Culling of the Fold

I looooove this song. Especially live.

Oddly enough it is such a turn on. You can just hear the anger/energy within colin. Plus, leave it to colin to make even violence poetic. He just oozes sexines as well as genius.

wow. the first time i saw colin meloy, i was like aw, cute little baby-faced schoolboy. appearances can be terribly deceiving! amazing song. rather insane, but amazing.

I think this is a song about how prejudice and socially-imposed ideas hurt human relationships.

"It may break your heart to break her bones But someone's got to do the culling of the fold"

So... your feelings towards her are of love. But you hurt her because you KNOW you have to, she doesn't fit some social criteria; (like "strenght"). But still that hurts you both - and all that for an idea. So feelings should be above rules and principles. Also, no one is entitled to decide who is worthy of life and who isn't.

Cut him up, girl Really cut him up, girl He lives by himself In a hole in a wall You got to cut him up, girl

You can take him in a stitch Dump his body in a ditch Leave his limbs all naked That'll teach him how to take it

= intolerance?

I don't know how much sense I'm making here, but I just get a lot of sarcasm out of this song.

I think this is the backstory to the Shankhill Butchers. In real life, the Shankhill Butchers were a group of loyalist Protestants in 1970s Northern Ireland who went around brutally murdering Catholics. They probably felt they were "culling the fold".

i feel like colin has some unresolved anger...

I've had this song stuck in my head for the past few days. It's incredibly catchy.

i love the way colin sings "ah hah hah hah" at the very end. it's explosive.

Basically, I was planning on adding the same sentiments - I haven't heard the studio version of this song (I've been searching for days now), but at the 11/06/06 concert in Toronto, Culling of the Fold may very well have been the highlight of the night (with maybe the Perfect Crime #2, Red Right Ankle and Sixteen Military Wives in competition).

Absolutely astounding passion and energy, and played with such reckless abandon. Morbid, morose, but fun, and undeniably brilliant.; I especially loved the simulated hanging with the microphone cord and the destructive performance as Colin got to bounce around on stage sans instrument. God I need to find a copy of the studio version.

this song was orgasmic live.

that's all i need to say.

Interesting. Is this a Crane Wife outtake, only played live so far, a compilation track, a b-side, or what?