The phrase "Pulaski at Night" has turned up in Andrew Bird's music before ("Cock O' The Walk" from "Oh! The Grandeur," 1999). He explained in a live show that Pulaski Road on Chicago's West Side is not a pretty sight, and the idea someone saying "I want to see Pulaski at night" got stuck in his head (for 20 years) , because it's not something he could imagine anyone wanting to do.
I see the whole song as taking the same tone, but as an assessment of the whole city of Chicago. I also see it as a conflict between his nostalgia for the ideal of Chicago, and his sorrow for the current state of the city. Up-front, Chicago is one of the great cities of the US, but as you look deeper, all you see is corruption. If you walk downtown, you get a sense of wealth and success ("Horns of plenty, coffers full"), but as you go out to the neighborhoods, you see disrepair and decay.
"I write you a story | But it loses its thread | And all of my witnesses | Keep turning up, turning up dead" is probably an inner dialog with himself, where he is struggling to deal with conflicting opinions of Chicago. He'd like to be able to tell a positive story of the city, but people are leaving in droves, and there are few of his friends left there that he can turn to for corroboration. This is also likely an allusion to Chicago's mobster mentality that is still pervasive today.
"I paint you a picture | But it never looks right | Cause I fill in the shadows | And black out the, I black out the light" is how he sees Chicago presently. There is so much wrong there, that it's easy to block out the better parts-- being there eventually makes you a very pessimistic person. But simply giving an assessment of the worst of the city would be inaccurate; there is an ideal that no amount of corruption seems to stamp out, and that's what he has nostalgia for.
He then mentions "Pulaski at night," tying the song to his original concept of a nightlife that no one would want to see, and then refers to Chicago as the City of Light, which is a tongue-in-cheek parallel to a desire to see the nightlife of Pulaski Road; Pulaski Road is not a destination, and Chicago itself is anything but a City of Light. But in the end, it is his hometown, and he'll always "Come back to Chicago."
hey @nern thanks for that explanation, very helpful! Knowing that Pulaski is a place that no one would want to go to and that Andrew Bird had it in his mind for 20 years makes me think it has to do with the shadow in his subconscious.
hey @nern thanks for that explanation, very helpful! Knowing that Pulaski is a place that no one would want to go to and that Andrew Bird had it in his mind for 20 years makes me think it has to do with the shadow in his subconscious.
The subconscious speaks to us like in dreams, with metaphors, and I think Pulaski at Night being the dark area of Chicago his hometown means it's telling him to pay attention to the hidden/rejected parts of himself or his past (the witnesses turning up dead).
The subconscious speaks to us like in dreams, with metaphors, and I think Pulaski at Night being the dark area of Chicago his hometown means it's telling him to pay attention to the hidden/rejected parts of himself or his past (the witnesses turning up dead).
The full picture never looks right cause he...
The full picture never looks right cause he fills in the shadows (missing shadowy parts of himself, as we all do) and black out the light (the light being a metaphor for self-awareness).
"Come back to Chicago" then means to become fully himself. Which I would say he is doing, considering his latest work about which he says he's "interested in the idea that our enemies are what make us whole".
That said I think the subconscious is speaking not just to Andrew Bird but through him to all of us, in which case Pulaski At Night can seen as a symbol of the darkest part of any city, and it would be more of a collective shadow.
That said I think the subconscious is speaking not just to Andrew Bird but through him to all of us, in which case Pulaski At Night can seen as a symbol of the darkest part of any city, and it would be more of a collective shadow.
The phrase "Pulaski at Night" has turned up in Andrew Bird's music before ("Cock O' The Walk" from "Oh! The Grandeur," 1999). He explained in a live show that Pulaski Road on Chicago's West Side is not a pretty sight, and the idea someone saying "I want to see Pulaski at night" got stuck in his head (for 20 years) , because it's not something he could imagine anyone wanting to do.
I see the whole song as taking the same tone, but as an assessment of the whole city of Chicago. I also see it as a conflict between his nostalgia for the ideal of Chicago, and his sorrow for the current state of the city. Up-front, Chicago is one of the great cities of the US, but as you look deeper, all you see is corruption. If you walk downtown, you get a sense of wealth and success ("Horns of plenty, coffers full"), but as you go out to the neighborhoods, you see disrepair and decay.
"I write you a story | But it loses its thread | And all of my witnesses | Keep turning up, turning up dead" is probably an inner dialog with himself, where he is struggling to deal with conflicting opinions of Chicago. He'd like to be able to tell a positive story of the city, but people are leaving in droves, and there are few of his friends left there that he can turn to for corroboration. This is also likely an allusion to Chicago's mobster mentality that is still pervasive today.
"I paint you a picture | But it never looks right | Cause I fill in the shadows | And black out the, I black out the light" is how he sees Chicago presently. There is so much wrong there, that it's easy to block out the better parts-- being there eventually makes you a very pessimistic person. But simply giving an assessment of the worst of the city would be inaccurate; there is an ideal that no amount of corruption seems to stamp out, and that's what he has nostalgia for.
He then mentions "Pulaski at night," tying the song to his original concept of a nightlife that no one would want to see, and then refers to Chicago as the City of Light, which is a tongue-in-cheek parallel to a desire to see the nightlife of Pulaski Road; Pulaski Road is not a destination, and Chicago itself is anything but a City of Light. But in the end, it is his hometown, and he'll always "Come back to Chicago."
hey @nern thanks for that explanation, very helpful! Knowing that Pulaski is a place that no one would want to go to and that Andrew Bird had it in his mind for 20 years makes me think it has to do with the shadow in his subconscious.
hey @nern thanks for that explanation, very helpful! Knowing that Pulaski is a place that no one would want to go to and that Andrew Bird had it in his mind for 20 years makes me think it has to do with the shadow in his subconscious.
The subconscious speaks to us like in dreams, with metaphors, and I think Pulaski at Night being the dark area of Chicago his hometown means it's telling him to pay attention to the hidden/rejected parts of himself or his past (the witnesses turning up dead).
The subconscious speaks to us like in dreams, with metaphors, and I think Pulaski at Night being the dark area of Chicago his hometown means it's telling him to pay attention to the hidden/rejected parts of himself or his past (the witnesses turning up dead).
The full picture never looks right cause he...
The full picture never looks right cause he fills in the shadows (missing shadowy parts of himself, as we all do) and black out the light (the light being a metaphor for self-awareness).
"Come back to Chicago" then means to become fully himself. Which I would say he is doing, considering his latest work about which he says he's "interested in the idea that our enemies are what make us whole".
That said I think the subconscious is speaking not just to Andrew Bird but through him to all of us, in which case Pulaski At Night can seen as a symbol of the darkest part of any city, and it would be more of a collective shadow.
That said I think the subconscious is speaking not just to Andrew Bird but through him to all of us, in which case Pulaski At Night can seen as a symbol of the darkest part of any city, and it would be more of a collective shadow.