English Oceans Discussion Thread

[Hud]

Sure would love to here it!

[Slipkid42]

C'mon slaggards, we ain't done yet. Here's a combined version that I think is most accurate. I could be wrong in a couple of places and note that THERE'S STILL ONE LINE THAT NOBODY'S EVEN GUESSED AT YET AND A COUPLE MORE WHERE THE BEST GUESSES ARE JUST THAT. Let's get 'er done.

Put your cigarette out and get your hat back on
Don't mix up which is which
They don't pay you enough to work
Well they don't pay me enough to bitch
Boss ain't as smart as he'd like to be
But he ain't nearly as dumb as you think
He just wants evolution on budget with a schedule to keep [No a in there]
[[Spare or Spread the ???] four lanes moving like blood through an old man's dying heart
Nothing but time to keep hope alive at the speed of a stream of tar
He bought in young and I have no doubt he's gonna cash out with a winning deal
Trophy tail wives taking boner pill rides for the price of a happy meal
Shit shots count [Definitely hear and] the table is tilted
Just pay the man who levels the floor
Pride's what you charge a proud man for having
Shame is what you sell to a whore
Meats just meat and its all born dying,
some is tender and some is tough.
Somebody's got to mop up the A1,
somebody's got to mop up the blood
High ground ain't high enough
To kill you quick if you fall
Idealistically speaking it sounds like you ain't listening at all
Friday night riches are all you're ever gonna need until the [fight in you on] Monday's gone [not still open]
One more drag tuck your hair in your hat
Don't act so surprised try not to look so lost
Shit shots count [and] the table is tilted
Just pay the man who levels the floor
Pride's what you charge a proud man for having
Shame is what you sell to a whore
Meats just meat and its all born dying,
some is tender and some is tough.
Somebody's got to mop up the A1,
somebody's got to mop up the blood

One slaggards opinion.

[Daddy_played_poker]

I can't wait any longer. Can I join the PM club please???

Jonicont - hope you finished on a high note!! Congrats on the retirement and I will look for you and your daughter in Athens.

[Mr. Fantasy]

incredible album and not a single song to skip which hasn't happened in years. every song is worthy of getting in the live rotation. a couple quick things I heard I didn't see posted yet:

somebody mentioned an influence from heat lightning. the beginning guitar notes of Pauline Hawkins reminds me of Betty Ford. maybe used to be a cop a bit too.

about 1:30 into hanging on and then again in the noise jam at the end of Grand Canyon - there is a sonar blip note that reminds me of the Floyd's Echoes. first listen thru it struck me in both. really tho I'm loving the stones vibe. man if we're talking rock it doesn't get any better than that.

[ScottyG]

There is definitely some sort of humming going on throughout Grand Canyon. Listen with headphones on and it's impossible to miss.

[Cole Younger]

This is not Cooley's greatest or most clever line but damn it's freakin' amazing. The maturity, the subtlety, the devastatingly accurate portrait painted w/ fewer words than should be possible. I bow in Coolye's direction.

Cause only simple men can see the logic in whatever
Smarter men can whittle down so you can fit it on a sticker
And get it stuck like mud and bugs to names that set the standard
They'll live it like it's gospel and they'll quote it like it's scripture

"Buttholeville" 15 years and a bunch of lessons learned later?

PS: Thanks to Duke Silver for the good work.

X2. The entire song is one big Coolyism. The first two lines that you quoted above are pretty profound d in my opinion. It's so hard for me to listen to it and really concentrate on what he is saying because its so rapid fire. Even though I know it's about Lee Atwater (I love that Cooley wrote a song about him. Regardless of your opinion of him he was an Interesting character and I'm surprised it took the boys this long to get around to it. Also, I have an uncle who is a dead ringer for Lee Atwater. We have joked about it for years) that information doesn't really help that much as far understanding the meaning behind a lot of the lines. What in the world the two lines about English Oceans and English stomach contents mean? I have no idea.

This record just keeps getting better with more listens. I know I don't have to try to describe my excitement over it because I know y'all all feel the same way.

Also, I want to give some love to When He's Gone. I don't think I've really seen where anybody has mentioned it. I don't want to be too knee jerk but it may be one of my favorite Patterson songs ever. Man I love this record. It is very DBT but at th same time it has a different feel from anything they've ever done. I mean that in a good way.

I would like to point out how remarkable it is that they did this in like two weeks.

