dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

I don't understand the twist this thread has taken. As i read thru the thread, the rankings make the album sound less interesting by the post. I would have thought that any thread about ranking anything related to music would hold my interest and and incite my enthusiastic participation, but it turns out i was wrong, lol. Surprised myself for sure.

I don't know if "Marry Me" is the best, 10th best or worst song on the album, but any song that includes "rock and roll means well but it can't help telling young boys lies" AND "just because I don't run my mouth don't mean I got nothing to say" in it just can't be anything less than great. How great, on an album that is distinguished in part by the sheer number of great songs on it? I dunno, and surprisingly enough, I don't care.

It's too bad because i thought the discussion about "Decoration Day" was very interesting and touching on some neat topics one doesn't often find in rock songs (or the websites devoted to the musicians that write and play them).
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

The album has great songs by three great songwriters. There isn't a track on it I don't like and if it wasn't for Marry Me I may never have gotten into the band in the first place. Ranking it is a futile and pointless exercise (not that I don't partake in those from time to time). As far as DD the song, that one just cuts to the core and rocks like a motherfucker (especially with the fake ending and subsequent rock & roll awesomeness). That is all.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Slipkid42 »

This may damage my street cred even further, but Your Daddy Hates Me is not in my bottom 1/2.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Zip City »

Slipkid42 wrote:This may damage my street cred even further, but Your Daddy Hates Me is not in my bottom 1/2.


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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by cortez the killer »

beantownbubba wrote:I don't understand the twist this thread has taken. As i read thru the thread, the rankings make the album sound less interesting by the post. I would have thought that any thread about ranking anything related to music would hold my interest and and incite my enthusiastic participation, but it turns out i was wrong, lol. Surprised myself for sure.

I don't know if "Marry Me" is the best, 10th best or worst song on the album, but any song that includes "rock and roll means well but it can't help telling young boys lies" AND "just because I don't run my mouth don't mean I got nothing to say" in it just can't be anything less than great. How great, on an album that is distinguished in part by the sheer number of great songs on it? I dunno, and surprisingly enough, I don't care.

It's too bad because i thought the discussion about "Decoration Day" was very interesting and touching on some neat topics one doesn't often find in rock songs (or the websites devoted to the musicians that write and play them).

I think "Marry Me" is a very good song, but I have a difficult time granting "great" status to a song strictly on the merits of two lines. I don't have any problem with the "twist the tread has taken" and I think it is all healthy, fair debate. You may not understand why folks may want to get into ranking things, but that doesn't make it wrong. It simply means you don't understand it. I'm sure there are plenty of other things that you don't understand. No need to try and curb the debate or chime in that the discussion is no longer interesting or valid. If you have lost interest in the discussion/debate, I would think the proper and respectful thing to do would be to no longer chime in.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Iowan »

cortez the killer wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:I don't understand the twist this thread has taken. As i read thru the thread, the rankings make the album sound less interesting by the post. I would have thought that any thread about ranking anything related to music would hold my interest and and incite my enthusiastic participation, but it turns out i was wrong, lol. Surprised myself for sure.

I don't know if "Marry Me" is the best, 10th best or worst song on the album, but any song that includes "rock and roll means well but it can't help telling young boys lies" AND "just because I don't run my mouth don't mean I got nothing to say" in it just can't be anything less than great. How great, on an album that is distinguished in part by the sheer number of great songs on it? I dunno, and surprisingly enough, I don't care.

It's too bad because i thought the discussion about "Decoration Day" was very interesting and touching on some neat topics one doesn't often find in rock songs (or the websites devoted to the musicians that write and play them).

I think "Marry Me" is a very good song, but I have a difficult time granting "great" status to a song strictly on the merits of two lines. I don't have any problem with the "twist the tread has taken" and I think it is all healthy, fair debate. You may not understand why folks may want to get into ranking things, but that doesn't make it wrong. It simply means you don't understand it. I'm sure there are plenty of other things that you don't understand. No need to try and curb the debate or chime in that the discussion is no longer interesting or valid. If you have lost interest in the discussion/debate, I would think the proper and respectful thing to do would be to no longer chime in.


Word. Debate is entertaining as hell, IMHO. Some folks are definitely not comfortable with comparing the works of the DBT to each other, or the idea that the band has put out varying quality levels of music, and that's fine. If a discussion makes you uncomfortable, avoid it.

