A lot of geographical hyper-spacing going on in Craig Finn's lyrics, as well as shifting between mythic & real geography...so trying to apply a literalist interpretation with LFTR PLLR folklore overall is a fruitless exercise...and probably missing the point of it all anyway.
Anyway, the references in Math Is Money seem to shift between Finn's twin hometowns of the Boston Metro area and Minneapolis...there's the Crabs (or Crab Dudes) with their booming narcotics enterprise on Jefferson Ave in NE MPLS (music1994's interpretation coincides best with what I know about the MPLS gangs situation)...
Shifting then to seeking amnesty in New Bedford, Mass and "...peter panned back into Springfield, Mass..." (there's actually a Peter Pan Bus Lines servicing most of northern New England, HQ'd in Springfield)
That's as literal as I'll get...Finn's facile wordplay (with nods to Springsteen & Dylan & Keroac) just hits me right between the eyes...vivid, pointed & brutally stark, leaves me seeing stars sometimes ...and he's still got it...eagerly awaiting the fifth Hold Steady record, which is in the recording process now.
A lot of geographical hyper-spacing going on in Craig Finn's lyrics, as well as shifting between mythic & real geography...so trying to apply a literalist interpretation with LFTR PLLR folklore overall is a fruitless exercise...and probably missing the point of it all anyway.
Anyway, the references in Math Is Money seem to shift between Finn's twin hometowns of the Boston Metro area and Minneapolis...there's the Crabs (or Crab Dudes) with their booming narcotics enterprise on Jefferson Ave in NE MPLS (music1994's interpretation coincides best with what I know about the MPLS gangs situation)...
Shifting then to seeking amnesty in New Bedford, Mass and "...peter panned back into Springfield, Mass..." (there's actually a Peter Pan Bus Lines servicing most of northern New England, HQ'd in Springfield)
That's as literal as I'll get...Finn's facile wordplay (with nods to Springsteen & Dylan & Keroac) just hits me right between the eyes...vivid, pointed & brutally stark, leaves me seeing stars sometimes ...and he's still got it...eagerly awaiting the fifth Hold Steady record, which is in the recording process now.