I adore this song. It's the perfect beginning to The Murder Trilogy. Now, I'd like to share my interpretation on the trilogy and see if anyone agrees with me.
1) Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf
It's full of imagery. I can completely see the story in my head and when a band can do that, they have hit the fantastic mark in my book. This is pretty much about the nasty break up that he and Jenny has. He's completely smashed. "Fallin' over myself" and he's obviously gone a little crazy "The television’s on, I turn it off and smile." and he's trying to get her to stay and she just wont. Now he asks her to leave the bourbon on the shelf so he can drink away his agony. When people get mad they become blatantly honest and they just say how they feel so they can tear the other person down (and it doesn't help that he's tanked either.) So he starts spewing insults "And I never liked your hair or those people that you lie with" etc. By the end of the song he is just drained. He's filled with anger, yet he still loves her "endlessly"...
2) Midnight Show
So I'm not totally sure how he got her in the car with him after they broke up like that...maybe they "reconciled"? But here is what I get from this song.
He has somehow convinced her that they are going somewhere alone to talk or mess around. It's underneath the stars and the ocean is there (which makes it seem all romantic).I believe the first "drive faster boy" is Jennifer speaking. Then while he's driving he's thinking of all the people who have tried to help him through everything (maybe the break up or the apparent drinking problem or some other life issue) He's obviously distracted because he finds her attractive 'You've got a real short skirt I want to look up'. Then all the "Drive faster boy" lyrics sound more like his thoughts-'I just want to get this over with, drive faster!' Then you hit 'We were just in time. Let me take a little more off your mind' this is possibly when he decides that it's time to kill her but he kisses her first (that would be very murder-esque ha) then he starts to have second thoughts on going through with it 'We were just a good thing. We were such a good thing'. He tries to ask her to stay again 'But promise me you'll stay, Fix these things I've hurt' she refuses. Then he pushes those second thoughts back 'make it go away!' He finally kills her (by choking I suppose) 'I took my baby's breath beneath the chandelier of stars in atmosphere' and then throws her into the raging ocean. 'And watch her disappear into the midnight show'. Then in the last verse you can tell that he is going back over what he has just done and is feeling wretched, this explains the "Oh no" at the end. Then you hear him sing in agony "She said she loved me!" He's gone crazy, the music at the end sounds straight out of a horror movie, where the killer is standing there obove where he threw the body into the ocean.
3) Jenny was a friend of mine
-Fabulous. You hear the chopper at the beginning and the police sirens...I can almost picture the search light on the helicopter finding the body in the ocean. The police are interrogating him, asking him where they last saw her, what happened. He claims that they took a walk and she seemed weird, they had been fighting (and it was raining...perfect horror movie visual imagery! he) She told him that she loved him but she needed to go somewhere (he's trying to convince the police that she left, therefore he has no idea where she went or how she died). Then he try’s to play on their sympathy and says 'she couldn't scream while I held her close (because people yell when they fight) I swore I'd never let her go'(trying to convince them he adored her) Then he tells them that he would never kill her because he loved her, they were friends, why would he ever do something to harm her? Then he wants to leave the office: He claims he knows his rights and that he's been there all day. He thinks it's time for him to leave blah blah. And then they ask him (again) if he killed her. 'I just can't take this! I swore I told you the truth!'
Woooow. Sorry for how long that was...I understand if you didn't read the whole thing. And if you did, thank you for taking the time!
I adore this song. It's the perfect beginning to The Murder Trilogy. Now, I'd like to share my interpretation on the trilogy and see if anyone agrees with me. 1) Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf
Woooow. Sorry for how long that was...I understand if you didn't read the whole thing. And if you did, thank you for taking the time!
"So I'm not totally sure how he got her in the car with him after they broke up."
"So I'm not totally sure how he got her in the car with him after they broke up."
He did that by promising to take her to a midnight show. She probably thought it was a concert or something.
He did that by promising to take her to a midnight show. She probably thought it was a concert or something.
I like your interpretation very much.
I like your interpretation very much.