Magnolia Mountain Meaning?

[HalfGunSkyTour]

Originally Posted by mojoryzin

Or "This House Is not For Sale! Is that about Beetlejuice?"

It's comforting to know that I'm not the only person who has thought that connection makes sense, even if it is wrong.

[Hofftimus Prime]

Originally Posted by JBL120Facemelter

it's rock music not Chaucer or Sun Tzu.

Well said. It is far better that way. but's its always fun discussing.

[Hofftimus Prime]

Originally Posted by KiB

welcome i.b.!!

I'll second that.

[LostLucy]

Originally Posted by JBL120Facemelter View Post
it's rock music not Chaucer or Sun Tzu.

it doesn't have to be, to mean something to someone. And how it means what it may or may not mean is always amusing to discuss, at least when it's music i love. But that's just my opinion.

[Rain Dog]

Originally Posted by LostLucy

it doesn't have to be, to mean something to someone. And how it means what it may or may not mean is always amusing to discuss, at least when it's music i love. But that's just my opinion.

Totally agree, and (despite my less than 100% serious posts above!) it seems to me to be a big part of RAA that people can talk about the music and what it means to them (please see La Cienega's "Just Three Words" thread as another good example). If that's what you enjoy, then fine. Alternatively, if you think that this is to much analysis and prefer not to coz you think this detracts fom the music - well that's fine too.

What a lyric (or beat, or melody) means to me at any particular moment in time can differ immensely. It could bring back a memory, or remind me of another song, or bring back someone I miss, or give me an adreniline kick, (or..., or..., etc...). Even if RA/WH comes along and tells me what his song means (or meant when he first wrote it) it doesn't necessarily alter what that song means to me.

The main thing is to simply enjoy his and The Cardinals beautiful music (for whatever reason you may choose)

[MissAmandaJones]

Here's a thought, NOT having read anyone else's opinion and just remembering how I felt the first day I bought Cold Roses:

Magnolia Mountain, First song, first side. The Cover art theme... Clearly Deadful. So the song, the sound, immediately conveys the influence of the GD. Sugar Mags and Blossoms blooming, Rosebuds... It was exactly what I had said in '02 when I saw him: he will get this underground following not unlike the Dead, thanks to his song repertoire, access to taping, etc. But for him to make an album inspired by that band, well, Thank You.

So to me, the Mountain is about getting high. The Plateau is about not so much coming down but feeling even, straight, neither high nor low.
Disc 1 is sadder, more sentimental and thoughtful, the past
Disc 2 is hopeful, learning, growing, the future.
And all together the Album rounds out the entire meaning of life to me, which is to learn (to grow).

We should do the next thread on Cold Roses because that one is tricky but not. Like, I'm scared to "go there" with my very brutal opinion, but not really
Also, Cherry Lane. Any thoughts? Anyone want to race me to it?

[lagiaconda]

See I think Mountain, Plateau and Valley represent a spiritual journey. I don't think there is a theme of getting sober to Cold Roses (the album) as Ryan wasn't getting sober then. I'm just going on what he's said in interviews about being very much under the influence while making CR.

Those three songs together seem to be linked, and I don't see it as any coincidence that they have been the backbone of nearly every show for the past couple of years. I know people have talked about them being overplayed or whatever, but I actually think they represent something very important to Ryan. Perhaps a newfound ability to face up to one's past, work through it and find a measure of peace and dignity? Magnolia talks about bequeathing scars to future generations (unhealed wounds), Easy Plateau is about the search for meaning and a place of rest, then Peaceful Valley is like a long slow goodnight.

I'm probably all wrong about this. I usually am!

[LostLucy]

"I'm probably all wrong about this. I usually am!"

I don't think you're wrong. I agree. They are definitely linked in my mind, anyway, and are also to me almost a map of a spiritual quest, or journey. And I love how the band has opened those songs up, and changed them over the course of the last couple of tours.

[Rain Dog]

I gather from quotes from the band (especially about jamming) that The Plateau is that place where the music just flows without thought or effort - it just is. I've only experienced something like that a couple of times when playing guitar (and once playing pool!) when everything else dropped away...

