This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Hey Jackboot
Fuck your war
Cause I'm fat and in love
And no bombs are falling on me for sure
But I'm scared to death
That I'm living a life not worth dying for
And your plow shear
It's a sword
And its wide arcing swing chops the heads off of many things
Mono crops... Laughter roars
Oh high hilarity
Oh muck bury me
Oh standard bearer carry me burning home from another tour
Go ahead put your red dress on
Days of white robes have come and gone
Come and gone
Oh you rivers, oh you waters run
Come bear witness to the whore of Babylon
"Hey Slave" They called
And we caved
We answered
To a new name
Shout it loud shout it lame
But black face it
You're such a good dancer
Oh you're a star
You're carnival
Jacaranda petals fall
Mix with the blood of the saints
Shot down in the square
Don't track it in on the soles of your shoes
When you're dragged into the back of this car
Go ahead put your red dress on
Days of white robes have come and gone
Come and gone
Oh you rivers, oh you waters run
Come bear witness to the Whore of Babylon
It's a trap
That much is plain
Still,maybe send snapshots
Of all your sweet pain
Playing tortuous games
It goes: Lense, light, fame
Read my names on your lips
When the man cracks the whip
And you'll all shake your hips
And you'll all dance to this
Without making a fist
And I know that it sounds mundane
But it's a stone cold shame
How they got you tame
And they got me tame.
So go ahead put your red dress on
Days of white robes come and gone
Come and gone
Oh you rivers, oh you waters run
Come bear witness to the Whore of Babylon
Fuck your war
Cause I'm fat and in love
And no bombs are falling on me for sure
But I'm scared to death
That I'm living a life not worth dying for
And your plow shear
It's a sword
And its wide arcing swing chops the heads off of many things
Mono crops... Laughter roars
Oh high hilarity
Oh muck bury me
Oh standard bearer carry me burning home from another tour
Go ahead put your red dress on
Days of white robes have come and gone
Come and gone
Oh you rivers, oh you waters run
Come bear witness to the whore of Babylon
"Hey Slave" They called
And we caved
We answered
To a new name
Shout it loud shout it lame
But black face it
You're such a good dancer
Oh you're a star
You're carnival
Jacaranda petals fall
Mix with the blood of the saints
Shot down in the square
Don't track it in on the soles of your shoes
When you're dragged into the back of this car
Go ahead put your red dress on
Days of white robes have come and gone
Come and gone
Oh you rivers, oh you waters run
Come bear witness to the Whore of Babylon
It's a trap
That much is plain
Still,maybe send snapshots
Of all your sweet pain
Playing tortuous games
It goes: Lense, light, fame
Read my names on your lips
When the man cracks the whip
And you'll all shake your hips
And you'll all dance to this
Without making a fist
And I know that it sounds mundane
But it's a stone cold shame
How they got you tame
And they got me tame.
So go ahead put your red dress on
Days of white robes come and gone
Come and gone
Oh you rivers, oh you waters run
Come bear witness to the Whore of Babylon
Lyrics submitted by fistfuloflove
Red Dress Lyrics as written by David Andrew Sitek Babatunde Omoroga Adebimpe
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The "Whore of Babylon" is from Revelations in the Bible, and may be the key to this song. There are obvious allusions to slavery and past oppression in the song, but now the days of “white robes” have come and gone. However those that were enslaved (and really everyon) are still in the chains of materialism and fame. One interpretation of the “whore of Babylon” from the Bible is that she represents materialism and greed.
I think he is being sarcastic about many people who claim to be anti-war. The person saying “f*** your war” followed by “I’m fat and in love” obviously just wants to be left alone. They don’t have any real political opinion about it. They are enslaved by the convenience of modern life. We can all be fat and happy and don’t have to worry about thousands of people dying elsewhere in the world.
Seems like an anti-war song to me.
Is it actually Jackboot? I keep hearing "jackal."
TV on the Radio got good at writing lyrics. Dear Science rocks. Awesome album title by the way, I remember thinking that if I had a band, I would want to name it Dear Science a couple years ago. For me, it is a sarcastic view of how people think of science as an alternative to god. Anyway...
Someone is certainly defense of their beliefs against silly things like I dunno...facts..but whatever.
It's an awesome song though, I definitely think it has to do with the oppression of blacks and women throughout history and many still feeling powerless in today's society with still a lack real equality between races and gender in this country.(Though the recent election certainly was a new benchmark)
Does anybody have an idea of what the Jacaranda trees reference is about? I'm really curious about that, and have not been able to figure it out.
"You're such a good dancer<br /> Oh you're a star<br /> You're carnival<br /> Jacaranda petals fall"<br /> <br /> I'm going to take this kind of literally and assume they're on about a carnival/festival. Well, apparently some places have Jacaranda festivals when their Jacaranda trees are in full bloom.
The song references slavery and lack of respect for black people, but to me that's a metaphore for how people in general let society and government tame and enslave them. Not with literal chains or whips, but by caving and taking the easy path. "Hey slave they called and we caved, we answered to the new name." For our personal feeling of safety and perhaps a few compliments, "You're such a good dancer", we sacrifice our beliefs and integrity, "and you'll all dance to this without making a fist". I'd say the red dress could refer to war as an example of what we support and don't resist that compromises our integrity. "Fuck your war cause I'm fat and in love and no bombs are falling on me for sure. But I'm scared to death that I'm living a life not worth dying for."
I am curious about the "Whore of Babylon". Babylon is now located in Iraq, so perhaps we are whoring Babylon?
I'm also curious about the Jacaranda petals. Perhaps it is simply for the stunning visual of the light purple petals mixing with blood, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was more.
"White Robes" is a reference to the KKK I think. As in, the days of that crude sort of overt racism are gone, but although everyone's really politically correct now, maybe not that much has really changed?
This song rocks my face off. Best antiwar song I've heard...possibly ever? It's up there, no question.
The only thing I have to add is that the song is yelling at us for being so passive. Compare the war in Iraq (or Afghanistan, for that matter) to Vietnam, and you see that they're pretty much the same: we're in a far off country we have no business being in, fighting a war we can't win, chasing after invisible boogie monsters (Communism/Terrorism). But unlike Vietnam, when the people spoke up, protested, rioted, or did SOMETHING, people now are not. "'Hey Slave,' They called, and we caved, and we answered."--yeah. The narrator doesn't like it, and is about as angry at himself as everyone else: "Cause I'm fat and in love, and no bombs are falling on me for sure. But I'm scared to death that I'm living a life not worth dying for.//It's a trap, that much is plain."--he's not doing anything, he sees the trap that he and all of us are falling in, he doesn't like the prospect, but he's not doing anything about it, and neither are we. "And I know that it sounds mundane"--you've heard this all before, and it sounds like nagging, or so he thinks, and feels that this whole song is futile--"But it's a stone cold shame, how they've got you tame and they've got me tame."
Awesome. \m/
PS I like the bitter and sarcastic jab at narcissistic facebook/myspace/other social networking sites: "But send snapshots of all your sweet pain." Ouch.
The significance of the Red Dress is that is symbolizes our indifference to the face of our oppressors. In the past they had to hide their identities with white robes and hoods, but now our general apathy has allowed them strut around in a red dress without any fear of exposure. Pretty scary when you think about it. Also the imagery of a "red dress" definitely points to our choice of consumerism as our new master, ie: e channel, red carpet obsessions, tabloid gossip as our elected distraction from the real truth.