Lyrics for The Ballad Of The Sin Eater as interpreted by knifefight

The Ballad Of The Sin Eater Lyrics
When you run, digger, runner
Listener, thief, you carry it all with you
Today I woke up uncertain
And you know that gives me the fits
So I left this land of fungible convictions
Because it seemed like the pits
And when I say, "conviction" I mean it's something to abjure
And when I say "uncertain" I mean to doubt I'll not turn out a caricature
So I set off in search of my forebears
Coz my forbearance was in need
But the only job I could get in dear old blighty
Was working on the railway between selby and leeds
So I took a ferry to belfast, where I had cause to think:
They wanted none of my arm-chair convictions
But nobody seemed to mind when I was putting on the drinks!
And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you 'coz you're guilty
So...I stayed out all night in Ibixa
By way of San Sebastian, where they said
'Yanque, you better watch what you're saying, unless you're sayin'
It in Basque or in Catalan!"
So all the way east to novi-sad
Where narry a bridge was to be seen
But mother Russia, she laid her pontoons on down
So I crossed over, if you know what I mean...
Then on the road to damascus, yes
The scales, they fell from my eyes
And the simplest lesson I learned at the mount of olices: everybody lies
And the french foreign legion
You know they did their best - but I never believed in t.e.
Lawrence, so how the hell could I believe in beau gest?
And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didnt think they could hate you, now did you?
You didnt think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you 'coz you're guilty
So...I spent a night in Kigali in a five diamond hotel
Where maybe someday, they'll do the wa-tutsi down in hutu hell
And I fell in with a merchant marine who promised to take me home
But when I woke up beaten and bloodied
I couldn't tell if it was Jersey or Sierra Leone!
And you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could have you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, and they hate you coz you're guilty...
And the knocking in my head, just like the knocking at my door
And maybe it was me or maybe it was my brother
But either me or me and him went down to the bar
Where I got seven powersin me for to give me the cure
But when seven powers failed to spin me
I had to get me seven more
And when I say, "me" I mean my brain
And when I say "give me the cure" I mean to kill the pain
And when I say "kill the pain" I meant to get the devil out
And when I say "devil" I mean the manifestation of doubt!
And you didnt think they could hate you
Now did you you didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
You didn't think they could hate you, now did you?
Ah, but they hate you, make no mistake - they hate you...

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Lerxs
05-29-2004

Rated 0 
From what I can, it's about an American who goes to Europe to 'find himself' or just see the world, and finds that it's not quite as friendly as he imagined.

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runningincircles
06-30-2004

Rated 0 
Right, right, that makes sense and all, but what is being said in the background toward the end of the song? the giggling, its kinda cool...my favorite line is "But mother Russia, she laid her pontoons on down So I crossed over, if you know what I mean..." also, "But when I woke up beaten and bloodied
I couldn't tell if it was Jersey or Sierra Leone!".
If you get lucky enougth to see him live, request this song, its great live.

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Mopnugget
07-06-2004

Rated 0 
this song is called "the ballad of the sin eater" not father.

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ma0sm
09-18-2004

Rated 0 
I feel there's an anti-American sentiment in there too. The state of America causing him to leave his homeland for Europe and the chorus line reflecting the general sentiment of Europeans towards Americans in very recent times. His recounting of his European experience is showing that these European places aren't perfect and may not have the correct opinion.

I may be way off the mark though.

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GeeMo
09-21-2004

Rated 0 
Ted's friends with members of the Sin Eaters--an actual band! I'm not about to make assumptions on their genre so as not to piss off any sin eater fans.
But, if I may say so, one of the most exciting moments of my life was when I got to play tambourine for this song, as it was played live! Ted handed me the tambourine! *sigh*

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ma0sm
09-30-2004

Rated 0 
I thought the Sin Eaters were the project Ted started with his brother (or some family member) that were reknowned for explosive live performances but never released any studio recordings before breaking up and Ted recruiting The Pharmacists...

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diverhans
11-10-2004

Rated 0 
I think the whole anti-American definitely works here. Lerxs interpretation seems to be right on. My friend Keith got to play tambourine during this song too...he was in shock for days.

