I feel like after hearing this song in the scene in peaky blinders where Tommy is shown dealing with his PTSD from war the song really shows what it was like for a soldier who has lived through a war and now has the shell shock and PTSD.
'do you see what I see dear
Slide on over here let me give you a squeeze'
That line gives the impression that the main character in the song is currently dealing with flashbacks and only he can see them because only he went through it, and he wants to hold someone to remind him that he's okay and that he's safe.
Again when he sings
'can you hear what I hear babe,
Does it make you feel afraid?'
Links back to the idea of having war flashbacks, and only him being able to hear, because it's as if he's back there in the trenches. And it's also sort of giving the impression that he's asking how the other character would feel if he could hear it.
'the sky is on fire,
The dead are heaped across the land'
Speaks for itself really when looking at this from the perspective of a soldier. Obviously in war you see dead bodies everywhere, and the bombs are flying across the sky and falling from it, hence the sky's on fire.
And obviously the song is called abattoir blues and the abattoir is a slaughterhouse right, but that could be used at a metaphor for being listed in the army in war, singing yourself up to go to a slaughterhouse.
I feel like after hearing this song in the scene in peaky blinders where Tommy is shown dealing with his PTSD from war the song really shows what it was like for a soldier who has lived through a war and now has the shell shock and PTSD.
'do you see what I see dear Slide on over here let me give you a squeeze'
That line gives the impression that the main character in the song is currently dealing with flashbacks and only he can see them because only he went through it, and he wants to hold someone to remind him that he's okay and that he's safe.
Again when he sings
'can you hear what I hear babe, Does it make you feel afraid?'
Links back to the idea of having war flashbacks, and only him being able to hear, because it's as if he's back there in the trenches. And it's also sort of giving the impression that he's asking how the other character would feel if he could hear it.
'the sky is on fire, The dead are heaped across the land'
Speaks for itself really when looking at this from the perspective of a soldier. Obviously in war you see dead bodies everywhere, and the bombs are flying across the sky and falling from it, hence the sky's on fire.
And obviously the song is called abattoir blues and the abattoir is a slaughterhouse right, but that could be used at a metaphor for being listed in the army in war, singing yourself up to go to a slaughterhouse.