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They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got
Metal shivs on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT"
They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts
Reddened their necks collared their clothes
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out
She gathered the corners and called it her gown
Please find my harborcoat can't go outside without it
Find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it
They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got
Metal shivs on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT", R-E-A-C-T
They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts
Reddened their necks, collared their clothes
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out
She gathered the corners and called it her gown
She said
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got
Metal shivs on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT"
They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts
Reddened their necks collared their clothes
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out
She gathered the corners and called it her gown
Please find my harborcoat can't go outside without it
Find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it
They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got
Metal shivs on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT", R-E-A-C-T
They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts
Reddened their necks, collared their clothes
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out
She gathered the corners and called it her gown
She said
Lyrics submitted by xpankfrisst
Track duration: 03:54
"Harborcoat" as written by Michael E./berry Mills
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This makes the chorus make a lot of sense - Jews weren't allowed to walk around in public without a patch sewn on their coats with the six-pointed star identifying them as such. "Can't go outside without it."
I believe this speaks of forced oppression of the people, "noses worn off," could refer to brown-nosing and "metal shivs on wood pushed to our back" indicates forced compliance. A hand shake is a commitment or loyalty in agreeance to comply and once freedom has been stripped, a hand shake is all that you've got; the people must not react/rebell.
Splinter in the eye could refer to Matthew 7 which decribes hypocrisy as in do not remove a splinter from your brothers eye when there is a plank in your own. Perhaps this means do not criticize the leader who only can only see their agenda, but do not buy the propoganda as you only have a splinter, therefore you can parcially see. React and do not lie down.
Freedoms are taken by statutes; laws and once shifted, once a people are not allowed free will, they become ghosts who are merely harbored by their nation; ghosts who must comply with the government. "Collared clothes," may refer to the notion that under a communist dictatorship, there is only one class, blue-collar; the working class. Hard labor reddens the neck from the sun, but remarkable is the allusion to communism! So, possibly the collar could be part of the coat, the diguised fears and rage toward a dictator that will not allow the ghost to be seen, only the representation of the nation which is (she), Russia.
"Danced the dance," could mean only following the lead (not free) until the menace got out; until communist spread, but, "she gathered the corners and called it her gown..."communism didn't really spead as much as it was gathered; centralized and is still a gradual work in process, much like this post ;)
As for harborcoat, I always felt that there was an undertone of sadness and frustration running throughout the song and that references to lenin and dockworkers and a gown made from drapes was a nod of empathy towards the poor working class that makes a living from the hardscrabble life associated with working with the sea. And knowing that Michael was/is always well-versed in literature, I see this song as romanticizing the proletariat which would fit in well with the mindset of a young recently matriculated liberal arts artist
Other band members seemed to think that a "harborcoat" was some sort of metaphorical, perhaps emotional, protection, but Peter Buck later admitted that he had no idea what the song was really about.
I always thought it was an homage to lenin. note that "ignoreland" is in part an anti-trotskyists-turned-neoconservatives song, in which he condemns social democracy.