Each Year

i love this song..

In the liner notes from the rhumb line, the lines are:

Silhouettes In a window frame, Better run if it's boo's old man He won't know if you're white Oh in the night.

Taken in that light, I feel like the song is a reference to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." In the book, Boo Radley's father locked Boo Radley up and abused him. Boo's character was always seen as silhouettes through the window, since he never ventured outside. The lines "Never mind what your daughter is taught in school What she remembers is what she has learned from you" seems to me as a reference to Scout, who most certainly learned quite a bit from Atticus' teachings and his defense of Tom Robinson, who was unjustly accused of raping another townswoman. Also, I think "Coverin' a fault with trials and court displays" is a reference to Tom Robinson's trial, where the evidence was so obviously obscured in order to pin the crime on Robinson.

Could you please post the correct lyrics to this song? I have a feeling that some of the lines in the above version are wrong.

The EP version is better, but this is still one of my all time favorites by them.

And yes, the lyrics are wrong.

wow rockstermonkey your interpretation sounds convincing. and if it was actually written about to kill a mockingbird then im impressed that you deducted that from the lyrics. now that i look at it that way, it does seem to fit the lyrics. which gives this song a whole new feeling. i have to add that although i havent heard all of their new album, they have a unique sound and could be a force to be reckoned with in the ever expanding world of indie.

Well geez, Chetyre, thanks so much for posting the right ones!

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I agree though, the EP version is much better. This song is about their tour of the south as well as To Kill A Mockingbird. It's states so on Daytrotter.com. They performed/recorded 4 songs for Daytrotter, and an explanation for each song was put up.

I thought it was generally frown upon to post complete lyrics in the comments section, and rockstermonkey already corrected some of them. Either way I submitted a request to fix the lyrics, so there.

Yes this whole song is a reference to To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To add on...

"Vapor lamps in a parking lot You can’t see when it’s much too far All that mist in your eyes Oh, in the night"

That is a reference to the scene in which they are walking back from Scout's school play across the parking lot in the dark and they are followed by Bob Ewell who is trying to kill them in revenge for Atticus implying accusations against him and defending Tom Robinson. He is too afraid to go after Atticus so when he is drunk, he tries for his kids.

"What you're hiding in your back yard Is turning innocence to apathy And accusations at another man"

This most likelt refers to Bob Ewell making accusations against Tom Robinson about Rape on his daugther to cover up himself beating her when eh is drunk which he his "Hiding"

So those are just my interpretations

to kill a mocking bird was inspiration to this song.

laundromatinee.com/sessions/video_session__ra_ra_riot

"Each Year - This song practically wrote itself. It was built up from a bass part that Mathieu (bass guitar) came up with, and everyone basically just threw their parts on top of it. I had recently read To Kill a Mockingbird, which had a huge impact on me, and John and I talked a lot about it on our way down to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Those experiences served as the lyrical inspiration for John and I."

I totally love how this song is about the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" which is probably one of the few books I read in High School that really struck a chord with me. At first I didn't get the references in the song, but I kinda had a feeling that it was related to the book. This song just amazes me all the more now that I actually understand all the references, I might have to read the book again sometime as well.