In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
They used to think it was so cute
When she said "Dyer Maker"
All the boys knew it was a joke about Jamaica
She'd always find a ride back home from the bar
She used to feel so stupid
When they'd talk about the music
Born into every single tune
They used to hum against her lips
With their hands on her hips
They used to kiss in the car
Dancing days, houses of the holy
Hot-shot in the city in the middle of the prairie
Floating with the boys, with all her charms
At first the laugh, then the eyes
Then the touch-em-on-the-arm's
And the drinks, they'd never seem to cost money
And Saturday night was a runway
That extended into Sunday
And sometimes Monday
Back then it was beautiful
The boys were sweet and musical
The laser lights looked mystical
Messed up stuff felt magical
Girls didn't seem so difficult
Boys didn't seem so typical
It was warm and white and wonderful
We were all invincible
Tired eyes, trampled under foot
Dazed and confused
C-C-C-C-Cocaine blues
She hasn't got any eye contact tonight
The boys are getting younger
And the bands are getting louder
And the new girls are coming up
Like some white unopened flowers
She's pretty sure that that's where their power is
Back then it was unified
The punks, the skins, the greaser guys
Then one summer, two kids died
And one of them was crucified
Now it's so competitive
The sleeplessness and sedatives
I know it sounds repetitive
Every show can't be a benefit
We were kids in the crowd
Now we're dogs in this war
We were wasps with new wings
Now we're bugs in the jar
We were hot, soft and pure
Now we're scratched up in scars
We were counting cards
Now we eat in our cars
The boys in the band
They know they'll never be stars
Back then they were quite convinced
Flyerin' and stickerin'
The front row girls were posturing
We were all imagining
And man, we had some massive nights
Some bashes and some bloody fights
Back before those two kids died
When she said "Dyer Maker"
All the boys knew it was a joke about Jamaica
She'd always find a ride back home from the bar
She used to feel so stupid
When they'd talk about the music
Born into every single tune
They used to hum against her lips
With their hands on her hips
They used to kiss in the car
Dancing days, houses of the holy
Hot-shot in the city in the middle of the prairie
Floating with the boys, with all her charms
At first the laugh, then the eyes
Then the touch-em-on-the-arm's
And the drinks, they'd never seem to cost money
And Saturday night was a runway
That extended into Sunday
And sometimes Monday
Back then it was beautiful
The boys were sweet and musical
The laser lights looked mystical
Messed up stuff felt magical
Girls didn't seem so difficult
Boys didn't seem so typical
It was warm and white and wonderful
We were all invincible
Tired eyes, trampled under foot
Dazed and confused
C-C-C-C-Cocaine blues
She hasn't got any eye contact tonight
The boys are getting younger
And the bands are getting louder
And the new girls are coming up
Like some white unopened flowers
She's pretty sure that that's where their power is
Back then it was unified
The punks, the skins, the greaser guys
Then one summer, two kids died
And one of them was crucified
Now it's so competitive
The sleeplessness and sedatives
I know it sounds repetitive
Every show can't be a benefit
We were kids in the crowd
Now we're dogs in this war
We were wasps with new wings
Now we're bugs in the jar
We were hot, soft and pure
Now we're scratched up in scars
We were counting cards
Now we eat in our cars
The boys in the band
They know they'll never be stars
Back then they were quite convinced
Flyerin' and stickerin'
The front row girls were posturing
We were all imagining
And man, we had some massive nights
Some bashes and some bloody fights
Back before those two kids died
Lyrics submitted by shrodes, edited by rasterbate
Joke About Jamaica Lyrics as written by J Kubler C Finn
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"Every show can't be a benefit" maybe?
"trampled on her foot" should be trampled underfoot.
It's the title of a Led Zeppelin song, like so many other lyrics in this song (d'yer maker, houses of the holy, dancing days, etc).