I for one think its pretty cool that a Track of the Week has generated 3 pages of discussion all spurred from one song. Yeah, the conversation has been derailed, but so what? This is supposed to be fun.

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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

There are indeed many, many things i don't understand. I don't see what the problem is in saying so.

I wasn't complaining about the derailment, in fact i wasn't complaining at all. I consider myself to be a master of thread derailment ;) so I think i'd be the last person to complain about a derailment or tangent. What I thought i was doing was approaching the ranking discussion from another angle. I deleted a sentence or 2 along the way that, in retrospect, might have made that more clear. Oh well my bad, but still, i don't really get how what i said in the first 2 paragraphs can be taken as a statement that the convo is something other than "fair, healthy debate" or that it's "wrong," much less as an attempt to curb the discussion.

I suppose if one tried hard enough, one could read my last sentence as an attempt to police the thread but I didn't mean it that way and it seems to me that it's a stretch to read it that way.

Having said (or tried to say) what i had to say on the subject, I won't participate in the ranking part of the discussion because i agree that is the way to handle it.

I do find it pretty ironic to be accused of trying to stifle debate or trying to prevent derailments or thinking that debate is inappropriate or not fun. It runs pretty directly counter to the entirety of my involvement on this board so it feels like i've entered some kind of alternative universe, lol. In any event, my apologies if i ruined anybody's buzz.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

There are indeed many, many things i don't understand. I don't see what the problem is in saying so.

I wasn't complaining about the derailment, in fact i wasn't complaining at all. I consider myself to be a master of thread derailment ;) so I think i'd be the last person to complain about a derailment or tangent. What I thought i was doing was approaching the ranking discussion from another angle. I deleted a sentence or 2 along the way that, in retrospect, might have made that more clear. Oh well my bad, but still, i don't really get how what i said in the first 2 paragraphs can be taken as a statement that the convo is something other than "fair, healthy debate" or that it's "wrong," much less as an attempt to curb the discussion.

I suppose if one tried hard enough, one could read my last sentence as an attempt to police the thread but I didn't mean it that way and it seems to me that it's a stretch to read it that way.

Having said (or tried to say) what i had to say on the subject, I won't participate in the ranking part of the discussion because i agree that is the way to handle it.

I do find it pretty ironic to be accused of trying to stifle debate or trying to prevent derailments or thinking that debate is inappropriate or not fun. It runs pretty directly counter to the entirety of my involvement on this board so it feels like i've entered some kind of alternative universe, lol. In any event, my apologies if i ruined anybody's buzz.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Smitty »

beantownbubba wrote:There are indeed many, many things i don't understand. I don't see what the problem is in saying so.

I wasn't complaining about the derailment, in fact i wasn't complaining at all. I consider myself to be a master of thread derailment ;) so I think i'd be the last person to complain about a derailment or tangent. What I thought i was doing was approaching the ranking discussion from another angle. I deleted a sentence or 2 along the way that, in retrospect, might have made that more clear. Oh well my bad, but still, i don't really get how what i said in the first 2 paragraphs can be taken as a statement that the convo is something other than "fair, healthy debate" or that it's "wrong," much less as an attempt to curb the discussion.

I suppose if one tried hard enough, one could read my last sentence as an attempt to police the thread but I didn't mean it that way and it seems to me that it's a stretch to read it that way.

Having said (or tried to say) what i had to say on the subject, I won't participate in the ranking part of the discussion because i agree that is the way to handle it.

I do find it pretty ironic to be accused of trying to stifle debate or trying to prevent derailments or thinking that debate is inappropriate or not fun. It runs pretty directly counter to the entirety of my involvement on this board so it feels like i've entered some kind of alternative universe, lol. In any event, my apologies if i ruined anybody's buzz.


Killed my buzz, Bubba. Killed it dead.

here's my ranking, personal preference, love every single one of these:

1. Heathens
2. Sounds Better in a Song
3. Loaded Gun
4. Hell No I Ain't Happy
5. Outfit
6. Pin Hits...
7. Somethings Gotta Give
8. Do It Yourself
9. DD
10. Sinkhole
11. Marry Me
12. Deeper In
13. Your Daddy
14. My Sweet Annette
15. Careless
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

I meant that i apologize to everybody but you, Smitty.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Iowan »

beantownbubba wrote:There are indeed many, many things i don't understand. I don't see what the problem is in saying so.

