Heartland

"Hailing maries left and right
but none of them slow down"

What does do two lines mean? I remember reading somewhere it was a joke of some kind but I didn't get it

Hail Mary is a catholic prayer: http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/flhm.html

One would also hail a taxi, or another kind of ride.

Thank You!
Now I got at least one part of the joke!

Hoopla! I got promoted with that reply

Dimehart wrote:Thank You!
Now I got at least one part of the joke!

alcohol does strange things to the brain, but at about 3.00am on the Sunday after the Leeds gig, we were sitting in a bar talking about this song. Whether it should be slow or slows down to be grammatically correct and a thought occurred

none as written nun as spoken, thereby the old half nun half prostitute gag again.


yeah, i know, but as i've written beer was involved

'Maries' can also be prostitutes.

The line 'Give me Something Fast' has numerous meanings:

1)I want a fast car ("none of them slow down" etc.)
2)Give me something quickly (in anticpation of a future something - pain/loss/come-down/leg amputation/childbirth etc.).
3)Give me Speed (Amphetamine/speed/fast etc.)(as opposed to a drug that slows ya down.)

slicepack wrote:The line 'Give me Something Fast' has numerous meanings:

1)I want a fast car ("none of them slow down" etc.)
2)Give me something quickly (in anticpation of a future something - pain/loss/come-down/leg amputation/childbirth etc.).
3)Give me Speed (Amphetamine/speed/fast etc.)(as opposed to a drug that slows ya down.)

One more possibility: Give me something lasting, dependable, solid. Think of fast friends or a fast rule. (Hm, mayne two different possibilitirs, actually.) So, instead of a quick fix (no pun intenfed, really), look for something dependable.

Yeah - hadn't thought of that one. Yours is certainly the most literate.

Hello everyone, I'm new here
Actually, I've been reading for a few weeks, but I've just taken the plunge and signed up

I have a couple of thoughts about Something Fast. Hailing maries makes me think of Black Marias, i.e. police vehicles (see Afterhours). The line in the song is obviously about cars, anyway.

In terms of the name, it's always made me think of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. He's having a row with his parents, about to go off and do something stupid. They try to reason with him, at which point he says: 'If you're gonna gimme something, gimme something fast'.

That's my tuppenyworth, anyway

see ya

Chris

I was skipping through my Miami 1991 video last night and Von introduce Something Fast as "a song about drugs". Which ties is nicely with Slicepack's third point.

and welcome MrChris!

all von's songs are about drugs

i've always seen it as something more akin to mrchris' point... (welcome, btw!)

i missed the jimmy dean reference though! nice!

Thanks

In terms of overall theme, a hard one to figure, but you could pick out a fairly veiled attack on televangelism and perhaps organised religion more generally ('all the things we never needed'...you can hail maries all night to no avail...).

Not totally confident about this one, but the second verse especially says something to me...

'God knows everybody needs
A hand in their decision
Some of us are not so sure
[that we need to make decisions for ourselves]
I seen his own held out
For a ride on television
[via a televangelist?]
I think he's still in Baltimore'

[1969 And All That wonders if 'Baltimore' refers to the Baltimore Catechisms, which explain the basic elements of Christianity. If you go along this line, the meaning of the verse would be - God's basic ideas are still sound, despite those who have corrupted his message since. Dunno if I'd read it this way or not. Heavy, eh?]

MrChris wrote:Thanks

In terms of overall theme, a hard one to figure, but you could pick out a fairly veiled attack on televangelism and perhaps organised religion more generally ('all the things we never needed'...you can hail maries all night to no avail...).

Not totally confident about this one, but the second verse especially says something to me...

'God knows everybody needs
A hand in their decision
Some of us are not so sure
[that we need to make decisions for ourselves]
I seen his own held out
For a ride on television
[via a televangelist?]
I think he's still in Baltimore'

[1969 And All That wonders if 'Baltimore' refers to the Baltimore Catechisms, which explain the basic elements of Christianity. If you go along this line, the meaning of the verse would be - God's basic ideas are still sound, despite those who have corrupted his message since. Dunno if I'd read it this way or not. Heavy, eh?]

very heavy.... but once again i agree with your reading of that verse - pretty much to the letter

1959 has a habit of being way off kilter though - and reading far too much into stuff - but to be fair this time, i cannot think of another reason why he'd choose baltimore over anywhere else in the bible belt - apart from the fact that it sort-of rhymes with "sure"

