I think this song is about the grueling nature of touring the country with a band. The narrator is clearly struggling to maintain an inspired, positive and perceptive mentality while subsisting on junk food and being barraged by the physical and spiritual ugliness of the deep south. I think Mr. Bird is attempting to explain what it's like to be an artistically sensitive person who, because of the nature of his career, has to travel through parts of America that do not resemble his own enlightened upbringing whatsoever. The dauntingly uninspiring geography of Tennessee seems to throw the fragility of the narrator's values into relief. I think the idea of building a song around a man experienced a revelation about a world that is largely apathetic to his abstract aesthetic goals is very interesting and also well-executed.
I think you're reading your own rather narrow-minded, ugly bigotry towards the South into it. Clearly you've never been to Tennessee, there's nothing "uninspiring" about the geography. Although I do agree that it's about being lonely on the road.
I think you're reading your own rather narrow-minded, ugly bigotry towards the South into it. Clearly you've never been to Tennessee, there's nothing "uninspiring" about the geography. Although I do agree that it's about being lonely on the road.
I think this song is about the grueling nature of touring the country with a band. The narrator is clearly struggling to maintain an inspired, positive and perceptive mentality while subsisting on junk food and being barraged by the physical and spiritual ugliness of the deep south. I think Mr. Bird is attempting to explain what it's like to be an artistically sensitive person who, because of the nature of his career, has to travel through parts of America that do not resemble his own enlightened upbringing whatsoever. The dauntingly uninspiring geography of Tennessee seems to throw the fragility of the narrator's values into relief. I think the idea of building a song around a man experienced a revelation about a world that is largely apathetic to his abstract aesthetic goals is very interesting and also well-executed.
EXPERIENCING a revelation, rather.
EXPERIENCING a revelation, rather.
I think you're reading your own rather narrow-minded, ugly bigotry towards the South into it. Clearly you've never been to Tennessee, there's nothing "uninspiring" about the geography. Although I do agree that it's about being lonely on the road.
I think you're reading your own rather narrow-minded, ugly bigotry towards the South into it. Clearly you've never been to Tennessee, there's nothing "uninspiring" about the geography. Although I do agree that it's about being lonely on the road.