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bizarr3
02-07-2005

Rated 0 
GOD I CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE THIS SONG LIVE. I hear that if you don't properly brace yourself, the percussive onslaught breaks your spine and rattles your fillings loose.

I'm seeing Ted Leo in thirteen days!

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paigecolbert
02-17-2005

Rated 0 
I saw Ted in Seattle last sunday (2/13). When he performed Sin Eater, he set down his guitar and just had his microphone and went crazy. My friend and I were front row, center, and he threw himself down on our bags that we had on the stage. I held his hand and my friend tossled his sweaty hair. He got back up and started banging his microphone against his head, drawing blood. There is a picture here: http://www.jflats.com/~paigebre/images/bre%201090.jpg (He used the giant acorn on another song.) Oh, and he shoved the microphone in my face during the "you didn't think they could hate you now, did you?" part. And he dedicated Me and Mia to me. Sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic. But GAH! Ted, you have no idea.

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wasmuthk
04-30-2005

Rated 0 
Oh, Come ON! Ted Leo was in Seattle on my Birthday and I didn't know it? Sorry, that was off topic, but I was wondering if anyone could help me work out the line: "And the french foreign legion You know they did their best - but I never believed in t.e. Lawrence, so how the hell could I believe in beau gest?"

What does THAT mean?

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theoddball
05-11-2005

Rated 0 
T.E. Lawrence was better known as Lawrence of Arabia...the British guy who was down there during the Arab revolts, and through WWI, etc.

Beau Geste (it's misspelled in the lyrics) was a book/ movie about the French Foreign Legion.

So basically, it's about continental interlopers in the Arab world, I guess.

Ted Leo's sharp--or at least, well-versed culturally, I s'pose...

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cman
11-06-2005

Rated 0 
He got back up and started banging his microphone against his head, drawing blood. There is a picture here:

The exact same thing happened at the show I went to a few months later.

Beau geste can also (if i remember correctly) be a fake gesture of kindness, so that line sort of has a double meaning.

It seems to me that in the line "I mean to doubt I'll not turn out a caricature" he's saying he's leaving America for a little while because he doesn't want to become some dumb American the way Europeans see Americans. He also claims that Americans have no convictions, or that their convictions change very easily.

Ultimately, the song seems to be about wanting to get rid of the sense of doubt that we tend to have about everything.

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jsbx
12-03-2005

Rated 0 
Ted Leo was a member of "The Sin Eaters", thus making the song autobiographical.

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acidwashedfate
01-23-2006

Rated 0 
This song does have some religious meaning...

"Then on the road to damascus, yes
The scales, they fell from my eyes"

The disciple, Paul, was struck blind by Jesus while on the road to Demascus to persecute Christians. This was when Paul converted to Christianity from Judaism (Paul was once a Pharisee).

Not only does the song include references to Europe, but also to Africa.

"So...I spent a night in Kigali in a five diamond hotel
Where maybe someday, they'll do the wa-tutsi down in hutu hell
And I fell in with a merchant marine who promised to take me home
But when I woke up beaten and bloodied
I couldn't tell if it was Jersey or Sierra Leone!"

All of the above are references to Africa. I do know that Sierra Leone is a small country in Western Africa- but that's about all I know of it.

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1 Reply
phoobie
02-05-2006

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"putting on the drinks" is, i think, some reference to payment, and armchair convictions seem like a reference to a set of ideals....could be a politician...also, i think he wanted to be a caricature, cause if you replace that phrase with uncertain in the previous lines, he sounds disapointed hes not geting the publicity. also, this american also has a pretty flimsy set of morals, calling his convictions something to abjure. also, im pretty sure its mount of olives, which would fit right in with the biblical reference. im geussing its about bush, what with the religous references and other stuff...fungible is usually used with oil, so....maybe?

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Wrgggggggrkyyyyyyyy
03-10-2006

Rated 0 
I always assumed that most of the song was references to events in history because of the line "So...I spent a night in Kigali in a five diamond hotel
Where maybe someday, they'll do the wa-tutsi down in hutu hell" which is referring to the genocide in Rwanda (Kigali is the capital). To make a long sad story short- the Hutu slaughtered 937,000 Tutsi in a 100 days in 1994. The US ignored it and didn't interviene although they had soldiers stationed there. I assumed the line about the hotel was refering to the hotel that saved over a thousand Tutsi from being killed.

