 Genius Lyrics
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The Decemberists – When the War Came
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The song is the sixth track off the Decemberist album ‘Crane Wife’. It was inspired by actual events that happened in Russia during WWII and a book that told the story of botanist
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The Decemberists (Ft. Laura Veirs) – Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
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This is the third song off of the Decemberist 2006 album ‘Crane Wife’. The song itself tells the story of a man who died during the Civil War. It has two different narrators; the
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The Decemberists – O Valencia!
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O Valencia! has a plot not unlike that of Romeo and Juliet: Guy loves girl, girl loves guy, but their families are feuding, and alas, the girl dies.
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The Decemberists – Cocoon
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This cocoon, caught in Vesuvius' shadow / Only the ashes remain / And I waited there for you / Why couldn't you? / Here we lie waiting for something to startle / To shake us from
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The Decemberists – Sons and Daughters
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Frontman Colin Meloy picked this as one of The Decemberists' best songs in an interview, saying:
It’s another two-chord song. It was the first song I ever wrote on [the Greek folk
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The Decemberists – Calamity Song
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Lead singer, Colin Meloy, told NPR’s World Cafe that this was their attempt at a disaster song.
The music video is noteworthy for being a dramatisation of scene from David Foster
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The Decemberists – Shankill Butchers
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Frontman Colin Meloy told Pitchfork: “I was reading the Van Morrison biography by Johnny Rogan last summer; I was in Ireland, and there’s a section where he talks about the
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The Decemberists – Summersong
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[Verse 1] / Ramblin' / Where to begin? / I taste the summer on your peppery skin / Been saved / The warm of the waves / I felt a slip into a watery grave / [Refrain] / Oh-oh / Oh
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The Decemberists – My Mother Was a Chinese Trapese Artist
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This song was originally recorded by Colin Meloy’s band Tarkio, and later released by the Decemberists on their first EP. The lyrics are pure, untempered Meloy.
Colin went on a
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The Decemberists – This Is Why We Fight
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From a 2010 article in Spin:
The track closes with a raw recording of a woman singing about her dog running through a field, accompanied by banjo and harmonica. It sounds like an
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Dark Lunacy – The Decemberists
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[За Дунаем, за Дунаем / Beyond the Danube, beyond the Danube / За Дунаем, за рекой / Beyond the Danube, across the river / Шли походом, шли походом / The march passed, the march
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The Decemberists – The Crane Wife 1 & 2
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The Crane Wife is originated as an ancient Japanese folk tale that tells the story of a man who finds a wounded crane, nurtures it back to health and releases it, only to have the
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The Decemberists – The Perfect Crime #2
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Sing, muse, of the passion of the pistol / Sing, muse, of the warning by the whistle / On a night so dark in the waning / A dawn obscured by slate sky raining / Five and twenty
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Genius Lists – Songs Based on Historical Events
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This Genius project helps connect music to historical events
Many times, we listen to a song, not ever knowing it was based on an actual event in history. The list includes a very
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The Decemberists – E. Watson
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“E. Watson” is a murder ballad on The Decmberists EP Long Live the King, which was released on November 1, 2011.
“E. Watson” is based on the historical life of Edgar J. Watson
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The Decemberists – June Hymn
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Here's a hymn to welcome in the day / Heralding a summer's early sway / And all the bulbs all coming in / To begin / The thrushes bleating battle with the wrens / Disrupts my
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The Decemberists – The Crane Wife 3
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“The Crane Wife 3” is the opening track to the Decemberists fourth album, The Crane Wife. It’s based on the Japanese folk tale, The Crane Wife. In the tale, a man finds and saves
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The Decemberists – The Legionnaire's Lament
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This song is sung from the point of view of a homesick soldier in the French Foreign Legion, most likely during the conquest of Algeria from 1830-1847.
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The Decemberists – Shiny
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This song appears to be about a visitor to a gypsy fair who falls for one of their girls.
She keeps swindling him, but he doesn’t care because he’s so taken by her features
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The Decemberists – Cavalry Captain
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[Chorus] / I am the cavalry captain / I am the remedy to your heart / I am the common collective / I am imprinted upon your stars / [Verse 1] / And when you shine, shine your eyes
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Lin-Manuel Miranda & Leslie Odom, Jr. – Dear Theodosia
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Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton both had children very soon after the Revolutionary War. Here they take a moment to coo, and to realize the human element of the country they are
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The Decemberists – Starwatcher
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When asked to comment on the meaning of this song in a Reddit AMA, Colin said:
I think there are two figures – the starwatcher and the skywatcher and they’re both like wild
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The Decemberists – The Island: Come and See; The Landlord’s Daughter; You’ll Not Feel the Drowning
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This song is inspired by and about William Shakespeare’s play ‘the Tempest’.
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Genius Lists – Songs Based On Stories
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The perfect way for Lit Geniuses to get in on the music scene, or vice versa. Let us know if you work on any of these songs by making an annotation.
– Album cover to Leviathan
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The Decemberists – 16 Military Wives
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This entire song is perhaps the band’s most direct critique of America and in particular, the Bush administration. The first verse deals with the pointless deaths of the wars, the
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