Farmer In The City

goosebumps.

Wow, this song is beautiful. I couldn't believe it was Scott Walker when I first heard it. I mean- is this really the guy who'd bring us The Drift? But this song is really haunting but really warm-sounding.

All the lyrics to this song were lifted from a translation of the Pasolini poem "Una tanti dialoghi" except the whole 21 bit, by the way! I can't guess what that part's about, except wiki says that's the age the real subject of Pasolini's poem was when he was drafted into the Italian army?

I'd think that the 21 stuff is supposed to be like farmers at an auction, y'know?

"and i used to be a citizen / i never felt the pressure / i knew nothing of the horses / nothing of the thresher" is delivered so beautifully. what an amazing piece.

"The album is a triumph before it’s even five minutes old, thanks to mournful opening track “Farmer In The City.” Against a slow, dirge-like string arrangement, Walker recounts the final moments of life for Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was repeatedly run over by his own car, which was being driven by a male prostitute he’d hired. Walker’s voice takes on a tone of total terror, and he strings together isolated images to create a bleak collage of sorrow and memory. By the time “Farmer In The City” reaches its haunting, inevitable conclusion, it’s clear what Walker has accomplished: The song is the sound of someone’s life passing before his eyes." (magnetmagazine.com/2006/07/05/scott-walker-exit-music/).

Maybe 21 is the estimated number of times Pasolini was run over.

perhaps the "do i hear 21? i'll give you 21" is partly mocking the coming of 21st century (the album was made in '95) and making fun of the supposed advancement and humanity of the 21st century man while wars, assasinations and senseless killing is happening right around the corner.

As you can see below, it is not true that all the lyrics are from Pasolini's poem One of Many Epilogues [Uno dei tanti epiloghi], as Appers66 claims. Walker, as per his habit, freely uses material that seems to revolve around Pasolini and his problematics. So, here's the poem for context (trans. Stephen Sartarelli):

One of Many Epilogues

Hey, Ninarieddo, remember that dream, the one we talked about so many times . . . ? I was in my car, heading off alone, the seat beside me empty, and you were running after me; when you reached the still half-open door, anxious and stubbornly running, you cried out with a childish sort of whine in your voice: “Hey, Paolo, can you take me with you? Will you pay my way?” It was the journey of life, and only in a dream could you drop your guard and ask me for something. You know perfectly well that this dream belongs to reality, and that it wasn’t a dreamed Ninetto who said those words. In fact you blush when we talk about it. Last night in Arezzo, in the silence of the night, when the guard was locking the gate with a chain behind you, and you were about to disappear, with your sudden, funny smile, you said: “Thanks!” Thanks, Ninè? It’s the first time you ever said that to me. And in fact you realized this and corrected yourself, without losing face (something you’re a master at), saying: “Thanks for the ride.” The journey you wanted me to pay for was, I repeat, the journey of life; and it was in that dream some three, four years ago that I decided what my equivocal love of freedom was opposed to. If you now thank me for the ride, when you’re in the slammer, my God . . . In fear I board a plane for a faraway place. My thirst for our life is unquenchable, because something unique in all the world will never run dry.

September 2, 1969

this song is about being a slave, from the mouth of one. the 21 is the auction. scott was dark