[Stephen Dame]

*Paging LB*

This is one that isn't normally dissected like some of the others, yet it keeps coming up among personal favourites and has some pretty descriptive lyrics.

I haven't been able to put a finger on one particular thing, but some observations...

I think it could be about power, about dominance, about holding sway over somebody or a group of people. The obvious misogynistic over tone is there, but I think it could go deeper than that:

- I see migrant Mexican workers in the Tobacco fields of Ontario. This came to me for two reasons.

#1 The Vapour Trails themselves, both from the cigarette's they're making/smoking, and the jet fumes from planes passing over head. In Ontario, migrant workers fired from the job, have to be on a plane back to Mexico (Or wherever) within 24 hours... They can only file an appeal once they've arrived home. It's an arbitrary system, and these men have little or no rights and work for next to nothing. They're basically oppressed in the land where they seek a better life.

#2 I watched a group of them harvesting Strawberries at a farm outside Carp (near Ottawa) and immedeatly noticed how they line up and then literally lean on their hoe's or pitchforks and then lean over the hose at the end of the day in order to clean their shoes... could this be what Gord is referencing?

So, I'm getting the unequal power men often assert over women and the inequitable power "the state" ("The Man..." whichever) holds over the less fortunate.

Does anybody have any other interpretations about VT?

[grooveless touque]

I think it's about a loss of control over your own life, maybe a loss as you grow up and have more and more of your life "tied down"...the very first line, "titillations have been replaced by insterstate brickface and coffee-mate" always made me think of someone whose youthful excitements and freedoms have been subverted by work (coffee-mate) and driving to work (interstate). Sitting on the edge of your bed in the morning, before you put on your shoes, staring disinterestedly at them and thinking "these $150 shoes represent my ties to a life I don't even like" is a pretty interesting idea too. The "go wherever you choose" would be a reference to sitting there for a minute wondering if you gave it all up today, what could you be doign that you'd find more spiritually fulfilling and rewarding..."how can I get back to what I've lost" kinda thing.

Sort of like the opposite of Emporer Penguin...there, he's the caring father figure, here, he's feeling the constraints of it all.

[cferneyh]

I think it's about a loss of control over your own life, maybe a loss as you grow up and have more and more of your life "tied down"...the very first line, "titillations have been replaced by insterstate brickface and coffee-mate" always made me think of someone whose youthful excitements and freedoms have been subverted by work (coffee-mate) and driving to work (interstate). Sitting on the edge of your bed in the morning, before you put on your shoes, staring disinterestedly at them and thinking "these $150 shoes represent my ties to a life I don't even like" is a pretty interesting idea too. The "go wherever you choose" would be a reference to sitting there for a minute wondering if you gave it all up today, what could you be doign that you'd find more spiritually fulfilling and rewarding..."how can I get back to what I've lost" kinda thing.

Sort of like the opposite of Emporer Penguin...there, he's the caring father figure, here, he's feeling the constraints of it all.

I'm with you, sort of. I agree with the idea of a person who has moved from the carefree days of his life to face the real responsibilities of life. But at night he dreams about taking off - specifically heading south "past hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms" and maybe being like Tom Cruise in Cocktail (!). But Gord's voice is the voice of reason - trying to get him back in the car, trying to get him to come home and face the real world. But he's running away from that until finally realizes that yes, he has to head home, wake up, and start it all over again.....

[grooveless touque]

Yes, I agree that it isn't necessarily Gord himself feeling this way, and he's sort of looking at someone who is. Obviously, Gord's life is less constrained than anyone else's. He has the money to do whatever he wants, and only has to be away from his family when he chooses to tour, and then even not for all that long. I don't feel that Gord himself feels an undertow from his professional responsibilities. Those "shoes," symbolically a link to an undesirable life, would really mean nothing to him because he has the kind of life he could easily change if he wanted - if he ever got tired of being a rock star, he has the freedom to do anything else he pleases. I have never seen Cocktail, so I can't respond to that bit, but you do make a good point clarifying that Gord is an omniscient presence in the song, not the subject itself.

