Scott Walker

Cossacks Are

5 Meanings

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Cossacks Are Lyrics

'A moving aria
for a vanishing
style of mind'

'A noble debut
tackling vertiginous
demands'

'Has absence ever
sounded so
eloquent
so sad
I doubt it?'

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

'Touching in the
shattered lives
it unearths'

'A nocturne
filled with
glorious ideas'

'A chilling
exploration
of erotic consumption'

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

Cossacks are
charging in

Charging into
fields of
white roses

Cossacks are
charging in

Charging into
fields of
white roses

"That's a
nice suit"
"That's a
swanky suit"

"Been a pope
like no other"

"I'm looking
for a good
cowboy"

'A rare outcry
makes you lead
a larger life'

'You could easily
picture this in the
current top ten'

'Medieval savagery
calculated cruelty'

'It's hard to pick
the worst moment'

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

Submitted by

the Drift On Jun 24, 2006

30 Century Man

Farmer In The City

The Escape

The Amorous Humphrey Plugg

Clara

'A moving aria
for a vanishing
style of mind'

'A noble debut
tackling vertiginous
demands'

'Has absence ever
sounded so
eloquent
so sad
I doubt it?'

With an arm
across the 
torso

Face on 
the nails

With an arm
across the 
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

'Touching in the
shattered lives
it unearths'

'A nocturne
filled with
glorious ideas'

'A chilling 
exploration
of erotic consumption'

With an arm
across the 
torso

Face on 
the nails

With an arm
across the 
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

Cossacks are
charging in

Charging into
fields of 
white roses

Cossacks are
charging in

Charging into
fields of 
white roses

"That's a 
nice suit"
"That's a
swanky suit"

"Been a pope 
like no other"

"I'm looking
for a good 
cowboy"

'A rare outcry 
makes you lead 
a larger life'

'You could easily
picture this in the
current top ten'

'Medieval savagery
calculated cruelty'

'It's hard to pick 
the worst moment'

With an arm
across the 
torso

Face on
the nails

With an arm
across the 
torso

Face on
the pale
monkey
nails

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Keep it true to the song

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Punctuation counts (but vibe-editing doesn’t)

Correct typos? Yes. Re-punctuating a whole verse because it ‘looks better’? Probably not. Keep capitalization and punctuation close to the official source.

Don’t mix versions

If you’re editing the explicit version, keep it explicit. If it’s the clean version, keep it clean. No mashups.

Let the lyrics be lyrics

This isn’t the place for interpretations, memories, stories, or trivia — that’s what comments are for. Keep metadata, translations, and bracketed stage directions out unless they’re officially part of the song.

Edit lightly

If two lines are wrong… fix the two lines. No need to bulldoze the whole page. Think ‘surgical,’ not ‘remix.’

When in doubt, ask the crowd

Not sure what they’re singing in that fuzzy bridge? Drop a question in the comments and let the music nerds swarm. Someone always knows.

The Drift

Submitter

2006-06-24 21:57:11

5 Meanings

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by DementedPuppy

19y ago

I'm surprised at the lack of comments here. I love the whole drift album, it's amazing. Me being a progressive rock metalhead dude, it's weird that I would like something such as this. The lyrics are what get me though, so scary, and filled with though. The little sounds in the background add to the experience, and the use of instruments is amazing, such as raw meat for percussion in one song. Scott Walker is a genius.

I love the, "Face on the pale monkey nails." part. I don't know what this song is about, but it's awesome. The Cossacks are a village I know, that are known for there skills in war and weapons I think.

I always think of a beautiful landscape at the, "cossacks are," part, being invaded with white flowers everywhere, with two sides going towards each other yelling, ready for battle, disrupting the landscape. Great song.

Users:

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by shango 10y ago

@DementedPuppy I'm also surprised at the lack of comments. Especially after all these years. I'm late to the party myself, having only known this album for about a year, so hopefully more people will find this and see the masterpiece for what it is.
The "Cossacks are charging in" part that you described is exactly how I see it in my head. And that just proves again how great Walker is at lyrics.

by kyeo

17y ago

"“Cossacks Are” sets the tone. A two chord twang, a desperate rhythm, and a series of implored phrases that seem to evade narrative: “A moving aria for a vanishing style of mind”; “You could easily picture this in the current top ten”; “Medieval savagery, calculated cruelty.” This last, you might remember, was Chief Prosecutor Carla De Ponte’s summation of Slobodan Milosevic’s crimes in the former Yugoslavia, crimes that haunt the whole record. One aspect of this Drift is continental: Europe’s sleepwalk back to fascism.

With a few hunches and a thorough afternoon on Google, you could trace other phrases back to book reviews, George Bush’s entreaties to Jacques Chirac, eulogies for Pope John Paul II. The collage effect, splicing the world historical with tabloid tittle tattle, is reminiscent of John Berger, years ago, flicking through the Sunday Times Magazine, from the spectacle of Bangladeshi refugees to aftershave ads, and declaring, “The culture that produced this incoherence… is insane”."

From here: http://www.uncut.net/music/uncut/reviews/8759