This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams
Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That's the way it goes
All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness I suppose
Lefty he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows
All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
The poets tell how Pancho fell
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story ends we're told
Pancho needs your prayers it's true,
But save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do
Now he's growing old
A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams
Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That's the way it goes
All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness I suppose
Lefty he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows
All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose
The poets tell how Pancho fell
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story ends we're told
Pancho needs your prayers it's true,
But save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do
Now he's growing old
A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose
Lyrics submitted by BRU149
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Holiday
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
This has to be one of the most perfect songs ever written. It tells a beautiful, complete story, without one spare word to it.
That said, I've always been intrigued by the first stanza. It seems unrelated to the "plot" that makes up the rest of the song, but somehow the song wouldn't be complete without it. Just on its own, it's an amazing piece of poetry. I like how it sends up all the myths about the freedom and virtue of "living on the road" that were so common in the 60s and 70s. He's talking to all the innocent romantics who went out to live that life, which was never more than a dream, who they could drop out of society and live "free and clean" on the road forever. In reality, all it did was turn them into cold, tough, hard men, and break their mothers' hearts.
Like I say, I love that first stanza, but I can't figure out how it relates to the rest of the song. Maybe Lefty started out as one like them, dreaming of a romantic bandit's life. Then, after circumstances got out of control and he betrayed Poncho, he lost his faith in himself and his own goodness, and now he looks in the mirror and sees himself as the "bad guy" with the skin like iron, breath like kerosene. So I guess the whole thing could be about good intentions gone wrong, the dangers of letting dreams and romance influence your decisions.
@iggy72 To me, the first verse connects to the rest of the song in the sense that it’s about expectations and/or dreams and, also, myths. Whether or not the person spoken of in the first verse is actually Lefty, the idea that living on the road was gonna keep him “free & clean” - two key words within the context of the song - or shield him from the ugliness of life, is mere folly. Lefty teamed up with Pancho, and they felt “free & clean” for a while. Until the “honest world” caught up with (nothing free or clean about robbery and/or murder), and cornered them. Being shot down by the Federales wasn’t what Lefty had in mind, so he ratted on Pancho, but ratting is hard on his conscience (“Lefty he can’t sing the blues all night long like he used to” ; “the dust that bit down south ended up in Lefty’s mouth” - nobody can sing with a mouthful (and nobody feels right with a mind full of “dirt” or “filth”) of dust (aka DIRT, aka, the opposite of “clean”), and he did it for money (aka “filthy lucre”)… the comments about it being about Jesus & Judas, that makes sense.
@iggy72 To me, the first verse connects to the rest of the song in the sense that it’s about expectations and/or dreams and, also, myths. Whether or not the person spoken of in the first verse is actually Lefty, the idea that living on the road was gonna keep him “free & clean” - two key words within the context of the song - or shield him from the ugliness of life, is mere folly. Lefty teamed up with Pancho, and they felt “free & clean” for a while. Until the “honest world” caught up with (nothing free or clean about robbery and/or murder), and cornered them. Being shot down by the Federales wasn’t what Lefty had in mind, so he ratted on Pancho, but ratting is hard on his conscience (“Lefty he can’t sing the blues all night long like he used to” ; “the dust that bit down south ended up in Lefty’s mouth” - nobody can sing with a mouthful (and nobody feels right with a mind full of “dirt” or “filth”) of dust (aka DIRT, aka, the opposite of “clean”), and he did it for money (aka “filthy lucre”)… the comments about it being about Jesus & Judas, that makes sense. <br /> <br /> Like, what we hear in the first verse are the consequences of informing on Pancho that Lefty is left with after Pancho is killed. He Thought that telling the feds on Pancho would get him out of the corner the two were trapped in, but Lefty ruined his own life. He didn’t know himself at all, didn’t understand how “beautiful” Pancho was until it was too late. Now his skin weighs on him like an iron suit. His breath is hard as kerosene because there’s nothing good or peaceful going on inside him, he will probably never really forgive himself. Lefty took what looked to be the “easy way out”, but he ran smack dab into his conscience.
If you’re going to read one of these posts, read the one farther down the page, it’s got an extra couple sentences, I didn’t expect it to post both full posts, thought I was continuing my thought…
I’m probably confusing my responses but another thought, there’s the idea of living “free and clean”, but you don’t get both, you get one or the other ( the person in the first verse is very young and inexperienced, raised on myth and dreams” )…<br /> <br /> Living outside the law is a complicated undertaking (Bob Dylan wrote, “To live outside the law, you must be HONEST”), and Pancho wasn’t one to lie low so as to draw less attention. He wanted the “honest world to feel” him. Lefty wasn’t as sure of himself as Pancho. Pancho was a “force of nature”, something free, beautiful…and people (in the guise of “society”) don’t like it when other people have more balls than they do to live the way they choose. So Pancho would’ve been a target of a jealous people. <br /> <br /> Pancho just LIVED (& Died), he wasn’t caught up in making any “dreams” come true, he just WAS. Lefty, we know from verse 1, is a dreamer, and dreamers come complete with expectations. Anyway, Lefty thought ratting on the hunted Pancho would “free him”, but he’s now a prisoner of his (Dirty) conscience. Pancho, being dead, is the free one. (Eli Wallace, in ‘How The West Was Won’, said “Ya want PEACE, huh Marshall? Well, there’s only one kinda “peace” I know of…’).