Lyrics for Avon as interpreted by OwnPersonalDemon

Avon Lyrics
I see you go
Through a park in a haze
I don't listen
For traffic going the same way
A simple system
I string 'em up
I cut 'em down
Dare I say

A perfect vision
Some simple ways to let you know
Free range humans all cooped up
Naked clone is playing lame
I string 'em up
I cut 'em down
Dare I say

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Elin
04-28-2003

Rated 0 
I think the song is called Avon because the song sounds a lot like a song called Nova, made by the desert sessions. That's avoN backwards.

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uncletommy
04-30-2003

Rated 0 
yeah, both "avon" and "nova" are desert sessions songs

like monsters in the parasol, millionaire and hangin tree, avon was updated for qotsa

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VelvetEyes
10-13-2004

Rated 0 
I can't even begin to interpret the lyrics, but I liken the notion of going "through a park in a haze" to some drug-addled adventure. Long live QOTSA.

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lanahuugs
11-05-2004

Rated 0 
this song is about something dangerous: madness and how medicate yourself............

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ZeroGenerator
03-02-2005

Rated 0 
Josh Homme has a very similar mind to mine, he thinks in the way i think, this is reflected in the songs, they fit so very well with my current situation

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vaseline
03-30-2005

Rated +1 
Just heard what avon is... a fucking river in england, haha.

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best kurt ever
04-10-2005

Rated 0 
elin is nile backwards - did your parents name you after the river?

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messiah4theanimals
04-26-2005

Rated 0 
no idea what it means but love it all the same, especially how it starts.

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aisha_08
07-26-2006

Rated 0 
lol @ elin

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Qotsa-in-my-blood
07-30-2006

Rated 0 
Superb song!!!!!!!!!!!!!

About drugs and medication...the effects?
Whatever it is about...its just brilliant!!!
Brilliant rock song.

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champiodi
11-03-2006

Rated 0 
Homme is obsessed with the idea of man as game or more precisely, food.
He first visits the idea of Man as game in Avon when he mentions chasing someone, presumably into a park with ill intentions and even alludes to canibalism with the term "free-range humans", free range obviously a term applied to cattle or poultry, in the same line he mentions that although his prey is "free-range" it most certainly is trapped and is't aware of it which hints at Homme viewing the stalking as a sick game. This bares more than a glancing reseblence to Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw massacre, a theme which appears to be revisted in the Mosquito Song, particularly the them of humans being food and the references to hooks knives, cutting boards and cooking books.
I've not invested a great deal of time to this idea but there are several other references I can think of which show that Homme is preoccupied with this idea that Humans being game and or food, particularly the video for No-one Knows where a Buck kills all the members of QOTSA to make game trophies out of back home.
First it giveth also mentions hooks, but I do feel that applying that reference of hooks etc. to the concept of cannibalism or human victimisation or humans as food is pushing it slightly.

Please feel free to contribute.

PS: Avon means river. It comes from the Welsh, afon. QUOTSA's use of it is simply Nova reversed though.

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bignickonthedrum
02-06-2007

Rated 0 
wow, Cahmpiodi, that's incredibly insightful. I'd never noticed it before, but Homme's lyrics DO have that preoccupation. Another obvious preoccupation in QOTSA songs is drug use, maybe one of Homme's ideas is consume and be consumed?

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champiodi
04-20-2007

Rated 0 
I agree. Perhaps he's alluding to the fact that humans are for all their intricacies are just animals. Consumers and the consumed and somewhere along the way have forgotten this so he sees humour in the fact that we're mortal, that we're animals and that somehow we think we're better than other animals and feels we can escape our fate, which is to provide food for other things. At the end of the day, only cremation stops us feeding the worms. Just like Romero did with Dawn Of The Dead and belittled man through his consumerism allegory, I feel Homme does this too. I feel he mocks man for his attempts to separate himself from nature only to be seduced into other forms of consumerism, be it drug use or materialism...perhaps that is why he covered Never Say Never.

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babyduck
05-01-2007

Rated 0 
champiodi, i tend to agree. i defineately see links across certain songs. my theories on avon are slightly different though. i believe avon to be about a butcher, or a worker in an abbatoir. he strings them up and cuts them down. the naked clone is just another carcass hanging next to the other. its very monotonous, and robot like, just like working at the abbatoir would be, its very subtle, but there is also a giveaway in the first verse.. i dont listen for traffic going the same way.. he is just a robot. so the consumerism theme comes into play here. good song too.

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champiodi
05-09-2007

Rated 0 
The opening to Avon suggests he is stalking someone from across the street, crosses the road with only the prey in mind.

