The Decemberists' "The Island"

Because it was St. Patrick's Day a few days ago, I listened to a 2-CD set titled 40 Irish Songs Everyone Ought to Know.  One of them was "Whiskey in the Jar," which reminded me of something I noticed last summer (when I listened to Thin Lizzy's version of "Whiskey in the Jar") and needed to get around to writing about.

Because it's a folk song, there are different versions of the lyrics, but in "Whiskey in the Jar," there are lines where the speaker/singer draws a pistol and then a sword.  In versions I have, this is rendered as "I first produced my pistol / And then produced my rapier" (Thin Lizzy), "I first produced me pistol / And then I drew me saber" (The Original Irish Boys) and "First produced me pistol / I then produced me rapier" (The Countdown Singers).

In "The Landlord's Daughter" section of the Decemberists' "The Island" (on The Crane Wife), there are similar lines:  "Produced my pistol / Then my saber."  I haven't really lookt into the narrative of the songs to see if there are any similarities there, but the resemblance of the lines is indisputable.

A couple years ago, I wrote a post about some similarities between the folk song "Molly Malone" and the Decemberists' "Eli, the Barrow Boy."  I think this is an-other instance of Colin Meloy's interest in folk music making its way into his writing.

The Decemberists' "Eli, the Barrow Boy"

Recently, I've been listening (for the first time) to a box set of Pete Seeger.  Since a lot of the songs are folk songs, I've heard other versions of some of them.  So while "Molly Malone" wasn't a new song to me, because I recently listened to Seeger's version, I got to thinking about it and realized that it shares some similarities with the Decemberists' "Eli, the Barrow Boy" from Picaresque.

The first lines of both mention a city.  "Molly Malone" names Dublin specifically ("In Dublin's fair city") where "Eli, the Barrow Boy" has just a general "town."  I'd always heard it as "Eli, the barrow boy of the old town," but according to the Decemberists' website, it's "Eli, the barrow boy, you’re the old town."  It's a minor point, but both start with a location.

Both characters "cry" out the wares that they have to sell.  The second verse of "Molly Malone" explains that "She was a fishmonger," and the "Cryin' 'Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh'" line is at the end of every verse and acts as a transition to the chorus (which is comprised of all the same words).  While Eli has a wider variety of merchandise (he "Sells coal and marigolds" and "Corn cobs and candlewax"), he too "cries out all down the day."

It's not as obvious in "Eli, the Barrow Boy" as it is in "Molly Malone," but both have a fair amount of repetition to describe how much time the characters spend trying to make sales.  "All the day," "All down the day," or "Down the day" appear (usually twice) in every section of "Eli, the Barrow Boy," and "Through streets long and narrow" (or, as some versions have it, "Through streets broad and narrow") is the second-to-last line in every verse in "Molly Malone."

While Molly Malone dies of a fever and Eli drowns, both return as ghosts to continue pushing their wheelbarrows through the streets and sell their goods.  The last verse of "Molly Malone" explains that "Now her ghost wheels the barrow / Through streets long and narrow," and - likewise - the last section of "Eli, the Barrow Boy" has Eli saying, "But I am dead and gone and lying in a church ground / But still I push my barrow all the day."

I know Colin Meloy has some interest in folk songs (evidenced by the Colin Meloy Sings Shirley Collins EP and The Hazards of Love album), so I'm assuming that "Molly Malone" did have at least some influence on "Eli, the Barrow Boy."  I think the similarities would be too much of a coincidence otherwise.

The Decemberists' "The Wrong Year"

I've listened to the Decemberists' What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World only three times so far, but I've heard various live versions of some of the songs because I've watched and listened to a lot of the radio station appearances that the Decemberists have been doing.

Last month, I realized something interesting about "The Wrong Year."  After almost every couplet in the verses, there's a prominent part by an-other instrument.  It's usually an electric twelve-string guitar part, but I think the absence of that twelve-string part is significant.

After "Could be that he’s into you / Could be that the obverse is true" there's an accordion part instead of the twelve-string part.  The shift in instrumentation (from twelve-string guitar to accordion) sort of mirrors the "obverse" that the lyric mentions.  Furthermore, the twelve-string is panned right, and the accordion is panned left, so there's a difference in positioning along with the difference in instrumentation.

After the first couplet in the third verse ("Sing me some eidolon / And I’ll sleep all the winter long"), there's just acoustic guitar and drums; there isn't an-other instrumental part from twelve-string guitar or accordion, which - like the lyrical mirroring of "obverse" - seems to represent the wintry hibernation.  Where switching the twelve-string to accordion indicates the opposite, here the lack of any additional instrumental part helps to signify the inactivity of sleep.

[It's not exactly relevant, but while writing this post, I referenced the lyric video, and I noticed that the hyphens in "long-forgotten" are missing.]