I wasn't complaining about the derailment, in fact i wasn't complaining at all. I consider myself to be a master of thread derailment ;) so I think i'd be the last person to complain about a derailment or tangent. What I thought i was doing was approaching the ranking discussion from another angle. I deleted a sentence or 2 along the way that, in retrospect, might have made that more clear. Oh well my bad, but still, i don't really get how what i said in the first 2 paragraphs can be taken as a statement that the convo is something other than "fair, healthy debate" or that it's "wrong," much less as an attempt to curb the discussion.

I suppose if one tried hard enough, one could read my last sentence as an attempt to police the thread but I didn't mean it that way and it seems to me that it's a stretch to read it that way.

Having said (or tried to say) what i had to say on the subject, I won't participate in the ranking part of the discussion because i agree that is the way to handle it.

I do find it pretty ironic to be accused of trying to stifle debate or trying to prevent derailments or thinking that debate is inappropriate or not fun. It runs pretty directly counter to the entirety of my involvement on this board so it feels like i've entered some kind of alternative universe, lol. In any event, my apologies if i ruined anybody's buzz.


No worries.

love every single one of these:


Same here. It's just like DBT albums. I like all of it, but I like some more than others.

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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by cortez the killer »

You weren't complaining? When you use language like you "twist the thread has taken" and punctuate your post with: "It's too bad because i thought the discussion about "Decoration Day" was very interesting and touching on some neat topics one doesn't often find in rock songs (or the websites devoted to the musicians that write and play them)." I'd say that constitutes complaining. Of course some critical deconstruction of an album on an internet message board will make an album seem less interesting. Perhaps pulling out the vinyl, CD, cassette, or 8-track and putting it into your favorite sound system will respark your interest in Decoration Day bubba and erase all the horrible things that were said about that album in this thread. And I also do not see how this thread "derailed." While it may not have been the direction anyone could have predicted, the discussion took a seemingly natural turn to where it has ended up. We're still talking Truckers and, unlike Robert Christgau, we have placed "Marry Me" on the correct album.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Clams »

Any thread that's focused on actual DBT music is okay with me. That's really why I started the whole track of the week thing last year. There's always so much other stuff going on around here that I think sometimes we forget what brought us all here in the first place. Breaking down lyrics, ranking songs or records, reviewing setlists, going to rock shows... to me it's all good.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Duke Silver »

The ranking thing started as a way to test out cortez's seemingly crazypants assertion that Marry Me wasn't even in the top half of songs on DD. I thought it was a natural progression of the thread, with a little more substance behind it than the usual listmaking.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

If you're leaving the rock show and you say "i really wish they had played Marry Me" is that a complaint, or stating a wish or desire? I thought my comments were in the latter category, but it's the internet, take 'em any way you want.

I didn't say the thread had derailed, I said it had "twisted" which seems pretty accurate. Maybe "turned" would be even more precise. I picked up on "derailed" because Iowan used the term, it's convenient and because he (I assume) and I were not trying to be quite that precise in describing a segue or natural progression (thanks, duke) in the conversation.

Frankly, Cortez, you missed the real problem with my post, which is that it was totally inner directed (read "self absorbed"): I was focused on why I, normally an enthusiastic participant in ranking type discussions was "surprisingly" finding that this particular one wasn't working for me. I thought there was a broader point there about the limitations of ranking slight degrees of quality and of taking individual components "out of context" (a slight exaggeration but meaning the work is an album, ranking the parts arguably takes away from the whole). I didn't make the point well, and more important, why should anyone else care about my reaction? Lesson learned.

FWIW, i do not think there's anything wrong w/ the way the thread is gone; it's not a violation or a breach of anything and it's not even unusual. I do regret that we're not still talking about the issues of loyalty, etc that we were earlier because i personally was enjoying that more, but as has been so eloquently pointed out, so what?
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Smarty Jones »

beantownbubba wrote:FWIW, i do not think there's anything wrong w/ the way the thread is gone; it's not a violation or a breach of anything and it's not even unusual. I do regret that we're not still talking about the issues of loyalty, etc that we were earlier because i personally was enjoying that more, but as has been so eloquently pointed out, so what?


FWIW, I'd like to throw my late 2 cents on the pile about DD and family loyalty.