"I see you go through a park, in a haze and I don't listen to traffic going the same way - a simple system, I string em up, I cut em down." - That doesn't sound like someone who is a professional butcher, but someone who kills people like a butcher - again alluding to humans as prey. I mean you wouldn't stalk an animal if you were a butcher or an abattoir worker. I agree that this individual is cold and efficient like a robot, but he appears to take pride in what he does "I string em up, I cut em down" - an emphasis on the 'I' - almost nodding to the famous line "God giveth life, god taketh away, not you"...proving THEM all wrong. Again serial killers usually are lone figures with points to prove against a society that has apparently aggrieved him in some way...

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Carlstroem
07-28-2007

Rated 0 
FYI, Nova and Avon is basically the same song. They did it as some kind of test, to show how you can change the how feel of a song just by changing the vocals. So Josh sang Avon and Pete Stahl sang Nova.

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dkfansown
09-09-2007

Rated 0 
i myself take this song as a love song. but then again i am kinda sorta falling for this chick i just started talking to. but the first lyrics i think are about how the person sees only the one they like, not caring about others. and the whole string them up, cut them down bit may be how that individual deals with relationships. the second part might be about shut ins or people who don't meet others and them playing with themselves. but that is just my interpretation.

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JAKEZEIGLER
12-14-2007

Rated 0 
there's a fine line between sex and violence. everyone here is onto something. it is all about the hunt. stalking. i always talk about chasing girls in terms of a hunt. "i went in for the kill" the need to feed, fight, and fuck are all closely related instincts and i think homme shows this realization. "i strin em i cut em down..." abotu the actual deed. the other parts of the song are about the chase. "naked clone playing lame" means they're all the same and not being very good in the act or his disassociative feeling while doing so.

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its_a_mad_world
12-22-2007

Rated +1 
queens of the stone age songs with references to canablism or people being eaten-
avon
leg of lamb
sick sick sick(in the music video the band gets eaten)
mosquito song
some ones in the wolf
i never came
and
debatable tension head
if anyone can think of any others feal free to add

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champiodi
08-30-2008

Rated 0 
I feel vindicated. Thanks Mad_World.

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dangilman
04-20-2009

Rated 0 
The way I see it is that Homme is focusing on human nature and how people act like casual machines.

"I see you go through a park in a haze. I don't listen for traffic going the same way" I imagine driving or walking down a crowded street, or anytime when you're not particularly detail oriented, but instead you just ebb into the monotonous flow of traffic. Like when you drive somewhere and you don't remember the drive. You're not particularly aware of much besides your destination, even though there is a lot actually going on.

THE MOST INDICATIVE PART: "I string em up, I cut em down. Dare I say? Doo doot doot doot doo...."
Obviously a suggestion of disconnected, repetitive work (string em up cut em down..) but, then he basically suggests, "Dare I whistle while I do it?" He's suggesting that he understands how he is submitting into the system or instinct (or whatever this song is about) and accepting it. "Whistle while you work," kinda thing.

The "Free range human, all cooped up" falls right in line. We are all free range individuals, but we do the same thing day in and day out. We herd around and fall in line with society and norms. And our free, spirited side is playing lame when we do things like drive to work on the highway or make copies all day at work!

I don't REALLY know the meaning of this song, but it is GREAT to hear all these ideas! I listened to this song for YEARS before I put anything logical to it. I remember thinking, "Why does JHomme sing the 'doo doot doot doot doo' part? Just cuz it sounds good? And why, "dare I say?" Then one day this just snapped in my head and that's how i've interpreted it ever since. It's my, "WAKE UP AND STOP BEING A ROBOT" song. but it's also my "Hey man, i'm kind of a robot, but whatever, so are you" song.

Whatever Homme's specific intent actually was, this song's meaning has strong roots in human behavior and awareness. Besides, anytime an artist injects art into the world, it is completely up for interpretation based on it's day to day impact with different individuals :)

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lovemusak
04-28-2009

Rated 0 
Note to all psychos interpreting this song - don't take everything so literally. Just cos he says "I string em up/cut em down", it doesn't automatically mean he is stringing a human being up against a wall or something and then cutting him back down. I mean, come on, seriously. If that is your reading of these lyrics then you are basically saying Josh Homme is a scatterbrained song writer. Why would he go from just watching someone, albeit quite intensely, to stringing someone up on a rope or whatever, please give him more credit than that, he is after all a modern day genius.

I think this song is about what a lot of other QOTSA songs are about - LOVE. Perhaps unrequited love in some cases. For example the first few lines seem to just suggest watching someone walk away and seeing or hearing nothing but that person. Secondly the "string em up/cut em down" reference, I think is more to do with leading someone on emotionally and then breaking them down by hurting them, either without thinking, or on purpose.

I think the second verse is about angst in that you think you are free but most of the time you are cooped up with certain chores that you have to do like your job etc. Naked Clone, I dunno, perhaps some sort of an alter ego type scenario is going on.

Hey, it's just a theory. One that doesn't involve the usual death laden rhetoric. Later.


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