For years, I thought "healthy wealthy and wise" was really "Wendy Carnie & I" and the "indian girl" mentioned in the song was referring to Brian Wilson's wife (which it still might).
There's deliberate ambiguity here, but that's what makes VDP lyrics endure.
There's deliberate ambiguity here, but that's what makes VDP lyrics endure.
I think with these VDP songs you have to look for the money words first, and the one that jumps out at you first is "Catillian." Catillian is ambiguous all by itself: it could be a Spanish debutante dance, or it could be a woman representing all of Spain (Castillian), or it could be a deliberate misspelling of Cotillian, a French dance--or, of course, it could be a woman named Catillian. I think it's used here because it's meant to suggest more of these, not less. ...
I think with these VDP songs you have to look for the money words first, and the one that jumps out at you first is "Catillian." Catillian is ambiguous all by itself: it could be a Spanish debutante dance, or it could be a woman representing all of Spain (Castillian), or it could be a deliberate misspelling of Cotillian, a French dance--or, of course, it could be a woman named Catillian. I think it's used here because it's meant to suggest more of these, not less. But you come away with young woman in a dance, as the rest of the lyric ("she's still dancing in the night unafraid").
One quality heroes and villains both possess is courage--Catillian is unafraid, despite it all. The hero/villain of the song is Catillian, whatever Catillian is.
So that's where you start off: Catillian, a woman dancing, a hero or a villain, maybe both.
e>
Back to the start: "I've been in this town so long"...I'm fully absorbed by this. Maybe even obsessive. People are forgetting about me.
Here's what has absorbed the singer:
"Fell in love years ago..."
With Catillian...
"an innocent girl, from Spanish and Indian home..."
It could be so ambiguous as to be any Latin American nation, a Spanish and Indian home. A girl representative of the New World, personified as a woman, a product of both the Indian world and colonial Latin America, home of the heroes and villains.
"Stand or fall I know there
shall be peace in the valley..."
Despite the bloody past, there will be peace. That matches the vision of Smile.
"And it's all an affair of my life..."
My obsession, my study of this, the reason I've disappeared, that I've been taken for lost in the city.
"My children were raised..." is to me the most elliptical of the elliptical elements of this song. It sounds perfect within it--it's really a reprise of the first melody, I think it's placement in the song later is to say this much: OK, I've obsessed about all this stuff, I've been gone in dreamland here, and still things worked out anyway, I raised my own family, made my own life--in fact, this is the way you do it, by letting yourself be absorbed in whole other worlds. This is how you become your own hero and a potential villain to others too.
The final reprise is the final plunge.
"I've been in this town so long
so long to the city..."
In other words, I'm no longer in your world at all, I'm in this one, where I've been gone for a long long time. It's the affair of my life, my pursuit of this other world.
"Sunny down snuff I'm all right..." to me that's an artful, even playful rendering of the brutal side of Spanish-Indian history. Despite it all, despite the four centuries of brutality, now I can look at this time, examine it, study it, and I'm all right.
Finally, "Just see what you've done" is a final admonishment to the listener, and fits very nicely with the whole rest of the song. To paraphrase: I've gone this route, I've done it, walked away from this world, let myself be absorbed in another world, fell for the story behind the innocent girl from the violent cultural clash of nations, and everything worked out for me anyway, my kids are all right, and I'm all right too--in fact, this is the way we can now become heroes, or potentially villains too--and what have YOU done?"
That's my interpretation. I've been listening to it since it was released.
For years, I thought "healthy wealthy and wise" was really "Wendy Carnie & I" and the "indian girl" mentioned in the song was referring to Brian Wilson's wife (which it still might).
There's deliberate ambiguity here, but that's what makes VDP lyrics endure.
There's deliberate ambiguity here, but that's what makes VDP lyrics endure.
I think with these VDP songs you have to look for the money words first, and the one that jumps out at you first is "Catillian." Catillian is ambiguous all by itself: it could be a Spanish debutante dance, or it could be a woman representing all of Spain (Castillian), or it could be a deliberate misspelling of Cotillian, a French dance--or, of course, it could be a woman named Catillian. I think it's used here because it's meant to suggest more of these, not less. ...
I think with these VDP songs you have to look for the money words first, and the one that jumps out at you first is "Catillian." Catillian is ambiguous all by itself: it could be a Spanish debutante dance, or it could be a woman representing all of Spain (Castillian), or it could be a deliberate misspelling of Cotillian, a French dance--or, of course, it could be a woman named Catillian. I think it's used here because it's meant to suggest more of these, not less. But you come away with young woman in a dance, as the rest of the lyric ("she's still dancing in the night unafraid").
One quality heroes and villains both possess is courage--Catillian is unafraid, despite it all. The hero/villain of the song is Catillian, whatever Catillian is.
So that's where you start off: Catillian, a woman dancing, a hero or a villain, maybe both.
e>
Back to the start: "I've been in this town so long"...I'm fully absorbed by this. Maybe even obsessive. People are forgetting about me. Here's what has absorbed the singer: "Fell in love years ago..." With Catillian... "an innocent girl, from Spanish and Indian home..." It could be so ambiguous as to be any Latin American nation, a Spanish and Indian home. A girl representative of the New World, personified as a woman, a product of both the Indian world and colonial Latin America, home of the heroes and villains. "Stand or fall I know there shall be peace in the valley..." Despite the bloody past, there will be peace. That matches the vision of Smile. "And it's all an affair of my life..." My obsession, my study of this, the reason I've disappeared, that I've been taken for lost in the city. "My children were raised..." is to me the most elliptical of the elliptical elements of this song. It sounds perfect within it--it's really a reprise of the first melody, I think it's placement in the song later is to say this much: OK, I've obsessed about all this stuff, I've been gone in dreamland here, and still things worked out anyway, I raised my own family, made my own life--in fact, this is the way you do it, by letting yourself be absorbed in whole other worlds. This is how you become your own hero and a potential villain to others too. The final reprise is the final plunge. "I've been in this town so long so long to the city..." In other words, I'm no longer in your world at all, I'm in this one, where I've been gone for a long long time. It's the affair of my life, my pursuit of this other world. "Sunny down snuff I'm all right..." to me that's an artful, even playful rendering of the brutal side of Spanish-Indian history. Despite it all, despite the four centuries of brutality, now I can look at this time, examine it, study it, and I'm all right. Finally, "Just see what you've done" is a final admonishment to the listener, and fits very nicely with the whole rest of the song. To paraphrase: I've gone this route, I've done it, walked away from this world, let myself be absorbed in another world, fell for the story behind the innocent girl from the violent cultural clash of nations, and everything worked out for me anyway, my kids are all right, and I'm all right too--in fact, this is the way we can now become heroes, or potentially villains too--and what have YOU done?" That's my interpretation. I've been listening to it since it was released.