I just learned how to play this on guitar, but I'm still working on memorizing all the lyrics. To help me remember them and to attempt to understand what the song's all about, I'm going to break the lyrics down into sections and interpret what I think Conor Oberst means to say, working section by section.
Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe
There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
(I think these two lines are an overall criticism of the human need for identity and the violence caused by the need to preserve these identities.)
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight
In an abandoned building where
A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl
With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl
She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world
Four winds blowing through her hair
(This seems to be about a personal experience the Conor Oberst had, or perhaps it's a fiction he came up with. Either way it sets the Apocalyptic feel for the rest of the song.)
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon
She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed
She caves
(This is section is a reference to Revelations, the last book in the Bible. In Revelations, there's a series of events that occur in hyper-metaphorical language and one of them is the downfall of the Whore of Babylon. What the Whore of Babylon is, is really up to you.)
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an is mute
If you burned them all together you'd be close to the truth ===>
(This is Conor Oberst speaking directly to the listener. Basically, that these religious texts have no value when it comes to seeking truth.)
==> still
They're poring over Sanskrit under Ivy League moons
While shadows lengthen in the sun
(Conor comments that although these religious books have no value as truth, people are still studying them in their original languages (ie. Sanskrit) at Ivy Leagues Universities, while the onset of a metaphorical night is upon them.)
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
(I'm not entirely sure what the "school of meditation" is, but I would guess it is referring to those who are studying the "Sanskrit" at the "Ivy League moons". In my opinion, the line that the "school of meditation" is "built to soften the times" do so by keeping the ideologies of these religions out of conflict with one another.)
I just learned how to play this on guitar, but I'm still working on memorizing all the lyrics. To help me remember them and to attempt to understand what the song's all about, I'm going to break the lyrics down into sections and interpret what I think Conor Oberst means to say, working section by section.
Your class, your caste, your country, sect, your name or your tribe There's people always dying trying to keep them alive
(I think these two lines are an overall criticism of the human need for identity and the violence caused by the need to preserve these identities.)
There are bodies decomposing in containers tonight In an abandoned building where A squatter's made a mural of a Mexican girl With fifteen cans of spray paint in a chemical swirl She's standing in the ashes at the end of the world Four winds blowing through her hair
(This seems to be about a personal experience the Conor Oberst had, or perhaps it's a fiction he came up with. Either way it sets the Apocalyptic feel for the rest of the song.)
But when great Satan's gone, the whore of Babylon She just can't sustain the pressure where it's placed She caves
(This is section is a reference to Revelations, the last book in the Bible. In Revelations, there's a series of events that occur in hyper-metaphorical language and one of them is the downfall of the Whore of Babylon. What the Whore of Babylon is, is really up to you.)
The Bible's blind, the Torah's deaf, the Qur'an is mute If you burned them all together you'd be close to the truth ===>
(This is Conor Oberst speaking directly to the listener. Basically, that these religious texts have no value when it comes to seeking truth.)
==> still They're poring over Sanskrit under Ivy League moons While shadows lengthen in the sun
(Conor comments that although these religious books have no value as truth, people are still studying them in their original languages (ie. Sanskrit) at Ivy Leagues Universities, while the onset of a metaphorical night is upon them.)
Cast on a school of meditation built to soften the times
(I'm not entirely sure what the "school of meditation" is, but I would guess it is referring to those who are studying the "Sanskrit" at the "Ivy League moons". In my opinion, the line that the "school of meditation" is "built to soften the times" do so by keeping the ideologies of these religions out of conflict with one another.)