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Hymn of the Medical Oddity Lyrics
Oh, all the words I should not know
those doctors wrote on me.
Swell up and from their syllable
won't let me get to sleep.
The sun will start later
Clock out early
and I'll drive around
and wait for it.
Follow familiar roads
Emptied of every memory
under a sheet of silence
and unmarked snow.
Then idle in some parking lot.
smoke half a smoke and ask
St. Boniface and St. Vital
preserve me from my past
Repair our potholes
Prevent plant closures
and if they remember me at all
make them remember me
as more than a queer experiment
more than a diagram in their quarterly
make them remember me
those doctors wrote on me.
Swell up and from their syllable
won't let me get to sleep.
The sun will start later
Clock out early
and I'll drive around
and wait for it.
Follow familiar roads
Emptied of every memory
under a sheet of silence
and unmarked snow.
smoke half a smoke and ask
St. Boniface and St. Vital
preserve me from my past
Repair our potholes
Prevent plant closures
and if they remember me at all
make them remember me
as more than a queer experiment
more than a diagram in their quarterly
make them remember me
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According to the Weakerthans' label ANTI this song is about "Winnipegger David Reimer, who was born a boy but raised as a girl after a famous and tragic medical experiment."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
wow. quite the hymn, both in music and in words. not sure about specifics but it kind of represents that sinking alone feeling you have when youre being contained by a medical presence.
the last part, the wish to the Saints seems to be some sort of dying wish.
quite the song, the new album is fucking remarkable, but how could you expect less from the weakerthans?
The lyrics are St. Vital instead of St. Fratel, and St. Boniface and St. Vital are area's in the city of Winnipeg where the Weakerthans are from
I think it's maybe about John's take on David Reimer not wanting to die and be remembered as nothing more than a "queer experiment". He wants to be remembered as something else.
And, yes, it's not "Saint Fratel", there are two areas in the French Quarter of Winnipeg (I live here in the Murder City, just so you know) called 'St. Boniface' and 'St. Vital' (pronounced vit-ell). They both used to be towns, back in the day, until Winnipeg got bigger and they grew together, and they became a section of the city.
Still, though, that's an amazing line, and one I'll probably remember forever.
Then idle in some parking lot, Smoke half a smoke and ask: "St. Boniface and St. Vital, Preserve me from my past."
Oh how interesting. Thanks for the link to wiki.
How barbaric of an experiment.
Why do you think JKS is so obcessed with medicine?