Lyrics for M79 as interpreted by prayingmantis84

M79 Lyrics
It's going to take a little time
While you're waiting like a factory line
I'll ride across the park
Backseat on the 79
Wasted days you've come to pass

So go, I know you would not stay
It wasn't true, but anyway
Pollination yellow cab

You walk up the stairs
See the French kids by the door
Up one more flight
See the Buddha on the second floor
Coronation rickshaw grab

So go, I know you would not stay
It wasn't true, but anyway
Racist dreams you should not have

No excuse to be so callous
Dress yourself in bleeding madras
Charm your way across the Khyber pass

Stay awake to break the habit
Sing in praise of Jackson Crowther
Watch yourself along the arch of glass

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AllStarMe
01-30-2008

Rated 0 
The M79 bus travels east/west on W. 79th Street across Central Park in Manhattan.

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JACKIE THE HOBO
01-31-2008

Rated 0 
haha, i thought it was some kind of gun. i am an idiot.

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millyme!
01-31-2008

Rated 0 
I love this song.
It sounds like it'd be in a Wes Anderson film.

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vitaminknep
02-03-2008

Rated -1 
it is some kind of gun. a grenade launcher. the khyber pass links pakistan and afghanistan. these two facts make you not an idiot jackie. you're still a hobo though.

as far as jackson crowter goes, he's either a no name friend of theirs and we just get to be confused why they are name dropping obscure friends, or its a viral mispelling of jackson crowther, who seems to be a minor league baseball player.

this could actually work, if we assume the object of the song is overseas with an m79. our singer thinks of him/her when they notice the symbolism of the m79 bus. as a sort of prayer, asks his friend to let go of the "kill the arabs cause they're all terrorists" mentality and instead show them some of the good things about america, such as minor league baseball players.

since most of the places referenced in this album, that i've noticed at least, are for cape cod environs i'd assume the new york reference is also partly a method of refreshing 9/11 in our minds to put us in the right frame of reference.

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dfitzd
02-13-2008

Rated 0 
i'm pretty sure that he's not referencing new york to evoke 9/11 because the m79 is a real bus that they probably took because everyone in vampire weekend went to columbia university only forty or so blocks north of where that bus is. the khyber pass part is weird, but there's not really any other connection

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Exult
03-10-2008

Rated 0 
The ride across the part, and backseat on the 79 establishes for a fact that the M79 is the bus not the gun. As for the Khyber Pass reference, is just a metaphor. The fact that the members of the band know where the Khyber Pass is not weird as they are well educated and Rostam is from the middle east

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himoc918
03-11-2008

Rated 0 
The lead singer acknowledges that the title is the M79 bus in a live recording of the song...it can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC__CmHJq5c

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ummmyeah
03-14-2008

Rated 0 
JACKIE THE HOBO

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ummmyeah
03-14-2008

Rated 0 
has it completely right. I thought the same thing the first time I heard it.

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iamzewalrus
03-18-2008

Rated 0 
millyme!, it probably will be. It sounds so Mothersbaugh-Tenenbaum-ish, it has to be in one of his films!

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taylorsaurus rex
03-21-2008

Rated 0 
This song is very cultured...French kids and Buddha all in the same stanza!

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twocent
03-22-2008

Rated 0 
I totally love that this sounds like Mothersbaugh's score for The Royal Tennenbaums--how come all the reviews hating on them never mention this aspect and only harp on the co-opted African pop?

And despite all the ridiculous comparisons to graceland, the line about Jackson Crowt(h)er does feel like a nod to Paul Simon ("Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio...)

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nadiar
03-23-2008

Rated 0 
khyber pass is also the name of a restaurant in nyc. come on, these guys are so ridiculously trendy, you think they care about pakistan?

:p

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digijoel
04-05-2008

Rated 0 
It seems to me that he's talking about a friend who maybe is a closet racist.

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TheyCallMeSam
04-08-2008

Rated 0 
I love the beginning of the song! What is that, a harpiscord I hear? Amazing vox, too!

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TheyCallMeSam
04-08-2008

Rated 0 
Oh, wow, millyme! you are so right!

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x...
04-20-2008

Rated 0 
at the end are they talking about madras shorts?

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x...
04-20-2008

Rated 0 
at the end are they talking about madras shorts?

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life_aint_chess
05-22-2008

Rated 0 
i think jackson pollock is such a better rhyme than crowther. thou i guess it has some sort of meaning. i love the strings in this one :)

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the_kita
06-01-2008

Rated 0 
this song has got some great strings going on. and the harpsichord - oooh yeahh... whoodathunkit!

i'm curious as to what exactly the connection is between all these seemingly random references. could it be just a random collection of a multicultural world passing by through a bus window?

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AppleInHandFan
06-16-2008

Rated 0 
lmao...JACKIE THE HOBO
i thought the same, but then the rest didn't make sense and i didn't even think about the bus. goodness. is it just me or are vampire weekend's lyrics awesome? they have so many cool references. i mean, i have to spend some time figuring out the meanings. or maybe i'm just slow? =p

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myriadharbour
06-16-2008

Rated 0 
no no not a gun
I live in New York, and it is a crosstown Bus.
When they play here (as I have seen them live) they say "we are so glad we dont need to explain what the M79 is. NYC Transit fuckin rocks" or something along those lines.

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peaceasy
08-17-2008

Rated 0 
Such a good song.

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blaarghh
08-26-2008

Rated 0 
The lyrics are quite sad, almost regretful. But the melody is so catchy and it makes me laugh because it's set as my friend's message tone and it always goes off at inappropriate times.

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pontoufle
09-03-2008

Rated +1 
It's a song about a failed relationship with a Middle-Eastern girl, and I think it goes along with their other song "Campus". In "Campus" the narrator mentions "kaffiyah" which is an Arab headdress, which is what makes me think the girl is Middle-Eastern, and then talks about having to pretend not to be with someone he is sleeping (or in love) with -- "How am I supposed to pretend/ that I never want to see you again?"("I have to leave here before I go" I believe refers to secretly sleeping over at a girl's place, and having to get out without being noticed), which makes me think that the narrator is having a secret relationship with a girl who can't have a real relationship with him. M79 (which stands for a NY bus by that number that the narrator probably takes to either visit her or go home) gives a hint as to why the relationship failed: her "racist" dreams make me think she didn't want a real relationship with the narrator who wasn't Middle Eastern (thus the secret relationship or simply hooking up that he writes about in "Campus"), and when he tells her to "Dress yourself in bleeding madras" ("madras" being a kerchief often worn as a turban) and to "Charm your way across the Khyber pass", he's essentially telling her that if she is so Middle Eastern that she can't date him, she should go be with her people, being sarcastic of course because Khyber Pass, as a physical location, is very violent, so it's like saying "if you don't want to be with me, go charm the terrorists, if you think any Middle Eastern guy is better for you than I am." In the next stanza "Jackson Crowther" refers to a Minor League baseball player, underlining the irony -- this girl is so Americanized, she sings praises to an unknown baseball player, yet won't consider a serious relationship with the narrator because he's not Middle Eastern. And when he finally tells her to "Watch yourself along the arch of glass" he's bitterly referring to how thin the line is that she draws between what's acceptable to her, as a Middle Eastern girl, and what's not.

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