He certainly did earn that reputation.
Wind out of Oklahoma this morning smelled like blood and smoke
And the crows discuss their future in the branches of their Louisiana live oak
The limbs are strong and heavy and its leaves are all aglow
And the branches brush the upper air but the roots reach down to where the bad people go
And what will I do with you?
Pink and blue
True gold
Nine days old
Nice new clothes on you and an old cardboard produce box for a cradle
I mashed some bananas in a coffee cup and I fed you there at the kitchen table
Crows outside complaining about the finer points of local politics
Strange wind all full of new smells, rust and fur and reception sticks
And what will I do with you?
Pink and blue
True gold
Nine days old
And the crows discuss their future in the branches of their Louisiana live oak
The limbs are strong and heavy and its leaves are all aglow
And the branches brush the upper air but the roots reach down to where the bad people go
And what will I do with you?
Pink and blue
True gold
Nine days old
Nice new clothes on you and an old cardboard produce box for a cradle
I mashed some bananas in a coffee cup and I fed you there at the kitchen table
Crows outside complaining about the finer points of local politics
Strange wind all full of new smells, rust and fur and reception sticks
And what will I do with you?
Pink and blue
True gold
Nine days old
Lyrics submitted by fuckedupdog, edited by Xamnam, recognizer, Eccentricity
Pink and Blue Lyrics as written by John Darnielle
Lyrics © PACIFIC ELECTRIC MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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this is a song about a single father with no idea how to be a father, pink and blue are common colors to see babies wearing,
I love the parts with the crows and the tree, it symbolizes how society completely overlooks people in situations like the narrator. the tree is very healthy judging by the lyrics "strong and heavy branches, leaves all aglow" which just further contrasts with the narrator and his situation, feeding his baby mashed bananas, and using an old produce box for a cradle.
@thedreamlord Why do you think it is a father? Could also be a single mother. Certainly a person with a baby in pretty desperate circumstances.
OKC bombing interpretations feel a little forced to me, but there IS something very dark at the core of this song.
"cardboard produce box for a cradle" - mashed bananas in a coffee cup for an infant - "what will I do with you?" It all points to something awful, but it's conveyed sideways, in a lullaby.
I think the singer's wife - the baby's mother - died giving birth. The "nice new clothes" were probably a parting gift from the hospital, but the free formula samples didn't last very long, and he can't afford even basic baby furniture, and he doesn't know a damned thing about how to take care of a baby, and he's out of his mind with grief and sleep-deprivation - but also with love, for this tiny life that he's suddenly responsible for.
Darnielle is really good at this - hiding an enormous emotional payload in words and sounds that seem so simple - and I think this is one of his best.
i've been chewing on this song for the past week. i thought about how you wouldn't want to feed nine day old babies mashed bananas. so maybe the song is about just not knowing what to do with babies. then i thought about how maybe...the babies...are...monkies. baby monkies. to some zoos, that's as good as gold.
lol baby monkeys?? love it. unfortunately i don't quite think that's what it's about. unfortunately also, i do not know what it's about.
it really bothers me that you can't feed a nine old baby bananas. i mean, why would he say that? and what is this pink and blue business? is it pink and new baby but blue in the face?
@elodie Amusingly, at a benefit show to raise money to try to stop Amendment 1 in NC, JD said that the "bananas to a nine-day-old baby" was a line written off the cuff by a much younger JD who really knew nothing about babies, and didn't stop to think about the fact that a nine-day-old human baby would not be anywhere near eating solid food. He said that current day Dad JD looks back on that line and shakes his head. Everyone had a good chuckle, and then he played it.
could the colors have anything to do with the Husker Du song "pink turns to blue"?
Not to make it a drug thing, but...
i think its about a baby that was left on a door step the pink being the skin color and blue eyes
@lol21 pink skin color? Did they tattoo the baby's skin?
I think it is just about someone (most likely a single mother) who has a nine day old infant with absolutely no clue how to raise it, and nothing but a cardboard box for a cradle.
JD has said that this song is about parents abandoning their twin children.
The Oklahoma bombing reference is plain as day, don't know why people are trying to find deeper meaning there.