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If this was the cold war we could keep each other warm
I said on the first occasion that I met Marie
We were crawling through the hatch that was the missile silo door
And I don't think that she really thought that much of me
I never had to learn to love her like I learned to love the bomb
She just came along and started to ignore me
But as we waited for the big one and I started singing her my songs
And I think she started feeling something for me
We passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside
?What five letters spell apocalypse??, she asked me
I won her over saying WWIII
Oh, we smiled and we both knew that she misjudged me
Oh Marie, it was so easy to fall in love with you
It felt almost like a home of sorts or something
And you would keep the warhead missile silo good as new
And I watched you with my thumb above the button
Then one night you found me in my army issue cot
And you told me of your flash of inspiration
You said, "Fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought"
And all night long you drove me wild with your equations
Oh Marie, do you remember all the time we used to take
Making love and then ransack the rations
I think about you leaving now in the avalanche cascades
And my eyes get washed away in chain reactions
Oh Marie, if you would stay and we could stick pins in the map
Of all the places where you thought that love would be found
And I would only need one pin to show where my love is at
In a top secret location three hundred feet under the ground
Oh, we could hold each other close, stay up every night
Looking up into the dark like it's the night sky
Pretend this giant missile is a old oak tree instead
Carve our name in hearts into the warhead
Oh Marie, there's something tells me things just won't work out above
That our love would live a half life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping, I hold you closer just because
As our time grows short I get a little nervous
So I think about the big one, WWIII
Would we ever really care, the world had ended?
You could hold me here forever like you're holding me tonight
I think about that big red button and I'm tempted
I said on the first occasion that I met Marie
We were crawling through the hatch that was the missile silo door
And I don't think that she really thought that much of me
I never had to learn to love her like I learned to love the bomb
She just came along and started to ignore me
But as we waited for the big one and I started singing her my songs
And I think she started feeling something for me
We passed the time with crosswords that she thought to bring inside
?What five letters spell apocalypse??, she asked me
I won her over saying WWIII
Oh, we smiled and we both knew that she misjudged me
Oh Marie, it was so easy to fall in love with you
It felt almost like a home of sorts or something
And you would keep the warhead missile silo good as new
And I watched you with my thumb above the button
Then one night you found me in my army issue cot
And you told me of your flash of inspiration
You said, "Fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought"
And all night long you drove me wild with your equations
Oh Marie, do you remember all the time we used to take
Making love and then ransack the rations
I think about you leaving now in the avalanche cascades
And my eyes get washed away in chain reactions
Oh Marie, if you would stay and we could stick pins in the map
Of all the places where you thought that love would be found
And I would only need one pin to show where my love is at
In a top secret location three hundred feet under the ground
Oh, we could hold each other close, stay up every night
Looking up into the dark like it's the night sky
Pretend this giant missile is a old oak tree instead
Carve our name in hearts into the warhead
Oh Marie, there's something tells me things just won't work out above
That our love would live a half life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping, I hold you closer just because
As our time grows short I get a little nervous
So I think about the big one, WWIII
Would we ever really care, the world had ended?
You could hold me here forever like you're holding me tonight
I think about that big red button and I'm tempted
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1- It's not WWII-era, it's not even Cold War era. The first line is "if this *was* the cold war...", implying that era is passed. It's contemporaneous.
2- Don't read the biblical analogy into every line, the comparison is only between the biblical Adam and Josh Ritter 's protagonist herein on the level of their temptation: biblical temptation = knowledge from Eve; Ritter temptation = only Eve, only love, nothing else.
3- The bomb shelter is a bomb shelter. We should assume the story is physically happening. Josh Ritter himself has indicated as much.
These premises are important because they release the power of the song's message. The character falls in love so totally that he would allow the world to die if it meant continuing the life of his love. This is what falling in love is, it's going into a shelter with another person and being blind to the workings of the world outside of it. Josh Ritter writes about the destructive side of love that would destroy the entire world because it would allow the two to reimagine one together. This is love. That's what love is; a creation of a world by the shared vision and for the cohabitation of two people. The corollary to that is that they must give up what the world up to that point had been to both of them as individuals, which is destructively severing to all other relationships.
4- This is the most heartbreaking song ever written.
You can also find this vision of love in the movie 'Inception,' which highlighted the destructive side of love by likening the act of staying in that world to becoming a monster.
All in all, a brilliant, touching, funny, sad, and moving song.
I like the semi-funny semi-cynical end where he is tempted to push the button, just because he thinks their love wouldn't work above ground.
