Sweden ^{1 2}

In an excellent interview with John on VPRO radio (February 17, 2000), he describes that he stopped writing Sweden because he couldn't bear to make the people in Sweden "suffer any more". He mentions that they show up elsewhere, but that in "a couple songs" Full Force Galesburg used a different couple that was "a little angrier, and a little less easy to sympathize with". Given this description, I think it's safe to say that no songs on Sweden describe the Alpha couple. ↩

In a particularly amazing live show (Castro Theater, San Francisco, December 14, 2010), many songs and outtakes from Sweden or its unreleased companion record, Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg, were played live as the score to the Swedish silent film Sir Arne's Treasure for the San Francisco Film Society. Songs were not played in order but matched to scenes; for example, as Arne's house was burned to the ground by the three marauders, John played Snow Crush Killing Song, which has the subtitle, "The house was burned down by the young man." ↩

On the insert to Sweden describing the song list, each song has a subtitled line in Swedish following the title. These are transcribed with each individual track rather than the liner notes. Translations are from Jordan Ellenberg, as provided to Nall and found on Nall's Sweden page. I'm not sure how these relate to the songs themselves.

Swedish does not have the letter "ÿ", which appears in the subtitle for Downtown Seoul. Called the "tyskt y", or "German y", when it appears in Swedish loanwords, it is not part of the Swedish alphabet and generally only appears in German words. "Yngre", meaning "younger", is usually spelled without the umlaut. I'm not sure what this implies about the origin of these Swedish words.

The liner notes were written by Paul Lucas. Zoop II, Farm Sanctuary, New York, June 13, 2009. ↩

Both quotes are from Eugene O'Neill plays, a Nobel Prize in Literature winning realist playwright from New York City. ↩

The Iceman Cometh is a play (and later, a film) about the denizens of a bar. Set in 1912, the film has many political themes while discussing the despair in the lives of those at the bar. ↩

Desire Under the Elms is another play adapting parts of the tragedy of Phaedra, a Greek myth, to 1920s New England. Originally told by Euripides and Seneca the Younger, the married Phaedra falls in love with Hippolytus, who rejects her. Phaedra then claims to her husband, Theseus, that Hippolytus raped her, resulting in his death. In the O'Neill play, the husband is instead cuckolded, resulting in a child, which the wife murders in an attempt to continue her affair. ↩

John's love of Ace of Base's song The Sign is known to many fans; a studio version is recorded on Songs for Peter Hughes (and later, Bitter Melon Farm), and John has played his cover live at over a dozen shows. John has described himself as an ABBA fan as well, see for example Bullseye, Sound of Young America, April 7, 2011. ↩

The Swedish Chef is a Muppet who sings in fake Swedish while making a slapstick parody of actual cooking. His signature phrase, "Børk, børk, børk!" includes ø, a letter not actually present in the Swedish alphabet. Performed by puppeteer Jim Henson, the Swedish Chef did in fact use Henson's hands rather than puppet hands to make it easier to manipulate cutlery. ↩ ↩²

The Swedish furniture store tycoon Ingvar Kamprad did indeed admit to such a claim. After the leader of the fascist and Nazi-supporting New Swedish Movement died, his letters revealed that Kamprad had been involved with the organization in the 1940s. ↩

The Stockholm Bloodbath was a massacre of Swedes following with invasion of Denmark in November 1520. The Thirty Years' War was an enormous religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, which involved much of Scandinavia in the 1620s and 1630s. The Linköping Cannibalism Outbreak of 1926 appears to be made up. ↩

Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe was an alternative rock track by Whale, as described, charting into the top 10. It is not purported to have any backmasking in it, to my knowledge. ↩

Givens also painted the cover of Beautiful Rat Sunset and is likely the namesake for Song for Mark and Joel. ↩

John mentions that he's lost touch with Zita and doesn't know where to find this film anymore in his interview with Space City Rock (2001). I have been unable to find any further information about Zita or Walking on Snow, but would love to hear more if you know something. My best guess is that Zita is another local from the Inland Empire scene. Zita also contributed the cover to Zopilote Machine. ↩