I find it nice and ironic that DD is the song of the week for Decoration Day Weekend. Getting a chance not only to reflect on the song itself, but the holiday as a whole, helped straighten my thoughts coherently enough to share them. I think the son's loyalty to his father in DD is a pecking order sort of loyalty, where the son must show deference to his father and his wishes or else get beaten if he speaks out of line. But Decoration Day itself is a holiday to remember one's dead and where one came from. It's a time when one makes rounds to family stones in country cemeteries and pay their respects...out of what? Family loyalty. The son in the song is obviously reflecting on the dead that had the most impact in shaping his life, his father. But he is not remembering his father in a reverent way. He's looking back on his upbringing with a lot of bitterness and even hatred for his father. But he followed his father into the feud, because of that grudging father-son tie that commands loyalty. For Jason to twist the two together, a loyalty born of blood with a loyalty born of respect (the holiday, Decoration Day itself), was absolutely brilliant. He uses the story to draw a line in the sand as to when family loyalty goes too far. And he picked the perfect holiday to demonstrate his point.

I just got back from making the rounds on my own ancestors' graves. My grandma and my daddy have been taking me out on Decoration Day weekend with them since I was a very little girl. They've grilled into me the importance of taking the time to visit and remember one's dead. I stuck plastic flowers down in the mud so they won't blow away in all this tornado-force wind, and paid my respects to those as far back in my tree as my great-great-great grandparents. I listened to DD (the album) in the car as I drove from one cemetery to another. It gave me time to reflect on the whole family loyalty thing. My deference wasn't instilled in me by force like the son in DD, but it's still strong enough in me to force me to go out in storming, raining weather to do right by my folks.

Sorry to divert y'all. Smarty's done now. Please go on back to ranking...
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Smarty Jones »

Fuck sorry to double post y'all, the weather's doing funny shit to my internet connection.
Last edited by Smarty Jones on Thu May 26, 2011 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

I bow, no, I prostrate myself, in your direction, Smarty.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by gerg »

I'm not sure where the implication is that he was beaten by his father and thus was loyal out of fear. That would change the whole narrative quite a bit. It's pretty significant to the tone that he is there by his own volition, not there as an abuse victim who can't get out. The chain on my back and ear to the floor line is pretty clearly referring to him having a chain at the ready and his ear to the floor, which is a common idiom, meaning he's on the lookout. You have to step out of the context of the prior and subsequent lines to reach that conclusion. He's loyal because that's just the way it is in these family feuds, not that I have any experience. That's the whole point of the song. I think the character is too smart to have stuck around if he had been beaten to the point of living in fear of his father. But that's a bit over-analyzing and is probably something that has never even crossed Jason's mind.

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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by cortez the killer »

beantownbubba wrote:Frankly, Cortez, you missed the real problem with my post, which is that it was totally inner directed (read "self absorbed"): I was focused on why I, normally an enthusiastic participant in ranking type discussions was "surprisingly" finding that this particular one wasn't working for me.

You, self absorbed? Say it isn't so.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Smitty »

Smarty Jones wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:FWIW, i do not think there's anything wrong w/ the way the thread is gone; it's not a violation or a breach of anything and it's not even unusual. I do regret that we're not still talking about the issues of loyalty, etc that we were earlier because i personally was enjoying that more, but as has been so eloquently pointed out, so what?


FWIW, I'd like to throw my late 2 cents on the pile about DD and family loyalty.

I find it nice and ironic that DD is the song of the week for Decoration Day Weekend. Getting a chance not only to reflect on the song itself, but the holiday as a whole, helped straighten my thoughts coherently enough to share them. I think the son's loyalty to his father in DD is a pecking order sort of loyalty, where the son must show deference to his father and his wishes or else get beaten if he speaks out of line. But Decoration Day itself is a holiday to remember one's dead and where one came from. It's a time when one makes rounds to family stones in country cemeteries and pay their respects...out of what? Family loyalty. The son in the song is obviously reflecting on the dead that had the most impact in shaping his life, his father. But he is not remembering his father in a reverent way. He's looking back on his upbringing with a lot of bitterness and even hatred for his father. But he followed his father into the feud, because of that grudging father-son tie that commands loyalty. For Jason to twist the two together, a loyalty born of blood with a loyalty born of respect (the holiday, Decoration Day itself), was absolutely brilliant. He uses the story to draw a line in the sand as to when family loyalty goes too far. And he picked the perfect holiday to demonstrate his point.

