Lyrics:Titus Andronicus/The Monitor

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Revision as of 02:37, 16 October 2011

Contents 1 A More Perfect Union 1.1 Notes 2 Titus Andronicus Forever (or Theme from “The Monitor”) 2.1 Notes 3 No Future, Pt. 3: Escape from No Future 3.1 Notes

A More Perfect Union

"From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio River or set a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide." - Abraham Lincoln

Part I. Roadrunner Revisited
There'll be no more counting the cars on the Garden State parkway, nor waiting for the Fung Wah bus to carry me to who-knows-where. And when I stand tonight 'neath the lights of the Fenway, will I not yell like hell for the glory of the Newark Bears? Because where I'm going to now, no one can ever hurt me, where the well of human hatred is shallow and dry. No, I never wanted to change the world, but I'm looking for a new New Jersey, because tramps like us -- baby, we were born to die. I'm doing 70 on 17, 80 over 84, and I never let the Merritt Parkway magnetize me no more. Give me a brutal Somerville summer. Give me a cruel New England winter. Give me the great Pine Barrens, so I can see them turned into splinters. And if I come in on a donkey, let me go out on a gurney. I want to realize too late I never should have left New Jersey.

Part II. Fear and Loathing in Somerville, MA
I sense the enemy; they're rustling around in the trees. I thought I had gotten away, but they followed me to 02143. Woe, oh, woe is me. No one knows the trouble I see. When they hang Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree, I'll sit beneath the leaves and weep. None of us shall be saved; every man will be a slave, for John Brown's body lies a'mouldring in the grave and there's rumbling down in the caves. So if it's time for choosing sides, and to show this dirty city how we do the Jersey Slide, and if it deserves a better class of criminal, then I'm-a give it to them tonight. So we'll rally around the flag, rally around the flag. Rally around the flag, boys, rally once again, shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom. Rally around the flag, rally around the flag. Glory, glory, Hallelujah; His truth is marching on...

"I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to speak, or think, or write with moderation. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard." - William Lloyd Garrison

Notes

• Too many fucking references in this song.
• "Roadrunner Revisited" is a reference to "Roadrunner", Jonathan Richman's ode to Massachusetts, which is the destination of the narrator in this song.
• "Fear and Loathing in..." refers to the title of the first song on The Airing of Grievances, which refers to the writings of Hunter S. Thompson, most famously his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
• Begins with a variation on a quote by Abraham Lincoln from his address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois on January 27, 1838, as read by the late Okey Chenoweth, who was the band's drama teacher at Glen Rock High School. He also contributed his voice to The Airing of Grievances.
• "A More Perfect Union" is a phrase from the Preamble to the United States Constitution, and is also the title of a 2008 speech by Barack Obama, which the song seems to allude to. Check it out here.
• "Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike" is a line from Simon & Garfunkel's "America". Patrick noted in an interview that he used the Garden State Parkway instead of the New Jersey Turnpike because he felt it was the more important freeway to actual New Jerseyans.
• The Garden State Parkway is the busiest toll highway in America. It stretches through the entire length of New Jersey from Montvale to Cape May.
• Fung Wah Bus Transportation Inc. is a rather infamous Chinatown bus company that operates between Boston and New York City. Its low fares have made it popular with budget-minded travelers, like students or struggling musicians such as Titus Andronicus.
• Boston's Fenway Park is probably one of the most well-known sports venues in the world.
• The Newark Bears are a Can-Am League baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey.
• "I don't want to change the world; I'm not looking for a new England" is a line from Billy Bragg's "A New England".
• "Because tramps like us, baby, we were born to run" is a line from Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run".
• '17' is Route 17 in New Jersey, which connects Mahwah to New York City.
• '84' is Interstate 84, a large part of the route from New Jersey to Boston to New York City.
• The Merritt Parkway is a historic parkway in Connecticut. Part of the route from New Jersey to Boston.
• Somerville, MA is part of the Boston metro area, where Patrick Stickles lived briefly after graduating from college in Mahwah.
• Massachusetts and Connecticut are part of New England.
• The Pine Barrens is a fairly self-explanatory, heavily forested area of coastal plain stretching across southern New Jersey. The Garden State Parkway runs through it.
• "If I come on a donkey" refers to Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday.
• 02143 is Somerville's zip code.
• The "Jersey Slide" is a driving trick often pulled on the Garden State Parkway in which the driver merges all the way from the far left lane to the exit ramp in one fell swoop with no signal being given.
• "This town deserves a better class of criminal, and I'm gonna give it to 'em" is a line from the 2008 film The Dark Knight.
• The second part of the song references a few Civil War songs:
  • "John Brown's Body" was a marching song about the abolitionist John Brown, and references hanging Jeff Davis, the president of the Confederacy, from a sour apple tree. The unpopular lyrics to the song led to the creation of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", essentially the same song with different lyrics.
  • The "rally around the flag" chorus is from "The Battle Cry of Freedom".
  • The last line is from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
• The song ends with a William Lloyd Garrison quote from "To The Public" in the inaugural issue of The Liberator in January 1831, as read by artist and singer Nolen Strals.

Titus Andronicus Forever (or Theme from “The Monitor”)

The enemy is everywhere, but nobody seems to be worried or care that the enemy is everywhere.

"I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one smiling face on Earth." - Abraham Lincoln

Notes

• This song ends with a quote by Abraham Lincoln from a January 1841 letter to John T. Stuart, as read by the late Okey Chenoweth, who was the band's drama teacher at Glen Rock High School.

No Future, Pt. 3: Escape from No Future

Everything makes me nervous and nothing feels good for no reason. Waking up, it’s rarely worth it –- the same dark dread every morning. Senior year here in Mahwah; a new world just around the corner. Leave me behind, let me stagnate, in a fortress of solitude. Smoking’s been okay so far, but I need something that works faster, so all I want for Christmas is no feelings, no feelings now and ever again. There is a faceplate all brown and red that stretches across my mouth. It’s worn for protection; nobody gets in and nobody gets out. I used to look myself in the mirror at the end of every day, but I took the one thing that made me beautiful and threw it away. I was a river. I was a tall tree. I was a volcano. But now I’m asleep on top of a mountain; I’ve been covered in snow. Yes, I have surrendered what made me human and all that I thought was true, so now there’s a robot that lives in my brain and he tells me what to do. And I can do nothing without his permission or wasn’t part of the plan, so now in Rock Ridge Pharmacy, I will be waiting for my man. But there is another down in a dungeon who never gave up the fight, and he’ll be forever screaming. Sometimes I hear him say, on a quiet night, he says, “You will always be a loser, man. You’ll always be a loser now, and that’s okay.”

Notes

• According to some dude on SongMeanings: "Patrick recently told a crowd at their show in San Francisco that he takes Lexapro. I'm pretty sure this song is about taking antidepressants or some other mood stablizer, and how he gave up what he thought was true (or being his true self) and now he's like a... well, a robot, but he still hears that voice that pills just can't silence."
• This song is part of the No Future trilogy which began on The Airing of Grievances. When played live, this song is usually played first, followed by Part One and Part Two, for whatever reason.
• Patrick Stickles attended Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey.
• Rock Ridge Pharmacy is in Glen Rock, the hometown of the band.
• "I'm Waiting for the Man" is a song by the Velvet Underground about a guy waiting in Harlem for his drug dealer so he buy some heroin.