John describes this song and Sept 19 Triple X Love! Love! as being companion pieces. He continues: "This song is about that moment when — let's say you'd been assembling a model... so you've been following the directions, and as the model begins to take shape, you see that the shape, while it is a distinct and easy-to-identify shape, is not the same one that was on the box. And it's gonna eat you alive. You didn't know it was that kind of model. If you had known, you wouldn't have bought it." — Terrastock II, Custer Avenue Stages, San Francisco, April 17, 2013

A similar description: "This is a song... that's about a point in time when everything sacred goes profane." — Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, January 27, 1999 ↩

A recognition scene is a term from plays where a character realizes the situation they're in or otherwise has a major epiphany related to their plight. ↩

Subtitle: "Vi skulle gå hem, forren det regnar." Translation: "We were going home before a rain." ↩

Sometimes sung live with a different duration. For example, at Cat's Cradle in 1999, John sings "five-month ride". ↩

Subtitle: "Han ar ÿngre an jag." Translation: "He is younger than me." ↩

Seoul is the capital and largest city of South Korea. ↩

This bears a remarkable similarity to the famous expression, "There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford", sometimes altered to, "There but for the grace of God go I". The idiom is attributed to the Protestant martyr John Bradford, who was said to utter this saying as he saw criminals being executed prior to his own burning at the stake by Mary I of England. ↩

Subtitle: "De fleyendena var oskyldiga." Translation: "Those who escaped were innocent." ↩

I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone is part of the informal series of cover songs. ↩

I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone was originally written by Buddy Johnson, the American bandleader. It has since become a jazz standard, and has been performed by many individuals including Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. ↩

Subtitle: "Inga grona blader." Translation: "No green leaves." ↩

This is a recording of T. S. Eliot reading his beloved poem, The Waste Land. This portion of the poem is from part three, The Fire Sermon. While I am not completely certain that this is the same recording, one recording of Eliot reading The Waste Land which sounds very similar is available from the Internet Multicasting Service. Retrieved September 28, 2013. ↩

Deïanira, meaning "man-destroyer", was one of Hercules' wives. Told in Sophocles' play Women of Trachis, Hercules killed the centaur Nessus with a Hydra-poisoned arrow when Nessus attempted to steal Deïanira. As he died, Nessus told Deïanira to give Hercules a shirt painted with his blood to prevent him from being unfaithful. When she did so, the Hydra poison killed Hercules, burning him alive. Deïanira subsequently committed suicide. ↩ ↩²

Subtitle: "År du inte min van?" Translation: "Aren't you my friend?" ↩

Subtitle: "Fast han hade forandrat sig mycket, kande genast jag igen honom." Translation: "Even though he'd changed so much, I recognized him immediately." ↩

Subtitle: "Den kallaste vintern." Translation: "The coldest winter." ↩

John describes this as being the companion piece to The Recognition Scene. Terrastock II, Custer Avenue Stages, San Francisco, April 17, 2013. ↩

I would love to understand this title, but I don't grasp it at all. If you do, please contact me. ↩

Subtitle: "Vi gor vad vi kån." Translation: "We do what we can." ↩

This clip is from Shenley Duffus' reggae song, Bet You Don't Know. The full verse is as follows:

I bet you don't know but you are the one I love
I bet you don't know but you are the one that I love
You've been gone such a long, long time
But I got you on my mind
I bet you don't know but you are the one I love ↩

Going to Queens is part of the Going to ... series. ↩

Queens is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ↩

Subtitle: "Vi visste in te, vad som skülle handa." Translation: "We didn't know what would happen." ↩

Double Dutch is a form of jump rope where two jump ropes rotating in opposite directions are jumped simultaneously. ↩

Jamaica is a neighborhood within Queens. ↩

Tahiti is an island in French Polynesia, a French colony. Ambrosia is the food or drink of the gods in Greek mythology, consumed with nectar. ↩

