I think as much as anything, and all the messages about what is real/fake, there is a lot of commentary on the music industry. There is reference to the way music is played and performed and a plea to musicians to drop the superficial and theatrical antics that is common in music, particularly this verse:-
'We've been raised on replicas of fake and winding roads
and day after day up on this beautiful stage
we've been playing tambourine for minimum wage
but we are real, I know we are real.'
This is also re-enforced with the line, 'All my favourite singers couldn't sing'; there's a lot of criticism about the norms of the mainstream music industry in this. Silver Jews have commented in interviews that this isn't just a homage to the likes of Bob Dylan, but also a reminder to people that what actually constitutes as singing isn't always as so, and like all things, is relative to taste. "Singing" is singing, regardless of the inverted commas. This also comes into the line 'Won't soul music change' - as people's tastes change, so will what is regarded as good music.
'Shot of sugar' probably is a cocaine reference, which also adds into the ideals of traditional musician's identity - and it makes me wonder if the narrative is referencing drugs earlier in the song as well. It's explain a lot about 'souls going strange/ Once a day, Twice a day...', although I sort of wonder if that's a side effect of the musician's life in general.
I think there's a feeling of disorientation and loss of identity with performing, at least, and the 'we are real' is an attempt to assure. Things of beauty are related into musical ideas (birds of Viriginia in threes).
Yet there's a laid-back approach towards it 'is that the problem that is beautiful to me?', for instance. Regardless of all this supposed superficiality, the narrative remains real, and perhaps there's not a problem with having buttons like mirrors in convenience stores, or tacky/fake things. Sometimes there's personal meaning in something tacky. I think that's also an angle this song is trying to take.
I think there's a lot of double meanings in this song, and it's a real interesting one since there's plenty of valid and justified interpretations one can take.
I think as much as anything, and all the messages about what is real/fake, there is a lot of commentary on the music industry. There is reference to the way music is played and performed and a plea to musicians to drop the superficial and theatrical antics that is common in music, particularly this verse:-
'We've been raised on replicas of fake and winding roads and day after day up on this beautiful stage we've been playing tambourine for minimum wage but we are real, I know we are real.'
Raised could be taken two ways - talking about the way that music was (the music they were raised on), or literally raised, as in, touring around whilst on show. Yet there's not hate of the music itself, hence 'beautiful stage'. The idea of 'tambourine... minimum wage' is obviously a cliché, hence why it's followed by a 'but'.
This is also re-enforced with the line, 'All my favourite singers couldn't sing'; there's a lot of criticism about the norms of the mainstream music industry in this. Silver Jews have commented in interviews that this isn't just a homage to the likes of Bob Dylan, but also a reminder to people that what actually constitutes as singing isn't always as so, and like all things, is relative to taste. "Singing" is singing, regardless of the inverted commas. This also comes into the line 'Won't soul music change' - as people's tastes change, so will what is regarded as good music.
'Shot of sugar' probably is a cocaine reference, which also adds into the ideals of traditional musician's identity - and it makes me wonder if the narrative is referencing drugs earlier in the song as well. It's explain a lot about 'souls going strange/ Once a day, Twice a day...', although I sort of wonder if that's a side effect of the musician's life in general.
I think there's a feeling of disorientation and loss of identity with performing, at least, and the 'we are real' is an attempt to assure. Things of beauty are related into musical ideas (birds of Viriginia in threes).
Yet there's a laid-back approach towards it 'is that the problem that is beautiful to me?', for instance. Regardless of all this supposed superficiality, the narrative remains real, and perhaps there's not a problem with having buttons like mirrors in convenience stores, or tacky/fake things. Sometimes there's personal meaning in something tacky. I think that's also an angle this song is trying to take.
I think there's a lot of double meanings in this song, and it's a real interesting one since there's plenty of valid and justified interpretations one can take.