"Nantes" by Beirut

Listening to this song was like the first time I appreciated Shakespeare (which was Macbeth junior year =p). I've never done this before, but I felt compelled to try to analyze the song for myself. I was listening to it right before I was to start working on blogs, and I felt I needed to write something about it.

The band apparently is the solo project of a man named Zachary Condon who is the sole creative force in the group and it's vocalist. Each song on the album is meant to evoke a different French city, in this case Nantes. Each city, in turn, represents a certain story that embodies, what Condon believes, to be the spirit of the city. The normal musical arrangement of the band focuses on the Ukelele, but for this album Condon began to take on musical instruments and styling inspired by French Chanson music which is any lyric driven French song. The other main stylistic influence of the album comes from a musician named Jacques Brel who is not widely known in English speaking countries because his music was done almost exclusively in French. His influence on American music was wide though, with artists such as David Bowie, Ray Charles, The Dresdon Dolls, Frank Sinatra, and Dusty Springfield.

As for the inspiration for the album, Condon cites a hot air balloon festival in the early 1900's in Paris. It was also influenced by a photo from the World's Fair, one of the first color photos ever made, that depicts all of these hot air balloons about to ascend in the middle of Paris. Condon found the photo to be stunning and one of the most surreal images he had ever seen.

Now that the the sound and material of the album is understood, I feel I can examine the song.

"Well it's been a long time, long time now
Since I've seen you smile
And I'll gamble away my fright
And I'll gamble away my time
And in a year, a year or so
This will slip into the sea
Well it's been a long time, long time now
Since I've seen you smile"

This is the first stanza of the song. I believe the song to be about World War II, specifically an American soldier who is traveling to France by boat. Nantes is very very close to the Atlantic coast and soldiers there would have arrived by sea. He has arrived to Nantes and is thinking about the woman he left behind on the home-front. Her smile gets him through the hell he must witness. He is frightened by what he sees and in his spare time he beds with another woman (explained in the chorus). "...in a year or a year or so" means that whenever the war is over, he feels that everything he has done in Nantes, both the war and his affair, will be absolved by the sea. He finishes by once again, reflecting on his loved ones smile.

"Nobody raise your voices
Just another night to mourn to
Nobody raise your voices
Just another night to mourn to"

This is the chorus to the song. The line "Nobody raise your voices" could mean two things. Either he is so sickened by his transgression that he doesn't want anybody to be too loud, should his lover hear his sin from all the way across the Atlantic. He could also be trying to rationalize his actions, by stating that what he is doing is no reason for anybody to get upset or "raise their voices" he is just doing what he must to survive the horror of war. Whatever it may be, his actions have become habit for him now and possibly an addiction. He feels helpless to control this fate that has been set for him, and although he realizes that these nights are in need of mourning, he feels like a bystander in his life unable to control the outcome.

- Oh non je t'en prie, nous ne sommes pas chez nous.
- Oh je t'assures que ce n'est pas grave.
- Non laisse moi!
- Mais qu'est-ce que tu as aujourd'hui?
- Je sais que les hommes me dégoutent. Vous ne pensez qu'à ça...

Translation:
(-Oh no please, we're not at home.
-I'm telling you, it's allright.
-No, let me go!
-What is wrong with you today?
-I know the men disgust me. You all just think about one thing...)

This is a recording of a dialogue from the French film La Bête Humaine(1938)("The Human Beast"). The movie is a chilling psychological drama, considered to be ahead of its time, that has become a cult classic. The dialogue mean to represent a specific moment in the main characters life in Nantes. He attempts to redeem sexual favors with his mistress in a place that is public, or at least not "home". It is at this point that he realizes what he has become during his time away from home. War and separation from the things he cherishes have sent him into a state where he can't recognize his former self. This dialogue represents the definitive moment of clarity in his life. He realizes the repercussions of what he has done.

Well it's been a long time, long time now
Since I've seen you smile
And I'll gamble away my fright
And I'll gamble away my time
And in a year, a year or so
This will slip into the sea
Well it's been a long time, long time now
Since I've seen you smile

This is the third and final verse of the song. It is an exact repeat of the first, but it takes on a different meaning here. He has been back from the War for some time now, but rather than tell the truth and face his lover so that he may begin anew, he is consumed by guilt and does not see her upon his return. It has thus "been a long time" since he has seen her smile. He wishes to come to terms with his "fright" so that he may face her again but all he has accomplished is to "gamble away my time". He wants time to heal what has occurred, that it will simply "slip into the sea" but he knows in his heart that something that is so profound is not healed by time alone. This is illustrated by the fact that he is unsure of how long it may take(a year or a year or so). The last line of the song serves as a doppelganger. It has two meanings:

-He has fixated on her smile. It is a beacon that through everything, the war, his affair, his depression and loneliness, he could have her again. It isn't just her he wants back, it's his humanity; his soul (which is what the lover represents)
-It is a statement to himself. While in the state of mind he is in at the end of the ordeal, he realizes that he himself has not smiled in years and he feels unable to change that around.