Subtitle: "Han har kant igen dig." Translation: "He's recognized you." ↩

Going to Bolivia is part of the Going to ... series. ↩

Bolivia is a Spanish-speaking country in South America. ↩

Subtitle: "Huset var vackert belagen, vilket gjorde mitg mycket glad." Translation: "The house was beautifully situated, which made me very happy." ↩

I'm not sure what advertisement this is from - if you do, please let me know. ↩

Regarding the doubling of "switch" here, John says, "'switch' probably just a phasing issue, I didn't used to sit very still on-mic on studios". Forums, June 24, 2008. More discussion occurs in that thread. ↩

The extra lyrics to Tollund Man are part of the informal series of Biblical references. ↩

The Tollund Man was a mummified body found in a bog in Denmark. Evidence suggests that he was strangled to death, potentially as a ritual sacrifice. ↩

Subtitle: "Han tycktes sova." Translation: "He was apparently sleeping." ↩

Based on his autopsy, the Tollund Man's last meal was discovered to be a porridge from grains and seeds. Silkeborg Museum, The Last Meal. Retrieved September 28, 2013. ↩

John often sings this with other lines following the last verse. At Will's Pub, Orlando, April 9, 2003:

There's no mercy, which makes your love more strong
To love that well, which you will have to leave before too long
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la

At Mains d'Oeuvres, Mofo Festival, Paris, France, June 27, 2003 and Empty Bottle, Chicago, October 14, 2005:

Dog-tired, suisired, will now my body down
Near Cedar Avenue in Minneap
Where the used cars live
When my crime comes
When my crime comes
When my crime comes
When my crime comes
When, when

At Berbati's Pan, Portland, October 3, 2003:

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Nothing can drive them away
We can beat them just for one day, one day

At Court Square Theater, Harrisonburg, April 4, 2003:

We sat at the window looking out
And the rain came down like silken string that Swithin's day
Nothing to read, nothing to say
Seemed in that room for her and me
We were irked by the scene, by our own selves, yes
She did not read, nor could I confess
How much there was to read and guess
By her in me, nor could be a crown in it
Wasted were two souls in their prime
And great was the waste at July time
When the rain came down

At North Star Bar, Philadelphia, September 22, 2007:

This is my Father's world
And to my listening ears
In the tall dry grass I hear him pass
This is my Father's world
This is, this is, this is, this is my Father's world
This is, this is, this is my Father's world
Why must I then be sad
In the tall, tall grass I hear him pass
This is my Father's world, my Father's world
Yeah

These stanzas are from Shakepeare's Sonnet 73, John Berryman's The Poet's Final Instructions, David Bowie's "Heroes", Thomas Hardy's We Sat at the Window, and the hymn This Is My Father's World, respectively.

In full, Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 reads (with the relevant lines in the final couplet):

That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.

John Berryman's poem, The Poet's Final Instructions, goes as follows:

Dog-tired, suisired, will now my body down
near Cedar Avenue in Minneap,
when my crime comes. I am blazing with hope.
Do me glory, come the whole way across town.

I couldn't rest from hell just anywhere,
in commonplaces. Choiring & strange my pall!
I might not lie still in the waste of St Paul
or buy DAD's root beer; good signs I forgive.

Drop here, with honour due, my trunk & brain
among the passioning of my countrymen
unable to read, rich, proud of their tags
and proud of me. Assemble all my bags!
Bury me in a hole, and give a cheer,
near Cedar on Lake Street, where the used cars live.

John's use borrows from the first and last stanzas.

Third, the stanza in question is from the chorus of David Bowie's signature 1977 song "Heroes":

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be us just for one day

Forth, Thomas Hardy's 1875 poem We Sat at the Window:

We sat at the window looking out,
And the rain came down like silken strings
That Swithin's day. Each gutter and spout
Babbled unchecked in the busy way
Of witless things:
Nothing to read, nothing to see
Seemed in that room for her and me
On Swithin's day.

We were irked by the scene, by our own selves; yes,
For I did not know, nor did she infer
How much there was to read and guess
By her in me, and to see and crown
By me in her.
Wasted were two souls in their prime,
And great was the waste, that July time
When the rain came down.