[MissAmandaJones]

Originally Posted by Rain Dog

I gather from quotes from the band (especially about jamming) that The Plateau is that place where the music just flows without thought or effort - it just is. I've only experienced something like that a couple of times when playing guitar (and once playing pool!) when everything else dropped away...

buddhism, nirvana, enlightenment

And when you're an addict, you're always searching for peace from within instead of from without There's a void, when you feel, you KNOW, something's missing. I'll bet he knew he was reaching the end of that lifestyle, but was heading into the unknown, and that mountain is the hardest to overcome.

[lagiaconda]

Originally Posted by Rain Dog

I gather from quotes from the band (especially about jamming) that The Plateau is that place where the music just flows without thought or effort - it just is. I've only experienced something like that a couple of times when playing guitar (and once playing pool!) when everything else dropped away...

Interesting. That's what it's like for me when I'm drawing or painting, time, space, thoughts, tension just drop away. I feel like I am the medium, the tip of my pencil or point of my brush and time just passes at the back of my conciousness. It's not so much a feeling, as an absence of feeling, a loss of a sense of yourself. Which sounds a little sinister, but is actually very liberating.

[Rain Dog]

Originally Posted by lagiaconda

It's not so much a feeling, as an absence of feeling, a loss of a sense of yourself. Which sounds a little sinister, but is actually very liberating.

No decision to make - it just happened, and the nearest thing I could have likened it to was being out of body. Not sinister at all - and sharing it when playing live in a band was perhaps the biggest adrenaline kick I've ever experienced.

[MissAmandaJones]

Originally Posted by lagiaconda

See I think Mountain, Plateau and Valley represent a spiritual journey. I don't think there is a theme of getting sober to Cold Roses (the album) as Ryan wasn't getting sober then. I'm just going on what he's said in interviews about being very much under the influence while making CR.

I'm probably all wrong about this. I usually am!

Getting sober is a spiritual journey also, but I never said he was getting sober while making this album.

[Velvetunderlou]

Hey, I covered this song it's on my Ultimate-Guitar account. C4C
http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/Velvetunderlou/

[direwolf_kpt]

"Steady my soul and ease my worry
Hold me when I rattle like a hummingbird hummin' - symptom of PTSD
"We burned the cotton fields down in the valley
And ended up with nothing but scars
The scars became the lessons that we gave to our children after the war"

Thinking this is soul searching by a Union Soldier after the war.

[Words36]

Originally Posted by direwolf_kpt

"Steady my soul and ease my worry
Hold me when I rattle like a hummingbird hummin' - symptom of PTSD
"We burned the cotton fields down in the valley
And ended up with nothing but scars
The scars became the lessons that we gave to our children after the war"

Thinking this is soul searching by a Union Soldier after the war.

i think magnolia mountain is a reference to the magnolia tree in his grandparents yard wher he basically grew up. The war references may well be to do with his grandfather.

[b_side]

Several months back RA had made a comment on Facebook that the book Uncle Tom's Cabin had influenced some of his songwriting..not sure of he was serious, this automatically made me think of Magnolia Mountain though. I had wondered before if the song might be written from the perspective of an escaped slave since the mountain seems to be a haven from something, or perhaps it's the afterlife. The way he keeps repeating mountain and rocks "my savior made" sounds a little like gospel. The song has a sort of broader meaning though and just vaguely makes me think of that, it's more of a romantic song and about someone in need of consolation.

[With Broken Eyes]

Originally Posted by b_side

Several months back RA had made a comment on Facebook that the book Uncle Tom's Cabin had influenced some of his songwriting..not sure of he was serious, this automatically made me think of Magnolia Mountain though. I had wondered before if the song might be written from the perspective of an escaped slave since the mountain seems to be a haven from something, or perhaps it's the afterlife. The way he keeps repeating mountain and rocks "my savior made" sounds a little like gospel. The song has a sort of broader meaning though and just vaguely makes me think of that, it's more of a romantic song and about someone in need of consolation.

He was referring to the song "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Warrant. He posted that after lead singer Jani Lane died. He said it influenced some songs including Let it Ride, which there are some similarities, as odd as that sounds haha.