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mithgil
12-09-2006

Rated 0 
"Powers" refers to John Powers whiskey. Superficially, the song is about getting drunk in new and interesting locales.

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lbiz
03-27-2007

Rated 0 
Sierra Leone(sp?) is obviously more present in the media than it has been in the past. The atrocities committed just to keep the diamond industry manageable, are pretty freaking heartless. The price of diamonds depend on the amount in circulation all over the world so if a new vein is discovered or if those mining them aren't kept under careful control then other diamonds can make it to the market (black or otherwise) thus screwing up what jewelers want to charge.
There's no innate value in diamonds. They're used for certain medical and other scientific procedures, but other than that, they're just very durable and pretty to look at.
They're a symbol of exclusivity and social status and because there is big money to make, people end up being exploited and killed to get the product to the market. I will never ever own a diamond. Not in an engagement ring or any other jewelry. My boyfriend can ask me to marry him with something that doesn't feed into corporate/American greed, at the expense of those without guns as big as ours.

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quails
05-24-2007

Rated 0 
This is one of those songs with way too much packed in for me to try to find all the meaning here. A couple of things:
A sin-eater is someone who symbollically takes on the sins of a dead person so their soul can rest, besides the Sin Eaters being Ted's old band, the name of a Spider-Man villain, and the name of several pieces of literature.
I think the part about Belfast is a reference to the strong reaction you get in Ireland (mainly the North) by expressing your armchair convictions about the Troubles, though people don't mind you so much if you're paying for the drinks. I'm not familiar with everywhere mentioned in this song, but all of the ones I know about are fiercely independent or nationalistic kinds of places/organisations.

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Steven Dedalus
07-02-2007

Rated 0 
to add to the point quails was making:t he reference to Belfast concerns the fact that one can sit and pontificate on the troubles, and these opinions are not always welcomed by those who tend to act on their impulses, to put it politley.

But as anyone from Belfast will tell you, we do enjoy a good drink.

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benjam326
09-30-2007

Rated 0 
Going on the earlier observation that "Sin Eater" refers to someone who takes the sins of other onto himself, I have to disagree with the "anti-American" interpretation and instead say this song is about Ted Leo's struggle with religion, specifically Christianity, and how supposedly religious people do such terrible things. For one thing, "Sin Eater" seems to me a reference to Jesus, who claimed to sacrifice himself for the sins of mankind. Pretty straightforward.

So, the song traces Ted's spiritual journey. He starts feeling "uncertain," so he leaves home and travels the world, and sees places marred by religious or ethnic strife: Ireland (the Troubles), Serbia/Yugoslavia (ethnic cleansing), the Basque Country (terrorism), Rwanda (genocide), Sierra Leone (blood diamonds). He can't understand how the atrocities could have happened in self-professed Christian places.

The French Foreign Legion's tenets include brotherhood among its members regardless of religion or background, but Ted can't believe that this is possible.

Finally, Ted drinks a bunch of whiskey to try and forget what he's seen and also to try and remove the doubt and uncertainty he's feeling.

I think the chorus is saying that Jesus never expected people to hate him, but now people do because of the things done in his name. When the scales fell from Paul's eyes in Damascus, they revealed to him Jesus as savior; when the same happened to Ted, he only saw that "everybody lies."

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Blackbird_1565
07-09-2008

Rated 0 
I don't have much to add here, but the phrase "give me the cure" sounds like he's alluding to the Fugazi song.

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prilla1206
03-21-2009

Rated 0 
I think when the lyrics overlap with "When I say me/I mean my brain/And when I say give me the cure/I mean to kill the pain" and the female vocal GIGGLES and says "...when the cocaine hits me..." then, giggles. ??? Right ???

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sadakolives
06-11-2009

Rated 0 
well, here's my attempt to thoroughly explain *all* the cultural/historical references he makes in this song, if anyone might find it useful:


http://butterfliesandbears.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/they-hate-you-cause-youre-guilty-%E2%80%93-part-one/



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