The Key to Gramercy Park

GOD, I got so pissed off at all the bullshit comments on this song I decided to make an account just to put down some ACTUAL INTERPRETATIONS of the song. This is songMEANINGS.net people, take your bs trash-talk elsewhere.

This song is actually surprisingly multilayered, despite what most people on this site seem to think.

First there are the literal pieces: a person who is a member of the underground NYC culture of violence (gangs, bare-knuckle boxing, bar brawls, street fighting, underground MMA) has acquired a key to the prestigious private park Gramercy Park and can now access the bastion of peacefullness that was formerly only accessible to him (or her) via breaking and entering. What is not said is whether he has grown up and out of the culture and is now one of the elite group that has legitimate access to the park, or if the key was gained through some illicit manner.

As Deadsy had gained acclaimed by the time this song was released I suspect Elijah Blue Allman (Aka Phillips Exitor Blue I, itself a play on upper-class elitism) is commenting on how it feels to come from the underground (though whether Deadsy ever was part of the underground is debatable) into musical popularity. The lyric about "The other side of the under scene/across the boulevard of broken dreams" shows he (the narrator) has crossed from the gutter-scum grit of the deep underground scene where no one has money to the high-renown ranks of fame where money demands respect from the outside(of the culture) world. The other side of the boulevard of broken dreams is success.

Now that the narrator has the key to Gramercy Park he is going to stay with his old ways and bring violence into the sanctuary. He is bringing his band of "Hittites" with him, Hittites may refer to either the fertile-crescent empire at the dawn of the Iron Age who were known to have been powerful military people who were never conquered but rather broke apart from the inside (this is why I prefer the second possibility) or a biblical people known to be "impure" and violent who bordered Israel and were conquered by King David and his descendants. In the second case the reference emphasizes the counter-culture and culture of violence as being "repressed" in their own minds by the dominant culture.

Because the access to the sanctuary is now so easy it has taken some of the savor out of the act of defiling it by bringing violence and sex into the park. Even the private nature of the park takes some of the adrenaline out of it for the narrator because it is "safe to be afraid of the dark" there, meaning that the darkness is actually not a threat and so the adrenaline rush of fighting or fucking within the gates of the park would be partly empty.

The lines "when you're inside and you thought to take a walk in the park think someone's about to be carved"

and

"And never look at the other place Stay with what's pristine that touches you Where the peril accentuates Something that could mean so much to you Try save a seat in the golden cage The media mass has yet to still say To simply pass, or rise from the grave"

are a bit more cryptic and hard to decipher, but I believe they are referring to an innocent bystander about to be killed who values the "pristine" condition of the park and so never looks at or pays attention to the dangers of the other public parks. The first two lines are a warning to him that he should be afraid, even in the park, because the violence now has a way in. Because he does not actually get this warning he is going to be even more shocked and value/beg for his life more within the confines of the sanctuary. Trying to save a seat in the golden cage might refer to trying to stay alive after the attack, as the Golden Cage was the metaphor for the body-image used by Hilde Bruch who was a pioneer in the psychiatry of Anorexia Nervosa. It could also be referring to threats of disfigurement by the narrator, and the victim's value of their image (common in the wealthy). The mass media then cover the attack and say the victim might die or have a miraculous recovery.

That is my interpretation.

this song is strange but i want to give Deadsy a chance. the song makes me want to pretend i am a young goat frolicking int the fields.

I think this song is about breaking into the mainstream. Gramercy park is a park in NY that is pretty much privite. Meaning the mainstream music scene, now that they finaly made it (key) they will miss the underground scene. (But I might miss breaking in through the bars) Other lyrics like think someone's about to be carved is the viscousness of the music biz.

This song rocks.

Awesome song!

This song is awesome, but one correction. Where it says "the end wasn't meant to be starved", it should be id, not end.

daffy- "so i guess only idiots like it."

Everyone has their own opinions on music/what kind of music they like, including yourself, but that doesnt give you a right to call people "idiots" for liking the song.

jesus christ, daffy, you are a moron...i hate how people pass off what they say as the be-all end-all, like you friggin have the talent to get a band together, write and record, and make a vid... only morons like it eh? beauty is only in the eye of the beholder...you have no right...

of course i have the right to call someone an idiot, as much as you have to call someone a moron. we all have the right to judge, and though we claim we don't, we all do. it just so happens that i'm usually right when i do it, hypocrite. (btw, isn't it funny how you can tell how stupid someone is just by a cliche'd, whiny, attention-grabbing nickname?)

Daffy.. i dont think that HalfLifeSuicide is an attention-grabbing nickname. All though it could be, but my guess he is talking about the computer game Half Life. And seeing how its about killing people.. ahh, screw it. Its not worth the time. But I am a metal-head.. I also like melodic music, as well as even some rap. My point is that nothing can be too much or too less for someone no matter what they like to listen to. I agree that it is wrong that you come in an bash the people that like a band by calling them idiots. I think that you deserve to be the idiot in this case for bashing an art form. ANY music is a form of art. Maybe not to you, but it is at least to the band. Deadsy is a very creative and talented band. Its cool that you dig the old synth songs, but man.. really.. why call someone an idiot for being different or having their own opinion? Personaly I think its fucked up. And one more thing... I dont judge anyone and that is a fact.