The song is about someone being born in a bad environment with people who don't deserve to be parents.
The first verse sets the scene. The first line suggests a birth which was un intended and unwanted. The 'threadbare,tall story' is just a a worn down block of flats in a rough area.
The imagery with the 'blunt kitchen knife' says to me the mother is already killing her child slowly with passive smoking and she it seems like she is a drug user and is she's away with it. The 'slow arc of a fist' could mean she could be abusing the child or could be to do with the drugs that she is not fully conscious.
The chorus goes straight in to the child being older and being abused by her mother and the 'born into a grave' says she never had any hope with the environment she was brought up in.
'She’s accustomed to hearing that she could never run far'
Society including teachers have her believing that she won't make anything of herself that she won't get anywhere in life. She was born to fail.
'Now she lies on the pavement, she is helped to her feet
All thighs, hair and magpie handbags
Saturday’s uniform for the 'fuck me' parade'
She's older again and she is drunk and stumbling about. She is dressed up in indecent clothes which you would associate with a prostitute. This could mean she is a prostitute out selling herself in 'her uniform' and ready to work.
'Her blood is thicker than concrete
Forced to be brave, she was
A broken elevator anthem held between floors
The last verse says suggest there is still hope for her and she can get herself out of the world she's living in. The 'She was' is in a past tense saying she was stuck in the same horrible place and she has now escaped it.
'But if blood is thicker than concrete, all is not lost
All is not lost, all is not lost'
Throughout the song the line 'her blood is thicker than concrete' and in the final verse it's saying that because of this she still has hope and 'all is not lost'.
I think you're taking too much of a shit on the mother. While obviously not a great parent, the song's more about the bigger picture: the UK's classism and failing welfare state than an indictment of her child-rearing abilities. Hence lines about limp board schools, sexual references involving the national weight, and even the title being "STATE Hospital".
I think you're taking too much of a shit on the mother. While obviously not a great parent, the song's more about the bigger picture: the UK's classism and failing welfare state than an indictment of her child-rearing abilities. Hence lines about limp board schools, sexual references involving the national weight, and even the title being "STATE Hospital".
"The most threadbare, tall story the country has ever heard" is a clever turn of phrase linking the shitty block of apartments you mentioned with a Scottish version of the American Dream: the idea that anyone can rise above their...
"The most threadbare, tall story the country has ever heard" is a clever turn of phrase linking the shitty block of apartments you mentioned with a Scottish version of the American Dream: the idea that anyone can rise above their circumstances and how it's transparently bullshit.
"The blunt kitchen knife
Who just lays in a submissive position
Beneath a national weight and the slow arc of a fist"
This bit refers to the mother having been just as fucked over by her spot in the social hierarchy as her daughter, and possibly that she's being abused by her husband if that fist isn't metaphorical; not that the daughter being physically abused, as this verse is specifically about the mother. (Not sure about the blunt kitchen knife thing, so you may be right about that.) Probably verbally abused though; "A screaming anchor for nothing in particular" makes me think of parents blaming their children for holding them back when the reality is they weren't going anywhere in life anyway.
So yeah, good interpretation but you missed the political side of it I think.
The song is about someone being born in a bad environment with people who don't deserve to be parents.
The first verse sets the scene. The first line suggests a birth which was un intended and unwanted. The 'threadbare,tall story' is just a a worn down block of flats in a rough area.
The imagery with the 'blunt kitchen knife' says to me the mother is already killing her child slowly with passive smoking and she it seems like she is a drug user and is she's away with it. The 'slow arc of a fist' could mean she could be abusing the child or could be to do with the drugs that she is not fully conscious.
The chorus goes straight in to the child being older and being abused by her mother and the 'born into a grave' says she never had any hope with the environment she was brought up in.
'She’s accustomed to hearing that she could never run far'
Society including teachers have her believing that she won't make anything of herself that she won't get anywhere in life. She was born to fail.
'Now she lies on the pavement, she is helped to her feet All thighs, hair and magpie handbags Saturday’s uniform for the 'fuck me' parade'
She's older again and she is drunk and stumbling about. She is dressed up in indecent clothes which you would associate with a prostitute. This could mean she is a prostitute out selling herself in 'her uniform' and ready to work.
'Her blood is thicker than concrete Forced to be brave, she was A broken elevator anthem held between floors
The last verse says suggest there is still hope for her and she can get herself out of the world she's living in. The 'She was' is in a past tense saying she was stuck in the same horrible place and she has now escaped it.
'But if blood is thicker than concrete, all is not lost All is not lost, all is not lost'
Throughout the song the line 'her blood is thicker than concrete' and in the final verse it's saying that because of this she still has hope and 'all is not lost'.
Beautiful explanation
Beautiful explanation
I think you're taking too much of a shit on the mother. While obviously not a great parent, the song's more about the bigger picture: the UK's classism and failing welfare state than an indictment of her child-rearing abilities. Hence lines about limp board schools, sexual references involving the national weight, and even the title being "STATE Hospital".
I think you're taking too much of a shit on the mother. While obviously not a great parent, the song's more about the bigger picture: the UK's classism and failing welfare state than an indictment of her child-rearing abilities. Hence lines about limp board schools, sexual references involving the national weight, and even the title being "STATE Hospital".
"The most threadbare, tall story the country has ever heard" is a clever turn of phrase linking the shitty block of apartments you mentioned with a Scottish version of the American Dream: the idea that anyone can rise above their...
"The most threadbare, tall story the country has ever heard" is a clever turn of phrase linking the shitty block of apartments you mentioned with a Scottish version of the American Dream: the idea that anyone can rise above their circumstances and how it's transparently bullshit.
"The blunt kitchen knife Who just lays in a submissive position Beneath a national weight and the slow arc of a fist"
This bit refers to the mother having been just as fucked over by her spot in the social hierarchy as her daughter, and possibly that she's being abused by her husband if that fist isn't metaphorical; not that the daughter being physically abused, as this verse is specifically about the mother. (Not sure about the blunt kitchen knife thing, so you may be right about that.) Probably verbally abused though; "A screaming anchor for nothing in particular" makes me think of parents blaming their children for holding them back when the reality is they weren't going anywhere in life anyway.
So yeah, good interpretation but you missed the political side of it I think.