lajakesdad wrote:When I first heard it, I thought the first line was somethin 'bout the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there's a fifth 'bout to get drunk

Obviously you were listening in el garaje.

cortez the killer wrote:I don't necessarily think the verse is meant to be read as a tradtional paragraph. I see each line as another piece to the puzzle.

that's how i look at most of their music.

Easily one of my fav Patterson songs. The first line says it all. Brilliant. Then to follow it up with all the other lines already mentioned in this thread, wow.

i actually ended a DBT 2 disc compilation i made for my mum with this song, saw it as a very appropiate song.

I guess I'm just a perv brain b/c I always read the lines in question about "paw" and "getting tight" and being "outgrown" as a multi-generational incest story...the storyteller impregnated his daughter, now she's balling her son (he grew up and it's getting tight) and now Daddy's pissed and jealous and pushing harder b/c he's been "outgrown"- i.e. junior's got it going on a little more in the size department...

I like the symbolic interpretations you guys offered about the relationship metaphors too, but after wondering about those lyrics awhile when DD first came out, the incest interp suddenly hit me listening to it on the highway one day and I don't know if I can shake hearing it that way now...

Zip City wrote:that's quite an interpretation. can't say I ever read any of that into it.

not to mention quite a first post...

i was on 9B for a couple years- I won one of the photo contest entries back when BTCD came out... I just been too busy with a new career last year+ to check in with you guys...DBT still and always at least half my playlists though and I always appreciate the rare times I can come back here...

GivenToVisions wrote:I guess I'm just a perv brain b/c I always read the lines in question about "paw" and "getting tight" and being "outgrown" as a multi-generational incest story...the storyteller impregnated his daughter, now she's balling her son (he grew up and it's getting tight) and now Daddy's pissed and jealous and pushing harder b/c he's been "outgrown"- i.e. junior's got it going on a little more in the size department...

I like the symbolic interpretations you guys offered about the relationship metaphors too, but after wondering about those lyrics awhile when DD first came out, the incest interp suddenly hit me listening to it on the highway one day and I don't know if I can shake hearing it that way now...

GivenToVisions wrote:I guess I'm just a perv brain b/c I always read the lines in question about "paw" and "getting tight" and being "outgrown" as a multi-generational incest story...the storyteller impregnated his daughter, now she's balling her son (he grew up and it's getting tight) and now Daddy's pissed and jealous and pushing harder b/c he's been "outgrown"- i.e. junior's got it going on a little more in the size department...

I like the symbolic interpretations you guys offered about the relationship metaphors too, but after wondering about those lyrics awhile when DD first came out, the incest interp suddenly hit me listening to it on the highway one day and I don't know if I can shake hearing it that way now...

I also never got this from it, but then again, the album does open with The Deeper In.

Thanx for getting me off the hook in "zip city", GTV

I don't think anybody's mentioned the switch from "forgiven" to "forsaken". Mostly i think it just sounds really cool, but i also think there's a lot of subtlety there. Not needing to be forgiven by the neighbors is sorta pretty standard good ole boy posturing, but not needing to be forsaken by his wife/girlfriend seems to me to be saying a little more than that, maybe "you don't understand me as well as you think you do" in addition to the more obvious "fuck you." OTOH, perhaps it's time i got a life.

wonder what happened after daughter drank beer in bulldozers.

dime in the gutter wrote:wonder what happened after daughter drank beer in bulldozers.

probably had to do laundry...
to "get the red stains off her socks"

woah.what might everyone read into that?
virgins, incest, stepfathers, 'dirt', domestic chores, male/female roles in the household
or
just tough laundry

the greatest song ever written.

Smitty wrote:the greatest song ever written.

And why don't we have the hairy-eyeball-what-the-fuck-you-talkin'-bout-Willis emoticon uploaded yet? "Heathens" is such a great fucking song, but c'mon man.

cortez the killer wrote:

Smitty wrote:the greatest song ever written.

And why don't we have the hairy-eyeball-what-the-fuck-you-talkin'-bout-Willis emoticon uploaded yet? "Heathens" is such a great fucking song, but c'mon man.

I stand by my statement. Ain't art subjective?

Smitty wrote:

cortez the killer wrote:

Smitty wrote:the greatest song ever written.

And why don't we have the hairy-eyeball-what-the-fuck-you-talkin'-bout-Willis emoticon uploaded yet? "Heathens" is such a great fucking song, but c'mon man.

I stand by my statement. Ain't art subjective?

Art, opinions, & criticism are 100% subjective. I still request that emoticon.

I've finally come around to this one.

Iowan wrote:I've finally come around to this one.

Never really heard it as a tune that had to grow on me. To my ears it's always been top shelf stuff, not just for the DBTs but for Patterson as well.

http://www.wect.com/story/20265872/dad- ... d-together

Damn heathens

About a year and a half ago, I left home and moved with my wife and kids to another state where my wife's parents live. For the past 18 months I'd been lamenting the loss of my Heathans (good buddies) at home. I've made a new buddy in my new state, and tonight he invited me out to a little watering hole. Tonight "Heathens" came on the jukebox, and I probably felt more at home than I've felt in 18 months! There's something familiar and comforting about Neff's pedal steel and Patterson's voice.

I came home and my wife was happy I'd made a buddy and didn't even have a wrinkle in her forehead!

lajakesdad wrote: When I first heard it, I thought the first line was somethin 'bout the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there's a fifth 'bout to get drunk

That is fucking hilariously beautiful.

One of my all-time faves from Patterson.

Heathens!
I saw them at Cane's in Mission Beach, San Diego around 2006ish (with Son Volt).
I recall... I'd never really picked up on "Heathens" but that night they opened with it and it was just perfect.
I also remember that night Patterson talked about his kids prior to LTBR. My son was about 1 year old then and... it all connected.
After that night, Heathens became song #1 on my DBT car CD and... I always find it very comforting and fun to sing and think to.
Great song.
gk

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... ay-973121/

Stay safe, heathens!

Hey y'all - I'm probably the last to know but... the Oxford American Southern Music Issue Vol. 24 that was just issued includes Heathens on the companion CD ("Country Roots").