As others have posted, this is obviously about a bar, and regular hangout of a man/woman couple. They live in a city, and this bar is located in a lousy part of the city, perhaps close to a rented apartment in which they live. I say rented apartment because the theme of detachment omnipresent in the song would not generally be felt by people who own real estate where they live. The song is essentially a soliloquy of the man's thoughts.
The old man is the bartender. Saying he's from the old world suggests he's an older immigrant, possibly European, content with his lot in life in big city America. The pourer of drinks is worldly wise, or at least he appears to be at first glance. He's seen enough to know the whole world has problems, a few mumbling homeless people don't stand out to him as being worthy of excess sympathy. C'est la vie. Knowing his customer's names helps him retain a customer base and earn tips. In all other ways, his customers are little different than the mumbling homeless. Indeed it is all the same to him.
In the next stanza, the protagonist reveals he is different, more sensitive and more aware, than the old man bartender. He doesn’t have a way of insulating himself, of explaining it all away. The coldness, anonymity, and insignificance of individuals - the big city does bother him, in contrast to life in a small town. A man makes you something — this is quite literal - as in the food you eat, the drinks you drink, the clothes you wear - were all produced by people. But not people just down the road as might have been the case in a more simple, earlier decade or century. There is no hiding place simply means the people are unseen because they are far away. This adds to the protagonist's strong sense of disconnection.
Respectable little murders pay. Interesting little sentence, metaphorical as opposed to literal. Describes how city people are often less than honest and forthright, stabbing each other in the back if it is to their benefit, they have little if any empathy for others. It’s accepted, even respected, if it serves your purposes and ambitions. All’s fair in the dog eat dog culture of the city. But our protagonist, he’s not that kind of guy. The woman he’s with doesn’t have to worry that he’s going to leave her high and dry. The city bothers him, he’s beginning to envision leaving, and he wants her to come with him.
He has not reached the point of being able to pull the trigger on his need to leave. It’s not, however, that far away. For now, he has a life in the city that includes jerks/friends who hang out with him and his girl at a ratty little place called the Sunset Grill. For now, he’s content to kill time, drink beers, until a catalyst emerges.
@urbanman A thoughtful analysis. Songs like this always bring to mind one of the themes that emerged from the existentialist movement (late 19th - 20th century). That as they evolve, our social-economic institutions become increasingly dehumanizing until they collapse or are violently transformed, a recurring pattern throughout recorded history. I see this clearly reflected in the second verse, "You see a lot meanness in the city...". These is indeed two kinds of people in the world, those with a natural empathy for others and those who are destructive and predatory by nature, by no means a original idea. ...
@urbanman A thoughtful analysis. Songs like this always bring to mind one of the themes that emerged from the existentialist movement (late 19th - 20th century). That as they evolve, our social-economic institutions become increasingly dehumanizing until they collapse or are violently transformed, a recurring pattern throughout recorded history. I see this clearly reflected in the second verse, "You see a lot meanness in the city...". These is indeed two kinds of people in the world, those with a natural empathy for others and those who are destructive and predatory by nature, by no means a original idea. This notion can be traced at least as far back to the parable, "The Frog and the Scorpion" which is thought to have originated in Africa, predating the ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop (620-654 BCE). One only has to look at the contrasting social behavior of our closest primate cousins, the chimpanzees and the bonobos to understand the origins of natural empathy or lack thereof.
After nearly six decades of kicking around this biosphere one thing in my mind is clear, if we fail to recognize that empathy is no less important that intellect it seems unlikely our species will make the paradigm shift from mutually assured destruction to mutually assured survival.
As others have posted, this is obviously about a bar, and regular hangout of a man/woman couple. They live in a city, and this bar is located in a lousy part of the city, perhaps close to a rented apartment in which they live. I say rented apartment because the theme of detachment omnipresent in the song would not generally be felt by people who own real estate where they live. The song is essentially a soliloquy of the man's thoughts.
The old man is the bartender. Saying he's from the old world suggests he's an older immigrant, possibly European, content with his lot in life in big city America. The pourer of drinks is worldly wise, or at least he appears to be at first glance. He's seen enough to know the whole world has problems, a few mumbling homeless people don't stand out to him as being worthy of excess sympathy. C'est la vie. Knowing his customer's names helps him retain a customer base and earn tips. In all other ways, his customers are little different than the mumbling homeless. Indeed it is all the same to him.
In the next stanza, the protagonist reveals he is different, more sensitive and more aware, than the old man bartender. He doesn’t have a way of insulating himself, of explaining it all away. The coldness, anonymity, and insignificance of individuals - the big city does bother him, in contrast to life in a small town. A man makes you something — this is quite literal - as in the food you eat, the drinks you drink, the clothes you wear - were all produced by people. But not people just down the road as might have been the case in a more simple, earlier decade or century. There is no hiding place simply means the people are unseen because they are far away. This adds to the protagonist's strong sense of disconnection.
Respectable little murders pay. Interesting little sentence, metaphorical as opposed to literal. Describes how city people are often less than honest and forthright, stabbing each other in the back if it is to their benefit, they have little if any empathy for others. It’s accepted, even respected, if it serves your purposes and ambitions. All’s fair in the dog eat dog culture of the city. But our protagonist, he’s not that kind of guy. The woman he’s with doesn’t have to worry that he’s going to leave her high and dry. The city bothers him, he’s beginning to envision leaving, and he wants her to come with him.
He has not reached the point of being able to pull the trigger on his need to leave. It’s not, however, that far away. For now, he has a life in the city that includes jerks/friends who hang out with him and his girl at a ratty little place called the Sunset Grill. For now, he’s content to kill time, drink beers, until a catalyst emerges.
@urbanman A thoughtful analysis. Songs like this always bring to mind one of the themes that emerged from the existentialist movement (late 19th - 20th century). That as they evolve, our social-economic institutions become increasingly dehumanizing until they collapse or are violently transformed, a recurring pattern throughout recorded history. I see this clearly reflected in the second verse, "You see a lot meanness in the city...". These is indeed two kinds of people in the world, those with a natural empathy for others and those who are destructive and predatory by nature, by no means a original idea. ...
@urbanman A thoughtful analysis. Songs like this always bring to mind one of the themes that emerged from the existentialist movement (late 19th - 20th century). That as they evolve, our social-economic institutions become increasingly dehumanizing until they collapse or are violently transformed, a recurring pattern throughout recorded history. I see this clearly reflected in the second verse, "You see a lot meanness in the city...". These is indeed two kinds of people in the world, those with a natural empathy for others and those who are destructive and predatory by nature, by no means a original idea. This notion can be traced at least as far back to the parable, "The Frog and the Scorpion" which is thought to have originated in Africa, predating the ancient Greek storyteller, Aesop (620-654 BCE). One only has to look at the contrasting social behavior of our closest primate cousins, the chimpanzees and the bonobos to understand the origins of natural empathy or lack thereof.
After nearly six decades of kicking around this biosphere one thing in my mind is clear, if we fail to recognize that empathy is no less important that intellect it seems unlikely our species will make the paradigm shift from mutually assured destruction to mutually assured survival.
@urbanman - The "old man" was not a bartender. He was Joe Froelich, the original OWNER, who emigrated from Vienna.
@urbanman - The "old man" was not a bartender. He was Joe Froelich, the original OWNER, who emigrated from Vienna.