The lyrics of this song are very profound and at the same time cynical and tragic I think.
As far as I understand it, the "I" of this song, the "barnacled warship", is a person that lives his life looking out for groups or "armys" he can join. He doesn´t care about the contents or the purposes, but he just wants to get active in fighting and it´s enough for him to know he belongs to a special collective: "think I´ll fight a war I don´t know what for". And so he joins the real Army and afterwards also a christian group (the Salvation Army), that doesn´t make any difference to him. And again afterwards he puts down his Bible and picks up the real gun again. And we can imagine that he still is going to change his "membership" many many times, regardless of belief or ideology.
What I find most sinister about it is this quality "barnacled". Like an unintelligent burr he sticks to his "army", not as a thinking human being. He´s satisfied to stay on the doorsteps and eat some fruit and have "pillfuls of rain" like an animal. And he´s suffering ("cold fingers", "feet made of lead").
He´s left his home,he permanently leaves his home and in spite of feeling fresh and eager he feels "like going to bed", an expression for the numb und dull mood he is in.
And Johnny´s bitter-naive tone as well as the mechanical stamping and pacing of the cello and also the shrill and piercing violins display this whole attitude hauntingly.
It´s really art, a real masterpiece.
The lyrics of this song are very profound and at the same time cynical and tragic I think.
As far as I understand it, the "I" of this song, the "barnacled warship", is a person that lives his life looking out for groups or "armys" he can join. He doesn´t care about the contents or the purposes, but he just wants to get active in fighting and it´s enough for him to know he belongs to a special collective: "think I´ll fight a war I don´t know what for". And so he joins the real Army and afterwards also a christian group (the Salvation Army), that doesn´t make any difference to him. And again afterwards he puts down his Bible and picks up the real gun again. And we can imagine that he still is going to change his "membership" many many times, regardless of belief or ideology.
What I find most sinister about it is this quality "barnacled". Like an unintelligent burr he sticks to his "army", not as a thinking human being. He´s satisfied to stay on the doorsteps and eat some fruit and have "pillfuls of rain" like an animal. And he´s suffering ("cold fingers", "feet made of lead"). He´s left his home,he permanently leaves his home and in spite of feeling fresh and eager he feels "like going to bed", an expression for the numb und dull mood he is in.
And Johnny´s bitter-naive tone as well as the mechanical stamping and pacing of the cello and also the shrill and piercing violins display this whole attitude hauntingly. It´s really art, a real masterpiece.