So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
All right
Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue green
I can't forsake a dixie dead shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim
Colonel Tom, what's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey, north, you're south, shut your big mouth
You gotta do what you feel is real"
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years
Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me
I had my hands in the river, my feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above and said "Hey, man, thanks"
"Sometimes I feel so good I got to scream"
She said "Gordie, baby, I know exactly what you mean"
She said, she said, I swear to god she said
Oh no
No, yeah
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim
Swim
Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue green
I can't forsake a dixie dead shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim
Colonel Tom, what's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey, north, you're south, shut your big mouth
You gotta do what you feel is real"
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years
Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me
I had my hands in the river, my feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above and said "Hey, man, thanks"
"Sometimes I feel so good I got to scream"
She said "Gordie, baby, I know exactly what you mean"
She said, she said, I swear to god she said
Oh no
No, yeah
My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim
Swim
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death, edited by hoodoovoodoo
New Orleans Is Sinking Lyrics as written by Gordon Sinclair Gordon Downie
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Don't take at face value the things Downie may have said while introducing a song. He is usually making a joke, sometimes an in-joke for his bandmates. Is there anything actually in the lyric that would make you think it's about a battleship, other than the fact that New Orleans is Sinking?
First off, there was no battleship New Orleans. There was a heavy cruiser New Orleans, which was built in 1931, but it never sank. It was scrapped in 1959. So ... do you think Gordie might have been poking fun at all the people who try to tie Nautical Disaster to a specific event?
This seems to be a song about New Orleans as party town, and the confusing state of mind in being there. New Orleans is, in fact, sinking very slowly, and Downie has spun this into lines that should make perfect sense to anyone who has ever been drunk, confused, and struck with the sense that things are going wrong: My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in? New Orleans is sinking man, and I don't wanna swim.
The first and third verses are pretty straightforward, but the second is odd. "Colonel Tom" in the second verse could be Colonel Tom Parker, who was Elvis Presley's manager. That puts a double entendre on "deal," which could refer to a hand of cards ("Hey north, you're south" suggests bridge or a similar game) or a contract.
"Hey north, you're south, shut your big mouth, etc." has Colonel Tom respond by telling us to shut up and play, and not only on the obvious level. Downie as a Canadian (north) is south in New O, so we may not be talking bridge; we may just be saying, stop asking questions and party. Colonel Tom himself was actually an illegal immigrant, which puts a different spin on his instruction to a fellow outsider to shut up and party, on the question that prompts it, and on the impending doom implied by "New Orleans is sinking."
"Party while you can," the song seems to say, but a sense of doom is as much a product of partying too hard as a reason to do it. So in the end it seems he does the sensible thing and clears out of New O, without bringing any souvenirs.
@wonderdog Colonel Tom could be a way to refer to any person who has influence to make a deal. You could humorously refer to any manager or booker as Colonel Tom. He can't commit or won't give them the time to negotiate a deal. "Hey North You're South" I take to mean "you're not from around here" or "you don't do things the way we do them" so just do your thing - but could be sincere advice "don't listen to everybody just do what you feel is real"