Joe the Georgian

[mishalak]

Mishalak tries to interpret "Joe the Georgian" by Al Stewart.
All are encouraged to add their own thoughts about the imagery in the song and agree or disagree with what I'm thinking. After all there is no one way to see anything.

Now I've got my payment
For the service that I gave
They've given me my ticket
To this place beyond the grave
I suppose it's kind of funny
I suppose it's kind of sad
Thinking back on all the times we had
It would be appear from this and from the later lyrics that it is written from the point of view of someone who's been sent to one of the upper levels of hell. He's committed crimes, but none so bad that he has to go lower down.

But it's kind of hot and smoky
In this anteroom to Hell
And I won't make up a story
'Cause you know the truth so well
It's much too late to worry
That we never had a chance
And when Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance, dance dance
When Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance
Joe the Georgian would be Joseph Stalin, of course. He's not making up a story because everyone knows the crimes committed by the Soviets and so he can't lie that he was just following orders or something.

We all set off together
On this sorry ship of state
When the captain took the fever
We were hijacked by the mate
And he steered us through the shadows
Upon an angry tide
And cast us one by one over the side
Lenin grew sick and then died and Stalin managed to take over even though he was not Lenin's choice. Stalin lead the Soviet Union through some very hard times, but along the way he killed a lot of his people. An awful lot.

But it's kind of hot and smoky
In this anteroom to Hell
And I won't make up a story
'Cause you know the truth so well
It's much too late to worry
That we never had a chance
And when Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance, dance dance
When Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance

There's Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin and the rest
We're sharpening our pitchforks
And we're heating up the ends
We've got a few surprises
For the mate when he appears
I hope he likes the next few million years
Looks like they're not to happy with Stalin and his punishment will be to be stuck with the people he purged for a very long time. That's a nice notion. Zinoviev and Kamenev were two of his followers that helped him keep Trotsky out of power, and in turn they were purged later on. Bukharin was the guy that Stalin switched favor to when he decided to break with his two previous supporters. Three years later he was in turn shuffuled away from power and eventually he was purged and killed too.

And it's kind of hot and smoky
In this anteroom to Hell
And I won't make up a story
'Cause you know the truth so well
It's much too late to worry
That we never had a chance
And when Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance, dance dance
When Joe the Georgian gets here
We will dance
The moral of this story? Don't trust Joe Stalin. And don't be Joe Stalin if there really is a hell. And if anyone knows of a band/singer that's as literate in their/his/her songs do let me know.

Comments

[gomeza.livejournal.com]

Al Stewart was a _great_ lyric writer. I just didn't like the way he sang or his voice. But I could say that about several others too, not least of whom is Bob Dylan.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I don't like the way he sings all of his songs, but for some it is just perfect. "Roads to Moscow" is one I have a hard time imagining being done any better. But it would be cool if someone covered some of his songs with a bit more rock. "Necromancer" is one that I think cries how for a harder sound.