Little Brother

Wow. I hear something totally different from everyone else. The little brother is "up in arms" - a soldier, no doubt, who is "pride of my countrymen". References to the little brother are all past tense, so he's evidently killed, will be born again (a hope that they'll see each other again?? Next life, perhaps?) and the singer wishes for things to go back to where they were, "quiet", and crawls into bed to escape the grief.

This is very clearly, to me, a song about loss from the effects of ideological war.

"Wide-eyed and up in arms"

• This points to a cause pushing someone he cares deeply for the little brother) to spirited action.

"My little brother was a solemn one"

• This "little brother" was dead serious in general, most likely his committment to the cause he had associated with.

"He always had his quiet corner."

• He was susceptible to introspection, perhaps gentle of nature initially, but pushed to becoming radicalized by internal/external rationalization.

"Pride of my countrymen, my little brother will be born again"

• This cause ended up being the death of his "little brother", be it war or otherwise. This same cause will convince others, in the future, to become inflamed by and die for this cause as well "Born again" refers to other peoples "little brothers" to become new soldiers, perhaps.

"Just give us back our quiet corner"

• The singer clearly mourns the loss of his "little brother"; whether or not the cause is grand enough to be worth it, the price was high enough to mourn at present moment.

"Now go back to the other side of my bed. I'll go back to the place where you get started."

• This is directed to the "little brother" who has passed. The singer hopes they will rest in peace; the singer will either take up the brother's cause or pick up the pieces that were shattered by this person's passing.

"And I'll sleep, just put the pillows under my head."

• Ambiguously, this is either indication that the singer will attempt to realize his passed "little brother"'s vision, thus following in their footsteps, or that he will carry the memory of his "little brother" with him into the next day.

This is a gem of a song, I'm a bit cloudy of its meaning, which is ok, but little bro is just dying to speak their mind but is so introverted that they need their older brother to get things rolling, but the older brother needs help with what the younger can provide.

I think what he's saying that his little brother was really one of the prevalent minds of the country, but was quite reclusive. Now the older brother, who was the more gregarious and social, now wants the quiet and solitude which the little brother had all along.

This song is about Little Bother being baptized. Big Brother wishes the countrymen would stop with the nonsense and let him and his little brother go back to sleep.

In other words, the song is against baptism and the such.

does any one have the lyrics for the "electric" version or the daytrotter version. I think the lines "my God thats not the way" and toward the end,"...coming out of the water" shed some light on the baptism theme

stupid....any of you ever seen the movie "City of Lost Children"? this completely outlines the theme of the central story.

I had no idea a reworked version of the original Little Brother could ever sound so beautiful and unreal, as Little Brother (Electric) does.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the baptism idea.. it seems quite plausible. .

The (electric) Daytrotter version might clarify a bit on the baptism issue. The first lines, in that other version, differ from those listed above: "My God, that's not the way, My God, that's not the way, My God, that's not the way, My God, that's not the way'....

I see it way more like namedujour. Even with the baptism themes, I don't think it directly has anything to do with the traditional meaning concept of baptism.