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A-Punk Lyrics
Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow She spied the ring on His Honor's finger Oh-oh-oh A thousand years in one piece of silver She took it from his lily-white hand Showed no fear--she'd seen the thing In the young men's wing at Sloan-Kettering Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh" Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh" 'Ey, 'ey, 'ey, 'ey! 'Ey, 'ey, 'ey! His Honor drove southward seeking exotica Down to the pueblo huts of New Mexico Cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas Oh-oh-oh I saw Johanna down in the subway She took an apartment in Washington Heights Half of the ring lies here with me But the other half's at the bottom of the sea Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh" Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh" Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh" Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh" 'Ey, 'ey, 'ey, 'ey! 'Ey, 'ey, 'ey, 'ey! |
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11-28-2008
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12-07-2008
The Hudson River all filled with snow". She finds a judge or other powerful man with a ring that has some sort of meaning to her, "She spied the ring on His Honor's finger", the article 'the' showing it is something she was looking for or meant something to her. The ring might have been an heirloom or something else that had sentimental value because of the past, "A thousand years in one piece of silver". 'His honour' had cancer referenced by Sloan-Kettering the cancer clinic or he had visited someone there, that line also states that she had seen the ring at the 'young mens wing' so either a relative of hers had been there or his honour was there as a young man. The chorus is a more abstract and could mean many things, referencing other comments it could be a nod to cleansing of Johanna or 'his honour', it could be police, very abstract seeming. The next verse is quite straight-forward for the most part, it means that 'his honour' went down south looking for the exotic. However exotica can mean many things, it could be the obvious women and liquer, or tying back to the cancer idea it could be some sort of experimental treatment that is not conventional. A pueblo is a small town that has a great distance from any other town and is almost like a medieval villiage, very close together because of the chances of being attacked by bandits and with no outlying farmland. I do not know what the turquoise harmonicas part means and the last verse is completely as it seems.
Thank-you for reading this, I hope it was enlightening but it is merely my opinion, not fact.
Cineseas
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12-19-2008
at all..
their best songs are oxford comma and walcott.
for sure.
=]
oxford comma is really good. go check it
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12-20-2008
:D<33333333333
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12-25-2008
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01-02-2009
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01-05-2009
mean he was born and raised in New Mexico, since cutting teeth means teething. He could also be suggesting
that music was important to the character since birth. Also, "the Hudson River all filled with snow" not
only shows the time of year but also symbolizes the death of something with a chance for a cleansing/new beginning.
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01-13-2009
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01-29-2009
although I am not sure myself what the song is about
one thing I am sure of that ring is a wedding ring
quite obvious
I had to laugh about the guy who commented
and thought cancer was a venereal disease how ignorant can you be!
its not contagious.
I say its really not funny at all, its quite sad that people don't know that kinda thing.
nice songk
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01-30-2009
.....you can smoke raisins?!?!?!?!
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03-12-2009
This brother owned a ring which was a family heirloom ("one thousand years in one piece of silver")
The judge ("your honour" is the correct way to address a judge) entrusted to handle the brother's affairs is crooked, and is wearing ("on his honour's finger") the ring rather than passing it on to Johanna.
What happened next is unclear, but I think Johanna slept with the judge in order to steal the ring back. After all, she stole it from his "lily white hand", suggesting he is asleep - after sex? Not sure.
What makes me think that is the stanza where his honour drives down to the Pueblo huts of New Mexico - I think "cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas" is definitely a sexual euphemism. He's gone to Mexico to get tanked and have a good time.
Then Johanna takes an apartment in Washington Heights, which Wikipedia informs me is an area with a large Mexican/South American migrant population. Is she Mexican herself? If so "lily white" could be a reference to race rather than sleeping as I said before.
"Half of the ring lies here with me but the other half's at the bottom of the sea." That could be taken a million different ways. I think she's either thrown the ring into the sea in anger at having lost her brother. Hence half of the ring (its emotional significance) "lies here with me", ie in her heart.
God knows if any of this comes even anywhere close.
