#february 1878

SONG OF THE DAY

1. February 1878

February 8th, 1878

South of Trout Creek, west of Cedar Lake [1]

On a winding mountain trail of the North Pacific Union Rail [2]

The snow arrived on time, the circus train was running late

Rip spot’s [3] past and all the knuckles [4] worn,

Firebox [5] bursting to the running boards [6]

A pounding in his chest, crushing like a cider press [7]

The hogger [8] rode the throttle ‘round the bender like a flank-strapped horse

As Elephant addressed the frightened animal car:

"Let’s return now to the dust as the dust we are [9];

tonight, our bridal fate, the hour’s come to consummate [10]!”

And drove her massive body like a truck into the iron bars

Limestone thrown from out the hopper’s [11] back

Ash Cat [12] tossed against the diamond stack [13]

from cradle to caboose, the frozen bolts broke loose,

sent that cage spinning like a dreidel [14] off the icy tracks.

Run on, Rabbit, run!

Before the East sky wakes the sun!

Sails set to the dreadful cold,

Until your anchor-heart [15] [16] takes hold

Run on, Fox & Bear,

From this dismal dream’s despair!

Cast thoughts to the open ocean of air

Until your thread catch somewhere [17]

[ANIMALS:] "Mother, please come along!"

[ELEPHANT (from inside her cage):]

"My tusks are dull, my eyes, half-blind,

too old to run, too big to hide,

and have neither friend nor enemy,

nor that phantom, ‘self’-identity [18]

nor concern for what ‘they’ll’ do to ‘me’

now, my children, run free!"

But Tiger, why sit still,

As the officers climb the hill?

What stars cast down their spears,

cooled your fire with their tears? [19]

[TIGER:] "Gone that siren’s sound [20],

it’s a silence now pours down

Gone, my next of kin,

and all once without now lives within"

[FOX & RABBIT:] “Topiary [21] Tiger, once burned bright

save your tales of gnostic sight [22]

and take heed on this (most) auspicious night!

Topiary Tiger, once burned bright"

[1] Both locations are in Montana, U.S.

[2] A railroad run by the Union Pacific company, beginning operations in 1862.

[3] A “rip spot” is a repair track used for minor repair of train cars, and thus the train is past any hope of “pulling over” as it were.

[4] A “knuckle” is the pivoting hook like casting that fits into the head of a coupler and rotates about a vertical pin to either the open position (to engage a mating coupler) or to the closed position (when fully engaged).  Essentially, these are what is holding the train together, and they have worn down.

[5] In a steam engine, the “firebox” is the area where the fuel is burned, producing heat to boil the water in the boiler.  

[6] A “running board” is a walkway along the locomotive to facilitate inspection and maintenance.  Thus the fuel is overflowing from the firebox, in an effort to increase the engine’s power and the locomotive’s speed.

[7] A “cider press” is a press for crushing fruit, typically apples, to make cider.

[8] “Hogger” is a slang term for a locomotive engineer.

[9] Multiple Biblical references.  

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” - Genesis 3:19

“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” - Ecclesiastes 3:20

More can be found here, most similarly themed:

(61 Bible Verses about Dust. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://www.openbible.info/topics/dust)

[10] The “Bridal Fate” here is referring to the possibility of their death metaphorically, comparing it to the consummation of a marriage.  In eastern Christian tradition, marriage and the sexual union that accompanies is are seen as a sacrament, and a physical symbol of the relationship between Christ and the Church.  The Christian church is even referred to as “The Bride of Christ”.

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” - Ephesians 5:25-27

More here:

(27 Bible Verses about The Bride Of Christ. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://www.openbible.info/topics/the_bride_of_christ)

[11] An ashpan “hopper” is an open top car with hinged trap doors and inclined floors which permits quick unloading of bulk commodities; it collects the unburnable ash from spent fuel.

[12] “Ash Cat” is a slang term for the crew member whose job it is to keep the fire and steam up in a steam locomotive, and who is responsible for the operating condition of power units on diesel and electric engines.

[13] A “diamond stack” is a diamond-shaped smoke stack, usually associated with 19th Century locomotives.  In the crash, the “ash cat” is thrown out of the engine and somehow collides with the stack.

[14] A “dreidel” is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

[15] While most likely a coincidence, it is interesting to note the role of the anchor in early Christian symbolism, and it’s connection with the sign of the cross (and thus a sacrifice similar to the one Mother Elephant makes here).  "When the early Christians did represent the sign of the cross on their monuments, nearly all sepulchral in character, they felt obliged to disguise it in some artistic and symbolical way. One of the oldest of the symbols of the cross is the anchor. Originally a symbol of hope in general, the anchor takes on in this way a much higher meaning: that of hope based on the Cross of Christ. The similarity of the anchor to the cross made the former an admirable Christian symbol."  (Orazio Marucchi, "Archaeology of the Cross and Crucifix," Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), Vol. 4)

[16][17] Both “Until your anchor-heart take hold” and “Cast thoughts to the open ocean of air, until your thread catch somewhere” lines find their origin in Walt Whitman’s Noiseless Patient Spider.