I just got back from making the rounds on my own ancestors' graves. My grandma and my daddy have been taking me out on Decoration Day weekend with them since I was a very little girl. They've grilled into me the importance of taking the time to visit and remember one's dead. I stuck plastic flowers down in the mud so they won't blow away in all this tornado-force wind, and paid my respects to those as far back in my tree as my great-great-great grandparents. I listened to DD (the album) in the car as I drove from one cemetery to another. It gave me time to reflect on the whole family loyalty thing. My deference wasn't instilled in me by force like the son in DD, but it's still strong enough in me to force me to go out in storming, raining weather to do right by my folks.

Sorry to divert y'all. Smarty's done now. Please go on back to ranking...


Our Decoration Day was the Sunday after Easter.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Zip City »

gerg wrote:I'm not sure where the implication is that he was beaten by his father and thus was loyal out of fear. That would change the whole narrative quite a bit. It's pretty significant to the tone that he is there by his own volition, not there as an abuse victim who can't get out. The chain on my back and ear to the floor line is pretty clearly referring to him having a chain at the ready and his ear to the floor, which is a common idiom, meaning he's on the lookout. You have to step out of the context of the prior and subsequent lines to reach that conclusion. He's loyal because that's just the way it is in these family feuds, not that I have any experience. That's the whole point of the song. I think the character is too smart to have stuck around if he had been beaten to the point of living in fear of his father. But that's a bit over-analyzing and is probably something that has never even crossed Jason's mind.


Sorry, i think you're wrong. The verse starts with him arguing with his father, saying "look, the Hill family isn't any worse than us. Why were we fighting them? They're only causing trouble because we started it." But after his dad beats the shit out of him, he quickly changes his tune and is willing to "send all the Hill boys to hell."

Why, in your interpretation, would he go from "let's not fight" to "let's kill them all" in the course of one verse?
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Smitty »

Zip City wrote:
gerg wrote:I'm not sure where the implication is that he was beaten by his father and thus was loyal out of fear. That would change the whole narrative quite a bit. It's pretty significant to the tone that he is there by his own volition, not there as an abuse victim who can't get out. The chain on my back and ear to the floor line is pretty clearly referring to him having a chain at the ready and his ear to the floor, which is a common idiom, meaning he's on the lookout. You have to step out of the context of the prior and subsequent lines to reach that conclusion. He's loyal because that's just the way it is in these family feuds, not that I have any experience. That's the whole point of the song. I think the character is too smart to have stuck around if he had been beaten to the point of living in fear of his father. But that's a bit over-analyzing and is probably something that has never even crossed Jason's mind.


Sorry, i think you're wrong. The verse starts with him arguing with his father, saying "look, the Hill family isn't any worse than us. Why were we fighting them? They're only causing trouble because we started it." But after his dad beats the shit out of him, he quickly changes his tune and is willing to "send all the Hill boys to hell."

Why, in your interpretation, would he go from "let's not fight" to "let's kill them all" in the course of one verse?


Exactly - I don't see any other way to take it.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

Smitty wrote:[
Our Decoration Day was the Sunday after Easter.



Who's "our," Smitty? You mean your family? Or is it your town or some other "group"? I assume you mean it was "cemetery visiting day," not literally an alternative Memorial Day celebration, yes?

I think gerg's view of the "chain on my back" phrase holds up at least as well as the "beating" interpretation. He may think the feud's silly and he's tried to convince his father to end it, but at the end of the day, he still straps on his gear and goes hunting for Hills [ear to the ground] 'cause that's just what he and his family do.

At the risk of muddying the waters further, you can consider this in light of the last verse, where he's saying he understands why the Hills would shoot his father and if he were a Hill he, too, would fight the Lawsons 'til they were all gone. IOW, the other side's in it til the end also, so he's got no choice (especially being the last Lawson living). It's just the way it is no matter what a "rational" person might do. I think the repetition of the last line is an ominous statement that the thing just won't end no matter what and the Hills will be coming after him. If he understands that, he doesn't need to be beaten to toe the family line: It's inevitable and it's also self-preservation.
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by Smitty »

beantownbubba wrote:
Smitty wrote:[
Our Decoration Day was the Sunday after Easter.



Who's "our," Smitty? You mean your family? Or is it your town or some other "group"? I assume you mean it was "cemetery visiting day," not literally an alternative Memorial Day celebration, yes?