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03-12-2009
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03-28-2009
It seems to me that "His Honor" is someone who has a long history of doing injustice to minorities. (The term "lily white" can refer to the exclusion of black people.)
In the first verse, Johanna comes to New York in the winter to reclaim the silver ring that was originally stolen from a young patient at Sloan Kettering, presumably a minority, and most likely someone she knew. "His Honor" is most likely dead or sleeping since she was able to remove it from his hand so easily and without fear. The ring has a long history and we can assume its worth is in what it represents, not it's actual monetary value.
The second verse gives us a glimpse of "His Honor's" past. He began his career exploiting Native Americans in the pueblos of New Mexico, where he "cut his teeth on turquoise harmonicas". In other words, he was stealing from (or ripping off) Native American artisans, first small objects, then maybe more valuable goods. Considering New Mexico produces and sells a lot of silver jewelry, this may be where the silver ring originally came from.
The third verse explains that Johanna settled in NYC in an area known for its minority population, so it is a possibility that she is a minority herself. The act of taking back the ring is her way of reconciling a wrong that has been done to her (and her people). She tells the tale to the songwriter, but the ring itself is long gone. Only the story remains. (Like the necklace thrown overboard at the end of the movie "Titanic".)
On a side note, The Raincoats were a female punk band mentioned frequently by Kurt Cobain. This may somehow tie-in with the title, but I can't see the connection.
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04-19-2009
i thought he was dead cause that would explain the cancer place and how she wasnt afraid of the dead body, and the lily-white hand
but then he drives down to New Mexico
extravagantly confusing
but it is brilliance
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05-22-2009
"lily-white hand" makes me think of someone who's done no work, i.e. has grown up rich in a cushy environment where everything is taken care of and they're very pampered. add that to the fact that johanna moved to a part of town that's not particularly nice and maybe it's more of an escaping the high-class world kind of song.
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05-24-2009
By now it really seems to me she has Mexican roots and lives in NYC, possibly working at Sloan-Kettering. At first I liked the idea of the "thing" in the hospital meaning death, but now I think it is the ring after all. She simply has no fear of stealing it, because the owner (his honor) is dying from cancer and can't do anything, he is probably unconscious.
I don't think it's a wedding ring at all, because firstly she just spied the ring, meaning she didn't know it's there and secondly "a thousand years in one piece of silver" seems even more meaningful than a marriage. I'm thinking more of a relic of some sort or something like that, something that has a cultural meaning. I don't think my english skills suffice to explain what I mean for this part :x
Now I don't know who his honor is supposed to be. It seems to me he is some kind of more or less important person who went to New Mexico and took something which meant a lot to Johanna.
He could be a metaphor for a tourist going there just for fun, buying souvenirs and stuff (turquoise harmonicas) and not honoring or not even caring about the people/culture.
I don't think there's a romantic theme in this song at all. Some people said some things about half of the ring lying on the ground of the hudson river and the other half being helt on by Johanna. But the lyrics don't say that at all: "Half of the ring lies here with me // But the other half's at the bottom of the sea". "Me" is definitely not Johanna, everything else about her was told in third-person. At the bottom of sea just seems like a generic "It's lost.".
To me it sounds like the ring is some kind of symbol for the cultural legacy that becomes more and more forgotten. Half of it is with the singer, who can spread it, but the other half is lost.
So I don't think the song has a sad meaning at all (no mourning, no ended love). It wouldn't make any sense, considering the upbeat music and the title. Even though I don't really understand the title :)
Plus I don't have any idea about the raincoats...
Hopefully at least some of my points will be understandable!
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05-24-2009
Thinking about the snow in the beginning of the song, I guess it's a sign of Johanna's surroundings making her feel homesick, because obviously cold weather is not exactly the usual in the south.
So on the opposite maybe "Look outside at the raincoats coming, say "oh"" is something the locals in New Mexico say when there are tourist coming looking at monuments/ruins etc. and saying "Oooh" in an impressed voice. Although in the context of the song it sounds pretty ironic ;)
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09-08-2009
interpretations! I don't even know what
to think. I like the rich dead husband
one though, simple and to the point.
