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Natural Resources Lyrics
The other night, a firefight
Bursts of sewing machine gun fire
From your postition
Barricaded behind the piano
I return with small arms
Stuttered shots from typewriter keys
And yet in the silence
Between the volley
The hearts of weary camps
Sing to each other:
"However faintly
As we each seek to claim
Disputed territory"
The us beneath the other (x4)
The us beneath the other
Which is rich
In natural resources (x3)
Bursts of sewing machine gun fire
From your postition
Barricaded behind the piano
Stuttered shots from typewriter keys
Between the volley
The hearts of weary camps
Sing to each other:
As we each seek to claim
Disputed territory"
Which is rich
In natural resources (x3)
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I think that the firefight and the warring imagery are a metaphor for something greater, more human, perhaps given how the shots originate from typewriter keys that it's a war of the written word between two or more individuals, and though each attempts to out-reason and out-argue the other, there is more to being an "us" than to being "others" to one another (thus the natural resources).
I always thought that this song described two artists living together, and the creative battles they are bound to have in doing so...
I always thought that this song described two artists living together, and the creative battles they are bound to have in doing so...
The first shots are fired from a sewing machine (a creative woman perhaps, up all night working on a dress?) He replies with typewriter vollies (since he is a writer/musician...)
The first shots are fired from a sewing machine (a creative woman perhaps, up all night working on a dress?) He replies with typewriter vollies (since he is a writer/musician...)
Stuttered burst because he doesn't write as much as she sews, but it takes just as long to create a song sometimes.
Stuttered burst because he doesn't write as much as she sews, but it takes just as long to create a song sometimes.
That's an interesting idea. I kind of hit a wall with the typewriter imagery, but I interpreted this song as contrasting the make-believe battles we have for fun as kids, making trenches out of furniture and using cutlery as firearms to actual wars. I see this song as comparing the two and showing us that war is just as silly and absurd.
I think the idea about playing war at home could be true, but I'm more leaning towards it being a 'battle' in a relationship, where the natural resources says something about the sadness of how potential wealth of the individuals as persons is being battled over, the us beneath the other signifying also that 'us' / 'we' are losing the battle to 'the other' - jealousy/battles, etc... and definitely agree that there is a reference here to wars being fought between nations over natural resources and power.