Post subject: SOTM #87: This ain't no book you can close...
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 2:13 pm
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Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Cropduster
Light green to green, dark green, brown Every life is falling down Brown to black, its coming back Dies to be part of the ground Seed to seedling, root to stem
Eyes, no eyes, there's no difference Every life is looking in Swallowing seeds on my death bed Dig a hole in the garden
Everyone is practicing But this world's an accident I was the fool because i thought I thought the world Turns out the world thought me Its all the other way 'round We're upside down
Daddy's gone up in flames But this ain't no movie This ain't no book you can close When the big lie hits your eye
Everyone is practicing Our world's an accident I was the fool because I thought I thought the world Turns out the world thought me Its all the other way 'round We're upside down
Down, down, down... Let the fluency set it down Let the fluency set it down There's an upside of down
The moon is rolling 'round the world The moon is rolling 'round the world The world Our world...
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
Cropduster should have been a better song than it is. The vocal performance is average, but there are moments where it hints at greater things (esp during the background vocals in the chorus and outro—I wish the energy there was a little more prominent throughout—much of the delivery lacks the energy that the message demands) and it has lyrics that are much smarter than they may first appear. The music itself is interesting, although a little awkward at times. I like the rolling drums and guitars although it sounds like it is building for a climax that never comes But something goes wrong when it all comes together—the song is not as strong as the sum of its parts.
Daniel Quinn’s influence is clearly visible in this song (in fact, Riot Act bears his stamp much more than Yield). It’s a song about the relationship between humanity and the world around us, in particular the illusion of mastery that explains so much of our excess. That’s clear from the name alone—the image of a small cropduster plane flying over a field and bombarding it with chemicals. The science and technology that is involved in the process of destroying the bugs that threaten crop yields is amazing—we had to master flight, create the chemicals used, establish the infrastructure necessary to make this all possible, yet there is also something alarming about the cavalier, almost blind way we have no problems gassing a field without worrying about what it does to the environment around it, or worrying about the fact that we will soon eat the crops that were just gassed—we are literally sustaining ourselves on our chemical warfare.
The first verse starts out with some familiar cycle of life imagery, but it works well because Eddie gives it a really nice vocal melody here. The song gets more cryptic immediately afterwards—The tension in the “eyes no eyes†verse is between sight and blindness—the fact that our sight makes no difference if we refuse to look at the world around us. If we only gaze inward, if we only look at ourselves and deny our relationship to the rest of the world around us--that we are a part of the world and do not transcend its boundaries—then we are functionally blind and will continue blissfully preparing the way for our own extinction, digging our graves in our garden.
The chorus continues this theme—despite our illusions of mastery (the control we ‘practice’) our lives are ultimatley contingent, beyond our own control. We did not ‘think’ of the world, and since it isn’t our creation we do not get to determine the rules that will govern us. The world ‘thought’ us—and as such we are still subject to the rules that it has laid down. Nature rules man, rather than man ruling nature—the reverse of what we usually believe.
The second verse finds the song getting more urgent, prophesizing dire warnings about where we are going and what is going to happen to us if we don’t change direction. The stakes are enormously high, and when the costs of environmental collapse catch up to us we will be unable to just wish them away or start over. I’m not sure who the ‘daddy’ refers to. I hear it as a condemnation of an older generation of leadership, those who are most blinded by the myths of power and control that enable them to cavalierly dismiss climate change as either made up, or something that is easily solvable without any fundamental change in the way we understand our relationship to the world.
The outro references to fluency could have two meanings. It could just be an awkward reference to affluence (a la ½ full), a call for those who benefit the most from our myths and the reality of our exploitation to abandon the old stories in favor of newer, healthier ones. But if you’re fluent in something it means you understand it and can communicate with it in its own terms, and it could also be a call for those who get it, those who understand to do more, to work harder at communicating the gravity of what is going on around us. And the song ends with the final image of the moon revolving around the earth—a reminder of how large and awesome the larger laws that govern the world are—and that if we wish to be around much longer we must learn to head them. The moon will continue its revolutions regardless of what happens. Will we be here to see it?
In the end it is a song with great ambitions, but it just doesn’t have the power in the music (which is often too sing-songy) or the vocals (which only occasionally have the urgency required) to pull it off. Plus it is almost always disappointing live
Two stars
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:04 am Posts: 12383 Gender: Male
Two stars. I agree with Mr. Stip. This song had the potential to be more, but it never came. The ending comes close, but it's just too short. Like a lot of songs on Riot Act, it lacks passion (cliche, I know, but that's all I have at 10:28 a.m. on a Monday).
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:47 am Posts: 27904 Location: Philadelphia Gender: Male
3 stars (except I accidentally hit the "2" star rating in the poll ). Definitely not one of Riot Act's best songs, but still a good, solid composition.
_________________ It's always the fallen ones who think they're always gonna save me.
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:28 pm Posts: 5361 Location: St. Paul Gender: Male
Wow, stip summed up my thoughts with his first sentence:
stip wrote:
Cropduster should have been a better song than it is.
I hated it on my first listens. I remember cringing the very first time I heard Eddie sing, "Light green to green, dark green, brown". I've warmed up to it a bit over the years, but it's still only a two star song for me. I do like the imagery the title gives the chorus/outro lyrics. I'm actually reminded of the scene in Sesame Street's "Follow That Bird" movie where Bert & Ernie commandeer the biplane and sing the song Upside Down World:
There's upside-down everything all over town
It all looks so funny, that I've got to frown
'Cause a frown! Is a smile! When it's turned upside-down!
In an upside down, what side down?, whoops side down, oops side down, what side down, upside down woooooorld!!!!!
Anyway, as with most Cameron-penned songs in the PJ catalog, it's just way too disjointed and never feels like you're going anywhere, rather you're being jolted in one direction and then the other just as quickly. The lyrics here don't really support this type of song structure, IMO.
I love this song, it's just so cool. I wish I had the time to really explain, I don't understand the criticism this song and Riot Act gets. The outro is perfection and it kicks ass...the outro on this, 1/2 Full, GD, Bushleaguer, All or None and Help are tremendous. So many awesome outros on one album.
Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:26 pm Posts: 434 Location: Where the sun always shines.. (and it does makes me smile!) Gender: Female
4 stars for me.
A big lie may hit your eye all the time.
But you can face the truth, somehow.. sometimes..
_________________ **CAUSE LOVE IS ALL GOOD PEOPLE NEED,..
AND MUSIC SET THE SICK ONES FREE,..
WITHOUT LOVE NO ONE EVER GROWS,..
NOTHING EVER SINGS...**
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 3:12 pm Posts: 214 Location: Athens, Greece Gender: Male
I know a couple of people who don't like this one. I don't agree with them. It is a quite good song. And unfortunately, it has disappeared from the setlits...
_________________ Lisboa 04/09/06, 05/09/06 Αθήνα 30/09/06 London 18/06/07
"...the rare superstars who still play as though each show could be their last..."
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). Definitely not one of Riot Act's best songs, but still a good, solid composition.
...jeff owns this song
I'm just messing. I'd put Hail Hail, In My Tree, Smile, Lukin, Red Mosquito and Present Tense above Cropduster.