Sure about this: "The new girls are coming up Like some light unopened flowers"
Not as sure about these: "We were wasps with new wings" and "Some bashes and some bloody fights"
Great song either way. This album is just amazing.
almost sure about "some bashes" ... I think this is my fav track of the new album .... and I love them all .. "Born into every single tune" ... this single line sums up how I feel about their music .... sighs
Um, correcting the one I was "sure" about earlier, it's actually: "The new girls were coming up Like some white unopened flowers"
And the more I listen, the more I'm sure about the other two lyrics I mentioned.
I love that they reference the song Massive Nights from their last album near the end of this one. It makes me feel like this one is the more solemn side of their reflection on partying when they were a little younger in the Twin Cities
interesting to think how "we had some massive nights" is using the exact same tense and exact same words here as in "massive nights" itself, but here it sounds so much more nostalgic, so much more set in the past, whereas in "massive nights" even though the lyric's definitely in the past tense, it doesn't sound like they're going to stop having those massive nights any time soon. i guess that kind of present/past distinction is the main difference between 'boys and girls' and 'stay positive' as a whole.
another cool thing i noticed was how the number of kids who got crucified seems to change between "both crosses" and this song. to begin with, "she's been with a couple of boys that died and two of them were crucified" ('she' being sapphire in my opinion, what with the psychic references in "both crosses"), but here "two kids died and one of them was crucified". i'm not quite sure what that means, though if we assume that that "crucified" isn't to be taken literally, more as a metaphor for murder or betrayal, or even execution, then the difference could come from the different characters' (sapphire on "both crosses" and craig on this one) interpretation of events - craig thinks that one kid was responsible for his own death, while sapphire sees it as murder.
this song only states that she knows one kid who was crucified, which is true and what the album has always stated. in both crosses the other cross is Jesus.
You beat me to it, mariellb. While it's probable that another kid died other than the crucified kid (One for the Cutters suggests a stabbing), the first crucifiction in Both Crosses is literally Jesus.
We have an unreliable narrator or two throughout "Stay Positive", and the narrative is further complicated by the dual timelines -- Sapphire is seeing visions of the future with Charlemagne getting killed, but based on the coda to "Yeah Sapphire", she may actually have been able to warn him in time. So, now it's only 1 kid getting killed that summer.
another thought - if we take it that the female protagonist of "both crosses" is sapphire, and we take it that sapphire can, somehow, see the future, then perhaps the reason for her and craig's difference here is that so far, at the time of writing, only one kid's been crucified, but another will be in the near future. and because "both crosses", though about sapphire, is still narrated by craig, if we take it that craig is a fictionalised version of the real-life craig, who interacts with holly, sapphire, etc., rather than having created them, he could've been misled by sapphire as to what had happened and what was going to happen when she told him about the boys that died. i don't know if any of that made any sense. what i'm trying to say is how the discrepancy between craig and sapphire's accounts could come from sapphire (deliberately or otherwise) blurring the line between what has happened and what has yet to happen.
That's certainly my interpretation. Unreliable narrator, visions of an uncertain (and changeable) future.<br /> <br /> Wasn't it easier when Sapphire and Charlemagne just used her visions to bet on the horses - and spent the whole next week gettin' high?
"we were counting carbs now we eat in our cars"
"flyering and stickering"
from thealbum booklet
'They used to think it was so cute When she said "Dyer Maker" All the boys knew it was a joke about Jamaica'
why is that a joke about jamaica? is it something american that i don't get?
The name of the song is derived from an old joke, where two friends have the following exchange: "My wife's gone to the West Indies." "Jamaica?" (which has a similar pronunciation as "D'you make her?") "No, she went of her own accord". On 21 July 2005, Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant discussed the song during an interview with Mike Halloran, a DJ on radio station FM94.9 in San Diego. During the interview, he talked about the different interpretations and pronunciations of the name of the song.[3] The title, which appears nowhere in the lyrics, was chosen because it reflects the reggae feel of the song. Plant has said that he finds it amusing when fans completely overlook the apostrophes and naively mispronounce the title as "Dire Maker".