[Mr. Fantasy]

when he's gone is killer no doubt. instant Patterson fave. the part of him too. holding on was the only tune it took more then one listen to come around on. once dude hits the road it's a whole 'nother song.

[ramonz]

Once the familiarity sets in, it just keeps getting better

You ain't kidding doc.

[beantownbubba]

What in the world the two lines about English Oceans and English stomach contents mean? I have no idea.

I was hoping somebody else would have something to offer on those lines because I am clueless. The closest I can come is that the made up English oceans and stomach content are big lies told to manipulate and rile up the men who are the subject of the first 2 lines of the relevant verses.

More generally, if the song is about Atwater it seems to me to more about how Atwater viewed his "target market" and manipulated them than it is about the man himself. That would be consistent w/ my meager attempt to explain those lines above. Can't say that I'm committed to this interpretation though.

Following up on what some others have said, I hear/ feel that Neil Young vibe most especially on "Hanging On" which doesn't sound like either "Sugar Mountain" or Tonight's the Night but reminds me of both.

[Mr. Fantasy]

maybe it's common sense there are no English oceans making stomach contents also made up or just that the English eat weird shit and are likely pukers. either way you know what they say about girls smoke.

[Cole Younger]

What in the world the two lines about English Oceans and English stomach contents mean? I have no idea.

I was hoping somebody else would have something to offer on those lines because I am clueless. The closest I can come is that the made up English oceans and stomach content are big lies told to manipulate and rile up the men who are the subject of the first 2 lines of the relevant verses.

More generally, if the song is about Atwater it seems to me to more about how Atwater viewed his "target market" and manipulated them than it is about the man himself. That would be consistent w/ my meager attempt to explain those lines above. Can't say that I'm committed to this interpretation though.

Following up on what some others have said, I hear/ feel that Neil Young vibe most especially on "Hanging On" which doesn't sound like either "Sugar Mountain" or Tonight's the Night but reminds me of both.

Makes sense. With a still fairly small number of listens it seems to be more about Atwater's play book and some of the things he admitted to in the infamous 1981 interview.

[Kevidently]

re: Grand Canyon


I met Craig once or twice, and I was saddened by his passing, but I don't pretend to claim even 1/100th of 1% of the relationship with him that many of you had. As such, this song is never going to touch me in the way it touches many of you..

While I only met Craig once - weirdly, the night before he died - Homecoming this year was, in a way, a method for me to escape the death of a good friend up here in Boston. I loved him, and when he died, I just wanted to go into hiding, because I tend to internalize that stuff. Then, of course, I get to Homecoming and Craig died. What I realized over the next two nights is that mourning can be a communal thing, and can be purging when you do it among friends and people who get you.

For me, the "we" in Grand Canyon will always be that final night in Athens. For Craig, as intended, but also for my friend who died, and for the universal passage of time that we all have to keep moving through until we face our own.

[Kevidently]

I hate to say this, but it's nice to listen to a new truckers record and not have to skip a dancing Ricky or you got another every 4th or 5th song.

Sorry, man, and maybe it has something to do with when I got into them, but I love love love both those tracks.

Is that you Shonna?

LOL. Naw, but I got into DBT after Go Go Boots, so I didn't have that sense of, "old folks leaving, new folks coming in," so their whole catalog was one piece to me. Shonna's songs fit into that for me because of it, I think - just like Cooley's straight-up country songs like "Biloxi" and Isbell's rave-up rockers on ABAAC never seemed out of place. To me, she was just another part of the musical landscape. "Dancin' Ricky" was experimental and weird, but so was "Days of Graduation" in its way. I may not like a few Shonna tracks, but not because they were Shonna tracks.

[Daddy_played_poker]

WOW!!!!!

[Kevidently]

Could "made up English oceans" have anything to do with the Tea Party? Because the original use of the term referred to the US colonies striking for independence on the ocean (well, the Boston Harbor) from the British, who were trying to claim the US as theirs. Then republicans took over the term and made up a new rhetoric for it.

Maybe?

[Mr. Fantasy]

-- I hear something in the background of Grand Canyon that reminds me of Led Zep's Kashmir

Do you mean something musical or like a weird, tape-delay noise? I was laying in bed listening to this the other night and thought for a second I was hearing voices. There's a weird buzzing/backward talking thing that's most noticeable starting right before the noise jam at the end.

