Songs You Don't Understand

Cafe Society
61

Alright, a good thread, and plenty of responses, so someone tackle mine … occasionally, a classic rock station will play two very common folk rock songs by The Band. And so help me, I kinda get the folk rock blues in general, but specifically … not so much.

So, The Weight, for example:

I said, “Wait a minute, Chester, you know I’m a peaceful man.”
He said, “That’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can.”

What, what, peaceful, feed him while you can, what, what does that mean? Peaceful a synonym for poor wanderer, what? For that matter, Anna Lee, Carmen and the devil, Miss Annie, who are they?

Also, Up On Cripple Creek,
And this living off the road is getting pretty old
So I guess I’ll call up my big mama, tell her I’ll be rolling in
But you know, deep down, I’m kind of tempted
To go and see my Bessie again.

So Bessie isn’t his main squeeze, but what’s that about the flood in California, and cold up North, how does it all come together. Is he a truck driver, or just a wanderer?

Oh, and Blinded By The Light does make a whole lot more sense, once you realize the often misquoted Springsteen lyric – “Wrapped up like a douche” is really “revved up like a deuce” – a dual-carbureted hot rod. He’s just correlating the hod rod culture, young people with nothing to do, growing up. Manford Mann’s Earth Band did a famous cover, but once you realize it’s a typical Bruce Springsteen song, the confusion dies away.

62

Hang on, that has the most straight-forward lyrics ever. What else could it be about?

“I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back”

“Like a new born baby it just happens every day”

“I could not foresee this thing happening to you”

Anyone who doesn’t “get” that song - count yourself lucky!

63

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

Is this a railing of a Boomer against his parents’ generation not considering him an adult? This only occurred to me as I started typing this. Until now I’ve thought of it as possible hippie drivel, even if The Bob did write it.

64

Chester is asking him to take his dog, Jack. Thus the ‘feed him when you can’.
"Crazy Chester followed me, and he caught me in the fog.
He said, “I will fix your rack, if you’ll take Jack, my dog.”
I said, “Wait a minute, Chester, you know I’m a peaceful man.”
He said, “That’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can.”

65

It’s about a guy who’s so obsessed with a chess tournament that he doesn’t notice seamier side of Bangkok.

As he’s wandering through the city, various people (mostly scantily clad women) try to get his attention, but they can’t, because he’s either thinking about chess or congratulating himself on being smart and cerebral. (“I get my kicks above the waistline”)

ETA: the character’s supposed to be an utter ass and his lines in the song continue that theme.

66

Another Bob Dylan mystery.

67

The entire Pavement discography.

68

Yes. But why? Who is the wanderer, some random dog-whisperer? Why can’t he take the dog? If he can’t afford to feed him, why would Chester offer the dog? Does the wanderer need a dog? For protection, as a simple companion? If the wanderer needed a dog, wouldn’t he already have one? And what’s up with all the women mentioned in the song? Are they trading their affections to random wanderers with the same ease as one could adopt a dog? Are all the stable men in the song dying, and trading their companions to the wanderer, like he’s some sort of savior figure? Why’s he wandering in the first place anyway – is he a 60’s era hippie, 50’s era beatnik, or a 20’s depression hobo. Or a combination of the 3?

69

One song that I would have entered in this thread is Elton John’s Daniel, but it has, since it first appeared, been explained:

Somehow this filtered through even to me, but I was thoroughly confused for years. It certainly didn’t help that a whole verse was cut out. Apparently it doesn’t bother many artists (or their fans) to release works that are extremely obscure, without explanations. The excellence of the work carried it through. For some reason, though, my teachers didn’t see it that way when I handed in English compositions without full explanations.

70

Of course, there’s another possible explanation why the scantily-clad women don’t appeal - from an earlier song in the musical, “Quartet”, as sung by his rival:

My personal favorite explanation of what American Pie means is from Don McLean himself:

Hard to argue with that.

71

Bob has never been all that obsessed about making sense with his lyrics. But this one isn’t that hard for me; it’s from the period when Protest Bob was morphing into Poet Bob. (And the narrow-minded began to call him “fake”–but he’s kept on changing throughout his long life.)

I think that lyric refers to the Civil Rights Movement. I remember people marching down dusty Southern roads on TV. Many of whom were still called “boy”–although they were full grown men. The song also mentions a white dove–a classic symbol for peace.

Yeah, just a bunch of hippie drivel…

72

The Wilson Phillips cover was the first version I really listened to- this was my take:

Daniel, the singer’s best friend or literal brother, has died and willed for himself to be buried in his favorite country, Spain. Daniel was somehow different ("you were other than me), I figured gay, and alienated because of it (“scars that won’t heal”)- I also wondered if he’s supposed to have committed suicide or died of AIDS. Anyway, as the singer watches the disappearing plane, he senses Daniel waving goodbye but attributes it to his own grief.

73

One of my favorites too–although Chris Hillman co-wrote it. He sang it with Steve Earle on a Parsons tribute album.

And I’ve been wondering just what those lyrics meant since Burrito Deluxe came out. Gram had already been expanding his horizons by hanging with the Stones–although it was before Jerry Hall’s time…

74

Damn! I thought you were going to tell me what it meant! :slight_smile:

In 2008, Chris Hillman gave a show at a little acoustic venue near my house. I wish I had hung around after the show to ask HIM!!

75

Members of the Band have said that the people mentioned in the song were people they actually knew. Of the plot line of the song itself, Robertson said it was partially inspired by the movies of Luis Buñuel.

*“He did so many films on the impossibility of sainthood,” says Robertson about Bunuel, “people trying to be good in Viridiana and Nazarin, people trying to do this thing. In `The Weight’ it’s the same thing. People like Bunuel would make films that had these religious connotations to them but it wasn’t necessarily a religous meaning. In Bunuel there were these people trying to be good and it’s impossible to be good.”

“In The Weight', it was this very simple thing. Someone says, Listen, will you me this favour? When you get there will you say “hello” to somebody or will you pick up one of these for me? Oh, you’re going to Nazareth, that’s where the Martin guitar factory is. Do me a favour when you’re there.’ This is what it’s all about. So the guy goes and one thing leads to another and it’s like, `Holy shit, what has this turned into? I’ve only come here to say “Hello” for somebody and I’ve got myself in this incredible predicament.’ It was very Bunuelish to me at the time.” *
from here