Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Long dinner with some friends
Way out way out in Portmore
Servants of the pharaoh
Slip in through an open door
All business
Bearing knives and zip-guns
So get on the floor now every last one
Every last one
The heat drifts across the land
If I forget you, Israel
Let me forget my right hand
And on the floor Michael James Williams
Feels his fingers start to freeze
And the whole scene is like a movie
Paramedics on their knees
Try try your whole life
To be righteous and be good
Wind up on your own floor
Choking on blood
The heat drifts across the land
If I forget you Israel
Let me forget my right hand
And the house still smells like onions
When the ambulance arrives
Gabriel in postal blue
Loads up the car and drives to Spanish town
About three miles away
Where will the wicked run to on that last day?
The heat drifts across the land
If I forget you Israel
Let me forget my right hand
Way out way out in Portmore
Servants of the pharaoh
Slip in through an open door
All business
Bearing knives and zip-guns
So get on the floor now every last one
Every last one
The heat drifts across the land
If I forget you, Israel
Let me forget my right hand
And on the floor Michael James Williams
Feels his fingers start to freeze
And the whole scene is like a movie
Paramedics on their knees
Try try your whole life
To be righteous and be good
Wind up on your own floor
Choking on blood
The heat drifts across the land
If I forget you Israel
Let me forget my right hand
And the house still smells like onions
When the ambulance arrives
Gabriel in postal blue
Loads up the car and drives to Spanish town
About three miles away
Where will the wicked run to on that last day?
The heat drifts across the land
If I forget you Israel
Let me forget my right hand
Lyrics submitted by mdon06, edited by WhiteChalkBaph
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
The song is indeed about Michael James Williams (a.k.a. Prince Fari I) and the day he was murdered, but like most of the songs on Heretic Pride and in Darnielle's oeuvre, it references some larger concepts in life. It's about Good dwelling in a land of Evil, that is, how good people suffer despite their efforts.
The verses straightforwardly outline the murder of Prince Fari I, but also include several mentions of the theme (e.g. "Try you whole life to be righteous and good..." and "Where will the wicked run...") emphasizing the tragedy and injustice of the act. The murderers referred to as "servants of the pharaoh" (a well-known enemy of the Israelites) sets up the complex biblical parallel that runs throughout the song.
The line about "forgetting Israel..." is a reference to Psalms 137:5, written when the Israelites felt they were unjustly in Babylonian captivity, trapped among wickedness. In the psalm, the author swears that if he were to forsake the holy city (i.e. metaphorically forsake his God and his spiritual oaths) then he might as well forget how to play his songs, work the fields, and lose every the ability to do every action that sustains his life. He proclaims his innocence and devotion amidst his and his people's suffering, much like how Darnielle imagines Williams must have felt on his violent deathbed, bleeding and choking on his own blood, slain in a world where good people suffer evil and often get no justice.
These ideas are further complicated when you consider that the subjects' innocence is only proposed and maintained by the subjects themselves. That is, from another point of view, the Israelites killed as many Babylonians as vice versa and had them captive at different points. And who's to say that Prince Fari I wasn't involved in something that never came to light? Violent deaths like that, after all, are more often than not a result of bad friends, bad vices, and worse decisions.
In any case, the song is clear in its recognition that the suffering and violence, regardless of origin, is a tragedy. Nobody deserves to die like that, least of all those with passion for something greater than their own hand.
This seems like a pretty straightforward song about Michael James Williams a.k.a. Prince Far I, a reggae artist who was murdered in Sept 15, 1983. The song definitely has a reggae feel to it regardless of its subject matter.
john darnielle and jeffery lewis made a comic explaining each song on the new album, you can look at it here:
thejeffreylewissite.com/Mt-Goats-Press-Kit-08.html