Anyways it's too catchy I can't
stand it! Gerrr
EY! EY! EY! EY! 8P
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10-08-2009
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11-21-2009
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01-05-2010
Maybe because I'm a girl of a certain age, but a younger woman and an older man? Their having an affair. I have a reading of the song that's very different from a lot of yours, and it has flaws, but I'll point out what I think.
"She spied the ring on His Honor's finger"--on THE finger, not some random gaudy ring, it's a wedding band. When girls notice rings on men's fingers, they're noticing wedding rings. Or the Pope's rings. The flaw: wedding bands are usually gold, I think it could still work
"A thousand years in one piece of silver"--family heirloom, history that he's betraying, he's older than her.
"She took it from his lily-white hand"-- "Lily-white skin" is often used to describe someone prim, repressed, and inexperienced. She is making him a man, if you will, by removing his wedding right (sex, people.)
"Showed no fear--she'd seen the thing In the young men's wing at Sloan-Kettering"--Now, I didn't know what Sloan-Kettering was, so I thought we were talking boy's dorm at a boarding school or something. The "Thing" she shouldn't be afraid of...a thing some girls are afraid of the first time they see it...would be a thing that men have and girls don't... I don't know how she'd see one at a hospital, maybe volunteering?...or something less honorable? I don't know. But the fact that it's the "young-men's wing" says something pointed, I think. It's not just any old wing...
"His Honor drove southward seeking exotica" the relationship clearly ends, since they're no longer sung about together, and it ends badly--I'm guessing they're exposed. He goes south to get out of town (let the scandle die down?) I don't mean he's fleeing the country, I just mean on a "vacation" to save face. But really he is sick of his boring, lily-white life--he liked the adventure and youth of Johanna, and he's looking for that aggain. "Exotica" plus the contrast between white, freezing Ney York where he lives, and hot, brown and red and yellow New Mexico. To “cut one’s teeth” means to have your first experience in something, so he’s trying harmonica for the first time, and more broadly he’s experiencing life/whatever for the first time, experimenting, doing non-milquetoast, non-conventional things. I repeat, becoming a man, etc. As for the title…maybe it’s a-punk because that’s what punk was all about? But I don’t know.
As for the last stanza and the raincoats…no clue.
01-05-2010
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01-13-2010
The ring represents a long and complex relationship "a thousand years."
The "she" who took it from someone's lily-white hand is actually His Honor.
It was taken from someone's (dead) hand in the hospital - the "young men's ward" suggests AIDS and homosexuality, Sloan-Kettering suggests cancer but also New York. I suspect the true cause of death is murder. "No fear" is what it would take to walk in and take the ring this way.
There was another copy of this ring that was thrown into the ocean - that's why His Honor needed to take it in the hospital - he no longer had his own copy. This same situation is mentioned in Oops I Did it Again.
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01-14-2010
It tells of a sailor who gives half of a ring to his lover to remember him by while he's at sea. Just thought this was interesting, not sure if it reveals much about this song's meaning.
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01-17-2010
Just an idea: "Johanna [drives] slowly into the city" to settle some affairs with the Judge after her brother's death. When her brother died, she went to Sloan-Kettering and saw the ring, a family heirloom, on his finger. When she meets with the Judge, she realizes that he took the ring from her brother.
She somehow takes the ring back, but can't handle the memory it holds of her brother's death, so she throws half of it (the physical ring) away, while the other half (the memories) remain with her. The Judge, ashamed of having stolen from one of his clients, resigns and moves to New Mexico, where he "[cuts] his teeth" on harmonicas as he searches for a new profession.
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01-18-2010
but
could it be that the ring represents the entire native population
first it was taken by "his honor" when he went to the pueblo huts
only to be taken and forgotten at the bottom of the sea by johannah or just someone in the present
that turquoise and silver ring represents one thousand years
but we're so concerned with sloan-kettering (present problems)
that we have thrown all the past history and wisdom
half of the ring lies with him cause he must shed some of the old wisdom on the present
on the surface their songs seem simple but they usually have a strong meaning to them, i just really doubt it's a love story at all
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