Decemberist Lyrics: Classic or High Fallutin' Nonsense?

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In spite of using impressive words like "cardamom" (we all have spice racks, Colin), I don't see that there's much meaning to these lyrics other than the fact that they all evoke ships and merchanting:

We set to sail on a packet full of spice, rum and tea-leaves.
We've emptied out all the bars and the bowery hotels.
Tell your daughters do not walk the streets alone tonight
Tell your daughters do not walk the streets alone tonight.

To tell the tale of the jewess and the mandarin chinese boy
He led her down from her gilded canopy of cloth.
And through her blindfold she could make out the figures there before her
And how the air was thick with incense, cardamom and myrrh.

So goodnight, boys, goodnight
Say goodnight, boys, goodnight

We set to sail on the clipper that's bound for South Australia
The weather's warm there, the natives are dark and nubile.
But if you listen, quiet, you can hear the footsteps on the cross-trees
The ghosts of sailors passed, their spectral bodies clinging to the shrouds.

So goodnight, boys, goodnight
Say goodnight, boys, goodnight

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 18 October 2004 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Not to mention clunkers like "gilded canopy of cloth" and "the natives are dark and nubile"

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 18 October 2004 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Nonsense with a fetish for three-syllable words: "Petticoat," "ballustrade" (used incorrectly!), "parapet," "catacombs", "pantaloons" - that's from just two songs. I despise them. Vocabulary =/= erudition, and this is not even an interesting vocabulary, just a musty one.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 18 October 2004 04:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Of course, Colin would scoff at you for misspelling "highfalutin."

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 18 October 2004 04:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the man does have an MFA.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 18 October 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

This topic has already been discussed.

― Santesh (scottkundla), Monday, 18 October 2004 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't mind these words.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 18 October 2004 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought they were supposed to be taken more lightly than that. Not really trying to be "Classic" or "deep," just fun/whimsical (if not hilariously silly). I mean come on, I counted at least three or four times on "Her Majesty..." where characters have ended up with their knickers/pantaloons/dungarees around their ankles for no apparent reason.

That being said, I always thought "Shanty" was a bit of a dreary opener.

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 18 October 2004 13:57 (twenty-one years ago)

i agree with victor. i thought i posted somethin to that effect, but it seems to have not worked.

i think also that colin does have a fetish for certain words or types of words, and that he knows it.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 18 October 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

that song about chimbley sweeps would be funny if it didn't suck. sure to be included on the soundtrack of the Marry Poppins remake.

― artdamages (artdamages), Monday, 18 October 2004 15:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I think on the songs you're talking about he uses words often because they're evocative of a certain time and place without knowing what they mean, and this is extremely annoying. The most infuriating song for this is that one about the soldier off the first album: not only is there no such thing as "ancient shiraz," but when the song takes place there was no such thing as shiraz. It was Syrah until it was developed in Australia. And you can't "pinch doses of laudaunum"-- it's a liquid.
But I like a lot of their other songs a lot.

― antexit (antexit), Monday, 18 October 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Antexit gets point for his own much more genuine erudition, and I agree with him.

I'm more annoyed that the song suggests some kind of narrative but doesn't actually have one.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 18 October 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that's quite an excellent opener on an excellent album.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 18 October 2004 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

that Red Right Ankle song is pretty touching.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 18 October 2004 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought they were supposed to be taken more lightly than that.

I agree; I'd go so far as to say their spirit of adventure and playfulness is practically unrivaled. The lyrics are sometimes nonsense, sure, but IMO music could use more of that. Besides, lyrical accuracy is not what I listen for.

― bill neil (inabillity), Monday, 18 October 2004 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

For comparison's sake, Joanna Newsom's "Bridges and Balloons," another semi-nonsensical song about ships, except here the song seems to earn the nonsense. It clues you in early that it's supposed to be whimsical and silly, and the second stanza makes it clear (the tone of the song and her voice also help, as opposed to Meloy's ominous whine). Maybe I'm just biased because I think her lyrics are much more like genuine poetry:

We sailed away on a winter's day
with fate as malleable as clay;
but ships are fallible, I say,
and the nautical, like all things, fades

And I can recall our caravel:
a little wicker beetle shell
with four fine maste and lateen sails,
its bearings on Cair Paravel

O my love,
O it was a funny little thing
to be the ones to've seen.

The sight of briges and balloons
makes calm canaries irritable;
they caw and claw all afternoon:
"Catenaries and dirigibles
brace and buoy the living-room --
a loom of metal, warp - woof - wimble."
And a thimblesworth of milky moon
can touch hearts larger than a thimble.

O my love,
O is was a funny little thing
to be the ones to've seen

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

those sounds are them banging on pots and pans. how serious could they be.

― AaronK (AaronK), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

that Red Right Ankle song is pretty touching.

OTM. Also, I agree with Victor that I don't think they're meant to be taken entirely seriously. They're much better than typical corny indie schlock lyrics about girls and whatnot, though some of Meloy's phrasing sure is awkward.

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 19 October 2004 03:01 (twenty-one years ago)

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