[skippy the wonder dog]

Like a zillion GD lyrics it seems to deal with being on the road, and being somewhat burned out with it: titillation's been replaced by interstate brickface and coffeemate.

But he faces a choice: he can continue, or he can throw away the rudder and float away wherever the wind carries him. As he has a choice to pick up the hitchhiker or not, or the hitchhiker can choose to plod onwards.

The Mexican migrant labourers get their choice made for them: now that the morning is over and the heat is on the tobacco fields, it's time to fire up them irrigation sprinklers. They, too, are quitting work, or at least pausing.

Vapour trails indicate the direction a distant plane is travelling, but they're ephemeral. He's offering to throw away the rudder (discard direction) and disappear with the vapour trails.

So I think it's about pausing for a second, and contemplating whether to go on.

[lord brazle]

I think I probably agree with all that has been said already but in a combining-all-opinions sorta way. The song has a "rising" to it. A victory in the world of factories and nine-to-five bleakness.

"Titillations been replaced by Interstate brickface and Coffee-Mate" is definitely the office metaphor but "Interstate brickface" is a a phrase that has haunted Gordie since '88... if you refer here... he says it right at the beginning... "And by a list of phone calls you'll like to make" gives the feel of missed opportunites, like, kids don't grow-up saying "I want to be stuck in a cubicle, typing and filing." you know? So the list of phone-calls is probably regrets.

"Where you could sit on the edge of your bed and you and stare into your own shoes and in the pools of light there go wherever you choose" could be one of two things; simply daydreaming or getting away from your boring reality or, more cryptically, it details the option to actually leave, like finding a reason (the light pools) and the shoes being the means of transportation to the desired goal. "Just rig up a complication and if it derails - You can throw away the rudder and float away like vapour trails" is kinda obvious (to me, at least); floating away? Throwing away the rudder? Going with the flow.

"There's nothing funnier then pride in an utterly confident stride - So I pulled the car on over to give you a ride - "Damn this sleepy weather," he said - As he marched in sopping wet shoes - Through rainpools evaporating - Says in this sign I'll conquer you - I pulled the car on over to give you a ride - But there's nothing uglier than a man hitting his stride"

This entire section reinforces the idea of leaving the dreary grey of the nine-to-five-life. The man is trudging after the rain-storm (rain gives the notion of sadness as they mimick tears... to us North Americans, at least; someone in Africa or S.A. might look at rain differently) with wet shoes (his battle-scars) and then Gordie pulls over and offers him a ride (obviously some sort of help), which probably would've come in handy before the rain-storm (whatever depression or something) and will result in Gordie getting his car all wet.

(Now the mornings over light wind blows) - Past Mexicans all dressed in beige shirts - Leaning over their hoes - Now the morning's over - It's time to let them sprinklers hose

"Grunt work". Once again, kids don't grow-up wanting to do field-work and such so it's probably just reinforcing the idea of compromising, giving up dreams and such for survival. And once again with the chambermaids;

Past hills of chambermaids dark bare arms
And fields of muscles quilted to the bone

One thing I've always noticed with alot of older literature, mostly 19th century, is the author sometimes repeats the same thing three times but puts in different ways. It's weird and they might only say it once or twice but I noticed for some reason it's three times. It's irrelevant though. It doesn't elude any meaning from the song. I wish I had a concrete example but you'll probably notice it or you already have. Anyway the same seems to be true for this song. The Office-Drones, the Field-Workers and the Hotel-Clean-Up; all jobs nobody exactly chooses. In essence, I'd say this is a song about escaping the everyday.

[Stephen Dame]

I think I probably agree with all that has been said already but in a combining-all-opinions sorta way. The song has a "rising" to it. A victory in the world of factories and nine-to-five bleakness.

THAT was beautiful...

Thanks everybody.

[direwolf74]

Wow, great interpretations all around! And to think all this time I thought it was about hockey.


:mrgreen: