A new Topic dedicated to muse over obscure, enigmatic or outright bonkers lyrics in songs.
I have been listening to 'Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)' a few times today, and the more I listen to it, the more I wonder about the story behind the song. There are a few possible ways it couldn't have gone. Purposefully left open for interpretation, I wonder how do you, ladies, fill the missing links in your minds?
I was five and he was six
We rode on horses made of sticks
He wore black and I wore white
He would always win the fight
Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down
Seasons came and changed the time
And I grew up, I called him mine
He would always laugh and say
"Remember when we used to play?"
Bang bang, I shot you down
Bang bang, you hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, I used to shoot you down
Music played and people sang
Just for me the church bells rang
Now he's gone I don't know why
Until this days sometimes I cry
He didn't even say goodbye
He didn't take the time to lie
Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down
Come under my wings, little bird
Come under my wings, little bird
Come under my wings
Unmade, unmade
I swear that there's nothing up my sleeves
And then back again
I swear there's nothing
Unmade
There's no faces
Won't grow back again
Broken pieces
Unmade
I swear there's nothing
Won't grow back again
I swear there's nothing
Come under my wings
Come under my wings
Come under my wings
Under my wings
We're unmade
I've read that this song accompanies a pivotal and truly horrific scene in the movie, yet the song makes the horror into something else entirely, something deeply tragic. I don't know what happens in the scene and have not read a synopsis for the film either.
So I'm going strictly by what the song and the lyrics make me feel without the context of the movie.
For me the song is about the desperate seeking of comfort after something truly dreadful, life crushing has happened. Like a baby bird would crave the mother hen's voice and the safety of her wings. But as much as the "mother hen" might become a true comforter and protector this time, there have been times in the past when she betrayed the faith and trust put in her. The sadddest part is that the "mother hen" seems just as broken, "Unmade" and in need of comfort, as the "little bird". It might be a trick, a trap, but Thom's voice is so pure in this song, that I doubt that the offer to comfort is anything but sincere.
I like your interpretation, Dee, and have a slightly similar/dissimilar response to it. I too feel there is a comforter or even a god of some sort speaking to the traumatized. Like your 'mother hen' the singer is riling against the inexplicable, knowing the 'bird' has suffered greatly and seems most likely on a last gasp. How then can a 'mother hen' or 'god' defend such devastation? Or, perhaps it is a leaving...an ascension. I think that is my final feel for myself personally. However, in lieu of the origin, it can also be interpreted as a demon-like being luring in the despondent even as the demon may be broken himself and have an honest comforting intent in the final analysis (note the gender ). "We're unmade."
Unmade
Thom Yorke
Come under my wings, little bird
Come under my wings, little bird
Come under my wings
(This speaks of a previous distrust or seeming failure of the omnipotent 'mother hen or god' or at the very least an assurance that the unexplained or unknown is not harmful. Or, this could be a magician's shrug, false or not, of a dark presence convincing the broken to trust him.)
And then back again
I swear there's nothing
Unmade
(There is nothing accidental or broken - unfinished, unplanned, or unresolved. There is nothing eternally damaged.)
There's no faces
Won't grow back again
Broken pieces
Unmade
(Really, here I just envision rock bottom and this ethereal extended hand. Again, its owner is undetermined depending on the bent. This shattering given hope or genially numbing acceptance.)
I swear there's nothing
Won't grow back again
I swear there's nothing
Come under my wings
Come under my wings
Come under my wings
Under my wings
We're unmade
This last line speaks to me of a finality of release - a bursting to the surface and an embracing where the narrator is either including the 'little bird' in a safe place to fall or an inclusion as a minion in the shared misery. With Thom's pure delivery, I do like the thought it is pure comfort. However, I know the perpetrators of pain sometimes do so to be the hero and balm in the end. So complex!
I simply adore ethereal lyrics with the corresponding vibey music soaring alongside. Thom's delivery drives home that effect. An inner voice or upper voice floating above the eyeline. I just love it. But, in listening to this song, are we sure that is the last lyric? Are you sure he doesn’t say “we’re made”?
Thank you so much for your thoughts, Lori, for digging deeper into the lyrics of this incredible song.
Am I sure Tom doesn't sing "we're made" at the end? Pretty sure. I think the song is about being Unmade to the very bones and final thread of existence, and it's already a huge revelation that the comforter is just as "unmade" as the one that needs to be saved from despair.
(It would also be so unlike Tom to turn something around in the last line, rather than hammering in the final nail... that's much more the way his songs naturally end. )
And then back again
I swear there's nothing
Unmade
(There is nothing accidental or broken - unfinished, unplanned, or unresolved. There is nothing eternally damaged.)
This is interesting to me, that you see the word 'unmade' connected to what stands before, as in "I swear there's nothing unmade". I saw them as separate. "I swear there's nothing" referring back to "there's nothing up my sleeve" and the repeated 'unmade' is just continuously driving in the irrevocably stripped down state of affairs.
But as the lyrics go in this flowing cascade of words, it could work either way.
I loved how you just straight out called out 'the mother hen' as God. And the calling to come under his/her wings can be interpreted both as offering true comfort, an invitation to come into the fold, immerse in the faith, but also, what I think is happening: dissolving in oblivion, in death, in "nothing". Like you said at the beginning, a 'final calling'.
The comfort of death, is that cheating? I don't think so. It feels like true blessing here.
). "We're unmade."
)