The song visits three countries on June 30, 1934, the "Night of the Long Knives" in Germany.
In a pastoral scene, a Frenchman is making love to his woman, skipping out on his work as a grape picker. He is remarkably contented and in love. His simple life is a good one.
The scene then shifts to a wealthy estate in the area around Cambridge. English aristocrats are living a very high and sophisticated life, arguing abstract philosophical principles "in a world that's finished with war."
Then we change scenes again first taking note of the fact that this is indeed the depths of the depression, and not everyone is as lucky as those in the first two sections. There is great poverty, and the economic misery is particularly acute in Germany where we land next.
The death of Ernst Roehm was the final consolidation of power for the Nazis, folding the SA into the SS under Himmler, and killing all of the leadership of the SA. Roehm was a fascinating and monstrous character in his own right, and had protected Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch, but had grown too powerful, to the point that evern the army feared his brownshirts. Once Roehm was out of the way, the Nazis were fully in control of Germany, and World War 2 became an inevitability.
"...voices rang out
In the rolling Bavarian hills
And swept through the cities and danced in the gutters
Grown strong like the joining of wills."
Germany now felt its momentum undeniably, and the dream was truly alive.
The voices say that the tenets of the Versailles treaty would now be brazenly ignored, "You can't hold me I'm strong now, I'm strong, stronger than your law."
Then at the end the song shifts to the present day (well, the 1970s anyway). The poet says that he is standing by the Rhine dipping his feet in the cold stream of time. Even the Germans of the day know longer know or care who Ernst Roehm was, but the poet, a bit of a mystic, knows that his spirit is still there, and imagines he can see Roehm and his ghostly SA army of brownshirts.
The song visits three countries on June 30, 1934, the "Night of the Long Knives" in Germany.
In a pastoral scene, a Frenchman is making love to his woman, skipping out on his work as a grape picker. He is remarkably contented and in love. His simple life is a good one.
The scene then shifts to a wealthy estate in the area around Cambridge. English aristocrats are living a very high and sophisticated life, arguing abstract philosophical principles "in a world that's finished with war."
Then we change scenes again first taking note of the fact that this is indeed the depths of the depression, and not everyone is as lucky as those in the first two sections. There is great poverty, and the economic misery is particularly acute in Germany where we land next.
The death of Ernst Roehm was the final consolidation of power for the Nazis, folding the SA into the SS under Himmler, and killing all of the leadership of the SA. Roehm was a fascinating and monstrous character in his own right, and had protected Hitler in the Beer Hall Putsch, but had grown too powerful, to the point that evern the army feared his brownshirts. Once Roehm was out of the way, the Nazis were fully in control of Germany, and World War 2 became an inevitability.
"...voices rang out In the rolling Bavarian hills And swept through the cities and danced in the gutters Grown strong like the joining of wills."
Germany now felt its momentum undeniably, and the dream was truly alive.
The voices say that the tenets of the Versailles treaty would now be brazenly ignored, "You can't hold me I'm strong now, I'm strong, stronger than your law."
Then at the end the song shifts to the present day (well, the 1970s anyway). The poet says that he is standing by the Rhine dipping his feet in the cold stream of time. Even the Germans of the day know longer know or care who Ernst Roehm was, but the poet, a bit of a mystic, knows that his spirit is still there, and imagines he can see Roehm and his ghostly SA army of brownshirts.
@mgajosh An excellent analysis of a fascinating song. Well done!
@mgajosh An excellent analysis of a fascinating song. Well done!