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The Valley Lyrics

We watch the sun switching in the sky, off and on, where our friend stands bleeding on the late summer lawn, a slicked back bloody black gunshot to the head. He has fallen in the valley of the rock and roll dead.

I hear a breeze that wheezes through the tips of the pines, where there's laughter and there's screaming to the rafters in the night. The moon rolls dreaming through the late spring sky, where our friend lies bleeding through his jacket and his tie. A slit throat makes a note like a raw winter wind. We were piled at the river with the rock and roll skinned. Times ten.

Like the water loves lapping at the skin of the shore, hear our friend come tapping at the latches on the door. Like a foot slips, slapping on the ladder's last rung, we were thrashing in the clatter of the rock and roll hung. Minus one.

It's just a loud crowd crush. It's just a thrush, seen flying through the late autumn dusk just for the very last time. It's just a busted-up body in the dust of the last road out of the city, when the city explodes. Light grows, and the light grows bright, and red-tinged. We were fallen on the border with the rock and roll singed. Times ten. Times ten. Times ten, ten again, then another ten million, fallen in the valley of the rock and roll dead. Times ten. Times ten, ten again, then another ten million, fallen in the valley of the R&B dead. Times ten. Times ten. Times ten. Times ten. Times ten.
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Submitted by
kozumou On Mar 31, 2011
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Cover art for The Valley lyrics by Okkervil River

What could this mean? Incredulous. 1 stanza about a gunshot suicide, 1 about a slit throat, 1 about a hanging, and the last about the surging of the city. Haven't we all been tamed by rock and roll?

Why does it have to be a gunshot suicide? Most gunshots to the head are not suicides.

Cover art for The Valley lyrics by Okkervil River

"Times ten, ten again, then another ten million. Falling in the valley of the rock and roll dead"

Cover art for The Valley lyrics by Okkervil River

I think thehungrybear has the gist of it. I get a picture of a lifestyle that chews people up and spits them out, but which nonetheless has its own strange, irresistable momentum carrying people along.

We get the sense, through the seasonal metaphors sprinkled throughout, that this is a cycle of destruction. Notice, though, that the seasons are mentioned backwards: summer, spring, winter, autumn. The implication seems to be that the "cycle" of the music world is unnatural and pernicious, but nonetheless beyond the control of those caught up in it.

Cover art for The Valley lyrics by Okkervil River

The turbulent lifestyle that is "rock and roll." High risk, high reward.

Cover art for The Valley lyrics by Okkervil River

This album starts with a frenetic pace. I'm not sure where it's going and its hard to swallow for the concept album lover of OR. Definitely influenced by their time spent with Roky, I'm going to give this album 5-10 listens start to finish and see if I get a better opinion. So far, a few really good, moody debonair tracks. This is one that gets the blood going though.

My Opinion
 
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