisy cats are we
Girl and dog he bore his cross
A long, low time ago, people talk to me
Johnny Reb, what's the price of fans?
Forty a piece or three for one dollar?
Hey captain don't you want to buy
Some bone chains and toothpicks?
Night wings, her hair chains
Here's your wooden greenback, sing
Wooden beams and dovetail sweep
I struck that picture ninety times
I walked that path a hundred ninety
Long, low time ago, people talk to me
A pistol hot cup of rhyme
The whiskey is water, the water is wine
Marching feet, Johnny Reb, what's the price of heroes?
Six in one, half dozen the other
Tell that to the captain's mother
Hey captain don't you want to buy
Some bone chains and toothpicks?
Night wings, her hair chains
Swan, swan, hummingbird
Hurrah, we are all free now
What noisy cats are we
Long, low time ago, people talk to me
A pistol hot cup of rhyme,
The whiskey is water, the water is wine
Hurrah, we are all free now
What noisy cats are we
Girl and dog he bore his cross
A long, low time ago, people talk to me
Forty a piece or three for one dollar?
Hey captain don't you want to buy
Some bone chains and toothpicks?
Here's your wooden greenback, sing
Wooden beams and dovetail sweep
I struck that picture ninety times
I walked that path a hundred ninety
Long, low time ago, people talk to me
The whiskey is water, the water is wine
Marching feet, Johnny Reb, what's the price of heroes?
Tell that to the captain's mother
Hey captain don't you want to buy
Some bone chains and toothpicks?
Swan, swan, hummingbird
Hurrah, we are all free now
What noisy cats are we
Long, low time ago, people talk to me
A pistol hot cup of rhyme,
The whiskey is water, the water is wine
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This song seems to be from the perspective of Southern whites languishing after the Civil War in an economically ruined South.
There are numerous references to commerce and trade, but items mentioned as being for sale here are uniformly frivolous items; I suspect that the implication is that necessities like food are scarce, so that trifles are the only things one can still buy.
A telling phrase is "wooden greenbacks": Greenback is a name for the US dollar, and "wooden", applied to currency, means false or worthless. This would describe Confederate currency near or after the end of the war, when it ceased to have monetary value.
Especially given the flat, joyless singing, we can tell that "hurrah, we are all free now" is not a celebration of the freedom the slaves had just been given, which is not profiting the white Southern population. The human loss of the war ("tell that to the captain's mother") is also part of their misery.
An interesting couplet is "whiskey is water; water is wine". Whiskey is watered down to deprive the buyer of value. But water is turned to wine in the New Testament -- that line seems to be at odds with the rest of the song, if it implies an upturn in fortunes while the rest of the song is uniformly about loss.
you are a very insightful and intelligent person. thank you for posting this. it is very interesting to me.
you are a very insightful and intelligent person. thank you for posting this. it is very interesting to me.
@rikdad Thanks much. I can now sing this with better understanding. Kudos
@rikdad Thanks much. I can now sing this with better understanding. Kudos
@rikdad101@yahoo.com a very good interpretation, though Michael rarely had direct meaning to his lyrics back then. He used to say he liked to “paint” imagery with interesting words and let listeners fill in the blanks as they see fit. You filled in the spaces nicely. “Hoorah we’re all free now” (to do what we’re told) is melancholy irony I enjoy in Michael’s lyrics. One of REMs best and because it was released before they got big, lesser known. Tragic.
@rikdad101@yahoo.com a very good interpretation, though Michael rarely had direct meaning to his lyrics back then. He used to say he liked to “paint” imagery with interesting words and let listeners fill in the blanks as they see fit. You filled in the spaces nicely. “Hoorah we’re all free now” (to do what we’re told) is melancholy irony I enjoy in Michael’s lyrics. One of REMs best and because it was released before they got big, lesser known. Tragic.
rikdad, you are completely right. I'd like to look at the last few lines:
Long, low time ago, people talk to me A pistol hot cup of rhyme, The whiskey is water, the water is wine
R.E.M. is a band from Georgia, so it is quite likely that they grew up hearing stories about the civil war. People talk to them about things that happened a "long, low time ago", yet for the people telling the stories the events still feel as real and recent as a pistol still smoking from firing, or a hot cup. Soldiers substituted whiskey for water, but "the water is wine" because at the last supper Jesus turned the water into wine (I think? Either way, I think it refers to the last supper). The soldiers remember drinking every night thinking it was their "last supper".
Some other lines:
Hey captain don't you want to buy Some bone chains and toothpicks?
The bone chains and toothpicks sounds weird, but I think it's saying that that's all that was left - death, the chains of slavery, and worthless things like toothpicks. R.E.M mocks the captain who has fought a war to be left with just this.
Wooden beams and dovetail sweep
Dovetails are the corners of buildings. This line is talking about Reconstruction following the Civil War, and about the South trying to pull itself back together.
