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Maybe a saint is just a dead prick with a good publicist
Maybe tomorrow statues are insecure without their friends
Go ask the frog what the scorpion knows
While you build your mountain
But to build a mountain
See I thought we all know
You gotta dig a hole
Thought everybody knows
We're just digging holes
In solid marble rows
And maybe ethanol is methadone for oil addiction
Maybe we'll all go green in desert shades of camouflage
Go ask the bloodhounds till they find the mirage
While you build your mountain
But to build a mountain
See I thought you all know
You gotta dig a hole
Thought everybody knows
That we're digging holes
By the grassy knoll
Maybe a wolf is not a devil he just plays him on TV
Maybe a Cuban bay stay leaves you less than overjoyed
Ask the fox about progress they'll list what's been destroyed
While you build your mountain
But to build a mountain
See I thought we all know
You gotta dig a hole
Thought everybody knows
We're just digging holes
Yeah sorry that's how it goes
And I thought everybody knows
We're stockpiling souls
They say it so it goes
Maybe tomorrow statues are insecure without their friends
Go ask the frog what the scorpion knows
While you build your mountain
But to build a mountain
See I thought we all know
You gotta dig a hole
Thought everybody knows
We're just digging holes
In solid marble rows
And maybe ethanol is methadone for oil addiction
Maybe we'll all go green in desert shades of camouflage
Go ask the bloodhounds till they find the mirage
While you build your mountain
But to build a mountain
See I thought you all know
You gotta dig a hole
Thought everybody knows
That we're digging holes
By the grassy knoll
Maybe a wolf is not a devil he just plays him on TV
Maybe a Cuban bay stay leaves you less than overjoyed
Ask the fox about progress they'll list what's been destroyed
While you build your mountain
But to build a mountain
See I thought we all know
You gotta dig a hole
Thought everybody knows
We're just digging holes
Yeah sorry that's how it goes
And I thought everybody knows
We're stockpiling souls
They say it so it goes
Lyrics submitted by frankypoo22
Track duration: 03:15
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The brilliance in the song, though--in my opinion, at least--is the sheer uncertainty of it all, as shown by the song's constant use of, "What if...?" Not only does it reflect the various understandings of the song's lyrics, but it also emphasizes that we as a nation are a misguided people, befuddled by the way the whole situation it presented to us.
"but to build a mountain you gotta dig a hole" I think this part is explaining how people live with all these luxuries and have these wasteful live and they think its all good but really theyre destroying the environment.
"maybe ethanol is the methadone for oil addiction, maybe we'll all go green in desert shades of camouflage, go ask the bloodhounds if they found the mirage" ok this part is talking about how ethanol is in fact a good way to solve our oil problem, however there are many problems with it. We would have to destroy a lot of land to grow all of the corn crops needed to support an ethanol based power supply. Therefore its saying that most of the things that we have come up with so far to sole our oil addiction cause problems of their own hence the "ask the bloodhounds if they found the mirage"
"maybe the wolf is not the devil, he just plays him on t.v. Maybe Cuban Bay stays leave you less than overjoyed. Ask the fox about progress, he'll list what's been destroyed." i think this part is talking about all the progress we can say we've made eventhough that progress has done little to nothing.
A priest comes to a farmer and tells him he needs to pray more. The farmer says that with a wife, children, and a farm, he has no time to pray. The priest tells him all the horrors that will come of not putting the lord first and then leaves.
From then on the man does nothing BUT pray. His wife gets angry with him, and the man goes into the mountains. In the mountains (While he is praying. Imagine that) he sees a fox. He follows it to a garden that is silent save for the sound of a river. There are to pretty girls sitting there playing go. He pimply watches them.
After 300 years of watching them (He thinks it is but a few hours) He yells out when one of them makes a bad play. The two ladies turn into foxes and run away. He sees that he is old, stiff, and his beard is down to his feet, and panics. He runs back to town and finds his house gone, and his wife, kids, and their kids, dead and buried.
The moral is- Don't be stupid, and work when you need to.
This, like I said, is a stretch but... The foxes DID destroy him.
I'm just musing with ideas for this song. Sorry for the double post!
The story of the frog and the scorpion, in a nutshell, goes like this;
The scorpion needs to cross the river. The frog offers to help, but only if the scorpion promises not to sting him. The scorpion promises. Half way across the river the scorpion stings the frog and they both sink to their death. The scorpions last words are, "I couldn't help it! It's my instinct!"
The bloodhound story is longer, but basically;
There is a magic rabbit that is messing up the mens hunt. They ask a sage, and she tells them to send a black bloodhound after it. They do, and the bloodhound wounds it just before it runs into a cabin. The men break down the door to find an old lady trying to bandage her heel. The men leave and never speak of the incident again.
In a broad sense, yes, it's probably referring to the war as a quagmire. But I think the mountain being built here is more a reference to the international state of affairs involving the US, centrally in Iraq.
Building off that, these 'holes' being dug, I would say, are in fact graves. Shawn develops this imagery several times in the song. For one, he sings that we're digging holes in, "solid marble rows," evoking thoughts of a massive grave site with rows upon rows of tombstones (which, of course, are often made of marble). Secondly, near the song's conclusion he says that we're, "stockpiling souls." This distinctive choice of words depicts the people in the building process--mainly a reference to the soldiers, I would think--as replaceable machinery, weapons, like missiles; concurrently, it gives the impression of a massive, rapid collection of these 'souls', i.e., that the casualties are climbing by the second.
Point one, is the obvious tip off line about oil and then all the allusions to deserts. Then I agree with wolf_notthe_devil that the 'mirage' they refer to would be the supposed WMDs that turns out never existed.
Then in the next verse I think the wolves playing devils on TV is supposed to be Iraqi terrorists. You know, like maybe a lot of this is just propaganda we're being fed on TV. Of course the unpleasant Cuban bay stay would then be Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners have been illegally tortured.
And I agree, 'fox' must be a reference to the FOX communications network. I must admit, that's a wondrously written line, as foxes have a reputation of being sly and underhanded, and at the same time, it fits what they want to say about the network. I gather they're saying the news coverage of us 'liberating' cities is portrayed as success and progress, when really we're destroying where these people live.
(I'll take this point to say to suckyourpitydownx that there's no way you can believe MSNBC and CNN are more biased than Murdoch's Fox, which is notoriously right-wing in every way. You must be either brainwashed or delusional)
Following these lines, making sense of the first verse I'm interpreting the line about statues to have something to do with the fall of the Saddam statue some 4 odd years ago, as the FOE of tomorrow's statues would be that missing statue. As for my favorite, the opening line, maybe he's saying how Bush might come away smelling like roses because he's got the resources? I don't know, the first verse and the line about the grassy knoll I'm still trying to fit right.
Overall, I'd say the message of this song comes out in the very sarcastic chorus. Of course the best way to build a mountain is to dig a hole, the exact opposite. Basically saying this war is a huge failure.