paltryprice

[paltryprice]

Also, I'd be remiss not to talk about the genius page for Just Lay Still.

The current annotations seem to think the song is about a morally corrupt doctor...? And... well, no. The song is about human trafficking.

The misunderstanding of this line stands out to me especially:

I love you like a lion loves its kill.

The power of this line comes from how visceral it is; The speaker sees the listener as nothing more than a slab of meat. Something to be torn apart, destroyed for the speaker's gain, ruined and slaughtered at the speaker's behest. Interpreting this line as anything even close to love, bastardized or not, is missing the point entirely- A lion does not love its kill, it sees it as a means to an end. There is no love nor obsession here, this "love" is sheer dehumanization in the cruelest way.

It also implies a natural order to what's happening: A lion kills to eat, and it is natural and morally neutral. The speaker is rationalizing his own actions here by claiming they are natural. It echos the same sentiment seen in Animal Rites: "Biology kicks virtue's ass every time."

This same sentiment is also seen elsewhere in the song:

No raindrop would believe he's the cause of all the flooding, The baby's birth be belching, "Let all I've been be as a dream."

The first line implies that no one person can be blamed for the disaster caused by a whole; That the failings of society and the whole of humanity are to blame for the immorality of the individual. Again, it's the speaker shirking blame off of himself, and implying that there is some natural order to even the worst of actions he may commit.

The baby's birth line confused me for a while, but it hit me all at once when I finally got it; The speaker is essentially saying the listener was "asking for it" from birth, that they were always predisposed to being abused and used in this way, and that the speaker is only filling a role that was always going to be filled. It poses the listener's abuse as an inevitable event; *someone* would have done this, even if the speaker hadn't, because the listener was born to be harmed.

The line "Let all I have been be as a dream" is extremely interesting in it's own right. It seems to lean heavily into a dissociative response to trauma- Blocking out memories, or seeing them as nothing more than a terrible nightmare, is not a horribly uncommon response to a very traumatic event or continued trauma. The speaker leans into this, allowing their actions to continue on by pushing the listener to keep downplaying and / or forgetting their own abuse.

I have many more thoughts about the song (it's my favorite out of all of John's work, and was also a massive trigger for me for nearly a year. I am very emotionally invested in it, lol), but for now I'll leave it there. I'm not sure how Tumblr would like the rest of the subject matters.

[paltryprice]

Musings on The Other End Of The Leash

It's been a while! Haven't managed to get our feelings on God Bless Your Black Heart into words yet (though we do still plan to), but for now I'd like to share my thoughts on the lyrics of this gem!

At The Other End Of The Leash is one of my favorite songs from The Paper Chase! It's got this horribly atmospheric feel to it, it's airy and breathy in a way that feels uniquely sickly, and it's ever so lovingly dehumanizing. Great mix!

The verse that's always hit the hardest for me is;

And when I fall in your Christmas tree, The dinner party reveals (In) me robin egg blue and livery red, I hate to spoil your meal. And when I stop the good times rolling With my hot breath in your ear, You know daddy loves you all so very much, yeah, But daddy may be going away for a while, my dear!

Although they've always felt so important, I could never figure out what exactly they were saying. And, well, I think I finally pieced it together!

The whole song is obviously about familial abuse, but this specific verse is describing a past event: A dinner party, in which the father of the family got drunk enough to fall into the Christmas tree, got horribly injured (or, potentially, hurt someone else), and had the police called on him.

"Going away for a while" heavily implies being arrested, "daddy" implies the speaker is talking to his own children, and I'm honestly split on whether he injures himself ("In me, robin egg blue and livery red") or injures one of the children ("When I stop the good times rolling with my hot breath in your ear"). I think it also makes sense for both to be true- He hurt himself in the fall, ruining the party, then lashed out at the children, leading to the police being called and arresting him.

That's all! I was just excited to finally figure this bit of the song out! :D

[paltryprice]

The story of God Bless Your Black Heart

(At least, the story I gathered from it.)

The Paper Chase’s third album, God Bless Your Black Heart, tells a story that I find really interesting and unique. It’s told in such a fascinating way that I really, truly love. I was struck with the urge to write about it after trying to explain some of my favorite details to a friend, so… here’s my take on the album, as someone who knows absolutely nothing about music, nor the original intent of the songwriter. Expect lots of gushing about how great a lyric is, messy story analysis, and other fun things.

I’ll be dedicating a post to each song, and linking them here as they’re finished. Please heed any content warnings in the tags, especially if you plan to give the album a listen yourself.

As a general overview: God Bless Your Black Heart follows the story of Henry, a man who married the love of his life, had a family with her, and goes on to brutally murder her. If that doesn't sound like something you want to read about... don't!

[Entry number one]

Wip! :]