[audio:Walking_Spanish.mp3]
To love a song, it’s not important that you understand the words. And I say that as a onetime lyricist and singer. As one of my guitarists often reminded me, “the words don’t matter.” Well, yeah they do, but not as much as lyricists like to think. For example, I enjoy Elvis Costello’s lyrics tremendously, but I don’t always know what he’s singing about. It’s enough for me that EC’s words are interesting in and of themselves, given how great the musical elements of the songs are.
On the other hand, understanding the meaning of the words can enhance my appreciation of a song. Case in point is Tom Waits’s “Walking Spanish,” which for the last 20 years I have completely misapprehended. Until recently, I carried around the idea that “walking spanish” was just a kind of funny way of walking, like John Leguizamo doing a pimp roll or something. I know that is a ridiculous thing to think, but I have a lot of odd notions that are probably wrong, and I’m comfortable with that.
Anyway, I recently discovered that “walking Spanish” means, literally, being forcibly carried from a place by one’s collar and belt, with one’s tiptoes scrabbling at the floor, so that the Spanish walker is being forced to go somewhere he doesn’t want to go. The expression derives from being made to walk the plank on a pirate ship, but a more modern example might be being thrown out of a bar.
“Huh!” said I upon being given this information. Maybe Tom Waits isn’t just growling about a funny way of walking in that song. So I went back to the lyrics, and whaddaya know, “Walking Spanish” is a song about death.
The first three verses tell the story (in an elliptical, Tom Waitsish way) of Mason, a man who “got himself a homemade special”(a gun) and committed a crime. He thinks “his glass is full of sand,” but he’s got less time than he thinks, as he is arrested and sent to death row. The song offers the possibility of spiritual and material comfort (respectively a picture of Jesus, or “a spoon to dig a hole” to escape through), but neither can change Mason’s ultimate destination.
Jesus appears again in the last verse, as one who “wanted just a little more time” when he was walking Spanish down the hall. In Christian theology, Jesus stands in for all of us, taking on the sins of the world, etc., and so the song expands from the story of a single death row inmate to everyone’s story: we’re all walking Spanish from our very first staggering baby steps, and no matter how full of sand our glass seems, it is sand, and it is an hourglass, and it does that hourglass thing where the sand runs out. Damn gravity.
But Waits is neither weepy nor solipsistic about that grim conclusion. The loose, relaxed blues riff that anchors the song suggests a wry acceptance of facts, and one death or many deaths doesn’t change the equally pertinent fact that “tomorrow morning there’ll be laundry.” That is, there’s always work to do, so quit your bitching, death-boy.
Discussion: what other songs might be good for a “Death Mix”? I mean songs (like “Walking Spanish”) that are at least a bit subtle, that don’t hit you over the head with their deathily deathish deathiness (e.g. The Doors or Cannibal Corpse). A couple that spring to mind would be “Glowworm” by The Apples in Stereo or “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel.
Anything by Morphine. “Color Bars” and several others by Elliott Smith…
yours/
peter.
Best suggestion I’ve received yet is Billie Holliday’s “Strange Fruit.” Not just appropriate, but also gets out of the indie rock box I tend to think inside of.
btw, i fixed your links. They all had 2 http://'s in them.
Thanks Chris.
I dunno if it’s as subtle as you’re looking for, but I’d suggest Johnny Cash’s “When the man comes around”.
A better Cash song is 25 Minutes to Go. But maybe that’s not subtle enough.
A few cool Indie songs by the Decemberists that might be appropriate are A Cautionary Song, O Valencia, and Shankhill Butchers.
There’s also a song by Jet called Timothy, which is supposedly about the older brother of one of the band member’s who died as a baby. It’s pretty subtle, and sad, but not terribly metaphorical.
I’ll have to keep thinking
Oh! I forgot one of my favorite songs. It’s Lost in the Flood on Springsteen’s first album — as an aside, Spirit in the Night is on there too, and I regularly have a jones for it. It shows up on a play list of mine about once a month.
OK, one last song for now. Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower. I’ve heard many different interpretations of this song, but the one that I think makes the most sense is that this is about the apocalypse.
