If this sounds apocryphal...

[schmerica]

Don’t make me drive that truck, don’t make me feed that rottweiler
I’m clean out of luck, take me to the bedroom and tie my body down

...You guys, remind me not to listen to the LYRICS when I put on Paul Gross's songs, okay? OKAY.

(I stick with what I said the first time brooklinegirl showed me the Voodoo video: I actually do really like his voice. DON'T JUDGE ME.)

Now is the time of the day when I have to choose between continuing what I am doing -- that is, listening to PG and read all the archives at I Can Has Cheezburger? -- or watching the new Doctor Who episode I have downloaded. Decisions are hard!

Note that this is not a cue for fox1013 to comment to tell me that my lack of a clear decision means I should be writing her fic. That's not how it works!

Comments

[omphale]

Okay, you win *all* the cookies for agreeing with me about this.

See? We need careful exegesis of his lyrics. So that everyone understands why that song is actually kind of brilliant and certainly better than everyone assumes.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

We need careful exegesis of his lyrics.

I approve of this idea! I think you should have a whole project! The fandom can only benefit.

[omphale]

In that, should I have the project, it would never, ever get done? Yeah, probably. *g*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

This is my disappointed face.

[omphale]

Well, I would start it. But then I'd find something else to do, and people would be annoyed. But it would be an excellent group effort for the music comm.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

SISTER! *high-fives you*

We do. We really, really do.

[omphale]

I'd love to see someone try to deconstruct "Cherry Beach."

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

HEE! That one I will leave to someone else. *g*

BTW, you know that Paul wrote that, right? According to David Keeley, even though he sings it, "That one is all Paul's."

[omphale]

I didn't know, but I would have guessed that. Not just because some of the phrasing is similar to other songs that I assume he wrote, but because I honestly can't imagine David Keeley writing a song about homeless people and oppression and veterans.

Um. Okay, maybe I do have a theory about this one.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Ooh, coooooool! *happily awaits more* (You know. Some day. Whenever you get around to it. Not impatiently or anything. Really.)

[omphale]

Okay, you twisted my arm. Or something.

Short version: Cherry Beach is a park in Toronto, which most people know, but it also (in 2000? Maybe? Around then, at least) became fairly well known for being a place where the cops would take homeless people out and beat the shit out of them.

This wasn't one isolated incident--it was several, they had at least one death attributed to it, and there was a phrase that they used, although I can't remember what it was. Something to do with trains, maybe?

Anyway. The imagery is fairly blunt, once you know that bit. Work in the relatively high population of veterans in homeless populations, the way that they're often stigmatized (I tend to think that the "burning cross" references are parallels to KKK rallies and the Civil Rights movement), and the reliance on images of rain, cold, and hunger, and I suspect that the references to "you and me" have nothing to do with any sort of love song. They're more along the lines of humanizing a stigmatized group.

I could be wrong, but almost all of it makes sense through this lens.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

*googles*

"Cherry Beach Express"

Oh, wow. That's really chilling, and quite horrifying.

And yes, it does make sense of a lot of the lyrics, doesn't it? I'm still not sure about the "desire" bit... I'll have to listen to it a few more times and give it some more thought. (I think slowly about this sort of thing, as I have to crowbar my very literal brain into thinking about things in a different way.)

Thanks so much for writing this out. I hope you'll save this for a community post and discussion, when the time comes.

[omphale]

Yeah, I sort of handwaved the "desire" bits until I sit down and actually write it all out. I'm sure something will occur to me.

And yeah, I'll throw it out to the group once things are up and running. Because asking the fannish hivemind for help can only be a good thing.