One of my fave Cave songs at the moment, and he played it last night in Brighton, and messed up the words going into the "Zero crime and no fear" line, but recovered beautifully and with humour, and so that those who didn't know the song probably wouldn't have realised at all, although it raised a few cheers and jeers from those who did know the song.
I have always seen it as an indictment of the kind of small-minded Parish provincial England town that I'm from, where the inhabitants care more for their cats than they do fellow human beings, and I think the song is a description of the kind of "Daily Mail mindset" that often prevails in such towns, hence the sensational/provocative language used in dscribing the "homos roaming the streets in packs", as if they were wild animals, and the "queerbashers with tyrejacks", and the humourous "lesbian counterattacks" - it is a description of the shock tactics that papers like the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, and many other of the top-selling British newspapers use to control middle England, and it is beautifully written.
The song seems to be sung from the perspective of one such inhabitant of such a town, whose blind faith in the "God in the House" seems to be waning with each passing chorus, so that by the end he or she is wishing that He would come out, either to prove His existence, or perhaps it is Cave himself wishing He would come out to show His real power and teach these people what life should really be about - not fearing such sensationalist rubbish as is fed to them through the media, but actually trying to help their society, rather than hide away from it in their well lit little town.
Much of the lyrics are playful and humourous in their mocking of such towns, "We have a tiny little Force, but we need them of course, for the kittens in the trees..." and "We have a pretty little square, we have a woman for a Mayor, our policy is firm but fair", it's all wonderful stuff.
I think the "We've bred all our kittens white" line probably does have racial connotations, although that only occurred to me recently, when I was talking to my fiancee about this song. I had previously just thought it an example of the paranoia of such people, who would only keep white cats, as they would be safest and least likely to get run over in traffic.
If Cave is religious, and the article that another quoted is hardly concrete evidence to confirm that, he is still clearly poking fun at those who use religion as a thing to hide behind, as a place to hide away from real life, and from life's responsibilities.
God bless all the Americans who think this is a literal song about a pretty little God-fearing town! Ha!
One of my fave Cave songs at the moment, and he played it last night in Brighton, and messed up the words going into the "Zero crime and no fear" line, but recovered beautifully and with humour, and so that those who didn't know the song probably wouldn't have realised at all, although it raised a few cheers and jeers from those who did know the song.
I have always seen it as an indictment of the kind of small-minded Parish provincial England town that I'm from, where the inhabitants care more for their cats than they do fellow human beings, and I think the song is a description of the kind of "Daily Mail mindset" that often prevails in such towns, hence the sensational/provocative language used in dscribing the "homos roaming the streets in packs", as if they were wild animals, and the "queerbashers with tyrejacks", and the humourous "lesbian counterattacks" - it is a description of the shock tactics that papers like the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, and many other of the top-selling British newspapers use to control middle England, and it is beautifully written.
The song seems to be sung from the perspective of one such inhabitant of such a town, whose blind faith in the "God in the House" seems to be waning with each passing chorus, so that by the end he or she is wishing that He would come out, either to prove His existence, or perhaps it is Cave himself wishing He would come out to show His real power and teach these people what life should really be about - not fearing such sensationalist rubbish as is fed to them through the media, but actually trying to help their society, rather than hide away from it in their well lit little town.
Much of the lyrics are playful and humourous in their mocking of such towns, "We have a tiny little Force, but we need them of course, for the kittens in the trees..." and "We have a pretty little square, we have a woman for a Mayor, our policy is firm but fair", it's all wonderful stuff.
I think the "We've bred all our kittens white" line probably does have racial connotations, although that only occurred to me recently, when I was talking to my fiancee about this song. I had previously just thought it an example of the paranoia of such people, who would only keep white cats, as they would be safest and least likely to get run over in traffic.
If Cave is religious, and the article that another quoted is hardly concrete evidence to confirm that, he is still clearly poking fun at those who use religion as a thing to hide behind, as a place to hide away from real life, and from life's responsibilities.
God bless all the Americans who think this is a literal song about a pretty little God-fearing town! Ha!