| Peter, Paul and Mary – Puff (The Magic Dragon) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| right on, sincerity, Jackie Paper was a little jerk. Well actually, I feel bad for him- he couldn't hold on to a childlike sense of wonder. BUT... have you noticed, in the cartoon and children's book(s) based on this song, another child always befriends puff at the end? I like that, it shows how childhood may be fleeting for the individual but is eternal for the species. | |
| The Pogues – Waltzing Matilda Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Put this song on along with "Green Fields of France" by the Dropkick Murphys, a song about an Irish Soldier who died in France during WWI. Two different points of view, one hell of a message. If you're lucky enough to find a copy of "Willie McBride's Reply" throw that on the playlist as well, it's a response that adds a lot to both songs. | |
| Peter, Paul and Mary – Puff (The Magic Dragon) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree, the song's about childhood and the loss of innocence and childhood. The drug related stuff is incidental, I think. A few people noticed the words "puff" and "drag" and went downhill from there. But the song makes it sound like that loss is inevitable, that children always grow up and leave imagination behind... call me sentimental, but I'm fighting as hard as I can to keep that from happening. I'm a huge Tolkien/fantasy/Sci Fi fan. The dragons and pirates and kings may not be quite the same as the ones in Honnah Lee, but that sense of wonder at new worlds never quite dies... does anyone else feel the same way? Oh, and by the way, I read an interview with... Peter, I believe, although it could have been Paul. He says they'd never heard of Hanalei bay until long after the song, but he appreciated the coincidence. |
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| Wolfe Tones – Rock On Rockall Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This is pretty self-explanatory. Rockall is a tiny island off the coast of Britain, which both England and Ireland lay claim to. The island is basically worthless, but the seabed around it is desirable for drilling (hence, the reference to "natural gas" in the song. Oh, and Finn McCool is an anglicized version of an Irish Folk character. His name would more accurately be spelled "Fionn mac Cumhaill" |
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| Barenaked Ladies – Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Well, the first time he says "the last thing on my mind," I figure it means that he's not really thinking about her. But when he says it at the very end, I'm torn. Does he mean that he's dying and realizing his life is over and his girlfriend/wife gets crowded out of his thoughts? Or does he mean that, although he sometimes was distracted, she was so important that she was the very last thought he had before he died? Either meaning makes sense, and that's why I love this song. What mood I'm in sort of determines what meaning I think of. | |
| Dropkick Murphys – Good Rats Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Well, IMK, you say they flog the dead horse of their Irish Heritage and how they came to this country and made it theirs and whatnot, but think about this: When the Irish first came here, they were almost universally hated and reviled, and were so frequently framed for crimes and randomly arrested that "Paddy Wagons" became a nickname for police cars (yes, that's from before the stereotype of the Irish cop). Today, every group that ever had a rough time in America is celebrated- black people went through slavery and now have their own history month, there's a Hispanic heritage month, we talk about how horrible it was for the Chinese railroad workers and the Japanese people sent to concentration camps during WWII. I'm not trying to belittle any of them- they all went through Hell before being accepted here. However, when is the last time that you heard anyone saying we should respect Irishmen for their suffering? Or the last time that an Irish joke didn't get a laugh, because Irish people had a hard time? I would imagine it's because Irish people don't look different, so we conveniently forget they got a lot of sh*t as well. THAT is why DKM and other bands invoke their Irish heritage- there's no politically motivated politician doing it for them. | |
| Dropkick Murphys – The Green Fields of France (Eric Bogle cover) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Stephen L. Suffett wrote a song called "Willy McBride's Answer", a reply to this song sung to the same tune. It is this long-dead young soldier, saying that he regrets nothing. He tells Bogle (who authered the original poem) to "Ask the people of Belgium or Alsace-Lorraine" whether he really died for nothing. He says that he stood up for freedom, and would do it again. I love the original, but I also think that the reply profides a fantastic contrast to the basically antiwar point of view in the original. I would love to hear them sung in sequence by a talented duo. The full lyrics can be found at: http://members.fortunecity.com/folkfred/wilreply.html |
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| Dropkick Murphys – The Green Fields of France (Eric Bogle cover) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Celtic music is best in three flavors: drinking, rebellion, and tear jerking. Punking this song would be like punking Molly Malone or Oh Danny Boy- heresy. | |
| Michael Penn – Walter Reed Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| A friend just pointed out to me that the med student may not be contemplating his future career, but may have just lost his first patient- it's "graduation day" because he's entered the real world of medicine, where not everybody can be saved, and all his med school training couldn't help him. He feels guilty and wants to hide from his coworkers, and he feels like all his good intentions have abandoned him because he failed. | |
| Michael Penn – Walter Reed Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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It seems to me that the song goes back and forth between the point of view of the actual Walter Reed and a young med student who plans on working there. The first verse is Reed's point of view as he leaves the battlefront, taking a train with a load of coffins. He's saying this sight is too common, that death has become routine, and that if the war keeps going like it's going there won't be enough life left for a doctor to save. The second verse is a med student at or just after he graduates. He's scared of going out into the real world, afraid that nothing he learned will help him and that he won't be able to save a patient. I see the line about Grauman's Chinese Theater being his resolve to do something useful with his life- the theater is a symbol of wasted time, watching movies instead of making a difference. The chorus and the bridge are from both of them. Reed wants to get away from the fighting, and says he's lost the will to fight. He's angry about the death all around him. He may have been injured, as in the line "I'm the walking wounded," and can't find his place in the civilian world. The med student wants the seemingly endless wait over with, to get to the hospital and get to work. He's disillusioned with the competitive atmosphere of med school (lost his will for fighting), and is simultaneously ready to go out into the world and mourning his carefree younger days (every good thing I had...). That's how I see it, anyway. Great song, especially for a college student going into medicine. |
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