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June July Lyrics
june july I went home to live with my mom
at night I sat out to watch cicadas on the lawn
june july, confusion tennessee
here sherman’s army leveled troops in 1863
now those battlefields are marked and paragraphed
and maintained by national park service trust
at night I walked through those fields
looking for proof of death, echoes of wounded soldier appeals
tonight the rain clouds are pressing down
hovering low, warning me to go back home
I saw lightning flicker in the clouds
one and two thousand, better turn around
light was focused down on me
white spike cracked and threw me to the ground
when I awoke the sun was streaming over the fields
warming the ground soaked with summer rain
at night I sat out to watch cicadas on the lawn
june july, confusion tennessee
here sherman’s army leveled troops in 1863
and maintained by national park service trust
looking for proof of death, echoes of wounded soldier appeals
tonight the rain clouds are pressing down
hovering low, warning me to go back home
one and two thousand, better turn around
white spike cracked and threw me to the ground
warming the ground soaked with summer rain
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was he really struck by lightning?
this song is so beautiful. i think it's about history of all sorts and how it affects us by its magnitude...which is probably wrong but i feel like the song is trying to say something magnificent with the history of the battlefields once considered majestic and the lightning strike and everything.
i think it's about looking for meaning in things that were thought to have been important. confusion tennesee and the battlefield are metaphors for his state of mind and the relationship. and his relationship feels like it's just another catalogued one in the books. just something that happened. so he's looking for meaning and everything is telling him to go back home, and when he finally does start to leave it's too late cos fate decided to give him a little push and wake him up with a brand new day, something to look forward to past the rain.
I can't help but wonder. Did he die, and is the sun and the warm ground heaven, or was he just knocked unconscious, and maybe woke up the next day?
femmesofrussia's interpretation seems to have the most in common with my own. To me, the narration begins as he's going home to live with his mom, seeking to get away from the pain of a relationship gone wrong. His fixation on the past seems to suggest that his action isn't working well as a coping method. His despondency, as represented by the storm clouds, comes to a peak, despite his awareness that he should be spending his energy otherwise. I imagine that the lightning strike and his awakening the next morning is something akin to hitting bottom and being struck with the number of possibilities that the future still holds.
That could be a whole bunch of over-analysis, though.
For what it's worth, John said he wrote this song for his brother Ray.