I think in the song he represents reality and that Marie represents ideality. He says things like, “I never had to learn to love her/Like I had learned to love the bomb.” Meaning, he used to have these ideals—that war was bad and something we could avoid—but as time raged on, he realized that some things are necessary evils. If he controls the bomb, he has a hand in controlling reality.
On the other hand, she “would keep the warhead missile silo good as new.” Even though she’s wrapped up in the war, she still is possessed by ideals and hopes, that idea that we can resolve things without hurting or killing people. And he loves her for that, because she’s different because ideal is more innocent than reality. Reality is harsh, ideals are peaceful.
The tense as the song continues changes. Instead of here-and-now present tense, it switches to the conditional tense. He says things like “would” and “could” because he knows the inevitability of reality. That this war is going to end them and end everything. When she goes to sleep he “holds her closer just because” and he thinks about the war and its outcome: “Would we ever really care if the world had ended?/You could hold me here forever/Like you’re holding me tonight.”
His temptation is ending the world because right now he feels safe and warm and loved and he knows—like the realist always does—that dying from this is inevitable. And he would rather control when he dies and how he dies.
And even though love and war have some of the same issues and problems, in the end it’s better to die in love than in war, and his temptation is choosing that. Choosing his fate and her fate, so in the timeline of forever, for their eternity, they will always be together. If he doesn’t push the button now, their “love with live a half-life on the surface” because they would get ripped apart and probably die separated or worse—alone.
It’s the same temptation of Adam and Eve: What’s idyllic versus what’s real.
as for the religious connotation, there might be something there, but im guessing that josh did that more as a subtle reference than a ground shattering, insanely detailed metaphor. i think in most of his lyrical masterpieces, he would be less detailed or more vague if he was trying to set up an elaborate metaphor. the songs arent as fun if you dont let the artist paint a picture with the words and take you there. thinking way too much can take a lot of the impact out of the best music/art/literature.
(and im not saying thats the case every time, but if musicians made every single song a giant metaphor with dozens upon dozens of obscure references and connotations, theres no way they could release albums with any frequency whatsoever!)
But, its more likely that the song, as you guys have already said below, is a simple story about a man who would destroy the world to stay with his lover in a fall-out shelter forever.
The silo is Eden.
The bomb/the button is the apple.
The apocalypse is sin.
*Please don't read this if you will be offended by my agnostic viewpoint.
BIBLICAL ANALOGY:
This is a biblical analogy but it has been twisted so its implications and ramifications are backwards (I imagine purposely so). In the original biblical story of Adam and Eve, the apple signified sin but it also signified knowledge. If Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and ate the apple of knowledge they would be expelled from Eden to live and die as mortals. If they left the apple of knowledge alone they could've stayed in Eden for eternity. In choosing to eat the apple they were expelled.
In Ritter's analogy it is Adam and Marie's desire to *remain* in Eden that is dangerous. They realize that if they eat the apple (explode the nuke) they will be free to remain in Eden (the silo) indefinitely. Unlike in Genesis where their expulsion from Eden is the damning moment, in Ritter's song their decision to remain eternally in Eden (the silo) would be the damning moment - not just for them but for all mankind. In making this suggestion Ritter is saying that knowledge must by necessity be the ultimate pursuit, even if it sentences us to loss and hardship. We must surface. If Men accept their own ignorance out of fear then we are a self-damning race. We may as well be 'pushing the button' on ourselves.
SCIENTIFIC ANALOGY:
Biblical analogy then merges with scientific analogy. In the bible the apple was infused with knowledge and if Adam and eve ate the apple they would also be infused with its knowledge. Genesis effectively treated 'apple' and 'sin' and 'knowledge' as one thing. Ritter doesn't do this. He recognizes that biting the apple (detonating the bomb) would be 'sinful' but that it would also be *ignorant*. It would grant no knowledge; rather, it would obliterate knowledge. This intelligent understanding is what Ritter's character Marie understands and tries to explain to Adam: "We already have the knowledge of the apple, Adam" she is trying to tell him. "We already know all about it. We don't need to sin (detonate the bomb) to be given its knowledge, because we already know."
Chiefly, Adam thinks the bomb (apple) offers Marie and him the chance to remain eternally in the shelter of their love (the silo/Eden). This is why, when Marie talks to him of science - the science of nuclear warheads - she is also speaking metaphorically about the miracle of love. She is trying to help them both to understand that the apple (explosion and resultant apocalypse) doesn't contain anything for them that they both don't already have - they just can't understand exactly what they have yet. The science they know and the love they feel is beyond their comprehension. Marie, though, goes a long way to understanding both when she tells Adam of her "flash of inspiration":
"fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought
and all night long you drove me wild with your equations"
In layman's terms, Fusion is what makes nuclear reactions so devastating: If, on an elemental level, an atom is disrupted it can cause a chain reaction of disruption in all the particles surrounding it. Thus, a very big explosion. This reaction happens because an incomplete atom must seek to find completion, or to do something with itself. It will try to bond with or disrupt other atoms.
