Screed has the essentials. The only thing l would add is that it is a song about betrayal but not in a personal sense. It describes the experience of many ordinary men brought up in a world de-industrialising (the smoke and the noise the song's protagonist grew up with) who joined the armed forces as the newer industries are located elsewhere, require different skills and favour women. But even this does not appear to be an option for his sons - hence the reference to being dead at 18. In my view its a much better song than 'Shipbuilding' which covers this sort of subject but does not really grasp the way a globalised economy leaves many people behind.
There are lots of things l like about this song. I like the way it appears specific (the smell of the estuary) but is not like and the way that the people in it have little understanding or view of what has happened to them and the song writer only expresses his own view indirectly in that one word: 'Gethsemane'.
But none of this would have really mattered if it had not been for the ways the song is built around a simple but powerful guitar phrase.
A very fine song indeed: one of Richard Thomson's best.
Screed has the essentials. The only thing l would add is that it is a song about betrayal but not in a personal sense. It describes the experience of many ordinary men brought up in a world de-industrialising (the smoke and the noise the song's protagonist grew up with) who joined the armed forces as the newer industries are located elsewhere, require different skills and favour women. But even this does not appear to be an option for his sons - hence the reference to being dead at 18. In my view its a much better song than 'Shipbuilding' which covers this sort of subject but does not really grasp the way a globalised economy leaves many people behind.
There are lots of things l like about this song. I like the way it appears specific (the smell of the estuary) but is not like and the way that the people in it have little understanding or view of what has happened to them and the song writer only expresses his own view indirectly in that one word: 'Gethsemane'.
But none of this would have really mattered if it had not been for the ways the song is built around a simple but powerful guitar phrase.
A very fine song indeed: one of Richard Thomson's best.