Aod - Song Lyrics Interpretations/meanings

[Moonlight_Graham]

Wondering if you've heard Matthew talk about what certain songs/lyrics mean on the new Arrows of Desire (AoD) album? If you haven't, what do you personally think different songs or lyrics mean?

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Guns of Carolina - Matt said in one interview that the song is about the recent gun debate in the US. Before I heard this I thought it was either that, or some kind of protest to foreign US intervention. There are many gun and defense manufacturers in Carolina, so maybe that is why Carolina is referred specifically? North Carolina houses Fort Bragg, the home to US Special Forces, so I thought that could have been a reference to foreign military intervention, but I'm probably wrong since the song is geared more toward domestic gun ownership.

 

Mutineering - The only song I could figure out on my own that I'm 100% sure of. Very clearly about domestic spying by the US (and other countries) re: the NSA's PRISM program exposed by "traitor" Edward Snowden, and WIkileaks documents exposed by "traitor" Bradley Manning. Song seems to mostly be told from the perspective of the government people who are doing the dirty work (ie: "Done a little bad for should,

But never for no greater good, Yeah you know you found me out")

 

May post more later.

Edited October 3, 2013 by Moonlight_Graham

[Outtahere]

For Mutineering I don't think that Prism and Edward Snowden had anything to do with it as Matt wrote and recorded the album last year. Plus, he wrote some of the lyrics on his facebook page in August 2012:

 

But I can see it with Bradley Manning though.

[Moonlight_Graham]

For Mutineering I don't think that Prism and Edward Snowden had anything to do with it as Matt wrote and recorded the album last year. Plus, he wrote some of the lyrics on his facebook page in August 2012: https://www.facebook...tal_comments=14

 

But I can see it with Bradley Manning though.

 

Very good point. That's screws up my theory a bit. The song may have to do with just general CIA/covert ops ("gotta a little code to break"), or general secretive government bullshit that is less than legal. Possibly some reference to Wikileaks (Manning etc.) in there too.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Moonlight_Graham

[RileyLewis]

I don't think it has anything to do with that, I think you're reading a bit too much into it. I could be wrong, though.

 

Also, I assumed the lyric was "Done a little bad for sure, but never for no greater good."

[AnOceanPearl]

"Done a little bad for should" is what is posted on the official site.

[Seanathon]

"Done a little bad for should" is what is posted on the official site.

I'm only seeing Arrows, Long Gone and Had it Coming on the lyrics page, where's the rest?

[AnOceanPearl]

http://matthewgood.org/arrowsofdesire Edited October 5, 2013 by AnOceanPearl

[Crusader]

Added the remaining lyrics up on the album page too: Arrows of Desire lyrics

[Moonlight_Graham]

For the sit-down interview with Alan Cross for this album, I'm really dissapointed Matt didn't talk very much about the themes to his song lyrics like he did with the LOES interview. The vagueness of the lyrics of this album are driving me nuts! haha

 

, starting at 6:30, Matt talks about the meaning of Arrows of Desire's lyrics. He says the song "is about the flight of an arrow in battle, from it leaving a bow to it killing somebody", and the inner conversation the arrow is having with itself about what it's own meaning is. He also says it's a metaphor about drone strikes in the middle-east. The title of the song comes from a line in the poem "Jerusalem" by William Blake.

[thewickernightmare]

This article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/matthew-good-gets-back-to-basics/article14466539/ says this about Mutineering: "And in Mutineering, he offers a wish to protect his children from the horrors he spends so much time reading about. “They don’t gotcha yet,” he sings." Not sure if that's correct, but I guess it could make sense.