Yellow Ledbetter Revelation...

DarkStar
DarkStar Posts: 734
edited April 2005 in Words and Music...Communication
Not sure why this didn't occur to me before...I always thought YL was about a family receiving a soldier's death notice...but I didn't realize until today that the story is told from the perspective of the dead soldier. The people on the porch don't wave because they don't see him (the soldier)...because he's dead. the "I know what I wear...(mumble) the box or the bag" lyric makes more sense now.

any comments on this?

ds
And no one sings me lullabyes
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky....
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • armanHammer
    armanHammer Posts: 471
    (I think) depending on the version, it is told either from the perspective of the dead soldier or his family.

    Examples:

    In the album version there is the line:

    "I don't know what I wear not the box or the bag" (or a line very similar to this)

    At The Garden in New York Ed sings:

    "My brother and his son's [his dad's son] is comin' home in a box or a bag"

    It is obviously a war song, and when first recorded the lyrics were entirely improv. So the same situation is told from both perspectives.
    Riverside.. LA.. California. EV?
  • armanHammer
    armanHammer Posts: 471
    But then again, in the studio version Ed sings "can't you see them? out on the porch, but they don't wave"
    Riverside.. LA.. California. EV?
  • STXLAX
    STXLAX Posts: 46
    Interesting interpretation. Never thought of that. I love this song because theres so many interpretations of it.
    "And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
    -Nietzsche

    EMPATHY
  • UsmanI
    UsmanI Posts: 72
    how do you know this is a war song?

    I always think of a whole group of KKK surrounding a black-family house when I hear the line - "Can you see them, 'round the front way, oh but they don't wave." It's just an eerrie line.
  • DarkStar
    DarkStar Posts: 734
    UsmanI wrote:
    how do you know this is a war song?

    I always think of a whole group of KKK surrounding a black-family house when I hear the line - "Can you see them, 'round the front way, oh but they don't wave." It's just an eerrie line.

    eddie was quoted as saying it's an anti-war song...other than that, it was written around the Gulf War I time...

    ds
    And no one sings me lullabyes
    And no one makes me close my eyes
    So I throw the windows wide
    And call to you across the sky....

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