Hatchet

well i was puzzling over this for a while, and somehow seeing them play the other night helped clear it up, even though they didn't actually do this song.

i couldn't decide if it was a plea for hatchet-burying on a personal/professional level (to recently-departed bandmate zak sally? some other strained relationship?) or more geo-political. but now i think it's pretty clearly about alan and mimi.

basically it addresses both the professional/musical (first verse) and personal (second verse) aspects of their relationship, which of course blur together and overlap, and we could read either as a metaphor for the other.

i'd chalked the charlie [watts] and george [harrison] mentions up to cute arcanery, but if we read the song as about them (alan sings that line before mimi joins in), they make perfect sense - she's his drummer, he's her guitarist, they are one anothers' dependable but relatively unassuming bandmates.

the marianne [faithfull] and yoko (overused? so maybe refreshingly inscrutable here) references are a little harder to pin down - their two relationships (with mick and john) were pretty dramatically different - but that may be the point; a relationship (marriage in this case) can be both troubled and completely devoted.

so - that's farther than you can get with most low songs. it's still not really clear how the beatles and the stones buried the hatchet - the beatles did, i guess (but not really until after john's death); the stones never had a major falling-out (that i know of) (and it's not a hatchet-burying between the two groups.) they both get their songs played forever regardless.

I think the intended hatchet-burying metaphor IS between the two groups. Not that the groups themselves ever fought, but they have a legendary opposition as the defining camps of Pop/Rock. Just google Beatles vs Stones and you'll find dozens of references.

Have to agree with Quis on this one. Although there may never have been a square go between the two they were complicit in the media-myth making that allowed their camps to cross and then mingle. They were more aware of the media than most who are posting nearly 28 years after JL's death for chrissakes! Anyway, that's my humble grumble. Great song whatever way you slice it.

They're going to play our songs forever. Might as well bury the hatchet?

Well the first verse to me is about Alan and Mim's personal relationship...and considering George is Alan's real first name (Alan is his middle name), the "I can be your George" line is both a play on George Harrison and Alan himself. Then the next verse is a commentary on their band relationship (ie, "they'll play our songs forever". And then the third verse, to me, is when Alan approached Mim about maybe making music together, as well as maybe the Beatles members starting to listen to eachothers' stuff and wanting to get together to start a group.

Interesting stuff!

Am I the only one who can't stand the mix on this song?