Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water
Semen stains the mountain tops
Semen stains the mountain tops
With cocoa leaves along the border
Sweetness sings from every corner
Cars careening from the clouds
The bridges burst and twist around
And wanting something warm and moving
Bends towards herself the soothing
Proves that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist
Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water
Semen stains the mountain tops
Semen stains the mountain tops
The communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water
Semen stains the mountain tops
Semen stains the mountain tops
With cocoa leaves along the border
Sweetness sings from every corner
Cars careening from the clouds
The bridges burst and twist around
And wanting something warm and moving
Bends towards herself the soothing
Proves that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist
Sweet communist
The communist daughter
Standing on the sea-weed water
Semen stains the mountain tops
Semen stains the mountain tops
Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by coopigat, Mellow_Harsher
Communist Daughter Lyrics as written by Jeff Mangum
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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That's my take on it, anyway.
In the words of one of my favourite comedians, Dennis Miller, “The only thing separating holy writ from complete bullshit is your perspective. It’s your only weapon, keep the safety off”
in it this girl named julia sort of used sex as her own way to rebel against an oppressive, omnipotent government.
I dunno, just popped into my head with all this talk about sex and communism.
The artist in this lyric befuddles listeners - hides intentions behind surreal phrases. At the outset the artist attempts to shock an idealized mainstream by identifying with an idealized foe of the current mainstream.
Reference to semen is another crude effort to shock readers who fail to join the artists hastily constructed proletariat - at once violating sensibilities of privacy with a notion that the writer knows better what is suited for public discourse, imposing the seed of his desire upon any who here, and implying esoteric knowledge - albeit void of any discernible meaning other than that of crude graffiti that creates group identity among vandals who spray walls with obscure messages.
We know the artist is not naive to political ideologies because he performs in politicized venues. In the most general sense, the artist claims a right to define communism as he sees it, then uses it as a garment to dress a person's best hopes for the future - as represented by the concept "daughter." This idealized daughter seeks to satisfy herself, but uses the fist - an allusion to force and violence -- that proves to her she still exists.
It is easy to get the sense that the song is about rape. The male artist constructs an idealized female to which he can do as he pleases - dress her in the communist attire that satisfies his sense of rebellion, ejaculate publicly on her fictional mountains, and act as a puppeteer who causes her to masturbate for his gratification.
In the final analysis, the song speaks to the reasons young people identify with some political ideals - not because the ideal makes sense to them, but because they feel empowered by embracing an ideal "better than yours" then enjoying the support of a peer mob to impose their ideals on what they see as an oppressive society. It is a society in which they failed to find the rewards and prestige they sought, so they set out in search of wealth, prestige and exclusive status in their own self-styled proletariat.
As most people know, this album is largely about the tragic life of Anne Frank, who had to hide in secrecy during the Holocaust. She had to keep quiet and isolated for a long period of time, something that would surely bring feelings of loneliness and disconnection from the world. Furthermore, she was at the age of sexual discovery (early teens), so to have little contact with human beings, let alone intimacy, would surely be very difficult. Thus she "bends toward herself" and "moves herself about her fist" - references, I believe, to masturbation - to "prove that she must still exist." How poetically sad can you get? She needs to feel intimacy and human love, but due to her isolation and confinement she turns to herself for those feelings. I teared up writing this. Kudos to Jeff for creating such a beautiful depiction of longing for intimacy.