Fusion can also be a metaphor for love: a single atom (single person) with a broken 'heart' is desperately lonely. So lonely that it will do anything to bond with another atom (person). It will thoughtlessly do *anything* - including, say, destroy the encroaching world in order to fully possess one other atom (person).
SEXUAL ANALOGY:
As though the depth Ritter has woven into his song weren't enough, he brilliantly includes sexual connotations as well. As J.R. said above, the missile can be seen as phallus and the silo as womb. Parting from this analogy slightly, I would argue that Ritter intended to draw vague parallels between clitoris and 'the button'. Adam is tempted by Marie and because he desires her he is also tempted to detonate the bomb, thus: "I think about that big red button and I’m tempted" can be seen sexually or literally.
The silo is Eden.
The bomb/the button is the apple.
The apocalypse is sin.
BIBLICAL ANALOGY:
This is a biblical analogy but it has been twisted so its implications and
ramifications are backwards (I imagine purposely so). In the original biblical
story of Adam and Eve, the apple signified sin but it also signified knowledge.
If Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and ate the apple of knowledge they would be
expelled from Eden to live and die as mortals. If they left the apple of knowledge
alone they could've stayed in Eden for eternity. In choosing to eat the apple they
were expelled.
In Ritter's analogy it is Adam and Marie's desire to *remain* in Eden that is dangerous.
They realize that if they eat the apple (explode the nuke) they will be free to remain in
Eden (the silo) indefinitely. Unlike in Genesis where their expulsion from Eden is the
damning moment, in Ritter's song their decision to remain eternally in Eden (the silo) would be the damning moment - not just for them but for all mankind. In making this suggestion Ritter is saying that knowledge must by necessity be the ultimate pursuit, even if it sentences us to loss and hardship. We must surface. If Men accept their own ignorance out of fear then we are a self-damning race. We may as well be 'pushing the button' on ourselves.
SCIENTIFIC ANALOGY:
Biblical analogy then merges with scientific analogy. In the bible the apple was infused with knowledge and if Adam and eve ate the apple they would also be infused with its knowledge. Genesis effectively treated 'apple' and 'sin' and 'knowledge' as one thing. Ritter doesn't do this. He recognizes that biting the apple (detonating the bomb) would be 'sinful' but that it would also be *ignorant*. It would grant no knowledge; rather, it would obliterate knowledge. This intelligent understanding is what Ritter's character Marie understands and tries to explain to Adam: "We already have the knowledge of the apple, Adam" she is trying to tell him. "We already know all about it. We don't need to sin (detonate the bomb) to be given its knowledge, because we already know."
Chiefly, Adam thinks the bomb (apple) offers Marie and him the chance to remain eternally in the shelter of their love (the silo/Eden). This is why, when Marie talks to him of science - the science of nuclear warheads - she is also speaking metaphorically about the miracle of love. She is trying to help them both to understand that the apple (explosion and resultant apocalypse) doesn't contain anything for them that they both don't already have - they just can't understand exactly what they have yet. The science they know and the love they feel is beyond their comprehension. Marie, though, goes a long way to understanding both when she tells Adam of her "flash of inspiration":
"fusion was the broken heart that's lonely's only thought
and all night long you drove me wild with your equations"
In layman's terms, Fusion is what makes nuclear reactions so devastating: If, on an elemental level, an atom is disrupted it can cause a chain reaction of disruption in all the particles surrounding it. Thus, a very big explosion. This reaction happens because an incomplete atom must seek to find completion, or to do something with itself. It will try to bond with or disrupt other atoms.
Fusion can also be a metaphor for love: a single atom (single person) with a broken 'heart'
is desperately lonely. So lonely that it will do anything to bond with another atom (person). It will thoughtlessly do *anything* - including, say, destroy the encroaching world in order to fully possess one other atom (person).
SEXUAL ANALOGY:
As though the depth Ritter has woven into his song weren't enough, he brilliantly includes sexual connotations as well. As J.R. said above, the missile can be seen as phallus and the silo as womb. Parting from this analogy slightly, I would argue that Ritter intended to draw vague parallels between clitoris and 'the button'. Adam is tempted by Marie and because he desires her he is also tempted to detonate the bomb, thus: "I think about that big red button and I’m tempted" can be seen sexually or literally.