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"
The trapper and the furrier went walking through paradise
And all the animals lay clawless and toothless before them
And all the mother's stepped away from their babies
Leaving them open and easy to handle
The trapper and the furrier went walking through paradise
They took some for now and they got some for later
And they marveled at the pelts, not a bullet hole in them
And they filled up the cages with pets for their children
What a strange, strange world we live in
Where the good are damned and the wicked forgiven
What a strange, strange world we live in
Those who don't have lose, those who got get given
More, more, more, more
The owner and the manager went walking through paradise
And all the shelves were filled with awards and achievements
And on every corner, a power presentation
And on every floor, an army of workers
The owner and the manager went walking through paradise
And all their charts showed so much promise and progress
No sick days, no snow days, no unions, no taxes
And they wandered towards home, kings of their castles
What a strange, strange world we live in
Where the good are damned and the wicked forgiven
What a strange, strange world we live in
Those who don't have lose, those who got get given
More, more, more, more
The lawyer and the pharmacist went walking through paradise
And all the sick were around and with fevers unbreaking
Crying and bleeding and coughing and shaking
And arms out stretched, prescription collecting
The lawyer and the pharmacist went walking through paradise
Pressed suits in a courtroom, aroma of chloroform
And they smiled at the judge, disposition so sunny
Cause they didn't have the cure but sure needed the money
What a strange, strange world we live in
Where the good are damned and the wicked forgiven
What a strange, strange world we live in
Those who don't have lose, those who got get given
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
And all the animals lay clawless and toothless before them
And all the mother's stepped away from their babies
Leaving them open and easy to handle
The trapper and the furrier went walking through paradise
They took some for now and they got some for later
And they marveled at the pelts, not a bullet hole in them
And they filled up the cages with pets for their children
What a strange, strange world we live in
Where the good are damned and the wicked forgiven
What a strange, strange world we live in
Those who don't have lose, those who got get given
More, more, more, more
The owner and the manager went walking through paradise
And all the shelves were filled with awards and achievements
And on every corner, a power presentation
And on every floor, an army of workers
The owner and the manager went walking through paradise
And all their charts showed so much promise and progress
No sick days, no snow days, no unions, no taxes
And they wandered towards home, kings of their castles
What a strange, strange world we live in
Where the good are damned and the wicked forgiven
What a strange, strange world we live in
Those who don't have lose, those who got get given
More, more, more, more
The lawyer and the pharmacist went walking through paradise
And all the sick were around and with fevers unbreaking
Crying and bleeding and coughing and shaking
And arms out stretched, prescription collecting
The lawyer and the pharmacist went walking through paradise
Pressed suits in a courtroom, aroma of chloroform
And they smiled at the judge, disposition so sunny
Cause they didn't have the cure but sure needed the money
What a strange, strange world we live in
Where the good are damned and the wicked forgiven
What a strange, strange world we live in
Those who don't have lose, those who got get given
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
More, more, more, more
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It has taken me many iterations reading the lyrics and repeatedly listening to “The Trapper and the Furrier“ to begin to answer why they affect me as strongly as they do.
For me it is a realistic depiction of where we stand today in America - the triumph of greed over any other aspirations - no less so here in our early 21st century climate of self-worship and narcissism.
Paragraph by paragraph:
The first strikes deep chords in me, as a Plymouth Plantation descendant, having just finished reading “Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation“ where the former governor spends much of his time complaining about the colony’s treatment by business partners – in the fur trapping trade. It was a paradise for some – and laid the foundation for what was to come. The seeds of the capitalist/elitist ideology of Calvin. It was not the “City on a Hill” that I expected – it was more like pure self-interest.
I can relate to paragraph two as the employee of a corporation – where every turn hides an inherent conflict of interest between owners and workers. Progress is defined as the one-sided balance of corporate over individual interests. It’s hidden behind rhetoric and ritual and is, again, a paradise for some, but only some.
I read paragraph three as a customer in the American medical system, laden with similar conflicts of interest. It is reflected in a legalistic pharmacological approach designed, ultimately, to prop up yet more capitalistic elites rather than perform an underlying useful function – to cure people of disease and improve lives.
The refrain ties these all together for me by describing the underlying motivation – greed - and the raw fact that those who already have resources are given more, resulting in the continued growth of economic disparity – “Those who don't have lose, those who got get given More, more, more, more”. The refrain within the refrain is an even more powerful distillation of the underlying message.
All this is accomplished without identifying specific parties at fault, but instead reflecting the underlying realities normally obscured by layers of rhetoric. It’s an attempt to impart a level of awareness more akin to Samuel Beckett than Bob Dylan. It is what it is – greed – let’s simply admit it. It’s an underlying theme of America present from our earliest days and a preeminent description of the motto of the 21st century - "More".