Looking for insights on how the phrase "Athabasca depends" is being used in The Depression Suite...I know there was a novel titled Athabasca by McClain (I just put a hold on it at he library)...any thoughts/comments?
Thanks
I think it is referring to Athabaska Alberta - to what meaning I have no idea
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This thread has some good insight into the song as a whole that should give context. I take it to refer to the fact that the Athabaska old sands in Alberta depend on the migrant and out of province workers and that the whole 3rd movement of the song (Don't You Wanna See How it Ends) is essentially the internal dialogue of one of those workers who is attempting to resist being sucked into the Boomtown economy and mentality.
Bring on the requisite strangeness
It always has to get a little weird a little weird
Yea you just bring on the requisite strangeness
Bring it on then disappear disappear
Go to be a man of the boom
To Florida without the ocean
But
Don't you wanna see how it ends?
When the door is just starting to open?
When Athabasca depends?
Don't you wanna see how it ends
I can hear you
But I can't stay here
You left me lost in the Barrens
You left me born on the stairs
It's minus 11
Inside my kettle
I didn't come to get lost in the Barrens
I didn't come to settle
To be a man on the moon
To get my little slice of heaven
Yeah
Don't you wanna see how it ends?
When the door is just starting to open?
And Athabasca depends
Doncha wanna see how it ends
Don't you wanna see how it ends?
The door is just starting to open.
Athabasca depends.
Don't you wanna see how it ends?
Yeah
Don't you wanna see how it ends?
I'm holding the door to the Barrens
And Athabasca depends
Doncha wanna see how it ends?
TO me when I read this it sounds like gobbldygook in the best Jon Anderson manner. I love how it sounds but it don't mean nothing to me. Maybe a line of coke and a bottle of Whiskey would help clear it up.
Optimism, tainted with realism -- Florida without the ocean. Your hope has to be tinged with irony to encourage someone to accompany you out to the middle of nowhere to grab a little slice of heaven, saying "come on, let's see how this ends" because no matter how good it is (is it?), it's going to end. As good as a boom in the tar sands is (is it?), it's tough to get beyond being lost in the barrens up in Northern Alberta, where it's minus 11, even inside a kettle that you would expect to be boiling -- and it's going to end; it has the requisite strangeness of a boomtown; the whole thing's a little weird. You bring the whole thing on -- the whole trappings of civilization to the wilderness -- and then it disappears.
But -- it's also the third movement of the suite depression -- I haven't ever been clinically depressed, but I would imagine that getting through it is a lot about getting through it -- seeing it to an end; seeing that there is an end to it. So the whole final part of the song encourages you to get through it, to see how it ends. And even if it ends with you being a man on the moon in the barrens, your victory will have been in getting through it. Like getting though a nine-minute song without any desire, ever, to skip past it to The Exact Feeling.
So, like any good Gord lyric, it's about everything all at once; it depends. He couldn't ever give you just the optimism, without the realism, but he can't resist giving you another dose of the optimism. Okay, enough of the hard stuff. I'm probably projecting something, because this is essentially the same theme as my interpretation of the Sherpa lyric in the other thread.
ct
on that note I don't actually get symbolism at all which would probably explain why I have no idea what any Hip songs are about - barring the Coconut Cream Pie song and the one about March of the Penguins. Oh and obviously New Orleans is Sinking is about Katrina - duh like that one isn't obvious. And Born in the Water is about Aqua birthing.
sherpa Wrote:And Born in the Water is about Aqua birthing.
I love it!
ct
Isnt there a Canadian Navy warship called the Athabaska? Could put a whole new meaning to the song if we can figure out how to get a warship into play.
My interpretation, which is fairly simple:
A man has taken a job in the oil sands, in northern Alberta. His partner doesn't want to stay.
Either could be singing: The man saying, just wait, I didn't come here to settle, it will be over soon, it's so cold in my tin trailer without you, don't you want to see the money I'll make?, we'll be happy then; or the woman saying, I didn't come here to stay, it's terrible up here, don't you want to see our relationship blossom, when the door was just starting to open?
Athabasca depends, in this context, could mean: "I don't have to stay here" or "this is what we need."
I prefer to think of it as "Wait, if you really want I won't stay. It depends."
Lost in the Barrens is a Farley Mowatt book. It becomes even more relevant when one considers the subtitle: "Two against the North."
Cheers,
John
Is there any chance that Athabasca Depends has something to do with Adult Diapers in northern Alberta?
i think it was during Live at the Bathhouse or maybe at a show i went to, but i specifically remember Gord saying something about a woman moving to Fort Mac to start a better life and ends up broken down and living in a tent.
pretty sure thats what the line was about
an interesting story in the edmonton sun today regarding temporary foreign workers up in the oilsands being totally f`ed over. $3 an hour!
hock:
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I'm pretty sure, since Gord works with Waterkeepers and is always talking about keeping our lakes and rivers clean, that he is just referencing Lake Athabasca.
The lake covers 7,850 km2 (3,030 sq mi), is 283 km (176 mi) long, has a maximum width of 50 km (31 mi), and a maximum depth of 124 m (410 ft), and holds 204 km3 (49 cu mi) of water, making it the largest and deepest lake in both Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the eighth largest in Canada.[3] Water flows northward from the lake via the Slave River and Mackenzie River systems, eventually reaching the Arctic Ocean. Fort Chipewyan, one of the oldest European settlement in Alberta, is located on the western shore of the lake, where the Riviere Des Rochers drains the lake and flows toward Slave River, beginning its northward journey along the eastern boundary of Wood Buffalo National Park.
Lake Athabasca contains 23 species of fish, with a world record lake trout of 46.3 kg (102 lb) having been caught from its depths in 1961 by means of a gillnet.
I like the "I didn't come to settle" line in particular, because I think it cuts two ways:
- I didn't come here to settle down; I'm here to make my money and split when the boom busts
- I didn't come to settle for less (e.g. for a partial experience); I'm not just here as part of some temporary boom
ct
sherpa Wrote:on that note I don't actually get symbolism at all which would probably explain why I have no idea what any Hip songs are about - barring the Coconut Cream Pie song and the one about March of the Penguins. Oh and obviously New Orleans is Sinking is about Katrina - duh like that one isn't obvious. And Born in the Water is about Aqua birthing.
New Orleans is Sinking was written years before Katrina