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Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying, trying to keep them alive
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together, you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over Sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes
And it's the sum of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks
Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, 'You'd better look alive.'
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
Heard four winds leveling the pines
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves
There's people always dying, trying to keep them alive
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute
If you burn them all together, you get close to the truth still
They are pouring over Sanskrit on the ivy league moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
And hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds
It's knocking over fences, crossing property lines
Four winds, cry until it comes
And it's the sum of man
Slouching towards Bethlehem
A heart just can't contain all of that empty space
It breaks, it breaks, it breaks
Well, I went back to my rented Cadillac and company jet
Like a newly orphaned refugee, retracing my steps
All the way to Cassadaga to commune with the dead
They said, 'You'd better look alive.'
And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps
In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east
I buried my ballast, I made my peace
Heard four winds leveling the pines
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't remain with all that outer space
She breaks, she breaks, she caves, she caves
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My Thoery: (feel free to add or debunk) I believe that this might be the calling for the end of civilization as we know it. I don't mean the end of civilization, just civilization as we know it. This comes from the "whore of babylon" line. Babylon referring to the beginning of civilization I think? This idea also goes along witht "The Second Coming" poem by Yeats that is mentioned
Heres some other lines to think about relating to that: "Your class, your cash, your country, sect, your name or your tribe" "The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qu'ran's mute" Both lines have to do with modern ways of organizing civilization and controlling it. I also believe that the "great satan" is in reference to modern ideas of religion that use evil or satan(hellfire) to control/scare. It's also a play on words by saying that religion is a satan as well as stating that when satan is gone god will also be gone. So in the lines: "But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed She caves" addresses both of those ideas.
To my next point: The calling for the end of them. Bright Eyes has somewhat been coined as "apocalyptic folk". Apocalypse referring to a new beginning and all that jazz. I get the idea that it is believed by him/they that the aforementioned ways of organizing civilization can't sustain themselves therefore they "cave". They cannot survive with the changing modern ideas of morality.
Why should we "burn them all together [to] get close to the truth" or why will they go away? Changing morality or a new zeitgeist. "There's people always dying trying to keep them alive" -war, crusades, terrorism, etc.
"And I was off to old Dakota where a genocide sleeps In the black hills, the bad lands, the calloused east I buried my ballast, I made my peace With four winds, levelling the pines" - destruction of lives and wilderness in the name of modern civilizations/religion/country.
In-spite of dogmas (nationalism, religion), that claim to have morality or the right stuff, somehow humans now understand that genocide and irresponsible environmental destruction are wrong.
Are there holes in this theory, yes. Do some lines appear not to fit, yes. Could I have organized this better to convey my ideas, yes. So input would be appreciated.
And also, Four Winds may refer to the fact that wind can blow from all directions when everything is destroyed. The image of the girl standing at the end of the world with wind in her hair also falls in place.
And, any input on what the cover of the new Four Winds EP is. This may also shed some light on meaning for the songs on the EP.