This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Crumbled kingdom
Dead piece of life
With nothing left to burn or kill inside
Dark trembling monsters
Surrounding me
Elusive shadows flowing through the air
I swallow all
As my lungs burn
Crawling, bleeding searching for a pulse
So far from the eyes of God
Mud stained martyred body
So far from careless happiness
Pulling out the tool
Of frantic devastation
In a ditch dying lonely like a whore
Dead piece of life
With nothing left to burn or kill inside
Dark trembling monsters
Surrounding me
Elusive shadows flowing through the air
I swallow all
As my lungs burn
Crawling, bleeding searching for a pulse
So far from the eyes of God
Mud stained martyred body
So far from careless happiness
Pulling out the tool
Of frantic devastation
In a ditch dying lonely like a whore
Lyrics submitted by unclip
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Most their songs I interpret quite literally so I thought I would give a crack at looking at this from a less literal point of view.
Let's assume that this song is actually about a "kingdom" (country). The band is Polish, and Poland has a quite recent history of fighting for their independence (from the Germans to the Russians trying to claim sovereignty over them). So could the song be about Poland?
The first verse could be describing the economic hardship that is hitting Poland (and a lot of Europe) recently. The EU has allowed for a lot of young Poles to leave for greener pastures in other EU nations (e.g. UK, Germany).
The second verse could be looking at the history of Poland, as both Germany and Russia (USSR) encircled the country and shared borders.
The third could be describing that no matter the hardship many Poles will continue to live and breath for their country .. they will give it a pulse again.
The last two seem to again deal with the hardship of life and that it has not crawled out of the ditch yet.
Whether this interpretation is true with the band is another matter, but either way this song takes a dark and bleak view at the subject matter (something that may make it hard for us to truly identify their meaning as our views may not be so pessimistic in the same situation).
nice