this is the single closest SK song to an autobiography, or at least the biography of a fictionalized version of two people a lot like the band members. they are in a city (portland) just about to leave home as adults--borrowing parents' car, wanting to be seen, but in fact "green as this blade of grass"--no idea of the true nature of the adult world. They take jobs (work all day/play all night) -- the first thrill of being on your own, & the adult city world seems mysterious and fascinating, "bookstores and punk rock clubs," etc.
coyote refers to the real story, which is def. an inspiration for the song, but also ties into Coyote trickster myths esp. of northwestern Indian tribes. the coyote leads you on a journey but its nature is ambiguous--and in this song they discover the ambivalence of adulthood, "where the poor and the hipsters" (both dressed in cheap clothes, but only one because they need to)--"the grid that divides us all." this song is all about crossing--& in the title the moving vehicle that is tehcnologically modern (the light rail) is attached to something that crosses over from the natural and/or mythical world (coyote).
by the end it is the darkness of the city, what they did not expect to discover, or maybe the actual nature of the mystery they were looking for in the first place, in fact is so challenging to the individual that they are on the "eve of suicide." it is only the friend--real or imagined ("if you want to be a friend of mine") who has to cross the tracks again.
to be speculative, the tremendous chorus of "oh dirty river, come let me in," which even has melodic overtones of a spiritual (the line is about the same length as "old man river keeps on rolling" with caesura in the same place) suggests something like the ambivalence of life, being able to accept the bad (dirty) with the good (river), being able to pass from youth into adulthood.
"wilderness" may be no less biographical, but this song seems really to capture something intensely personal for the band.
this is the single closest SK song to an autobiography, or at least the biography of a fictionalized version of two people a lot like the band members. they are in a city (portland) just about to leave home as adults--borrowing parents' car, wanting to be seen, but in fact "green as this blade of grass"--no idea of the true nature of the adult world. They take jobs (work all day/play all night) -- the first thrill of being on your own, & the adult city world seems mysterious and fascinating, "bookstores and punk rock clubs," etc.
coyote refers to the real story, which is def. an inspiration for the song, but also ties into Coyote trickster myths esp. of northwestern Indian tribes. the coyote leads you on a journey but its nature is ambiguous--and in this song they discover the ambivalence of adulthood, "where the poor and the hipsters" (both dressed in cheap clothes, but only one because they need to)--"the grid that divides us all." this song is all about crossing--& in the title the moving vehicle that is tehcnologically modern (the light rail) is attached to something that crosses over from the natural and/or mythical world (coyote).
by the end it is the darkness of the city, what they did not expect to discover, or maybe the actual nature of the mystery they were looking for in the first place, in fact is so challenging to the individual that they are on the "eve of suicide." it is only the friend--real or imagined ("if you want to be a friend of mine") who has to cross the tracks again.
to be speculative, the tremendous chorus of "oh dirty river, come let me in," which even has melodic overtones of a spiritual (the line is about the same length as "old man river keeps on rolling" with caesura in the same place) suggests something like the ambivalence of life, being able to accept the bad (dirty) with the good (river), being able to pass from youth into adulthood.
"wilderness" may be no less biographical, but this song seems really to capture something intensely personal for the band.