The “two riders approaching” are Death and Hades; the joker is either Jesus or Dylan himself (cf. “Shelter From the Storm”: in a little hilltop village/they gambled for my clothes) and the thief is one of those who died on Calvary Hill with Jesus; “the hour is getting late” referring to the endtimes.
Whatever the actual interpretation, the song certainly describes impending doom, death and destruction.
BTW, my personal favorite version is by Dave Matthews, which is really based on Michael Hedges’ interpretation. I think it’s on the Red Rocks album (I’ve only ever heard it live), but to really feel the full power of the song you have to actually see it performed. Guaranteed to blow you away.
OK, I’ve obviously gotten carried away with this
Michael, I’ve always thought that the joker and the theif were the riders approaching, that the song was sort of disjointed chronologically. However, the song is definitely up for all kinds of interpretations.
One more I’d definitely recommend is 10,000 days and Wings for Marie by Tool. bit of a backstory to it though. The lead singer, maynard james kennan’s mother who was named Marie, suffered a stroke that left her partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. The length of time between the paralysis and her death was 27 years, or approximately 10,000 days. It’s made all the more touching by the fact that she was deeply religious while Maynard was not, and rather hostile in his previous songs, (see: Opiate, Eulogy, and Judith, which was his mother’s middle name)
I think a perfect song for you would be Fiddler on the Green by Demons and Wizards. It’s a rather haunting song about death accidentally taking a boy too early and then taking a girl too to keep him company in the afterlife.
I suppose that could be it. Dylan’s never offered any help in understanding AFAIK. Another interesting possibility is that it tracks the Parable of the Tenants, which (from what I understand) is basically an allegory for the coming of Judgment Day:
Dylan interlaced a bunch of his songs with Christian themes and bits of Biblical stories (supposedly after he converted to Christianity). This may be one of them .. or not. It really is hard to tell
Awesome stuff, guys. If you are carried away Michael we need to see it more;^) I asked Robby for the other two songs. If any of you have audio files of songs discussed, let us put them up. I think this is a great discussion. I’ll promote it to the top of the blog with the additional audio files.
here’s a version of all along the watchtower that you may not have heard before.
Wings for Marie, and 10,000 days by Tool
Fiddler on the Green by Demons and Wizards
25 Minutes to Go and When the Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash
A Cautionary Tale, O Valencia and The Shankill Butchers by the Decemberists.
Timothy by Jet
Lost in the Flood and Spirit in the Night by Bruce Springsteen.
Silly rabbit. That’s not Watchtower. This is watchtower (hint: at about the 3:50 mark buckle your seatbelt, pin your ears back, and enjoy the ride).
And here’s a version that’s much closer to the one I heard back in the early 90′s, although the recording is pretty crappy — just imagine the same thing, but in a room that fit about 200 people, and about 100x louder. It was like a giant collective orgasm … really.
One half-eyed morning train ride to work All along came on and I looked at the album art and it suddenly occured to me that the song was about the life of Native Americans. Think of it in those terms with the joker being the native american person. As for walking spanish I also didn’t know what it meant, but I thought it somehow related to tango and the need for two to and so some sort of inevitable occurence.
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There are many good songs out there where “lyrics don’t matter”! For instance, Trio’s “Da Da Da” (LOL!!!!), The Police’s “Mother”, The Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus”, Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop” (can’t understand it, I’m too blind to because of Jack (?) )LOL!!!!!……
Death songs:
Hazy Shade of Winter — Simon and Garfunkel
Dies Irae Dies Illa – Tommaso da Celano
The Birds will Still be Singing\
Damnation’s Cellar } – Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet
Dear Sweet Filthy World /
I’ve Flirted with You for a Long Time — Vic Chesnutt
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper — Blue Öyster Cult
Il Trionfo Di Bacco — Lorenzo di Medici
The Silver Swan — Orlando Gibbons
The Trees They Do Grow Tall — Pentangle
Es Ist Genug –Franz Joachim Burmeister & J.S. Bach
Hey, I’m a little late to this post but I’m listening to Rain Dogs now and started wondering what “Walking Spanish” meant and found this post. I really enjoyed reading it. Thanks very much for the education.
Pleased to see that this little essay is still getting the occasional hit.