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Springtime In Vienna Lyrics
Instructions from the manual could not have been much more plain the blues are still required the blues are still required again
Past territorial piss-posts past whispers in the closets past screamin' from the rooftops we live to survive our paradoxes
Men hear of the secret they pass in upholstered silence they only exist in crisis they only exist in silence past territorial
Piss-posts past whispers in the closets past screamin' from the rooftops we live to survive our paradoxes we'll live to survive
Our paradoxes
Past territorial piss-posts past whispers in the closets past screamin' from the rooftops we live to survive our paradoxes
Piss-posts past whispers in the closets past screamin' from the rooftops we live to survive our paradoxes we'll live to survive
Our paradoxes
Song Info
Submitted by
black_cow_of_death On Jan 26, 2002
More The Tragically Hip
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Bobcaygeon
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The title of this song is the only thing that even remotely hints at what it's about. Given this, i think its about what it would be like having to hide out in your home country (Austria) during WWII because of what you believe in, and how they had to keep their lives a secret, and they would have to have people on the outside helping them survive. This song could generally be about having to rely on the support of others.
Gord Downie has said that this song was inspired by a couple that was fighting outside a house beside the house the band was staying in while recording "Day for Night" in New Orleans. Gord Sinclair facetiously said "I guess it's springtime in Vienna" while watching this couple tear each other's heads off. Downie decided to elaborate on that paradox by writing about the the Nazi's invading Austria in the spring. The most beautiful time of the year, in one of the most beautiful places in the world is the backdrop for a violent invasion. This is an example of "surviving our paradoxes".
All I know is that this is one of their best songs. The lyrics are vague and perfect and it builds from gentle sleigh bells to a wall of guitars, mellows back down and then shreds to the finish line as the drums thump away.