I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;

Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,

It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;

Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.  

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,

Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;

Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;

Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.”

(Whitman, W. (1959). Complete poetry and selected prose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.)

[18] A common theme on Ten Stories is that of the “self”, and the identity thereof.  While no specific reference seems to be made with this line, it should be noted that much of the “denying of self” that goes on throughout the album finds it’s origins not only in the teachings of early Christianity, Sufism, and Buddhism (and many others), but also in the complex philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel.  Specifically referenced thematically throughout the album is Hegel’s 1807 work Phenomenology of Spirit, from which the final track takes it’s lyrics, almost in their entirety.

[19] Of special note is that the idea of a tiger that refuses to leave an open cage out of fear is apparently inspired by a real incident that Aaron Weiss had knowledge of, though I have yet to find a specific historical event to clarify this.  The lament for Tiger culls it’s phrasing from William Blake’s The Tyger.

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”

(Blake, W., & Waldman, N. (1993). The Tyger. San Diego: Harcourt Brace &.)

[20] The “siren’s sound” here is an obvious allusion to the sirens of Greek mythology and their song that lures sailors to their demise.  What Tiger is referring to as a “siren’s sound” is up to interpretation, but one possibility is that it conveys his feelings as to his past glory, and the escape to freedom he would need to regain it.

[21] While this is likely another coincidence, I have found one interesting article that may have some bearing on the use of “topiary” here.  Topiary is is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes.  An excerpt from the article The Ethics and Aesthetics of Topiary by Isis Brook and Emily Brady:

The Aesthetics of Imperfection

We would like to conclude by suggesting a useful way to approach topiary as an aesthetic category. The aesthetics of topiary could be articulated as an ‘aesthetics of imperfection’, where imperfection is viewed as a positive aesthetic quality.  This category has been used to describe the Japanese aesthetic taste for imperfection, humbleness, and natural forces, such as weathering and organic qualities, as opposed to showiness and flashiness.

(Brook, I., & Brady, E. (2003). Topiary: Ethics and Aesthetics. Ethics & the Environment, 127-142.)

[22] Tiger is a practicing Gnostic it seems (confirmed not merely from my own interpretation and the lyrics, but as described in promotional material and interviews).  Gnosticism describes a collection of ancient religions whose adherents shunned the material world and embraced the spiritual world.  Possibly of note for Tiger’s particular point of view:

All religious traditions acknowledge that the world is imperfect. Where they differ is in the explanations which they offer to account for this imperfection and in what they suggest might be done about it. Gnostics have their own -- perhaps quite startling -- view of these matters: they hold that the world is flawed because it was created in a flawed manner.

Like Buddhism, Gnosticism begins with the fundamental recognition that earthly life is filled with suffering. In order to nourish themselves, all forms of life consume each other, thereby visiting pain, fear, and death upon one another (even herbivorous animals live by destroying the life of plants). In addition, so-called natural catastrophes -- earthquakes, floods, fires, drought, volcanic eruptions -- bring further suffering and death in their wake. Human beings, with their complex physiology and psychology, are aware not only of these painful features of earthly existence. They also suffer from the frequent recognition that they are strangers living in a world that is flawed and absurd.

Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world. Supporting this view, they interpret the Genesis myth as declaring that transgressions committed by the first human pair brought about a “fall” of creation resulting in the present corrupt state of the world. Gnostics respond that this interpretation of the myth is false. The blame for the world’s failings lies not with humans, but with the creator. Since -- especially in the monotheistic religions -- the creator is God, this Gnostic position appears blasphemous, and is often viewed with dismay even by non-believers.

Ways of evading the recognition of the flawed creation and its flawed creator have been devised over and over, but none of these arguments have impressed Gnostics. The ancient Greeks, especially the Platonists, advised people to look to the harmony of the universe, so that by venerating its grandeur they might forget their immediate afflictions. But since this harmony still contains the cruel flaws, forlornness and alienation of existence, this advice is considered of little value by Gnostics. Nor is the Eastern idea of Karma regarded by Gnostics as an adequate explanation of creation’s imperfection and suffering. Karma at best can only explain how the chain of suffering and imperfection works. It does not inform us in the first place why such a sorrowful and malign system should exist.

-Tau Stephanus, Gnostic Bishop

More on Gnosticism and it’s possibly bearing for Tiger’s character may be explored here:

SONG OF THE DAY!

SONG OF THE DAY:  mewithoutYou - "February, 1878"