Saturday, January 3, 2009

On "Furr"

I, like many people of my marketing demographic (hipsteroids), enjoy the song Furr by Blitzen Trapper. It is rather silly but enjoyable nonetheless.* The lyrics**, however, are inscrutable.*** If the song is supposed to be an allegory or fable, it utterly fails to convey any kind of coherent point.

The verses and bridge tell this story: a 17-year-old wanders into the woods and turns into a wolf, which he seems to really like. Then, five years later, he meets a (presumably human) girl and raises a family with her on a farm. At some point after that, he "quickly" turns back into a human, but he doesn't really seem to fit in. I am going to assume the story is supposed to be a fable or allegory, because it doesn't really make sense when taken at face value -- for instance, how does a wolf tend to a farm, and what kind of crops does a wolf grow anyway? So maybe the message is as simple as this: the speaker/wolfman doesn't fit in in society. We can all relate to that, I suppose.


But the chorus throws the whole thing into confusion by seeming to offer an interpretive key or moral lesson or something. Here it is: "You can wear your fur like a river on fire, but you better be sure if you're makin' God a liar. I'm a rattlesnake, babe, I'm like fuel on a fire. So if you're gonna get made, don't be afraid of what you've learned." What follows is my best honest attempt at understanding the message of this song.

A river on fire is essentially unaffected by the fire. The river itself is not changed. So whatever one's "fur" is, one can choose not to let it change their core being. BUT one must be careful not to "make God a liar" by denying one's essence. Is that suggesting that the fur/fire could be more central than the one's essence/the river? But our speaker/wolfman is now a rattlesnake (whatever), comparable to fuel on a fire. So ... he is capable of making one's fire stronger (but is destroyed in the process)? That means he personally can effect a change in "your" exterior expression, which "you" are to possibly consider as more important than your essence? And then I have no clue what "if you're gonna get made" etc. could possibly mean.

Anyway, the lyrics of this song are interesting, but I can't think of an interpretation that makes even a tiny bit of sense.

* I think the song's production will "age" terribly, with the artificially-thickened vocals and woodsy sound effects. If you're reading this blog from the year 2014 or later, please confirm in the comments section.

** By the way, have I mentioned how much I hate improperly transcribed lyrics? How fucking stupid do you have to be to think "droned into the words" makes more sense than "drove into the woods" in a song that is largely about living in the fucking woods?

*** People get really irrational when you insult music they like, especially if they know the musicians involved. So, if you are a huge Blitzen Trapper fan or friend of the band, please take no stock in my banal ramblings. I could never write a song as good as Furr.

12 comments:

  1. I'm responding from the year 2019 and I've never heard of this song.

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  2. 2015 calling here. The song sounds fine and great to me.

    I read the song as the word "fur" having a double meaning: "savage-meaning", and "formal-dress/costume-meaning". And I get this meaning out of the whole song: the 17 year old boy leaves "orderly life" and joins a juvenile gang (turs into a wolf, a predator, a "fur-savage"), and runs wild with them heeding only to instict and the call of Nature (here, God=Nature). Then, when he is 23 y.o. he sees a new girl arriving and entering the gang, she is answering the same call of Nature he had heard 6 years earlier; but the leaving of "orderly life" and turning into "fur-savage" is a hard core experience, so the girl "goes shaky at the knees". So he lifts the girl up by the arm and runs with her out of the juvenile gang, settling down into "orderly life" being a farmer and raising children. And while doing so, he sometimes reflects of his past wild liberty and misses it.

    And then, the meaning of the "chorus": You can enter into "orderly life" (here "fur" means formal-dress/costume), but the singer advises you not to kill your inner being while doing so: so here "makin' God a liar" means "don't kill your inner Nature (again, God=Nature) when you adopt the formal dress of an orderly life".

    What do you think?

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  3. 2015 and the song isn't popular at all but i did hear it on one of slacker radio's stations and looked into it. I agree with you on the confusing lyrics but I do like the sound and tone of the song.

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  4. 2015 and the song isn't popular but I love it!! Lyrics are quite confusing though...

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  5. AS THE BOY BECOMES A YOUNG MAN, HE BECOMES WILD AND FREE. WHEN HE MEETS A WOMAN AND FALLS IN LOVE, IT TAMES HIM. BUT HE STILL LONGS FOR THE WILD AND FREE DAYS. THE SNAKE REPRESENTS DECEPTION IN LIFE AND PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE HE IS NOT OR BURYING THE TRUE SELF HE IS MEANT TO BE.

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  6. "If you're gonna get made, don't be afraid of what you've learned" means don't be afraid to do something or don't be afraid to stand up for yourself

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  7. You're missing the allegory completely.. The song is about drugs and more specifically doing drugs with a group of friends, or stuck in addiction together best put perhaps.

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  8. 2016 checking in. Song still confusing, but it sounds good if you're not a pop zombie.

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  9. it's 2016 and i enjoyed listening to it after not hearing it in a long time and hearing it too much back then.

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  10. I just found this song for the first time. It's 2016 and i like this still! and like the lyrics.to me the chorus speaks about the journey of a soul through dark times and rebirth. loved your thoughts on it!

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  11. I'm responding in 2017 and still think this song sounds great. I googled it to find out what the song is about and found this site. Nice ideas, a good read.

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  12. I heard this song summer of 2016 on the radio, not having heard of Blitzen Trapper before, and the song brought me to tears. I suppose I connected in a very real way that not everyone would, due to my current place in life.

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