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i was getting ready to be a threat
i was getting set for my accidental suicide
the kind where no one dies, no one looks too surprised
and then you, then you realize that you're riding on the para-success
of a heavy-handed metaphor
and a feeling like you've been here before
cause you've been here before, and you've been here before
then a word washed to shore
then a word washed to shore
then a word washed to shore
sovay, sovay, sovay
all along in the day
i was getting ready to consider my next plan of attack
i think i'm gonna sack the whole board of trustees
all those don quixotes in their b-17's
and i swear this time, yeah this time
they'll blow us back to the seventies
and this time
they're playin Ride of the Valkyries
with no semblance of grace or ease
and they're acting on vagaries, with their violent proclivities
and they're playing ride, playing ride
playing ride, ride, Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, sovay
all along the day
i was getting ready to threaten to be a threat
instead of thinking about my plan of attack, think about a sack
the whole board of trustees, all those don quixotes in their b-17's
and i swear this time it blows back to the 70's
and this time, they're playin Ride of the Valkyries
with no semblance of grace or ease
now they're acting on vagaries
with their violent proclivities
and they're playin ride
and they're playin ride
playin ride, playin ride, playin ride, playin ride
Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, sovay, sovay, so
i was getting set for my accidental suicide
the kind where no one dies, no one looks too surprised
and then you, then you realize that you're riding on the para-success
of a heavy-handed metaphor
and a feeling like you've been here before
cause you've been here before, and you've been here before
then a word washed to shore
then a word washed to shore
then a word washed to shore
sovay, sovay, sovay
all along in the day
i was getting ready to consider my next plan of attack
i think i'm gonna sack the whole board of trustees
all those don quixotes in their b-17's
and i swear this time, yeah this time
they'll blow us back to the seventies
and this time
they're playin Ride of the Valkyries
with no semblance of grace or ease
and they're acting on vagaries, with their violent proclivities
and they're playing ride, playing ride
playing ride, ride, Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, sovay
all along the day
i was getting ready to threaten to be a threat
instead of thinking about my plan of attack, think about a sack
the whole board of trustees, all those don quixotes in their b-17's
and i swear this time it blows back to the 70's
and this time, they're playin Ride of the Valkyries
with no semblance of grace or ease
now they're acting on vagaries
with their violent proclivities
and they're playin ride
and they're playin ride
playin ride, playin ride, playin ride, playin ride
Ride of the Valkyries
sovay, sovay, sovay, sovay, so
Lyrics submitted by hemptimes
Track duration: 04:41
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I like naming my pokemon after songs X)
(if you're curious, other naming highlights include Haligh the Gyarados, Vanderlyle the Cradily, Jezebel the Sableye, and my personal favorite; Ypsilanti the Flygon. So awesome. *So* awesome.)
The way I take it is just that he was thinking or tossing around the term 'accidental suicide', and looking at some of the meanings and associations with that, when he realised that it was a heavy-handed metaphor. Which it is. The word 'Sovay' I didn't know, but I always took it to be the name of a woman. Then he drifts on to the baby-boomers in their boardrooms, the boards of directors, who he thinks are still living in the '70's and full of dangerous gung-ho attitudes. He thinks this whole 'Ride of the Valkyries' approach to business, this get-out-and-conquer-'em approach adopted by corporations, is a product of 70's thinking and is so useless and inapplicable to our times. Hence what happens is that the 'heavy-handed metaphor' becomes the one used by these folk - that is the metaphor of business as war. That is the metaphor which is 'heavy-handed'. Business is not war. That is too heavy an approach to business.
In this way, the term 'heavy-handed metaphor' points both backwards and forwards? That is, it emerges out of something, then it points forwards to something else. That is the way that you write, when you write songs.
So it doesn't really appear to me to be an anti-war song. I think if anything, it is an anti-corporatist song. Basically the song is the re-creation of a vaguely anti-corporatist mood. I think that is closer to its meaning insofar as it has one. It may have emerged as the result of thinking about some music industry dispute, something like that.
Please also don't take what I say as an attack on Andrew Bird. I think he is one of the best songwriters of his generation and I love his work. But many songwriters write in a rather vague way, using sounds, impressions, feelings, moods...and it seems to me that is far more what Andrew Bird is all about.
to me, that's sovay.
no dictionary necessary.
The “para-success” may be the capture of Saddam Hussein, (which really did nothing in the fight against “terrorism”), and the line “a feeling like you've been here before” is referring to the Vietnam war, which was another controversial war which many believed to be unnecessary.
The “board of trustees” is the US government.
“Blowing us back to the seventies” is again referencing the war in Vietnam, as is “Ride of the Valkyries” which was played in a famous bombing scene in Apocalypse Now (which was an anti-Vietnam war film).
Comparing the Iraq war to the Vietnam is the major theme of this song, and Andrew Bird’s lyrics are very wry, but at the same time very sad.
mind you,i did not read in depth what everyone has said about what the word sovay means because i am short on time at this certain instance, but someone mentioned an english folktale and i have found more on that.
Sovay was this story about this woman who's husband was out traveling. She dresses up as a highwayman and robs him and tells him to give up all of his things and he does and then she sees his wedding band on his finger and demands to have that as well.
he denies her the ring and then she pulls out a gun and points it at him and says give me the ring or i will shoot you dead
he, once again, denies his attacker (who he does not realize is actually his wife, mind you) the ring and says basically "no i am going to keep the ring you can have everything else but i love my wife. at least spare me this"
it is at this point where she unveils herself and is pretty much just like "I love you" and so her doing this was, in essence, the woman testing the man's love for her and he came through and proved to her through this situation that the love they shared was true.
basically Sovay is about the ultimate test of love relative to the English folk tale.