This Is My Father's World is a popular Christian poem and hymn by Maltbie Davenport Babcock published in 1901 and written in the late 19th century. Originally a lengthy poem, it was shortened to fewer verses when first set to music in 1916 by Franklin L. Sheppard, and is now sung with a variety of similar verses. For example:

This is my Father's world
And to my listening ears
All nature sings and round me rings
The music of the spheres

This is my Father's world
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas
His hand the wonders wrought

This is my Father's world
He shines in all that's fair
In rustling grass I hear him pass
He speaks to me everywhere

This is my Father's world
Why should my heart be sad
The Lord is King, let heaven ring
God reigns; let earth be glad

Berryman, John (1991). Collected Poems: 1937 – 1971. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-52281-2

Hardy, Thomas (2001). The Complete Poems. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-94929-3

Babcock, Maltbie Davenport (1901). Thoughts for Every-Day Living. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.

Hymnary. This Is My Father's World. Retrieved May 25, 2014. ↩

"This is about how, you know, sometimes in a given summer, you're young and in love, and you... live where you're from and where you grew up, and you have an affection for that place, and you think, 'It's awesome to be young, and it's awesome to be in love, and it's awesome that we're both here in this town, and it's so nice.' And that's what this song is about." — Point Ephémère, Paris, October 13, 2009 ↩

Subtitle: "Flicken, vårs van han var, sade adjo." Translation: "The girl whose friend he was said goodbye." ↩

This is the chorus to the Smokey Robinson and the Miracles song You Really Got A Hold On Me, which has the lines:

I don't like you, but I love you
Seems that I'm always thinkin' of you
Though you treat me badly, I love you madly
You really got a hold on me
You really got a hold on me

This song was later also covered by the Beatles. ↩

John mentions briefly that this song marked a big step forward in his songwriting. City Arts and Lectures, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, February 24, 2009. ↩

Subtitle: "Huset blev brunnet av den unga mannen." Translation: "The house was burned down by the young man." ↩

Subtitle: "Han ar lika trott som jag." Translation: "He is as tired as I am." ↩

Subtitle: "Vi traffas pa gatan i morgon." Translation: "We'll meet on the street tomorrow." ↩

Capsicum is a plant genus including chili peppers and bell peppers, many containing the spice molecule capsaicin. ↩

Dallas is a major city in northeastern Texas. ↩

FM is part of the informal series of cover songs. ↩

FM (No Static at All) is a song by Steely Dan. ↩

FM is one of the two major commercial radio bands (the other being AM). Standing for frequency modulation and having higher sound quality than AM, FM radio is used for music, news, and other broadcasting. ↩

Subtitle: "En vit klaning." Translation: "A white dress." ↩

In the original Steely Dan song, this line is "Give her some funked-up music, she treats you nice", as opposed to the expletive here. ↩

"You know when were in love, and the person with whom you were in love was also in love? And then, one or both of you depending on who you ask about the subject years later was possessed by demons and began to change in the blackest and most horrible ways, but not so much so that they didn't recognize that what was happening was horrible beyond description, but yet there was some magnetic pull to the relationship so nobody ever left?" — Crossing Border, Amsterdam, October 9, 1999 ↩

Prana means "life force" in Sanskrit and is invoked throughout Hinduism. Ferox is Latin for "spirited, courageous, warlike". See also Nall's translation in the FAQ. University of Notre Dame, Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid, retrieved September 28, 2013. ↩

Subtitle: "De gjorde det sjalv." Translation: "They did it themselves." ↩

I am not at all sure what this is from — if you know, please let me know. ↩

Sour mash is a way to start the fermentation of whiskey using the leftovers of the last-completed fermentation process, which still contain the necessary yeast. ↩

Subtitle: "Jag skall tala i kvall." Translation: "I'm speaking tonight." ↩

A likely homage to the jazz standard Mean to Me by Roy Turk and sung by many greats, including Billie Holiday, which contains the opening lines:

You're mean to me
Why must you be mean to me
Gee, honey, it seems to me
You love to see me cryin'
I don't know why ↩