Grant Lee Phillips makes reference to a myriad of historical figures, places and events in his lyrics. I did a bit of research on these and, for those who are interested, here it is.
'The Shining Hour' - "Are we still on the phone with Lady Anna
Clarke and her trumpet solo?"
I could find no direct reference to Lady Anna but I did find out a bit about a Mr. Jeremiah Clarke. He was an English composer who shot himself after a love affair turned sour. One of his compostions is titled The "Trumpet Voluntary", so perhaps this is linked to the "trumpet solo" and subsequently, Lady Anna Clarke. Or is it merely a coincidence?
However, I now have it on good authority that Lady Anna Clarke was actually "some sort of psychic who used a trumpet shaped hearing aid to communicate with the dead."
'The Shining Hour' - "And the back door key's a 19th-Century civil
war sword once owned by John Booth who misplaced his script
when he caught his leather boot."
John Wilkes Booth assassinated American President Abraham Lincoln
on the 14th of April, 1865. Lincoln died the following morning and
Booth was killed two weeks later. Lincoln was elected President
shortly before the Civil War broke out, hence "...19th Century civil
war...". The "script" seems to be referring to Wilkes' brother, Edwin
Booth who was an actor, most notably appearing in many Shakespearian
tragic roles.
Here's what Tim Day has to say about the reference to John Booth:
"John was an actor as well, although a failed, second-rate actor with
a serious drinking problem. When he did carry off the assassination
of Lincoln, he treated it as a drama in which he was a great hero of
the South (those who seceded from the US and started the war). He
sneaked into the the President's balcony box and shot Lincoln in the
back of the head [he was watching an English comedy "My American
Cousin"]. Booth then tried to leap from the balcony to the stage, but
in doing so, caught his boot spur on the bunting adorning the
President's box and crashed onto the stage, breaking his leg. He then
brandished his gun, yelled out something (many say he yelled, "Sic
Semper Tyrannis" - Latin for "Thus always with tyrants") and limped
away. I believe this is what makes the GLB lyric so poignant - what
he thought would be his greatest moment of glory is ruined by
catching his heel and crashing to the ground."
'The Shining Hour' - "There's a hole in the wall behind the
photograph of Al Capone..."
Al Capone was an American gangster, born in Italy, 1899. He was imprisoned in 1931 for income tax evasion and died in 1947.
'The Shining Hour' - "I propose a toast to the memory of the horse
who carried King Tut and his gold into the sun..."
'King Tut' refers to Tutankhamen, the King of Egypt of the 18th dynasty. He became king at the age of 11 and died at the age of 18.
'Dixie Drug Store' - "'Mister, I just spent the night with a a
young girl named Laveau..."
According to Saeed Farouky, Mary Laveau was "a Voodoo "witch" who lived and is buried in New Orleans. Apparently a bit of a popular woman, she was nicknamed the "Queen of New Orleans." Phillips, it seems, is trying to tell us he met her, she fed him and cleaned his clothes, he slept wit her, and she took off the next morning with not only her bottle of bourbon but the entire contents of her store. Tough break Grant." Thanks for the information.
'Grace' - "Whatcha say, Pocahontas..."
Pocahontas was the daughter of an American Indian chief, Wahunsonacook or, as the Englishmen renamed him, King Powhatan. In 1607, she saved the life of Captain John Smith from death at the hands of her father's warriors. She married an Englishman, John Rolfe and traveled to England with him where she caught smallpox and died on the boat back to America.
'Grace' - "You remember Houdini, not a shackle could
hold..."
Harry Houdini was an American escape artist and magician . He gained an international reputation through his ability to escape from handcuffs, straitjackets and locked containers. He "cut a trapdoor into heaven" in 1926 after rupturing his appendix - one of his old tricks was to be punched in the stomach without flinching, he played one trick too many.
'Lone Star Song' - "He shouted to the Fandamties..."
I'm not too certain about this one but apparently it is some kind of old religious cult. If anyoiine knows anything more than this please help me out!!
'Lone Star Song' - "And the angels are descending like
Koresh said they would before too long."
David Koresh was the leader of a bizarre cult, Branch Davidian, based in Waco, Texas - hence "With a T for Texas..." The FBI got wind of his exercises, swooped in and burned their "fort" to the ground.
'Lone Star Song' - "Like M.A. Reno said they would before
too long."
Originally I had the lyric as 'Marina' but I now have it on good authority that it is actually 'M.A. Reno', "referring to Master at Arms Reno aka Janet Reno."
Incidentally, Marina was the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin of American president John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 - take your pick, they both fit!
'Lone Star Song' - "...down in Dealy Plaza."
Dealy Plaza, Dallas, Texas, I believe was where Abraham Zapruder stood on November 22, 1963, the day of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Zapruder filmed the shooting on his home video camera.
'Sing Along' - "Man slew the bisons and he built a Thieves'
Road..."
The Thieves' Road existed in the late 19th century and it led into the heart of the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa, where there was a large gold deposit. In 1868, the Great Father (the Indian term for President) who at the time just happened to be Ulysses S. Grant (it all fits together...) had given the land to the Indians who lived there forever after deeming it worthless. In 1872, miners began invading the Black Hills in search of gold. Any white man that was found was either killed or chased out by the Indians. With the huge influx of miners, the Army was ordered to make a reconaissance into the Hills and off General George Armstrong Custer went without having obtained any permission from the Sioux inhabitants or having given a prior warning. This so angered the Indians that Grant pledged "to prevent all invasion of this country by intruders so long as by law and treaty it is secured to the Indians." But this was before Custer reported that the Black Hills were filled with gold. This triggered an even bigger flood of miners into the area and the trail cut by Custer's supply wagons into the heart of the Black Hills soon became known as the Thieves' Road.
