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Veteran's Day Poppy Lyrics
I cry but I can't buy
Your Veteran's Day poppy
It don't get me high
It can only make me cry
It can never grow another
Son like the one who warmed me my days
After rain and warmed my breath
My life's blood
Screamin' empty she crys
It don't get me high
It can only make me cry
Your Veteran's Day poppy
Your Veteran's Day poppy
It don't get me high
It can only make me cry
It can never grow another
Son like the one who warmed me my days
After rain and warmed my breath
My life's blood
Screamin' empty she crys
It don't get me high
It can only make me cry
Your Veteran's Day poppy
Song Info
Submitted by
blackled222 On Apr 12, 2006
More Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Big Eyed Beans from Venus
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Moonlight On Vermont
Yellow Brick Road
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"High" is a metaphor. Beefheart is saying that he can't get any enjoyment out of the poppy-wearing rememberence details, and he is crying because it is glorifying war.
@fearpanic4 OK, but Beefheart's not the one crying. The song is in the third person, and the words are those of a dead soldier's mother. "Screamin', empty, she cries". Simple and straightforward lyric, for Beefheart.
@fearpanic4 OK, but Beefheart's not the one crying. The song is in the third person, and the words are those of a dead soldier's mother. "Screamin', empty, she cries". Simple and straightforward lyric, for Beefheart.
Ahhh, another "drug song". I'm pretty sure this song is about a mother who has lost her son in a war (Vietnam) and can't bring herself to buy a Veteran's Day poppy because it can't do anything to mend the hole her son's death left.
It is a joke about Veteran's poppy vs opium poppy. Veteran's day poppy seems to be a tradition in California (I'm French, forgive me if I'm wrong about this). Pretty cool song for closing Trout Mask Replica double album.
I wonder if it is a more serious song about a mother who lost her son in the war?
I wonder if it is a more serious song about a mother who lost her son in the war?
Anyway, my favorite off the record.
Anyway, my favorite off the record.
Why is this a drug song? I agree with the rest of mgetz's interpretation, but I think the drug reference is just superficial. The character is just saying, 'this poppy doesn't make me feel any better. I ought to buy a poppy but I can't, because it hurts me to think of the significance of it.'
A none-too-veiled condemnation of the drug-addled '60s? Seems that to me.