Catatonia - Dead from the Waste down
The sun is shining we should be making hay But were dead from the waist down Like in californ-i-a Cerys Matthews talks us through her other career (aside from being a successful singer song writer), which is that of being...
The sun is shining we should be making hay But were dead from the waist down Like in californ-i-a
Cerys Matthews talks us through her other career (aside from being a successful singer song writer), which is that of being a farmer. So it would seem rather from drawing a line between a typically welsh countryside stereotype and the Wales of today (I mean she was born in Cardiff after all which as I look around isn’t actually that green) she would rather play for the Welsh tourist board, good show there!
Still though, can’t complain eh? It’s a beautiful day and she only has to make some hay, rather than having to worry about back breaking labour in the fields. Then again how do you make hay? Surely you grow it, unless Cerys has developed some kind of matter replicator. Unfortunately there’s a problem, and it’s rather a big one. It would seem Cerys and her farmhands are actually paralyzed from the waist down. I mean I know life is pretty tough nowadays in the agricultural industry, but how does she plan to run a successful farm when the staff can’t physically get out of bed, a touch naïve really.
Cerys compares their plight to California. I must say I hadn’t heard this news that the whole state of California had been paralyzed from the waist down, that would be terrible! Especially as it would mean Arnold Schwarznegger himself would be paralysed. Can you imagine a Terminator film with Arnie in a wheel chair? In fact come to think about it the whole movie industry would be kind of screwed up by this, and we’d be faced with a lot of films that involve wheelchair accessible plot lines. Then again maybe Cerys is just implying that everyone in California is impotent.
Victory is empty There are lessons in defeat But were dead from the waist down we are sleeping on our feet
Cerys puts a bit of a positive spin on losing a war, claiming there are lessons in defeat, which is both true and insightful. If only someone had told that to Hitler before he shot himself, he probably would have laughed and done it anyway. Then again let’s rememberSaddam Hussain lost a good few wars and didn’t really learn (ed. It was different the second time to be fair as he wasn’t the aggressor) as did Napoleon.
It doesn’t matter who wins or loses though as Cerys seems to have focused us back to the fact she is paralyzed (and can you blame her it’s quite an important really) and that as a result they are sleeping on their feet. This I must say is quite an interesting version of paralysis as normally people can’t stand but for some reason Cerys and her cohorts can, although they can’t move which is probably more annoying for them. After all at least when your paralyzed from the waist down normally you can drag yourself along to where you want to go. This must be quite hellish really as it could take days before anyone finds them and helps them move from the spot they are on. Cerys and her farmhands might starve to death!
We stole the songs from birds in trees bought our time on easy street now our paths they never meet we chose to court and flatter greed, ego disposability I caught a glimpse, and it’s not me
Cerys was a bit of a cruel child it would seem as she claims to have stolen actual birdsong from the birds in the trees. If this means she climbed into the tress and removed their larynx or not is uncertain to me but if she did I’ll be grassing her up to the RSPB I should think as that’s just not on.
Cerys now talks about her time as a prostitute on ‘easy street’ for the lower end hookers. Lower end to such an extent that it seems she had to buy her time there, probably meaning she paid the men for her services. Sounds a bit counter productive really. That doesn’t matter as she doesn’t hang there any more as she claims that she ‘caught a glimpse’ of the prostitute try-outs and didn’t make the grade. However, it was all for the best as she made a successful music and farming career, until now that is.
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else were done for
And were d from the w down
Cerys now suggests that people make hay not war lest we are all doomed. I agree with the anti-war sentiment but doesn’t it make more sense to do more things than just make hay? Maybe she could suggest people teaching poor children in Africa or buying a goat for a family in the Andes. People don’t need that much hay after all. Cerys also tries and fails at trying to use rapper-style abbreviations to get across the point they are paralyzed.
There’s no contracts binding No bad scene beyond repair But when you’re dead from the waist down You’re too far gone to even care
Cerys claims no contracts are totally binding. I’d like to see how that goes down with her record exec, as I would imagine he would argue to the contrary there. Then again it would seem now that she is paralyzed, she seems to think contract law no longer applies. She also has lost hope in being able to repair a bad scene, although it’s hard to say whether this is because of her paralysis or whether she’s just seen Plan 9 From Outer Space, Kickboxing Academy or an episode of Sunset Beach.
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