I knew this as a John Prine song and just today found out it was written by Blaze Foley. To me, the song is a fairly straightforward but beautifully written song about settling down and starting over after what we can assume was a tumultuous past.\n\nI see the line "feed some pigeons some clay" as a play on words suggesting turning things around, slowing down, and rebuilding. He literally reverses the words "clay" and "pigeons" which matches "night into day" in the same line. And normally you think about shooting and breaking clay pigeons, which is maybe what he did in the past (break things), but he\'s going to rebuild, feeding pigeons some clay instead. It also works as a metaphor for slowing down -- feeding the pigeons -- and is parallel with turning presumably wild night into slow days.
I knew this as a John Prine song and just today found out it was written by Blaze Foley. To me, the song is a fairly straightforward but beautifully written song about settling down and starting over after what we can assume was a tumultuous past.\n\nI see the line "feed some pigeons some clay" as a play on words suggesting turning things around, slowing down, and rebuilding. He literally reverses the words "clay" and "pigeons" which matches "night into day" in the same line. And normally you think about shooting and breaking clay pigeons, which is maybe what he did in the past (break things), but he\'s going to rebuild, feeding pigeons some clay instead. It also works as a metaphor for slowing down -- feeding the pigeons -- and is parallel with turning presumably wild night into slow days.
@gregw some beautiful analogies in here. More people need to find out about Blaze Foley. I know that I'll be looking.
@gregw some beautiful analogies in here. More people need to find out about Blaze Foley. I know that I'll be looking.