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My Ship Isn't Pretty Lyrics
The telegraph gave us hope
Before was the silence and the panic it brought
The sky was the blankest sheet
We drew lines upon it
so our thoughts could meet
through cables black and cold
we carry our intentions to bridge
and bring home
would it all be so clear
if the lines were erased
and the silence restored?
Boys of today write lines on walls
in the streets at night
in suburbs of cities with no name
is this destruction or just quiet protest
against loneliness
the cargo lies in our laps
their weight is so heavy
and this is all we know
our message will need a ship
to travel across oceans
that can't otherwise be crossed
it undulates on the waves
and crushes the water so we can be safe
it undulates on the waves
then crushes the water so we can be safe
Before was the silence and the panic it brought
The sky was the blankest sheet
We drew lines upon it
so our thoughts could meet
through cables black and cold
we carry our intentions to bridge
and bring home
would it all be so clear
if the lines were erased
and the silence restored?
in the streets at night
in suburbs of cities with no name
is this destruction or just quiet protest
against loneliness
their weight is so heavy
and this is all we know
our message will need a ship
to travel across oceans
that can't otherwise be crossed
and crushes the water so we can be safe
it undulates on the waves
then crushes the water so we can be safe
Song Info
Submitted by
lutti On Sep 25, 2009
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Very nice, quiet song bij the Kings. I have some corrections:
"suburbans" should be "suburbs".
"the car go lights in our lamps / they're weight is so heavy" should be "the cargo lies in our lamps(?) / their weight is so heavy". Fits in better with the theme of the text.
"It underplate on the waves" should be "it undulates on the waves". Makes better sense, because "to undulate" means "to move in waves or with a smooth, wavelike motion", according to the dictionary.
I also hear "and crashes the water" instead of "and cautions the water", but that could be just me... ;)
Two people or "ships" are meeting up. The telegraph confirms that they'll meet. It seems like they used lights to find each other (The sky was the blankest sheet We drew lines upon it so our thoughts could meet" "through cables black and cold we carry our intentions to bridge and bring home" is talking about the two ships sending the telegraphs to each other. The next part is about how communication affects their ability to show their intentions/ability to meet up.
The next verse talks about people in prison and people who create graffiti and how corruption is in places like the suburbs. Are these actions just destruction or just quiet protest against loneliness?
In the third verse, their cargo is a person. I'm not sure who or what it is. Maybe a convict?
This song could be about two ships that harbor convicts and how the singer of the song has sympathy towards their actions ( is this destruction or just quiet protest against loneliness?)
Sounds like he sings "crushes" instead of "cautions" in the last verse.
Think back on how life was before the first Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable connected the UK and the US in 1858. Messages & news took days and weeks to arrive.
We were islands of humanity connected only by oceangoing vessels of men. "The telegraph gave us hope....."
"Boys of today write lines...." Graffiti and the general decline in the quality of a society...arguably more degraded than the rather educated and morally minded populace of the mid 1800s. This despite being connected with instantaneous mass communication between continents.
"The cargo lies in our laps..." "Our MESSAGE will need a ship...." They have an important message to communicate but it's lost in the waves of meaningless communication of today's society (gossip, lame news etc). They need a SHIP damn it! To cross those "oceans" that can't otherwise be crossed...get their message communicated and HEARD through the waves. Their commentary on the amount of BS that is out there running around the internet and how hard it is to be heard and understood.
Think of how the telegraph and the technological advancements following it gave us an instantaneous news cycle of thing that we really don't care about and have no control over.
"We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.... We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough." - Thoreau, Walden
This is a fascinating and brilliant song.