Most of the churches in my county all have their DD the weekend after Easter - you decorate the graves the week before, and that Sunday at each cemetary they have a service where they do a roll call of all the last year's dead, and give a rose to each family of the deceased that attends.
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

gerg
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by gerg »

Zip City wrote:
gerg wrote:I'm not sure where the implication is that he was beaten by his father and thus was loyal out of fear. That would change the whole narrative quite a bit. It's pretty significant to the tone that he is there by his own volition, not there as an abuse victim who can't get out. The chain on my back and ear to the floor line is pretty clearly referring to him having a chain at the ready and his ear to the floor, which is a common idiom, meaning he's on the lookout. You have to step out of the context of the prior and subsequent lines to reach that conclusion. He's loyal because that's just the way it is in these family feuds, not that I have any experience. That's the whole point of the song. I think the character is too smart to have stuck around if he had been beaten to the point of living in fear of his father. But that's a bit over-analyzing and is probably something that has never even crossed Jason's mind.


Sorry, i think you're wrong. The verse starts with him arguing with his father, saying "look, the Hill family isn't any worse than us. Why were we fighting them? They're only causing trouble because we started it." But after his dad beats the shit out of him, he quickly changes his tune and is willing to "send all the Hill boys to hell."

Why, in your interpretation, would he go from "let's not fight" to "let's kill them all" in the course of one verse?


Because that's the whole point of the song, summed up in one verse. And your way reads as clumsy writing, imo, something Jason doesn't really do in the songs I'm familiar with. But my ass kicked and I'll send all the Hill Boys to hell? Makes much more sense as but I'm armed and looking out and I'll send all the Hill boys to hell. It also seems to me that if that was the case that it'd be made much more clear than to have to read between the lines to see it. That would be a significant factor. At face value, literally, he's got a chain on his back, not he's being hit with a chain. And again, an ear to the floor, that's a variation of an ages old idiom for looking out. "You know where I can score some weed?" "No, but I'll keep my ear to the floor/ground." http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/kee ... the+ground

Not to mention, as the only living son of his father's it seems a bit far-fetched that he's beating his son to get him to fight a family feud that he seemingly would want nothing to do with. The beating angle takes a good bit of the complexity out of the song, and makes the protagonist a victim rather than a morally conflicted man. Like I said, the character is too articulate, perceptive and smart to stick around as an adult if it's THAT abusive of a relationship. I see it as he thinks his father's a shithead whose actions have caused a lot of collateral damage, but that he still feels reluctantly obligated to help out.

Now I said, “they ain’t give us trouble no more
that we ain’t brought down on ourselves”
But a chain on my back and my ear to the floor
and I’ll send all the Hill Boys to hell.
Last edited by gerg on Thu May 26, 2011 2:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

beantownbubba
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by beantownbubba »

Smitty wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:
Smitty wrote:[
Our Decoration Day was the Sunday after Easter.



Who's "our," Smitty? You mean your family? Or is it your town or some other "group"? I assume you mean it was "cemetery visiting day," not literally an alternative Memorial Day celebration, yes?



Most of the churches in my county all have their DD the weekend after Easter - you decorate the graves the week before, and that Sunday at each cemetary they have a service where they do a roll call of all the last year's dead, and give a rose to each family of the deceased that attends.


Sorry I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but I always find local customs and traditions interesting. So, it's quite literally Decoration Day, in terms of fixing up the graves and not being limited to remembering war dead. IOW, it's something different than Memorial Day, not just another name for it? And taking it another step, does this mean that Jason's not writing about Memorial Day? And btw, just because, when did Decoration Day become Memorial Day, anyway?
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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cortez the killer
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by cortez the killer »

I always understood the song from gerg's perspective of the character is caught in the middle of a feud that predates his existence. He doesn't fully understand the reason why it all started, but as a loyal member of the Lawson family, it is his duty to fight the Hill family. It's a classic take on family loyalty/obligation trumping what's rational or right. The 'ear to the floor' reference is another way of saying your eyes are peeled or that you are on guard for something. The chain is a weapon.
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cortez the killer
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by cortez the killer »

beantownbubba wrote:And btw, just because, when did Decoration Day become Memorial Day, anyway?

I didn't know either, but this was helpful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
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gerg
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Re: dbt tracks # 53 - Decoration Day

Post by gerg »

cortez the killer wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:And btw, just because, when did Decoration Day become Memorial Day, anyway?

I didn't know either, but this was helpful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day


And you guys call yourselves DbT fans. Shame on you. :geek:

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