So theres a line in Sherpa that I absolutely love. But I just can't get to the bottom of its meaning. I actually emailed the band about this, but what better way then to ask you guys your thoughts.
"We said we must be friends or die/ And we've died a thousand times since then"
At the surface of it lies the implication that there must have been a break in friendship, or an unstable friendship. Besides that my mind just wont let me dig into it. It must have been something personal to Gord I think. Or maybe not. Now I know there has got to be at least a few of you who have thought about these lines in detail. Let me know!
...but please, no retarded responses. Like I don't want to hear "yo..someone died man" or something like that.
Thank-you!!
I think you hit the nail on the head. Unstable relationship.
If you think about it logically... Friends or die. Die = not friends. Died 1000 times. Ergo therefore i.e. =/= friends 1000 times.
QED
The whole song is about getting really fucking high and talking and also NOT talking with someone you really love. It's maybe my second favourite Hip song at this point.
My take is a little different. "friends or die ..." - therefore if they are not friends they will die and "since then we've died 1000 times" ... meaning they have never been friends (a thousand times over). To me this speaks of a frienship never had ... but tried\thought of\attempted 1000 times. Sort of never speaking, or unsuccessfully attempting a friendship with someone you always wanted to reach out to, but didn't.
I only pay attention to what lyrics mean to me. It's one reason I like the hi so much is their music and lyrics speak to me. I get it. But I wasn't always like that. I've had songs ruined because I thought the meaning was something and then found out the band that wrote it meant something else.
I was emailing Chris about the bonus songs. I liked a song he didn't. he said "that's the great thing about art. it means differentthinga to each person". Same idea applies here...... To me
The bonds formed by a mutual addiction to self-delusion -- drugs or love: We must be true to each other. This relationship is so important that we will almost continually lie to each other to maintain it.
ct
I think...
They're conspiring against old friends, right? These old, former friends are basically dead to them (friends or die)
Then, looking back (much later) on that evening on the hammock in front of the fire, he reflects on how that relationship with the 'vivid girl' went... dead to each other 1000 times... maybe it was an on again, off again thing.
The lyrics seem literal to me. Very specific, possibly even down to a single conversation on a single night.
I think the lyrics were written looking back to that specific night and remembering the freedom of the conversation as it ranged from the trivial to deep. I see the line ..."and we've died a thousand times since then" as a realization of an accumulation of experience and wisdom over the years since that memorable night.
This is the way I relate to those lyrics from the perspective of my experience.
Jerry
Kind of an obscured song too. I like it!
When we were doing the “fan band” thing here this was a song I was going to play. I ended up doing Engaged instead but I like this song
I thought it was about climbing Mt.Everest
sherpa Wrote:I thought it was about climbing Mt.Everest
You have named yourself after a lie.
SoylentGreg Wrote:sherpa Wrote:I thought it was about climbing Mt.Everest
You have named yourself after a lie.
all that training for nothing
now I have to become a drug addict instead i guess
Chris Tanz Wrote:The bonds formed by a mutual addiction to self-delusion -- drugs or love: We must be true to each other. This relationship is so important that we will almost continually lie to each other to maintain it.
ct
Wow guys, thanks for some great posts! This has helped me. I am particularily intrigued by your post Chris. Please explain further with this if you wish. The way you structured this even sounds Gord Downie-ish to me. But what I'm taking from it is that dying a thousand times is actually our failed attempts at maintaining "being true to eachother", even our desperate attempts. Nevertheless still attempts which indicates good and human intentions. And this sheds a dark but also hopeful and optimistic light on the sentence, and I must admit I wanted it to mean something like this.
Am I hitting on your thoughts, or no?
It's so cool how any lyric could be interpreted so differently by anybody. This is an interesting topic because I've always loved this particular lyric and have often thought of the meaning behind it. I've always interpreted it as Gord and his rocky relationship with a long time friend. Since the beginning of their friendship, they would always say to each other that they would always be friends and the only thing that could break their friendship would be death itself. Since they had such a rocky relationship, then they would have had to die a thousand times...to each their own :thumb:
So theres a line in 'Coconut Cream' that I absolutely love. But I just can't get to the bottom of its meaning. I actually emailed the band about this, but what better way then to ask you guys your thoughts.
There's a cannon shooting coconut cream 40 gallons in a steady stream
At the surface of it lies the implication that a giant cannon is literally shooting coconut cream, but my mind can't comprehend the immensity of it all. It must have been something personal to Gord I think.
...but please, no retarded responses. Like I don't want to hear "yo..it's about a giant penis" or something like that.
NB: The above post was written in jest and does not imply that I am (a) mocking the OP or (b) attempting to start a debate about how underrated 'Coconut Cream' is.