08-18-2004, 03:25 PM
Sorry, but I think it's time to kick the whole Bismarck thing off your pantleg and head for home.
All you have left to link the Bismarck to the song "poetic licence" and is the assertion that GD himself told you so. Given GD's habit of contradicting himself on what his songs are "about" (something he shares with Dylan and many others), I'd take that with a grain of salt.
The numbers don't match, the time doesn't match, the location barely matches (the Bismarck was 600 frigging miles away from the coast; that's in the open ocean, not "off the coast of France," and it's nowhere near a lighthouse). The order to leave men to drown never happened; U-Boat logs show they were specifically ordered to rescue survivors, but couldn't find them.
So the evidence is ... ?
You're free to give the song whatever interpretation you find, of course. But so is everyone else, and this repeated dogmatic assertion that it must be the Bismarck is starting to look pretty silly when compared to a close reading of the lyrics.
The Lancastria is a much better fit to the lyrics, but if someone comes up with a better one, I'd be happy to abandon it.
Is it relevant? Depends what you make of the details. The song seems to be about a relationship going south and the sinking is just a metaphor. but if you base a major part of your reading on the details of some specific sinking you want to link to the song, then it starts to matter.
Somewhat ironic, that quote....
All you have left to link the Bismarck to the song "poetic licence" and is the assertion that GD himself told you so. Given GD's habit of contradicting himself on what his songs are "about" (something he shares with Dylan and many others), I'd take that with a grain of salt.
The numbers don't match, the time doesn't match, the location barely matches (the Bismarck was 600 frigging miles away from the coast; that's in the open ocean, not "off the coast of France," and it's nowhere near a lighthouse). The order to leave men to drown never happened; U-Boat logs show they were specifically ordered to rescue survivors, but couldn't find them.
So the evidence is ... ?
You're free to give the song whatever interpretation you find, of course. But so is everyone else, and this repeated dogmatic assertion that it must be the Bismarck is starting to look pretty silly when compared to a close reading of the lyrics.
The Lancastria is a much better fit to the lyrics, but if someone comes up with a better one, I'd be happy to abandon it.
Is it relevant? Depends what you make of the details. The song seems to be about a relationship going south and the sinking is just a metaphor. but if you base a major part of your reading on the details of some specific sinking you want to link to the song, then it starts to matter.
Somewhat ironic, that quote....