There is something there. Hope to hear it better on the vinyl. The jams have gotten psychedelic at times the last few months and I can see this coda being killer live

hijo de la chinga is that a joint man????

that Craig noise jam is perfect, so fitting, an homage to the man. I love DBT to the end but I'd never consider psychedelic to describe they're music. ever.

[Cole Younger]

Could "made up English oceans" have anything to do with the Tea Party? Because the original use of the term referred to the US colonies striking for independence on the ocean (well, the Boston Harbor) from the British, who were trying to claim the US as theirs. Then republicans took over the term and made up a new rhetoric for it.

Maybe?

I feel kind of stupid now. And I'm an Education /History major too.

That definitely makes sense. It would sort of be Cooley's way of saying that Atwater devised this "Southern strategy" and the continuation of that is...

I didn't make the connection because I was too focused on things Atwater did running the Reagan and Bush campaigns. I guess.

You may very well be right.

[Cole Younger]

Just listened to Grand Canyon again. Whatever it is y'all are hearing I can't hear it. I do know that it goes from being a really touching and pretty song to having a really spooky feel to it there in the last minute or so. I'm not sure I want to hear whatever y'all are hearing.

[Smitty]

like Cooley's straight-up country songs like "Biloxi".

You mean "Pulaski"?
I bet Cooley could write a killer song about Biloxi, though.
Anyone who thinks straight country Cooley is out-of-place is missing the point.

[RevMatt]

Anyone who thinks straight country Cooley is out-of-place is missing the point.

Word!

[RevMatt]

"Made up English stomach contents tied to senseless notions" is a proper definition of the word "Bullshit" in nine words. That is a brilliant line worthy of Keats.

[ccollum92]

C'mon slaggards, we ain't done yet. Here's a combined version that I think is most accurate. I could be wrong in a couple of places and note that THERE'S STILL ONE LINE THAT NOBODY'S EVEN GUESSED AT YET AND A COUPLE MORE WHERE THE BEST GUESSES ARE JUST THAT. Let's get 'er done.

Put your cigarette out and get your hat back on
Don't mix up which is which
They don't pay you enough to work
Well they don't pay me enough to bitch
Boss ain't as smart as he'd like to be
But he ain't nearly as dumb as you think
He just wants evolution on [SOME PEOPLE HEAR "A" HERE, BUT i DON'T???] budget with a schedule to keep
[BIG BLANK] four lanes moving like blood through an old man's dying heart

I think [BIG BLANK] is "suburban"

[Mr. Fantasy]

"Made up English stomach contents tied to senseless notions" is a proper definition of the word "Bullshit" in nine words. That is a brilliant line worthy of Keats.

I'm glad u deciphered it all for us rev. it's not like we are all crazy and you're only the one that understands. please pass that laced joint u smoked earlier during the initial review. it's like shit u know that's tied to a stick man.

[Drop D]

maybe it's common sense there are no English oceans making stomach contents also made up or just that the English eat weird shit and are likely pukers. either way you know what they say about girls smoke.

I say! What are you insinuating old chap?

[Mr. Boh]

i've heard the record

its good

the stroker ace

[Drop D]

I don't think it's clear even whether 'English' is a noun or an adjective. Is it about the English language or England the country, or even English people? If it's meant to convey the idea of political sovereignty over a body of water, why use English and not British? And why plural Oceans? It's certainly an intriguing phrase!

[RolanK]

Just listened to Grand Canyon again. Whatever it is y'all are hearing I can't hear it. I do know that it goes from being a really touching and pretty song to having a really spooky feel to it there in the last minute or so. I'm not sure I want to hear whatever y'all are hearing.

After the drums come back in. Starts around the 6:30 mark. Sounds like the chanting of a Navajo medicine man. Not that we have a lot of those around where I live.

[Daddy_played_poker]

This is really something special. The total package ebbs and flows like great albums do. The "fresh" sound of the music overall combined with the uniquness of each song is amazing. I love the impact that Matt has had on this music!!!!!!!!

[Freeze Time]

Hey I'm a new user another lurker. Yeah you know what comes next, the elephant in the room. No not cancer.. But if anyone could hook me up that'd be great. I'm not just here to leech, I intend on sticking about and hopefully contributing something to the board. I will also most definitely be purchasing the album on vinyl.

[danger8504]

Well finally found my old username, it's good to be back. If anyone can PM me a link to the new album that would be great. Put the pre-order in, but does anyone know what the bonus songs will be? I know Jimmy Page won't make the album as that's what Hood said at the last Nashville show, but hope it's a b-side.