On the face of it this song appears to describe how two people no longer see each other, one of them has moved on the other has stayed…
But this being New Model Army suggests there are other things going on. The song seems to be dealing with loyally, and loyalty to the place where you come from.
Well received when played live in Yorkshire, the area that the song appears to describe. Local people can connect themselves, the places described and their lives with the song.
It’s interesting that away from the region it sometimes doesn’t go down well, perhaps either people see it as geographically not describing their own patch or maybe the listener has indeed been lured to ‘To the land of gold and poison’.
The song ends by suggesting that by leaving you have betrayed.
As a metaphor the song could be seen as how people are not ‘awake’ to their environment and leave in pursuit of something unattainable, forgetting their past, where they have come from and the people they have known.
@HeathA interesting, i think that’s probably true for many. I have loved this song for decades and not from Yorkshire or similar climate originally, nor where I live lately. Although I do know some valleys of green and gray from where my grandparents lived so who knows ... But I’ve always been able to relate to the general feeling of this of leaving vs staying where you grew up - a salient theme in my life. But even before I’d gone anywhere as a 13 year old i understood to it and loved it and imagined it, and only years...
@HeathA interesting, i think that’s probably true for many. I have loved this song for decades and not from Yorkshire or similar climate originally, nor where I live lately. Although I do know some valleys of green and gray from where my grandparents lived so who knows ... But I’ve always been able to relate to the general feeling of this of leaving vs staying where you grew up - a salient theme in my life. But even before I’d gone anywhere as a 13 year old i understood to it and loved it and imagined it, and only years later experience being in that actual landscape or situation myself.
On the face of it this song appears to describe how two people no longer see each other, one of them has moved on the other has stayed…
But this being New Model Army suggests there are other things going on. The song seems to be dealing with loyally, and loyalty to the place where you come from.
Well received when played live in Yorkshire, the area that the song appears to describe. Local people can connect themselves, the places described and their lives with the song.
It’s interesting that away from the region it sometimes doesn’t go down well, perhaps either people see it as geographically not describing their own patch or maybe the listener has indeed been lured to ‘To the land of gold and poison’.
The song ends by suggesting that by leaving you have betrayed.
As a metaphor the song could be seen as how people are not ‘awake’ to their environment and leave in pursuit of something unattainable, forgetting their past, where they have come from and the people they have known.
@HeathA interesting, i think that’s probably true for many. I have loved this song for decades and not from Yorkshire or similar climate originally, nor where I live lately. Although I do know some valleys of green and gray from where my grandparents lived so who knows ... But I’ve always been able to relate to the general feeling of this of leaving vs staying where you grew up - a salient theme in my life. But even before I’d gone anywhere as a 13 year old i understood to it and loved it and imagined it, and only years...
@HeathA interesting, i think that’s probably true for many. I have loved this song for decades and not from Yorkshire or similar climate originally, nor where I live lately. Although I do know some valleys of green and gray from where my grandparents lived so who knows ... But I’ve always been able to relate to the general feeling of this of leaving vs staying where you grew up - a salient theme in my life. But even before I’d gone anywhere as a 13 year old i understood to it and loved it and imagined it, and only years later experience being in that actual landscape or situation myself.