[kieffer]

I have gathered some of the info i have heard and read and put together what some of the songs on IBE are about feel free to add in the ones i don't have (or add your own opinion) and correct me if i am wrong

1 Heaven - Written for/about Dan Snyder

2 Summer - ???

3 Gus - A polar bear and his bout with depression

4 Vaccination Scars - I know i know this one....someone please help!!

5 Nashville - The current state of the world

6 New O is Beat - Apparently about Gord's favourite coffee shop in New Orleans being closed

7 Everywhere - Apparently as others have thought its about George Harrison

8 Makeshift - ??

9 Meanstreak - As gord said in Wasaga its about a small town and the ways they are

10 Heart of the Melt - Its about a relationship that has lost it's spark

11 Copenhagen - Could this be as simple as a song about a night spent in Copenhagen?

12 Family - A song about the conflicts and struggles of relationships??

13 Joe - As Gord said in Sarnia: "This song is about a women so fine they named her Josephine!"

Please add your comments and suggestions

[Stephen Dame]

There are a few threads dealing with the meanings. Just search the titles and you should be able to find em okay.

[jay420]

:oops:

[clearlyentranced]

You actually believe what gord says that a song is about? Come on, he says songs are about different things every gig. :roll: cratch:

[Roy-at-tth]

From the I & I when some guy when up to sing cordeilia

"Why don't you tell them what its about?"

"err...should i just make something up?"

"yeah thats what i do!"

[opiated]

From the I & I when some guy when up to sing cordeilia

"Why don't you tell them what its about?"

"err...should i just make something up?"

"yeah thats what i do!"

makes me laugh everytime i see that...classic gord

[clearlyentranced]

From the I & I when some guy when up to sing cordeilia

"Why don't you tell them what its about?"

"err...should i just make something up?"

"yeah thats what i do!"

I hope that guy isn't on the hipbase here.....he made a fool of himself, and Gord. I punched him after the show...just kidding, I wanted to. I was going to run up, push him out of the way, and take over.

[gibbytime39]

amherst, ny 1996ish..........intro for eldorodo
"this is a song about a man who could suck his own penis!!"

[kieffer]

well in my own defense, i know that Gord often says whatever is on his mind and always is changing what he wrote a song about.....
If you saw them at woodstock you will remember him saying ABAC was a song about the longest snake in the world shedding his skin.....
but i have to believe him about what he said about meanstreak.....and for joe i just threw that in there as an answer to a question i have no idea about

[Killer Whale Tank]

The guy on I & I was invited on stage by Gord to sing 'Cordelia' on the grounds that Gord couldn't remember the words. I mean, wouldn't YOU take Downie up on that?

'New Orleans Is Beat'...I know Gord's said it's about a club, but am I the only one who thinks it might also double as a metaphor for the band? I mean, their signature song is NOIS...the reference is simply too blatant to miss. Maybe 'New Orleans' also doubles as a metaphor for the Hip themselves, Downie's sadness or anxiety or fear that they might not hang together any more (similar to the angst expressed in 'Figment'...'the sanding sound of grudge on the collective...what has happened to us?'...clearly a musing on darker moments in the band's collective endeavour).

Thoughts?

[lord brazle]

'New Orleans Is Beat'...I know Gord's said it's about a club, but am I the only one who thinks it might also double as a metaphor for the band? I mean, their signature song is NOIS...the reference is simply too blatant to miss. Maybe 'New Orleans' also doubles as a metaphor for the Hip themselves, Downie's sadness or anxiety or fear that they might not hang together any more (similar to the angst expressed in 'Figment'...'the sanding sound of grudge on the collective...what has happened to us?'...clearly a musing on darker moments in the band's collective endeavour).

Thoughts?

I half-agree with you. I'd say that it could double as a metaphor but I'm not sure if it's the band. Downie sings, "where's that leave you and me?" as if he's talking to one person/place/object. Also, "your smile is fading a bit" points it may be singular. Maybe he's separating himself from the band and saying, "you know, it's been so long, I'm the frontman, etc, etc, etc..." It's entirely possible.