Lol - I guess it could the just the sound and rhythm of the word Baltimore, and the fact that's it's just generically Bible Belt, as you say. Agree about the 1959 site...still, we're led to believe that these layers of meaning are there, if only we can find them

I have a soft spot for this song, since it's one of the few Sisters songs that my wife will listen to...must have delicate ears, or something

MrChris wrote:Lol - I guess it could the just the sound and rhythm of the word Baltimore, and the fact that's it's just generically Bible Belt, as you say. Agree about the 1959 site...still, we're led to believe that these layers of meaning are there, if only we can find them

I have a soft spot for this song, since it's one of the few Sisters songs that my wife will listen to...must have delicate ears, or something

mrs qb prefers the ones with female backing vocals on - more, etc

Quiff Boy wrote:1959 has a habit of being way off kilter though - and reading far too much into stuff - but to be fair this time, i cannot think of another reason why he'd choose baltimore over anywhere else in the bible belt - apart from the fact that it sort-of rhymes with "sure"

Growing up about 40 minutes from Baltimore, I never heard of Charm City being part of the Bible Belt. It generally refers to an area farther south, no?

Martin

sorry, i didnt mean to infer that baltimore was in the biblebelt.... guess the "anywhere else" should have been "somewhere"

Quiff Boy wrote:

MrChris wrote:Lol - I guess it could the just the sound and rhythm of the word Baltimore, and the fact that's it's just generically Bible Belt, as you say. Agree about the 1959 site...still, we're led to believe that these layers of meaning are there, if only we can find them

I have a soft spot for this song, since it's one of the few Sisters songs that my wife will listen to...must have delicate ears, or something

mrs qb prefers the ones with female backing vocals on - more, etc

my wife loves Sisters but she had asked: "Why do we listen to it all the time?"
by the way, once she said her absolute favourite is "We Are The Same, Susanne".
and she had also said that "Some Boys..." (yes, "boys", not "girls") is their best album.
but there is one explanation to it: it was the first recording she heard of Sisters (due to me, of course ).

Yes, Suzanne meets the approval of my missus too, along with Something Fast, I Was Wrong, and, her favourite of course, 1959. She's a good pianist (although rusty), and can apparently appreciate it from a musicological point of view. An unusual structure, apparently. I just like the tune, because I am a peasant, lol.

I've been listening to Something Fast the past week and it just occured to me that I read somewhere that Andrew used to eat at a place in Leeds called The Baltimore Diner. Could there be a connection? Or just another curious coincidence? Am I perhaps just dizzy from working all night?

doesn't ring any bells.

there used to be a food place near headingley called "the boston exchange" - and there was an american diner near holbeck - one of those stainless steel silver caravan-type buildings that play 50s rock n roll on the jukebox and serve sh*te cheeseburgers and cr*p shakes

but then i am only a newcomer to leeds (2 weeks short of 5 years now!) so i guess there could have been something like the baltimor diner here at the time. it was quite a long time ago in business terms!

Susanne (we are the same) is a damned fine tune.. just thought id add that

*goes back to tidying his room*

Found the clipping, from '86-'87 I believe, called Deutsch Eldritch Freundschaft:

"Andrew made a flying visit to Leeds this week... ...he was spotted at the Baltimore Diner, indulging in a fish supper with two of the Hollow Men..."

Not sure how reliable that little snippet is. And still, there's probably no connection at all

this one?

http://scrapbook.myheartland.co.uk/imag ... %20DEF.jpg



i see what you mean.

now this is interesting: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=U ... iner+leeds

look at the first entry - can anyone actually see this site?

http://baptism.co.nz/fly/1986a.html

i looked at google's cached version and:

The weekend was a great success. If you are ever in Leeds and needing to purchase an engagement ring, I would certainly recommend Rose's jewellers. However, the Baltimore Diner (sometimes called the Boston Diner) is the place I had chosen to propose marriage a month earlier.

it must be the "boston exchange" in headingley (which has shut down now anyway )

having said all that, i (for once) go with "1959 and all that"'s take on it:

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Cl ... html#song4

"...if it does represent religious traditionalism, I suspect that actual word was chosen at least in part because it fitted the rhyme scheme well, although it also offers the best ironic contrast with the essentially American image of corrupt TV preachers..."