This is one of my favourites, if not my favourite, GA song. The above interpretations are all good but I thought I'd chuck my 2p in...
The title is obviously a nod to the famous novel but I don't think the song itself has anything to do with Dickens. It's just a title that has come into common usage and can be applied to a personal situation.
"Mary this station..." - There are many Marys in Springsteen's work. Could be Mary from O Mary Don't You Weep due to the Sad Songs being played...
"They burned up the diner..." - again, possibly a Springsteen reference. "The diner was shuttered and boarded" from Long Walk Home or more likely Girls In Their Summer Clothes which has lines "Tonight I'm gonna burn this town down... Frankie's Diner's old friend on the edge of town".
"Licking young boys' blood from her claws" - could reference a number of examples of evil characters in film, fiction and lore.
"Her hair was raven..." - women are often described as 'raven-haired' or 'a raven-haired beauty' in poetry and folk songs, this seems to tip its hat to that particularly Irish tradition.
"I saw tail lights last night" - I presume this is in a dream where his wife/someone else drives away from him, leaving him stood staring at tail lights in true cinematic tradition.
Estella Havisham is from Great Expectations the novel.
"Humming a song from 1962" - a reference to Bob Seger's "Night Moves," which has the line "Started humming a song from 1962." As mentioned above, the 1962 song Seger is referring to in "Night Moves" is "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.
"We were always waiting for something to happen" - I interpret this as how people can go their whole lives not really living, just passing the time, idling by from day to day, not taking any chances or doing anything fantastic, just waiting for the punch line, the chorus or main storyline to begin. This is sort of supported by the lines "I worried and stalled every night of my life, Better safe than making the party".
I suppose you could also interpret it as they were doomed in the relationship and just waiting for the inevitable event that would end it all, something will happen and that will be the end of it.
"they burned down the diner" is in reference to the Hackettstown Diner, which was burnt down in the late '90s by the owners in an insurance scam (as in, they thought they'd get insurance money when they burnt it down. I don't think they did). it was a few streets from the high school, so probably a hangout spot back then.
"they burned down the diner" is in reference to the Hackettstown Diner, which was burnt down in the late '90s by the owners in an insurance scam (as in, they thought they'd get insurance money when they burnt it down. I don't think they did). it was a few streets from the high school, so probably a hangout spot back then.
This is one of my favourites, if not my favourite, GA song. The above interpretations are all good but I thought I'd chuck my 2p in...
The title is obviously a nod to the famous novel but I don't think the song itself has anything to do with Dickens. It's just a title that has come into common usage and can be applied to a personal situation.
"Mary this station..." - There are many Marys in Springsteen's work. Could be Mary from O Mary Don't You Weep due to the Sad Songs being played... "They burned up the diner..." - again, possibly a Springsteen reference. "The diner was shuttered and boarded" from Long Walk Home or more likely Girls In Their Summer Clothes which has lines "Tonight I'm gonna burn this town down... Frankie's Diner's old friend on the edge of town".
"Licking young boys' blood from her claws" - could reference a number of examples of evil characters in film, fiction and lore.
"Her hair was raven..." - women are often described as 'raven-haired' or 'a raven-haired beauty' in poetry and folk songs, this seems to tip its hat to that particularly Irish tradition.
"I saw tail lights last night" - I presume this is in a dream where his wife/someone else drives away from him, leaving him stood staring at tail lights in true cinematic tradition.
Estella Havisham is from Great Expectations the novel.
"Humming a song from 1962" - a reference to Bob Seger's "Night Moves," which has the line "Started humming a song from 1962." As mentioned above, the 1962 song Seger is referring to in "Night Moves" is "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes.
"We were always waiting for something to happen" - I interpret this as how people can go their whole lives not really living, just passing the time, idling by from day to day, not taking any chances or doing anything fantastic, just waiting for the punch line, the chorus or main storyline to begin. This is sort of supported by the lines "I worried and stalled every night of my life, Better safe than making the party". I suppose you could also interpret it as they were doomed in the relationship and just waiting for the inevitable event that would end it all, something will happen and that will be the end of it.
"they burned down the diner" is in reference to the Hackettstown Diner, which was burnt down in the late '90s by the owners in an insurance scam (as in, they thought they'd get insurance money when they burnt it down. I don't think they did). it was a few streets from the high school, so probably a hangout spot back then.
"they burned down the diner" is in reference to the Hackettstown Diner, which was burnt down in the late '90s by the owners in an insurance scam (as in, they thought they'd get insurance money when they burnt it down. I don't think they did). it was a few streets from the high school, so probably a hangout spot back then.
@lrb85 It definitely has something to do with the novel, since Estella is one of the characters in it!
@lrb85 It definitely has something to do with the novel, since Estella is one of the characters in it!