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Dead in the water
It's not a paid vacation
The sons and daughters
Of city officials attend demonstrations
It's hardly a sink or swim
When all is well if the ticket sells
Out with a whimper
It's not a blaze of glory
You look down from your temple
As people endeavor to make it a story
And chisel a marble word
But all is lost if it's never heard
But I've got someone to make reports
That tell me how my money's spent
To book my stays and draw my blinds
So I can't tell what's really there
And all I need's a great big congratulations
I'll keep your dreams
You pay attention for me
As strange as it seems
I'd rather dissolve than have you ignore me
The ground may be moving fast
But I tied my boots to a broken mast
The difference is clear
You throw it in your cauldron
Rust and veneer
Dusk and dawn, Steinways and Baldwins
You start with a simple stock
Of all the waste, and salt to taste
But damn my luck, and damn these friends
That keep on combing back their smiles
I save my grace with half-assed guilt
And lay down the quilt upon the lawn
Spread my arms and soak up congratulations
It's not a paid vacation
The sons and daughters
Of city officials attend demonstrations
It's hardly a sink or swim
When all is well if the ticket sells
Out with a whimper
It's not a blaze of glory
You look down from your temple
As people endeavor to make it a story
And chisel a marble word
But all is lost if it's never heard
But I've got someone to make reports
That tell me how my money's spent
To book my stays and draw my blinds
So I can't tell what's really there
And all I need's a great big congratulations
I'll keep your dreams
You pay attention for me
As strange as it seems
I'd rather dissolve than have you ignore me
The ground may be moving fast
But I tied my boots to a broken mast
The difference is clear
You throw it in your cauldron
Rust and veneer
Dusk and dawn, Steinways and Baldwins
You start with a simple stock
Of all the waste, and salt to taste
But damn my luck, and damn these friends
That keep on combing back their smiles
I save my grace with half-assed guilt
And lay down the quilt upon the lawn
Spread my arms and soak up congratulations
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I really enjoy this, the feel of the song completely changes how I interpreted it. The slower halfsteps, minor chords, and mellow or almost unpersonalized feel of this is far from electric. (intended reference, yes). I'll specify what I mean by the tone of voice later. Going by stanza seems easier and more thorough. I might read too far into it this way, but we both have the time to pretend we see it for what it is. (ha)
"Dead in the water It's not a paid vacation The sons and daughters of city officials Attend demonstrations It's hardly a sink or swim When all is well if the ticket sells"
It's not as great as it seems. Fame, I mean. Teens of officials(who are important, most likely have wealth, high status people in government/community) go to demonstrations, which could be mgmt's concerts, or their parents announcements? If a show is sold out, it's not a failure or a success for various reasons. It's not the former because what mgmt is showcasing is getting out somewhere. It's not the latter because it's not all about the money.
"Out with a wimper It's not a blaze of glory You look down from your temple As people endeavor to make it a story And chisel a marble word But all is lost if it's never heard"
Wimper, could suggest guilt, injustice, sadness, unhappiness... all because being so 'successful' isn't a.. blaze of glory.. At that high point, people under them try to make even more money by exploiting them, however, this is worthless, supposedly, when it doesn't get out to the people.
"But I've got someone to make reports That tell me how my money's spent To book my stays and draw my blinds So I can't see what's really there And all I need's a great big congratulations"
Okay, here's my favorite, the sarcasm and irony just spews out. The real reason I love this song! Now that mgmt's famous, they've got people tending to them and doing all the tedious work. As a result, this isolates mgmt from reality. So Andrew's saying how just to top off this alienation to venue-filling, he should be congratulated for the 'success', the 'fame'. Glorious!
I'm skipping the next two stanza's!
"But damn my luck and damn these friends That keep on combing back their smiles I save my grace with half-assed guilt And lay down the quilt upon the lawn Spread my arms and soak up congratulations"
damn his luck and friends, he would rather do away with it because they keep 'combing back their smiles', i'm not sure which way to take this. It could be combing back as in making it disappear, or fixing their smiles. Either way, they're doing something ingenuine, and untrue to their feelings probably of praise for mgmt's success. He/They feel slightly guilty, but not really because they wrote the songs, recorded them, agreed to what they've done and now they just bask in the aftereffects of all this by laying in the lawn, etc.
I just love how they express their view on where they are in the music industry. Although it is very repetitive, without any of their hooks from Oracular Spectacular, maybe that was the point here.. to almost bring it to a looping neverending cycle that represents what their life was/is like all mainstream. It's all so great I just want to leave this interpretation without a definite ending because
I really agree with you on a lot of this. I especially like what you said about how not going through the minutia of the grunt work leads to a sort of disillusionment and isolation from reality. That is something I had never thought of before. Great insight!
Thanks! I would do this in a private message but i can't seem to figure that out.. so could you look at the song Temazcal by Monsters of Folk and tell me what you think? Random, I know but i felt like asking.<br /> <br /> oh and what word did you mean to put in place of 'minutia' in your reply? Or if you meant that what does it mean?
This is pretty much how i interpreted it too, and i couldn't really interpret concretely the two stanzas you skipped either...i would add that "you look down from your temple" may also be a sarcastic reference to the fact that they have some fans who almost worship them which they don't understand because it's "not a blaze of glory". "people endeavor to make it a story" is probably more about the media than people below them as you said (endeavor=enterprise; story=article/review). "and chisel a marble word" marble is most known as a material for sculpture, so they are creating stories about the band or criticizing "but all is lost if it's never heard" meaning too bad for those endeavors because they are still making music and are successful (relatable to other artists too).