Heartland Lyrical References

[Alyssa!]

Sup y'all. Owen put a lot of work into his lyrics both in crafting a world and being rather sly. He clearly references "Your Light is Spent" in Tryst With Mephistopheles, and "My Body is a Cage" in Keep the Dog Quiet. A bunch of other less specific ideas have been floating around, I guess this would be the place to put/discuss them. Examples:

Oh Heartland, Up Yours!: both the title and lyrical hook could make reference to "Oh Bondage, Up Yours!" by X-Ray Spex. In the same piece: "If I only had a rowboat I would row it up to heaven" has a lot in common with this line from Radiohead's "Pyramid Song": "We all went to heaven in a little rowboat."

Implications? Other stuff going on? Discuss!

[Peter Heke]

The Great Elsewhere - The Flying V is a popular model of guitar.

Oh Heartland, Up Yours! - "The stars collected. Each world accounted for." is likely a reference to Mario-style platformers, in which the objective is to navigate through various levels/worlds collecting some sort of object. Stars are popular, as are puzzle-pieces, crystals, small animals and emeralds.

[Peter Heke]

I just realised...I levelled up. I am now a pretty girl. <(._.<)

[ben]

The Great Elsewhere - Victoria was Magellan's ship (on his last voyage?)

WDYTWHN? - "the old memorials covered in snow" reminds me of the end of Joyce's Dubliners:

"It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

WDYTWHN? - "the fire of Surtur": Surtr was a Norse god who commanded fire: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtr

[joebonte]

Feb 15, 2010 19:03:13 GMT -5 Peter Heke said:

The Great Elsewhere - The Flying V is a popular model of guitar.

I seem to remember owen talking about electric violins a while back in twitter, then following it with something like "....say no to the flying V" as in that style of design :3

Tryst With Mephistopheles -
Simple stuff but;
Psalm 21 - www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Psalm+21

"For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bow(s)"

I can't help but read too much into things, but violin bow? ^_^

[Ren]

In Tryst Midnight (oops)...

Cross her off the shortlist. - Like...the Polaris shortlist?

Carry me away from the croft.
Ruffle my hair, bear my body aloft - this bit is very Zeus/Ganymede to me.

In What Do You Think...
Scissors of fate The scissors of the Fate Atropos

A sharpened bit of the mistletoe. Loki used one to kill Baldur.

[Scarychips]

Feb 16, 2010 6:13:55 GMT -5 Ren said:

In Midnight...

Cross her off the shortlist. - Like...the Polaris shortlist?

Carry me away from the croft.
Ruffle my hair, bear my body aloft - this bit is very Zeus/Ganymede to me.

In What Do You Think...
Scissors of fate The scissors of the Fate Atropos

A sharpened bit of the mistletoe. Loki used one to kill Baldur.

fixed your post.

[Alyssa!]

Feb 15, 2010 20:54:09 GMT -5 joebonte said:

Feb 15, 2010 19:03:13 GMT -5 Peter Heke said:

The Great Elsewhere - The Flying V is a popular model of guitar.

I seem to remember owen talking about electric violins a while back in twitter, then following it with something like "....say no to the flying V" as in that style of design :3

Tryst With Mephistopheles -
Simple stuff but;
Psalm 21 - www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Psalm+21

"For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bow(s)"

I can't help but read too much into things, but violin bow? ^_^

That bit about the bow is brilliant! Especially since Lewis does strike Owen in the face...with a iron spike, I never got that part. Maybe also, "Blazing Oven" ---> flaming Owen? ;D

Psalm 21 is an interesting choice in other ways. The first stanza of it talks about the happiness of kings, and that they are blessed by the lord in their control. Yet, didn't Lewis just take part in a huge campaign to take down No-Face and "liberate" Spectrum, and didn't he win? He must be in some sort of position of having conquored! And as a result, how will you treat the man whose fire must have contributed to the destruction and erasing of these foes?... disemboweling him?

[ragamuffin]

Other people has mentioned this, but the come tornado bit in Midnight Directives is probably a reference to Super Mario 3.

[sarpedon]

"From the wight lying in the barrow" is probably referencing the Barrow Wights from Lord of the Rings.

[Alyssa!]

From the same song, "to the priest with his broken arrow" might be in the same vein as the thing in Psalm 21 that joe pointed out: priest/kings shooting with bows?

[Scarychips]

And again from the same song, "There's a method to the madness" references Shakespeare's Hamlet.

[jules]

Feb 17, 2010 0:01:58 GMT -5 Scarychips said:

And again from the same song, "There's a method to the madness" references Shakespeare's Hamlet.

[Deleted]

Oh, you wrote me like a Disney kid, in cut-offs and a beater
With a feathered fringe, it doesn't suit a simoniac breeder.
Doesn't work, doesn't fly, doesn't handle.


Anyone?

[Deleted]

In Tryst, "The Great White Noise" is probably about the noise source on the ARP 2600.