26 Comments

A song about summer in Portland posted on about the least summer-like day Portland has seen, a welcome reprieve

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I use this overlay for Gmail that just rolled out AI summaries for emails. I ran it on this post and here's what it said:

"Colin Meloy from The Machine Shop wrote a song called 'July July!' about a road that meets the road that goes to his house and the story of a crooked French Canadian relative who was gut-shot running gin. The song also mentions chickens, ghosts, and blood. (6 min saved)"

😂

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Is "chicken chains" the most questioned lyric? Unscientifically, from my own experience and memory of various fan groups, interviews and pre-show Q&As I think so, but would love any other suggestions ("bone drab," etc.)

For lyrics, the previous version of the band site still exists if you use a backdoor link, and the Discography section has very good lyrics (click album, click song). There's a few mistakes and omissions but it's vastly superior than anything else online.

Link:

http://home.decemberists.com/discography/

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At the Edgefield show last year I was hoping for it as it was probably your most well known song that I hadn’t managed to catch live before. That you opened the set with it was particularly special.

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The magenta being a memory of a color reminded me of that thesis that said magenta is not a color but a perception of a color or something like that.

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I always thought the blood rolling down the drain was the French Canadian's. In fact, that's my interpretation and I'm stickin' to it.

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I think I always vaguely pictured chickens on chain leashes, like someone was taking them out for a pleasant walk. My historical favorite Decemberists internet lyric transcription was from a site that had the line from Don’t Carry It All as “so let the YOLK fall from our shoulders” 🍳

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Wow! I always had this down in my head as some sort of farm with a lovely farm house in the middle of somewhere with no other houses for miles and miles. I imagined a very dry dusty red/brown road with a crossroad and one of the roads went to this house.

A field of chickens next to it. And the sun burning away in a clear blue sky. 🤷

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Thank you. You've annotated two of my favorite songs now. It's a weird feeling. Both this and Grace Cathedral hill conjure such vivid imagery for me. I'm happy that your annotations embellished those images and didn't contradict them. Beating a happy dance in my special boots.

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“We’ll remember this when we are old and ancient / though the specifics might be vague” is perhaps my favorite decemberists lyric of all. Thanks for this annotation, Colin.

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Theses are all so wonderful to read but for some reason this really hit home. It makes me think I could write songs too and pick up a guitar and make good music. As always, thank you .

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Love this song, love the annotation!

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There’s a “green grass” reference on “Birds of My Neighborhood,” too.

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I enjoy your enthusiasm putting these thoughts and memories out. Thank you.

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Maybe I liked it better when I didn't know what "chicken chains" meant. But I still like the way it sounds. I mean this as a compliment, but Colin, you are Weird! From a fellow weirdo!

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Love these notes! This is easily one of my top 5 Decemberists songs - I would love a guitar lesson on this - as I tried to play this at my neighborhood labor day party years ago - and found it difficult to strum the chords while singing "July, July!"

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