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Tractor Rape Chain (Clean It Up) Lyrics
Why is it every time I think about you
Something that you have said or implied makes me doubt you
Then I look into your cynical eyes and I know it
As if it never meant anything to me
Parallel lines on a slow decline - tractor rape chain
Better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain
Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end
In the first place it's probably just paranoia
But there's a ghost in my room and he says I better run
It's a thing I know - It's a thing I believe in
Won't you tell it to go away?
Parallel lines on a slow decline - tractor rape chain
Better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain
Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end
Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end
Something that you have said or implied makes me doubt you
Then I look into your cynical eyes and I know it
As if it never meant anything to me
Better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain
Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end
But there's a ghost in my room and he says I better run
It's a thing I know - It's a thing I believe in
Won't you tell it to go away?
Better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain
Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end
Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end
Song Info
Submitted by
crookedrain On Apr 30, 2005
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"Tractor Rape Chain" I think refers to the parallel lines left in a rapeseed field by a tractor. These are often very striking, because rapeseed fields are bright yellow.
The metaphor in the song is fairly transparent: the parallel lines indicate a couple in a relationship and the path they take, permanently connected but always the same distance apart, around the rapeseed field of life.
Sadly, these parallel lines are "on a slow decline". I think this is sung from the perspective of a man actually still in a relationship, but struggling to believe that the relationship will last. There is a note of help in the plea, "won't you tell it to go away?"
We can all relate to a feeling of doubt in a relationship that begins as paranoia, but eventually proves to be valid.
"Better yet, let's all get wet" - all I know is that's the time I would always spill my beer all over the crowd.
You're not alone--this is my favorite song from my favorite album of theirs.
I agree that it is about a failing relationship, but the details, as I interpret them, are different. The narrator is doubting his/her partner in the first verse: "Something that you have said or implied makes me doubt you" This is happening more and more frequently: "Why is it every time I think about you"
I think the 2nd verse relates to the first. The singer's doubt of his/her partner might just be paranoia but the ghost (probably of an ex that was unfaithful or untrustable) is something that the singer believes in anyway and wishes that he/she could get rid of, but needs the help of the other to disprove it's existence.
MY favourite GBV song too, you are not alone in it. Probably the most un cryptic GBV song despite the title and chorus.
This is probably my favorite as well. When I first listened to Bee thousand i was reading the grapes of wrath, so i always associate this song with the tractor take over in oklahoma during the depression. It's probably wrong but it kind of makes sense because you can see tractor rape chain meaning the chain of opression in the loss of jobs and stuff
Its my favorite also
Possibly the greatest song ever written. The way the two guitars harmonize after a few bars is genius.
a cynical song accusing someone of being cynical. parallel lines indeed.
not a general comment see my comment in song meanings
[Edit: wanted to do a song meaning instead of a general comment]