Transport Is Arranged

That line about the voice coach teaching him to sing is sung out of tune. Brilliant.

"A voice coach taught me to sing, he couldn't teach me to love" That line defines, for me, what Pavement is all about. I don't know that this song has any real meaning though.

I like how absurd it is to suggest that SM has ever been taught by a voice coach, that line makes me laugh every time. This is one of my favourite pavement songs.

Except when i sing along I change "Cremate the crutch" to "I want a creme egg to crush" cos it's funnier.

The third verse is definitely an allusion to several Biblical stories.

First is an unhappy, disgruntled angel, perhaps Lucifer himself. (I swung my fiery sword, I vent my spleen at the Lord). The next, with the "milk and honey" line is a reference to John the Baptist, and the mystery of faith (Jesus is the Lord, the Lord is Jesus). The last is the story of Cain and Abel - he'll walk through the wilderness, just like Cain, with nothing.

Well not quite nothing.

Analyzing Pavement song 'meanings' is usually just silly. Since Malkmus was often using words and phrases for their sound and not their meaning, the signal to noise ratio is often deafening. There are many songs of theirs that still give a clear image, either through a narrative ('summer babe/winter version', 'shady lane'), a unifying mood or idea (most of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain), or an oblique autobiographical fragment.

Most of the songs in the first person, including this one, are in the last category - I don't think Malmkus was the kind of writer who regularly constructed a careful narrative lyric persona to avoid singing about himself - like the Mountain Goats or Radiohead or the Talking Heads do at times. He could, and did, sing about his own feelings/experiences and used his masterclass abstract wordplay to keep himself from sounding remotely like a whiny narcissistic bitch when doing so.

For this song, the opening lines are probably advice a person (SM) is giving to himself about extracting himself from a sticky situation, probably romantic. He wants to stop dissembling ('leave the angles for the shills') because its destroying his mood ('Ive been thınking for days ... hate all I touch'). He quickly professes faith ('I know you're my lady') and apologizes for his inconsistency and bad behavior, blaming some on his profession ('a voice coach . . .').

Then he gets out, covered by his silver tongue. 'Easy talking, border blocking, transport is arranged'.

The second verse is someone (probably different, but still female, maybe older, almost motherly) he is staying with and wants to keep happy. He heaps praise on their favorite academic, tentatively agrees to a matchmaking prospect he probably has no interest in, and then gets a call to get out of there and go smoke a joint ('cremate the crutch') somewhere where he can avoid having to sound intellectual ('keep the language off the streets'). So he makes his excuses ('I know youre my lady, but phonecalls could corrupt . . .'), gets high ('heed the surgeon's warnıng ". . . see Peter Tosh, 'Bush Doctor'), and gets out of there - transport is arranged.

Last verse is SM, probably stoned, justifying himself and his glib exits. 'Swing my fiery sword' could be a joınt - or just his defense mechanisms, since a fiery sword was used by an archangel to protect the garden of eden. It's his way of protecting himself against annoying people and situations, rather than confront them. He bitches to God, because he knows God couldn't care less. And comes back to himself as intrepid, nomadic, solo survivor in a world devoid of meaning. His compass is his sense of social/personal direction, and his canteen is emotional self sufficiency - so he directs the action, and can go where he wants to go and do what he wants to do. Or something.

Yes, that line is great, but I always come back to that third verse. "I vent my spleen at the Lord, he is abstract and bored, too much milk and honey."

Praise the grammar police, set me up with your niece Walk to Baltimore, and keep the language off the street

brilliant

for the longest time, i thought sm was singing 'the boys coach taught me to sing, he couldn't teach me to love'.

for live shows, sm used to always changed the 'baltimore' line to be more regional. whether it be 'wooster', 'scranton' or 'champaign'.

I feel as if SM is a guy who is completely losing his mind due to his societal position and/or his relationship. He talks to both himself and his "lady" within the lyrics and is about to do something drastic (suicide? flee the town?). I feel like a lot of Pavement lyrics have to do with this angsty rejection of normal society.