Honestly, I have no idea what most of the specific lines are about. What the heck is the stuff about noisy cats? Why "swan swan hummingbird?" Overall though, it's about the Civil War and Reconstruction
I read that the song was written on the tour bus at 3 o'clock in the morning on the "Reconstruction" tour. Buck came up with what he called "fake Irish music", and Stipe quickly (20 mins) fitted words to it that he lifted from an old (1920s) book he had on post-Civil War slave hymns.
I read that the song was written on the tour bus at 3 o'clock in the morning on the "Reconstruction" tour. Buck came up with what he called "fake Irish music", and Stipe quickly (20 mins) fitted words to it that he lifted from an old (1920s) book he had on post-Civil War slave hymns.
It was the last in a series of "Southern folk" songs they wrote in 1984-5 (e.g. Wendell Gee, Good Advices, Green Grow the Rushes, Maps and Legends) because Stipe was going through a nostalgic phase in his lyric writing.
It was the last in a series of "Southern folk" songs they wrote in 1984-5 (e.g. Wendell Gee, Good Advices, Green Grow the Rushes, Maps and Legends) because Stipe was going through a nostalgic phase in his lyric writing.
I'm pretty sure the lines about "noisy cats" are just filler.
I'm pretty sure the lines about "noisy cats" are just filler.
Turning water into wine was actually the first miracle Jesus ever performed at a wedding in Cana. So that line probably doesn't have anything to do with soldiers thinking every night was their last. I would guess it probably has more to do with the reconstruction theme.
Turning water into wine was actually the first miracle Jesus ever performed at a wedding in Cana. So that line probably doesn't have anything to do with soldiers thinking every night was their last. I would guess it probably has more to do with the reconstruction theme.
"bone chains and toothpicks, night wings, or hair chains" may refer to memento mori or the common practice in the 17th-19th centuries of creating mementos (in the form of jewelry) of the dead from their bodies -- most commonly hair.
"bone chains and toothpicks, night wings, or hair chains" may refer to memento mori or the common practice in the 17th-19th centuries of creating mementos (in the form of jewelry) of the dead from their bodies -- most commonly hair.
hahahahahahaha! R.E.M. songs have exact meanings? hahahahahahahaha!
I've tried bitterly to figure out every line, but I couldn't do it. Hell, I never even came close....
About 10 years ago, there was a guy at work who would bring in a magazine called Civil War. I would browse through them during breaks sometimes.
In one issue, they featured some original drawings (comics?) from civil war prisoner camps. I think it said that they were drawn by prisoners, but I suppose they could've been by soldiers.
The lines from 'Johnny Reb' through 'hair chains' were definitely lines I saw spoken in the drawings. As I remember it, that strip was about children prisoners selling trinkets they made to the soldiers. I think the 'what noisy cats are we' line was in one of the drawings too.
If I ever find any of these on the net, I'll post a link.
I thought about this song many times over the years and something just fell into place. Swans are among the largest flying birds, whereas hummingbirds are the smallest; that's not likely to be a coincidence.
I believe size is used as a metaphor for prosperity. The Civil War created winners and losers. Some ended the war with greater stature (swans), others with less (hummingbirds). The syntactic pattern may be borrowed from the game "Duck, Duck, Goose." Most people are identified as a duck. When someone is identified as a goose, they have to get up and pursue the person who labeled them that. Birds are used, arbitrarily, to classify each player, at the caprice of the player who is standing. It may be that Stipe saw the way the Civil War determined people's destinies as arbitrary in this way, identifying the winners as swans, and the losers as hummingbirds.
Maybe this is too obscure a chain of associations, but it fits the overall message as I'd posted here seven (wow, seven!) years ago.
@rikdad Because I'm such a geek, I always thought of the way birds, swans especially, are portrayed in myth and legend as the messengers from the Land of the Dead. My mind (which is just one big pool of free-association) also always wants to make a contrast between the "noisy cats" and the way the first letters of the birds' (natural prey of cats) names would spell, "ssh."
@rikdad Because I'm such a geek, I always thought of the way birds, swans especially, are portrayed in myth and legend as the messengers from the Land of the Dead. My mind (which is just one big pool of free-association) also always wants to make a contrast between the "noisy cats" and the way the first letters of the birds' (natural prey of cats) names would spell, "ssh."
....
[Edit: Needed to be edited]
really sad little song with confusing lyrics. its about someting in a american history, a war mayb.I heard michael say that somewhere
It's about the American Civil war but i'm not sure on the exact meaning of the lyrics.
While it's impossible to decipher the specifics (although Johnny Reb is slang for a confederate soldier), I can add that Mike Mills once spoke of this tune and, in particular, the title of the song. He said that the H was supposed to read as "Huh", as if the speaker was cut short. Mills said this was just a bit too pretentious for his liking i think.
Thank you very much rikdad :)