Michael had this to say about the song in the April 08 issue of Spin magazine:
"There are songs I wrote in the past that were gender-specific. 7 Chinese Bros. was about me breaking up a couple – and then dating both of them, a man and a woman, which is a terrible thing to do, but I was young and stupid.”
In addition I read this interesting take on the song, below, from a site called Pop Songs 07-08:
"In Bishop’s story (The Five Chinese Brothers)- which is based upon a Chinese folk tale – one of the brothers is able to hold the entire ocean in his mouth, and does so for a boy who wants to gather fish. The boy turns out to be greedy, and does not return to shore when he is beckoned. The brother is unable to breathe and is forced to let the ocean out, which in turn drowns the boy. The brother is later sentenced to death by the townsfolk.
It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see why Stipe would relate his sordid scenario to this tale – it’s pretty clear now that he’s the selfish little boy in this story."
Michael had this to say about the song in the April 08 issue of Spin magazine:
"There are songs I wrote in the past that were gender-specific. 7 Chinese Bros. was about me breaking up a couple – and then dating both of them, a man and a woman, which is a terrible thing to do, but I was young and stupid.”
In addition I read this interesting take on the song, below, from a site called Pop Songs 07-08:
"In Bishop’s story (The Five Chinese Brothers)- which is based upon a Chinese folk tale – one of the brothers is able to hold the entire ocean in his mouth, and does so for a boy who wants to gather fish. The boy turns out to be greedy, and does not return to shore when he is beckoned. The brother is unable to breathe and is forced to let the ocean out, which in turn drowns the boy. The brother is later sentenced to death by the townsfolk.
It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see why Stipe would relate his sordid scenario to this tale – it’s pretty clear now that he’s the selfish little boy in this story."