November Has Come

Has no one else noticed the allusion to Death in the title?

I thought the idea was strange, the first time I heard of the month November being symbolic of Death. I had never thought of it in that way before. My high school English teacher explained to us when we were analyzing poetry that November, being the month before December, then January (when the New Year begins) symbolizes Death. The death of old habits, a lifestyle, a loved one, precedes the birth of a new year and a new beginning.

I think in 'November Has Come', Gorillaz are referring to the death of a gangster, whose violent life is essentially doomed from the outset, and therefore a metaphor for Death being inevitably close by. Perhaps Death has already come for him, and the song is a jaded reflection on ghetto life in general.

There are two protagonists in the song, which leads me to think that one (MF Doom) is a gangster, currently (in the song) immersed in the ghetto lifestyle, made flippant and blasé by his desensitization to violence. It is something he sees everyday, so he treats it with savage amusement, much like a teenager playing a violent video game.

"Baha, can you dig it like a spigot My guess is: yes you can like, can I kick it? Wicked"

His language, which seems at times bemused and even condescending, seems to indicate that despite the violent nature of his 'work', he enjoys it, despite having come to find certain aspects of it banal with time and experience.

"Aw, send 'em a gun an tell 'em 'clean it' Then go get the nun who said her son didn't mean it"

Furthermore, his thinly veiled contempt for the series of events that lead to the death of another gangster suggests that Death is something he has come to view as mundane, due to the regularity with which it occurs.

The second protagonist (2D) seems more omniscient and ephemeral. He is less preoccupied with the details of ghetto life and death, instead focusing more on its consequences, giving the impression that he is not a person, but more the spirit of remorse.

"Something has started today Where did it go? Why you want it to be? Well you know November has come And it's gone away

It's... It's gone away"

2D's repetition of these lines serves to hammer home that on this day, gang warfare was set into motion by MF Doom's persona.

"Well you know November has come And it's gone away"

The finality within these lines insinuates that 2D's persona has witnessed Doom's persona either kill a man, or lose his life as a result of gang warfare. If this is the case, Doom's character's death (or the death of his rival) will kick-start further altercations and war between those that murdered him and his own gang, and this is the 'Something' that is being referred to so ominously. The time for Doom's character to lose his life has arrived, and gone away again.

All in all, a portentous, even sorrowful song, maybe intended both as a lament, and a warning that with a violent way of life often comes a great price; one's own life. I like the way the two different characters voice their messages throughout the song, seemingly without ever being aware of one another's presence. It gives the impression that one is but a ghost of the other's past, trying to communicate the inevitable truth. Maybe Doom's character manages to evade Death, but I believe that the loss of a life is mentioned in the song, be it his own or that of a fellow gangster.