Saw a magician cut you in half so bloodless
Daunted, I applauded
Looking around at all them eyeless faces
You crept into me and stood alone
Arms stretched out to nothing
Like the memory of something gone wrong
Slip the darkness down to the harbor
Feel your star dress, burn in the water
Forget your promise, turn out your light
Lay down and sleep tonight
Dream of your sons, dream of your daughters
Come back to you
Got my guns in a row
I got my boys to the shore
Not all but we'll stay here all day long
And get beat to shit for you
Get beat to shit for you
Spinning a right that was never far off wrong
So in pieces your sons and in pieces your daughters
Come back to you
Good morning beautiful
I've waited all my life
To watch you breathe in
Stand up and decide
To set something, anything, on fire
It's spilling over your shoulders
The dawn
Daunted, I applauded
Looking around at all them eyeless faces
You crept into me and stood alone
Arms stretched out to nothing
Like the memory of something gone wrong
Slip the darkness down to the harbor
Feel your star dress, burn in the water
Forget your promise, turn out your light
Lay down and sleep tonight
Dream of your sons, dream of your daughters
Come back to you
Got my guns in a row
I got my boys to the shore
Not all but we'll stay here all day long
And get beat to shit for you
Get beat to shit for you
Spinning a right that was never far off wrong
So in pieces your sons and in pieces your daughters
Come back to you
Good morning beautiful
I've waited all my life
To watch you breathe in
Stand up and decide
To set something, anything, on fire
It's spilling over your shoulders
The dawn
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-The line: "saw a magician cut you in half so bloodless", speaks of when David Copperfield made the statue dissapear in 1983.
-There is mention of a harbour -New York Harbour
-Her star dress may be a symbol for the american flag
-"Stand up and decide, to set something, anything on fire" - She holds a torch
All in all, I think its obvious that the song is about this futile war the Amercian people have been fighting for so long. Their "sons and daughters" are dying in the name of liberty - a liberty that doesn't really exist, or care if they make it back in one piece. Good is waiting for the day when the people will stand up and take back all the ideals which this statue stands for - to reignite her torch so to speak. Of course, that's my interpretation.
I am not american. So I really don't know what it is like to live there. All I know is that I would have felt outraged to know that my government was spending more money and effort on Iraq for that many years, while so many american children go hungry, go without proper medical attention because of privatized healthcare - even go without a house to live in. The foreclosures, the billion dollar bailouts, the Occupy Protests speak for themselves. You're liberty drowned a long long time ago.
"Sicko" and "Capitalism: A Love Story"
And I really hope that you at least listen to the song we've been arguing about, Matthew Good is a phenomenal artist, and has a lot of his own political opinions.
As for the rest of the record, much of it is "about kids and the future, really, to be honest with you. The song 'Lights of Endangered Species' is actually about 'New Colossus' which was written by Emma Lazarus, which is on the Statue of Liberty, and it talks about the abandonment of the principles of that poem... and the new American ideal and the youth, not just of the United States but everywhere."