RFI/Lyric Help/Lyrical Analysis Help: Bill Fay's "Pictures of Adolph Again"

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Googling turned up no information on this song, allegedly by British songwriter Bill Fay. AMG was no help either. The only way I know it is by an internet only Jim O'Rourke/Glen Kotche cover from www.protest-records.com (go to the mp3 page and click Vol.2 to download it). It's a great song, by far the best one of the lot and perhaps the only good one that came out of that site.

Anyhow, this is the best I can do at transcribing the lyrics, but there are a few points I don't know what he's saying. Similarly, I generally "get" the song but there are a few lines I don't "get".

In the papers, on the TV screen
Pictures of Adolph again
Sure as I sit here, there will appear
Pictures of Adolph again

You're wrong, you're wrong
throw down your cards
You're wrong, you're wrong
If you say it (?) won't come

Ok deny representation
by leaders of our nation
but have you got, have you really got
anyone to replace them?

You're wrong, you're wrong
wrote down your cards
you're wrong, you're wrong
Ok then who's gonna come?

Christ or Hitler, Christ or Wolston (?)
Christ, all the Caesars to come

That's a choice, that's a choice
sooner or later
that's a choice, that's a choice
that you're all going to have to make.
--

Complex ideas for a political song, I think. But a few questions:

1) What does "You're wrong, wrote down your cards" mean? (the first time I think he says "throw down your cards," but the second time I'm almost sure it's "wrote".)

2) When he says "Christ or Hitler, Christ or (???)" is he implying that Christ is the lesser of two evils? If so, rock on, Bill Fay.

3) There seem to be two major ideas at play here: That Hitler-level evil and demagoguery will keep reappearing and is not something to be relegated to the past, and that it's easy to be an armchair radical or critic, but not so easy to make the ugly choices you're faced with if you want to actually have a say in the politics that affect you. But why do these two ideas appear together in a song and how do they relate?

Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Bump.

Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.