The former gives us a sense of hope at the end of it all and the latter, a sense of hopelessness. There could be two ends to the story and based on how it resonates with the listener, you decide his fate.

License

On Monday I decided it was past due for me to man up and go to the judicial center to get my full drivers license. But knowing me for me, I couldn't simply waltz in and get my picture taken like any Average Joe. Oh no. I did what any man who truly considers himself deserving of manhood would do: I put my pair into pig tails, buttoned my girl jeans up taught, put on my man face and trudged foreword. Not only did the security officials at the door act like nothing was weird about me at all, but the ladies in the licensing office did the same. Nobody acted like what I was doing was the funniest thing to ever take place in this town, which it was. I sat down and took the picture then proceeded to play the waiting game outside while they prepared my shiny new card. Then, like a golden trophy or a newborn baby, my license was brought out to me and it was everything I had expected it to be.

The whole reason for doing it at all was so that if, by chance, I was to ever be pulled over by a cop there would be that magical moment of anticipation when he said "License and Registration" and I would dig it out and hand it to him and than his face would be stupified and I would laugh and my world would be complete.

Do before I die

-Go skydiving
-Climb a mountain
-Defeat a Roman God in hand to hand combat
-Win a Pulitzer Prize for my award winning work "Smelly: Stories from the Fart Factory"
-Learn to speak Parseltoungue

Unfulfilled Dreams

Well lets see. I've never really sat down and thought about what my dreams were before, so I guess I'll compile a list of all the things I want to do with my life and call them dreams. My biggest dream in life is to end poverty. I know how ridiculous it sounds and I know it's a rather large task to tackle, but I honestly do not care at all. It isn't fair that I should be thrown with so much opportunity in my life while an enormous portion of my fellow human beings are forced to live in squalor from meal to meal. It isn't fair at all. Whose to say my life is worth any more than anyone else on this planet that they should be forced to sift through the trash of others to get by. Nobody should ever have to live that way and we are at a point in our society where nobody has to live that way. We have the means for ending poverty and have had them for quite some time, they just haven't been put towards ending it.

I also wish to travel the world and spend a few months or perhaps years in a very secluded part of the world. I don't care where it is, because emptiness is emptiness no matter where you go to find it. I also want to write and record music. It doesn't matter if anybody hears it or not. I'll put it on cassette tapes and give it out. Then it can be played until it's broken and then remembered only for what it was.

I just want to figure out what it means to be a man and do those things the best that I can. =]

Purpose

I believe my purpose in life is to be the best bartender this side of the Mississippi. That's not to say I don't plan on going to college, because I most certainly do. I plan to go to Vanderbilt to double major in English and Microbiology. I love those things. I love them almost as much as I love bar tending. But I don't want to make a living writing books or studying bacteria. I'd rather find a good place to serve drinks and do that for the rest of my life than have to do anything....normal. With a job like bar tending, I can quit whenever I want, travel on the spur of the moment and find another job bar tending. Without a serious job, I wont have anything to tie me down. I'm free to roam the many pastures of the world as I please. I guess my whole purpose in life is to not take anything to seriously, including the purpose of my life. I think adaptability is the purpose of my life.

First time

The first time I drove a car was quite a long time ago. I was around 10 years old and at my dads house for the weekend. He asked me if I wanted to go with him down to the river. I of course said yes. He took me down to the river and when we got to the little dirt road that runs along side of the river, he shut the car off, stepped out of the car and told me to get behind the wheel. I did as I was told and boy was I bad. I couldn't drive at all. I was punching the gas, slamming the brakes, and like a bowling ball in a bumper line the car was going from one side of the road to another. My dad looked at me, I stopped the car, he looked at the door, I stepped out and we switched places. Upon situating ourselves in the car after the incident he made it quite clear to me that the next time I would be driving would be when there was a licence in my hand. No time before then did I ever drive with my dad again.