But my take on it is that it's between him and a woman. I mean, the Tomsett image above the lyrics in the CD is of a man and a woman. I'm thinking it's invoking the same feelings as the bar/cafe/club.... To have something there and enjoy it and expect it to be there and then you go to that "place" but it's no longer there.

What I do when I'm trying to figure out a song is I take each line/couplet and look at them all separately, then put them together for a collective feel. This song is pretty clever though because there seems to be several possibilities but they all center around a relationship either;

1) Between a man and a woman,
2) Between Gord and his favorite spot in New Orleans,
3) Between the band (or just Gord) and "New Orleans Is Sinking"
4) Between the Mississippi river and an environmental disturbance of some kind
5) Between New Orleans (personified) and some of the things that go on there (Mardi Gras, etc). Could it be Gord is singing of the rich cultural heritage of New Orleans being defiled by all them spring-break parties?

Jesus, you know what? After writing all this out, I'm stuck. It's 4 a.m... I started off thinking it was #1 and now I think it's #5. There are probably errors in my reasoning too. I just love discussing the lyrics though. Well, I gotta go and get my 15th coffee...

[eric_c]

There's a bootleg of Coconut Cream where he says that it supposed to make you think of a giant penis spewing coconut cream everywhere.

well in my own defense, i know that Gord often says whatever is on his mind and always is changing what he wrote a song about.....
If you saw them at woodstock you will remember him saying ABAC was a song about the longest snake in the world shedding his skin.....
but i have to believe him about what he said about meanstreak.....and for joe i just threw that in there as an answer to a question i have no idea about

[eric_c]

My take on SIKU (and this is a personal take) is that summer is rarely as good as you think its going to be; that it only exists in its praises.

That, in the middle of winter, you're thinking how great summer is to be and how you're going to do this and that. Then summer gets here and its just sing (work) sing (work) sing(work) all day.

The idea of summer is alot better than the reality of summer.

[thipfan73]

In an interview, the IBE Album world premiere which I got off The Hundredth Meridian, Gord said Gus is about an actual bear in the Central Park zoo who started having dementia like symptoms. Gord read an article about it, wrote down the headline "What's troubling gus?" and it was a very easy song to write from there.

From that same interview Gord said INOIB is about New Orleans being one of the coolest cities in the world and if it's beat, what is this world coming to?



Nashville, from what I read, can't remember where, was inspired by a picture of country singer Toby Keith running through the War zone in Iraq. which to me makes plety of sense.

There was also an explanation of VS in there, something about a town and some disaster like a damn breaking or something. The town officials knew it would happen and never did something about it or something like that and then many people died.



I think Makeshift is actually about people who are unlikely matches banding together, like on reality shows like survivor. I also think it's about how the band has been so very different over the years and they are not the norm for the rock scene and they are very 'makeshift' in thier own way.

[das_hips]

Vaccination Scar is another difficult song to decipher... on the radio premiere he claimed it was about the bridge that collapsed (the Tacoma Narrows), but obviously there is influence from so many other sources. "The saddest cheerleader" who forgot "The American Word"? And a Vaccination Scar isn't really at all related to a enginerring tragedy. I think many of these songs are dealing indirectly with the war in Iraq. VS, You're Everywhere, Meanstreak, Are We Family... that is my personal observations from the lyrics. Where "The Dark Canuck" left-off the last album (a country unwilling to participate pre-war), this album show signs of frustration with the war in Iraq. The only songs I can't fully understand are "Makeshift" and "Josephine"... but, with Gord you never know. As much as I'm convinced 'You're Everywhere' is about war from the half-dozen lines that promote that theme, it could very well be about George Harrison. And Josephine could be about a talking cat... we never will really know the true meaning to half the songs...