I got this information from the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.
'Sing Along' - "That pass over Tel Aviv-Jaffa..."
Tel Aviv-Jaffa is a city in central Israel. Tel Aviv was originally a suburb north of Jaffa which was founded in 1909 to relieve overpopulation of the Jewish quarter in the otherwise Arab town. The two towns were separated in 1921 as a result of tension between the Arabs and Jews. By 1936, Tel Aviv had becme the largest city in Palestine. Nearly the entire Arab population fled Jaffa upon its capture, in 1948, by Jewish forces but the two cities were reunited in 1950. Jaffa's ancient name is Joppa, its Arabic name if Yafa but it also known as Yafo.
'Sing Along - "And man built the prisons, the Joliet, San
Quentin, Levenworth..."
These are prisons in America. That's all I know about them but if anyone else has some more information on them of significance, I'd love to hear from you..
'Demon Called Deception' - "...dropping like a star
Wormwood..."
Thanks to Matthew Seth Meyer who provided me with the story behind this Biblical reference: the line "dropping like a star wormwood" is a reference to the Book Of Revelations in the Bible. In chapter 8, during the seven Trumpet judgements, the third sends a star crashing to earth which poisons a third of the earth's waters. The star's name is Wormwood."
'Demon Called Deception' - "Johnny sang..."
I had absolutely no idea but apparently the song is about Johnny Cash which is who this line is referring to. If I can I'll try to find out more from my 'source' but for now that's all I can offer.
'Lady Godiva and Me'
Lady Godiva was an Englishwoman who rode naked through Coventry in an attempt to persuade her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, to reduce the taxes he had placed on the town. The story was later extended to include a Peeping Tom who, having ignored Lady Godiva's request that the townsfolk remained in their houses, was stricken blind.
'Drag' - "Sing Van Morrison, 'Would you kiss-a my
eyes?"
I'm sure you all know who Van Morrison is but, as Dirk Shulze pointed out to me: "the fragment of 'Drag' you didn't have is "Sing Van Morrison, would you kiss-a my eyes," - a reference to the title track of Van's 1968 album "Astral Weeks' in which he sings "Would you kiss-a my eyes and lay me down in silence easy to be born again."
'Last Days of Tecumseh'
Tecumseh was a chief of a tribe of American Indians, the Shawnees. He led an Indian confederacy against the advances of the whites in the North West. Tecumseh's tribe was ambushed at the battle of Tippacanoe and subsequently he swore to wage eternal war against the settlers. It was thought, among frontiersmen, that the British in Canada were helping Tecumseh in his campaign and this led to a demand among the 'war hawks' in the US congress to stage a war against Britain. This became the War of 1812 in which Tecumseh was killed.
Brad had this to add: "Tecumseh was actually killed in Southwestern Ontario between Chatham and London. Chatham has made a recreational park in his memory on the Thames river bank where part of the battle of 1812 was fought. And midway between Chatham and London there is a Tecumseh memorial." Thanks!
'Orpheus' (B-side)
Orpheus was a legendary Greek musician and poet. He was the son of the muse Calliope and born to either the King of Thrace, Oeagrus or Apollo. Orpheus sailed with the Argonauts to search for the Golden Fleece after which he married Eurydice, a dryad (a type of nymph inhabiting trees). Eurydice soon died of a snake bite and Orpheus decended to the underworld of Hades (taken from the name of it's ruler, the Greek god of the dead) to recover her. Persephone, the Greek goddess of the underworld, was charmed by Orpheus' playing on the lyre and released Eurydice but on the condition that Orpheus would not look back at her. He disobeyed this command and Eurydice was lost. Orpheus finally met his death by dismemberment at the hands of the maenads, followers of Dionysus (the Greek god of wine, one of the legends surrounding him is peoples' reluctance to acknowledge his divinity and his subsqeuent retribution - as a result of this Pentheus, King of Thebes, was mawled to death by Dionysus' fanatical female followers, the maenads).
'Goodnight, John Dee' (B-side)
An English mathematician, astronomer, magician and alchemist. Dee was distrusted by Queen Mary I but was favoured and frequently consulted by Queen Elizabeth I. He entered into a partnership with a composer and imposter called Edward Kelly and they travelled to Bohemia and Poland together. John Dee's writings and work reflected a fascination with magic as well as having written a preface to the first English translation of Euclid, a Greek mathematician famous for deriving all that was known of geometry using only a few simple axioms.
A fellow Grant Lee Buffalo fan, Dan Visel, offered this
information and interpretation:
"As you suggest, this song is about Sir John Dee. I did some research
on him and although he was a man who did many things, I think the
song is about one of his more bizarre exploits. Towards the end of
his life, he began to believe that he could talk with angels, in a
language he called "enochian" (from enoch, one of the first men.) he
conversed with the angel uriel using a crystal that he called the
"shew-stone" (this is in the song.) I think the song is about the
transcendence of man talking to angels--"the seer who looked into the
mirror/and left his sleeping wife behind", but in the end, the
narrator rejects this --"Goodnight John Dee."
