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


Lyrics submitted by HoldenC

Four Winds Lyrics as written by Conor Oberst

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Four Winds song meanings
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    General Comment

    The allusions in this song of a biblical reference have been taken and somewhat rearranged to create a different poetic vision or interpretation. In reality the whore of babylon represents false religion, the four winds, as seen in revelation, are held by four angels at four corners, the winds destroy leaving no part of the earth untouched. The four winds and the whore are two allusions that are repeated in the song. Possibly its mankind's corrupt religion that is governed by Satan but collapses if he were to vanish.

    Im not sure of the history on this song, whether or not Conor wrote it and his religious views. Especially since many do not interpret the book of revelation and its metaphors correctly or at all itd be hard to think that he would see it this way. But possibly this is what the song refers to.

    Basically that the corrupt religions run by Satan, which in his view could be what the world views as Satan or evil, destroy every part of the world. The verses are fillers, basically adding to the central theme which is expressed in the chorus.

    Id appreciate feedback. Maybe on Conor Oberst's background and knowledge or whoever actually wrote this.

    sjrobinson2010on July 20, 2011   Link

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