Please help me decosntruct the meaning of this gripping song.

Felt compelled to share a song, which for one reason or another has me completely bewitched...stirred to the blood in a way that hasn't happened in a very long time. I'm not very proficient in constructing legitimate musical/lyrical commentary. I'm hoping some of you can help me deconstruct the lyrics (featured in the video) so that I may draw even further meaning from this deeply affecting song.

ETA: Here's the link since it failed to embed properly ? Probably user error

www.youtube.com...

Thank you in advance!

Apparently I don't know how to embed videos

Here's the link:

www.youtube.com...

what video? What is the song? Would like to give an opinion on it, but alas it has been eaten by the evil net monsters.

reply to post by Attrei


Sorry for the blunder! The link is posted above...twice. Good grief. I'll learn the ATS ways eventually...if the evil net monsters don't make a second appearance. Thanks for your interest!

Not completely sure on the meaning. Went and read the lyrics, the only thing that it seems to me is the reference to the train to the kingdom, that is usually a reference to heaven. Frank and Jim are Frank Sinatra and Jim Morrison I think.

The Gulag is "the Soviet system of forced labor camps was first established in 1919 under the Cheka, but it was not until the early 1930s that the camp population reached significant numbers. By 1934 the Gulag, or Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps, then under the Cheka's successor organization the NKVD, had several million inmates. Prisoners included murderers, thieves, and other common criminals--along with political and religious dissenters. The Gulag, whose camps were located mainly in remote regions of Siberia and the Far North, made significant contributions to the Soviet economy in the period of Joseph Stalin. Gulag prisoners constructed the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow-Volga Canal, the Baikal-Amur main railroad line, numerous hydroelectric stations, and strategic roads and industrial enterprises in remote regions. Gulag manpower was also used for much of the country's lumbering and for the mining of coal, copper, and gold." (reference www.loc.gov... )

That is all that i can figure out.

I found this on the replys at the bottom and being that I dont know I will have to agree, sounds good to megulag is in reference to the soviet correctional camps in Stalin's Russia. They would transport offenders to Siberia and other area's by train. Its part of a totalitarian and communistic regime. Its about oppression in every form from socialism to communism to totalitarianism and how an entire generation was blind sided by smooth talking politicians and the politically correct. And now their children are suffering from it.
After the smiley above is not my words, they are the comment that was at the bottom of the video.

...here ya go... quote my post so you can see how i did it...

Originally posted by Attrei
Not completely sure on the meaning. Went and read the lyrics, the only thing that it seems to me is the reference to the train to the kingdom, that is usually a reference to heaven. Frank and Jim are Frank Sinatra and Jim Morrison I think.

The Gulag is "the Soviet system of forced labor camps was first established in 1919 under the Cheka, but it was not until the early 1930s that the camp population reached significant numbers. By 1934 the Gulag, or Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps, then under the Cheka's successor organization the NKVD, had several million inmates. Prisoners included murderers, thieves, and other common criminals--along with political and religious dissenters. The Gulag, whose camps were located mainly in remote regions of Siberia and the Far North, made significant contributions to the Soviet economy in the period of Joseph Stalin. Gulag prisoners constructed the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow-Volga Canal, the Baikal-Amur main railroad line, numerous hydroelectric stations, and strategic roads and industrial enterprises in remote regions. Gulag manpower was also used for much of the country's lumbering and for the mining of coal, copper, and gold." (reference www.loc.gov... )

That is all that i can figure out.

Sorry freind but I am sure its NOT Sinatra and Morrison hes talkin bout.

CHEESEBURGER
BURGER
GER

Thanks guys. Seems like the meaning could be applied in a more universal sense, beyond the gulag. In fact, its oddly appropriate that I should find such a song at the moment that I did, in all its melancholic reverie, in light of all of the ominous developments of late. I wonder if that is in part why I am so taken with it. At any rate, thanks for the input!

Originally posted by Wyn Hawks
...here ya go... quote my post so you can see how i did it...

Brilliant! Thank you for showing me how it's done. Much obliged.

reply to post by followtheevidence


...no biggie... i had a hard time with this stuff at first too - then i noticed the codes in brackets when i quoted someone's post... theres buttons to do it but, once you get the hang of it, its faster to just type it yourself - at least it is for me...

....anyways... that is a moving song... great lyrics... what do they mean?... gosh, its art - so its subjective... heres my take...

...the gulag reference points to russia and the round up of whoever the state considered risky... generations lived and died under extreme oppression - thats the inference to "we're older now, the light is dim and you are only just beginning"...

...the message is really a universal one... the same thing happened here in the usofa but most like to pretend that nazis were the first to come up with concentration camps...

...good find...

www.azlyrics.com...

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS LYRICS

"O Children"

Pass me that lovely little gun
My dear, my darling one
The cleaners are coming, one by one
You don't even want to let them start

They are knocking now upon your door
They measure the room, they know the score
They're mopping up the butcher's floor
Of your broken little hearts

O children

Forgive us now for what we've done
It started out as a bit of fun
Here, take these before we run away
The keys to the gulag

O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice

Here comes Frank and poor old Jim
They're gathering round with all my friends
We're older now, the light is dim
And you are only just beginning

O children

We have the answer to all your fears
It's short, it's simple, it's crystal clear
It's round about and it's somewhere here
Lost amongst our winnings

O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice

The cleaners have done their job on you
They're hip to it, man, they're in the groove
They've hosed you down, you're good as new
They're lining up to inspect you

O children

Poor old Jim's white as a ghost
He's found the answer that we lost
We're all weeping now, weeping because
There ain't nothing we can do to protect you

O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice

Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station

Hey, little train! Wait for me!
I once was blind but now I see
Have you left a seat for me?
Is that such a stretch of the imagination?

Hey little train! Wait for me!
I was held in chains but now I'm free
I'm hanging in there, don't you see
In this process of elimination

Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
It's beyond my wildest expectation

Hey little train! We are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station

reply to post by Wyn Hawks


Thank you for your insightful response. It seems there is a consensus regarding the central meaning of this song...which renders it even more powerful I think.

What can I say? I'm moved. To me, its like an ode, a salute to all who suffer in this fallen, despotic world. It gives those cloaked in oppression's shadow a voice. Listening to this song, it almost feels like farewell.

Goodness, time to go sit outside and bask in the sunshine and enjoy freedom...while it's still in my grasp.