While the song's surface narrative appears to be about trappers and frontier life, it actually serves as a metaphor for the music business and the relationship between record labels and artists. The trapper represents the artist bringing in their raw creative material (the "furs"), while the trader represents the record label executives who determine its commercial value
The vivid imagery of making "a butcher's block out of the fat man's desk" symbolizes how the raw, artistic work gets processed through the commercial machinery of the music industry. The fat men "smoking cigars" represent industry executives profiting from the artists' labor.
Brilliant songwriting from one of the best trappers in the business!
While the song's surface narrative appears to be about trappers and frontier life, it actually serves as a metaphor for the music business and the relationship between record labels and artists. The trapper represents the artist bringing in their raw creative material (the "furs"), while the trader represents the record label executives who determine its commercial value The vivid imagery of making "a butcher's block out of the fat man's desk" symbolizes how the raw, artistic work gets processed through the commercial machinery of the music industry. The fat men "smoking cigars" represent industry executives profiting from the artists' labor. Brilliant songwriting from one of the best trappers in the business!