Well, I would correct the mistakes in the lyrics above, but there are so many (sory) that I'll just give the right ones:
Wolves by the road
And a bike wheel spinning on a pawn shop wall
She'll wring out her colored hair
Like a butterfly beaten in a summer rainfall
And then roll on the kitchen floor
With some fucker with a pocketful of foreign change
Song of the shepherd’s dog
A pitch in the dark in the ear of the lamb
Who's going to try to run away
Whoever got that brave?
Wolves in the middle of town
And the chapel bell ringing through the wind-blown trees
She'll wave to the butcher’s boy
With the parking lot music everybody believes
And then dive like a dying bird
To any dude with a dollar in the penny arcade
Song of the shepherd’s dog
Waiter and the check or a rooster on the rooftop waiting for day
And you know what he's gonna say
Wolves at the end of the bed
And a postcard hidden in her winter clothes
She weep in the back of a truck
To the traitors only trying to find her bullet hole
And then run down the canopy road
To some mother with a baby and a cross to bear
Song of the shepherd’s dog
Little brown flea in the bottle of oil
For your wool and wild hair*
You'll never get him out of there
*seriously, this really does sound like "woolly, wild hair." If I didn't have the lyric sheet I'd have no idea
Okay, so I think megabyte is on the right track in saying that this is a song about escaping, for various definitions of the word "escape." The first stanza, I think, is just brilliant. It starts off with wolves (danger) on the road (the way out), and then we get the bike wheel. I feel like I could go on for days about that bike wheel. It's a FANTASTIC image. For one thing, a bike is the poor man's (or, in this case, woman's) car, so that - along with the fact that it's spinning - represent motion, escape. But it's stuck on the wall - there isn't even a rest of the bike to go with it - and, moreover, it's in a pawn shop, which means you have to have money to get out, so in more ways than one this means of escape, too, is being blocked off. The two men the heroine goes after in this song both bear signs of espcape: money, in both cases; foreign-ness in the first; and the experiential escape of playing a video game in the second. So we know that she's willing to give up her body for that feeling of getting away. We also know, because this is specifically the song of the shepherd's dog, that running away would not be a good idea (hence the incredulous, "Whoever got that brave?"), which is reinforced hardcore in the last stanza: even though she's really opening up to these guys with a truck, they're "traitors" who are only after "her bullet hole" (three guesses as to what that symbolizes). Then she's visited by a vision of her future: a single mother "with a cross to bear" (which, actually, I don't think is being a single mother - I think it's being stuck in the same place she'd always been trying to escape). The waiter, the rooster, and the flea I think are all supposed to be instances of things that will generate that frustrated sense of predictability or inevitability that happens when you've been somewhere you don't want to be for a long time.
I'm not really sure what to make of that "parking lot music" thing, though - is that just a shot at pop music and how idealized it can be sometimes? I dunno.
Well, I would correct the mistakes in the lyrics above, but there are so many (sory) that I'll just give the right ones:
Wolves by the road And a bike wheel spinning on a pawn shop wall She'll wring out her colored hair Like a butterfly beaten in a summer rainfall And then roll on the kitchen floor With some fucker with a pocketful of foreign change Song of the shepherd’s dog A pitch in the dark in the ear of the lamb Who's going to try to run away Whoever got that brave?
Wolves in the middle of town And the chapel bell ringing through the wind-blown trees She'll wave to the butcher’s boy With the parking lot music everybody believes And then dive like a dying bird To any dude with a dollar in the penny arcade Song of the shepherd’s dog Waiter and the check or a rooster on the rooftop waiting for day And you know what he's gonna say
Wolves at the end of the bed And a postcard hidden in her winter clothes She weep in the back of a truck To the traitors only trying to find her bullet hole And then run down the canopy road To some mother with a baby and a cross to bear Song of the shepherd’s dog Little brown flea in the bottle of oil For your wool and wild hair* You'll never get him out of there
*seriously, this really does sound like "woolly, wild hair." If I didn't have the lyric sheet I'd have no idea
Okay, so I think megabyte is on the right track in saying that this is a song about escaping, for various definitions of the word "escape." The first stanza, I think, is just brilliant. It starts off with wolves (danger) on the road (the way out), and then we get the bike wheel. I feel like I could go on for days about that bike wheel. It's a FANTASTIC image. For one thing, a bike is the poor man's (or, in this case, woman's) car, so that - along with the fact that it's spinning - represent motion, escape. But it's stuck on the wall - there isn't even a rest of the bike to go with it - and, moreover, it's in a pawn shop, which means you have to have money to get out, so in more ways than one this means of escape, too, is being blocked off. The two men the heroine goes after in this song both bear signs of espcape: money, in both cases; foreign-ness in the first; and the experiential escape of playing a video game in the second. So we know that she's willing to give up her body for that feeling of getting away. We also know, because this is specifically the song of the shepherd's dog, that running away would not be a good idea (hence the incredulous, "Whoever got that brave?"), which is reinforced hardcore in the last stanza: even though she's really opening up to these guys with a truck, they're "traitors" who are only after "her bullet hole" (three guesses as to what that symbolizes). Then she's visited by a vision of her future: a single mother "with a cross to bear" (which, actually, I don't think is being a single mother - I think it's being stuck in the same place she'd always been trying to escape). The waiter, the rooster, and the flea I think are all supposed to be instances of things that will generate that frustrated sense of predictability or inevitability that happens when you've been somewhere you don't want to be for a long time.
I'm not really sure what to make of that "parking lot music" thing, though - is that just a shot at pop music and how idealized it can be sometimes? I dunno.