Jun 04 2008
History Reference? You Decide.
Intriguing video from The Last Shadow Puppets (really Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys and some other guy) submitted for our review by Andrew Hunt. The song is called The Age of the Understatement and since most things in history seem to be overstated (Saddam Hussein’s pretending to have all the WMD and misleading UN investigators as well as British and American spies comes to mind) I’m not so sure this video has anything to do with history at all. The Russian scenes are cool—-I think these guys are channeling the alternative British bands that I used to listen to when I was in High School: Depeche Mode, New Order, Jesus Jones, Housemartins, The Clash and The Cure. Some of the more “random” scenes here are soooooo New Order, imho. Perhaps Alex Turner and friend are paying homage to the 80s bands by employing these Russian scenes since Cold War themes were a big part of the earlier bands’ music. OR perhaps it’s more basic: the song is about a woman that this guy just cannot figure out. Back in 1939 at the beginning of WWII when people weren’t sure which nations would fight alongside Britain Winston Churchill spoke of Russia’s unpredictability in world affairs. “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Just like the girl Turner and friend sing about.
The part I don’t really get is what the ice skating is about. The skater in the video is a dead-ringer for Oksana Baiul, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist from the Ukraine. Ok, so I think it’s supposed to be her in the video—-but the video is from Russia not the Ukraine….and the famous story about Oksana was how they were so poor that they had no Zambonis and all the skaters had to clean off the ice themselves. Russia is still pretty cutting-edge when it comes to athletics. I love to swim, but I hate chlorine—the smell just makes me sick. Wouldn’t be a problem if I swam in a Moscow pool…they have a new kind of chlorine that is odorless! And notice that is a very nice rink she is skating on, so maybe it’s not an Oksana reference, but why choose an actress who looks so much like her?
Enjoy and let me know what you think:
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
the first verse is:Decided to sneak off away from your stomach
and try your pulse
They captured what seemed all unknowing
and candid but they suspected it
Was false
it is a metaphor that refers to Rasputin and how the queen loved him and how the people knew he was a joke
the second verse:She’s playful,
The boring would warn you
Be careful of her brigade
In order to tame this relentless marauder
move away from the parade
it is a metaphor that refers to Russia’s highest peak when she was in all the little wars and large ones such as in the relentless marauder which refers to russia atacking and attacking not realizing that she wasn’t was tough as she thought which is why they should move away from the red square parade
the third verse; She was walking on the tables in the glasshouse,
Endearingly bedraggled in the wind,
Subtle in her method of seduction,
Twenty little tragedies begin
this refers to Gorbachev and is delicate reforms
which failed and lead to twenty little tragedies which refers to what is left of the former soviet empire because some of the Warsaw countries were traumatized
the fourth verse:And she would throw her feather-boa in the road,
If she thought that it would set the scene,
Unfittingly dipped into your companions
Enlightened them to make you seeth
this refers to the fact that even though Putin is Bush’s friend
he is selling arms to the Iranians to “make a scene” for attention
the refrain:There’s affection to rent,
The age of the understatement
Before the attraction ferments
Kiss me properly and pull me apart
the understatement was communism
and the was liberty
and the attraction that will ferment is freedom and totalitarian dictatorship
he is warning about how they may go from far left to far right
and this line:My fingers scratch at my hair before my mind can get too reckless.
The idea of seeing you here is enough to make the sweat go cold.
he is refering to how when he was young he would have never thought of freedom in Russia
and the other guy is Miles Kane
and the little girl represents freedom
and yah
I have nothing else to do so hear I go
Saddam having WMDs may have been overstated, but true nonetheless. How else did he gas the Kurds.
here*
***The idea of seeing you here is enough to make the sweat go cold.
he is refering to how when he was young he would have never thought of freedom in Russia***
I can (kind of) see what you are saying, but seriously how old is Alex Turner? 22? 25? He was a baby when the USSR broke up, pretty sure he wasn’t thinking about democracy in Russia from his high chair.
Turner’s 22
Miles Kane is about 24
and the rest of AM is about 30
that and every AM song has a face value and a hidden message
just look at 505 and Calm like you
another good example is this house is a circus
which is a song about at face value his crazy girlfriend but the hidden message is how crazy the British PM Blair has made the Parlaiment (song came out in 2006)
oh I forgot to say this but
neither Miles nor Kane wrote the song
I’m sure that’s a relief to his girlfriend
actually “the age of the understatement” was a term his Senior history teacher used to use when refering to the cold war
Matt Helders wrote a poem about it and they turned it into a song
I dont know how to blog
no answer to the question
I