Someone else pointed out on another "Down Colorful Hill" song that this album has a lot of Japanese references, this one being the most obvious. Notice the lines "I drank so much tea / I wrote my letters in Kanji" on Medicine Bottle and "put me to sleep here / and wake me in Japan. / I want to speak a new language" on Lord Kill the Pain. Interesting how Japan is used in three different ways: in this song language seems like an awful barrier which keeps us alone; in Lord Kill the Pain the idea of a new language seems to offer some hope to what is otherwise a pretty fed up speaker; and in Medicine Bottle Japan seems to invoke a kind of quiet contemplation, like a zen monk the country is so famous for.
I just think it's interesting sometimes how a place can capture our imagination, sometimes even if we've never been there.
Someone else pointed out on another "Down Colorful Hill" song that this album has a lot of Japanese references, this one being the most obvious. Notice the lines "I drank so much tea / I wrote my letters in Kanji" on Medicine Bottle and "put me to sleep here / and wake me in Japan. / I want to speak a new language" on Lord Kill the Pain. Interesting how Japan is used in three different ways: in this song language seems like an awful barrier which keeps us alone; in Lord Kill the Pain the idea of a new language seems to offer some hope to what is otherwise a pretty fed up speaker; and in Medicine Bottle Japan seems to invoke a kind of quiet contemplation, like a zen monk the country is so famous for.
I just think it's interesting sometimes how a place can capture our imagination, sometimes even if we've never been there.