The Rust List Page     The Words zone     HyperRust Home

Before the olde Powderfinger discussion resurrects itself once again, better peruse the material below. This is an edited copy of my own favorite posts from one of the many outbreaks of Rust List Powderfinger discussions from the fairly recent past.

Baron Rouge is the archivist responsible for saving all these wonderful posts. He forwarded them to me (118 pages worth!). I've cut out at least 2/3 of the posts all together, and the ones that I've used are mostly edited. If you're pissed off at my messing up your name, crediting the wrong person, editing or leaving out your post--please flame mood code, as he's got to be getting uncomfortable with his respectability!

Attention students: The following is some hellacious research for a fine term paper, graduate thesis, or something. Just make sure that other rusties at your same institute of higher learning haven't turned in the same thing to the same prof recently.... unless the prof's real cool.

On second thought there could be at least 30 such learned treatises in here.

Ok....... it's been a fine tournament, I'm really glad that the weather has held up.... I'd like to thank Neil, the Horse... Read this stuff at your leisure, some of it is really amazing!! Actually most of it's amazing from some angle or another.

BH started it all innocently enough...
 
 Subject: powderfinger
 
 I figure you guys probably discussed this before my time..and I know you
 don't want to repeat things...but I was hoping that someone out there would
 be so kind as to fill me in on the consensus >> did someone shoot him or did
 he shoot himself?
 
 Of course, I've got my opinion...

 
LOOKOUT MAMA:
 
 Always got the idea he was shot:
   Raised my rifle to my eye (looking thru the site at someone else)
   Never stopped to wonder why (shoot first, ask questions later)
   Then I saw black and my face splashed in the sky (Guess he wasn't fast
                   enuff on the draw)
 A defense against the people in the white boat.  Another possibility with
 this song, and something I've always questioned.  Is this an act of wartime
 violence or is it a drug deal gone bad?
 
 
PURPLE WORDS again:
 
 please post to rust...the response is just as I figured :)
 NOONE agrees!!! HA!  Typical Neil again...confusion, ambiguity
 
 And let me add that someone even suggests a third option..
 > In my view, I thought the rifle backfired.
 
 To me the lyrics say that his rifle backfired and he ended up blasting
 himself away by accident!
 
 
COMPUTER COWBOY:
 
 Off the top of my head:
 
 When the first shot hit the dock - the white boat is shooting
 at him.
 
 Raised my rifle to my eye - I thought he was aiming at the
 white boat coming up the river.
 
 Then I saw black - the guys on the boat have his guitar.
 
 And my face... - well he got famous playing old black.
 
 Seriously, I thought the "black" part was when the boat got
 him. Suicide? Probably, but only because the fight seems
 futile - not because he shot himself.
 
 Sorry if that's just a surface level view - I've always taken
 the song literally. That's not a mistake I often make with
 Neil, and I'm not altogether certain it is a mistake in this
 case.
 
 
TOM HAMBLETON:
 
 I always thought his family was running some sort of illegal still 
 or something.
 
 
BLUE NOTE:
 
 I also always pictured the boat as a big riverboat w/ a paddle wheel and
 the rest.  I always pictured this event happening around the time of the
 Civil War (American, that is) and Neil was singing about some guy who
 lived near the Mississippi River where the enemy had finally come,
 unexpected by everyone else (...out hunting int he mountains...).  I think
 the images of the River taking Emmy Lou also helped paint this for me.
 THis whole drug deal thing is throwing me off as this is one of my
 favorite Neil songs and I thought I had it figured out (not that my
 opinion has changed yet).
 
 
SIMPSONM:
 
 I always pictured the "aggressor" as a coast guard cutter.." Numbers on
 the side, and a gun and it's makin' big waves."
 
 
WELFARE MOTHER:
 
 Ha. Ha Ha!  I always knew there was something stoopid about this song!
 Seriously, folks, I don't understand the story behind Powderfinger at all.
 Somebody says the boat is a Coast Guard cutter; somebody else places it at
 the Civil War period. Myself, it always sounded to me like the boy was
 somebody protecting the family moonshine still from Revenooers (IRS agents or
 the forerunners of our modern ATF agents; for you non-U.S. rusties, these are
 the guys that the far-Right militia-type guys shoot at and bomb at nowadays)
 or something like that.
 
 This is hilarious. I mean, there really isn't any story there, is there?
 
 
MR. SOUL:
 
 I've always thought that the scenario of Powderfinger is not
 something to be taken literally. I can't see it as either the Civil
 War or a drug deal, but some sort of a generalized community living
 ouside of the law. The "white boat" is definitely evocative of a
 Coast Guard cutter, which could lead to the drug dealing
 interpretation.
 
 But I think the theme of the song is that of someone who is thrust
 into a position of responsibity without being prepared for it. I
 just can't see the plucky young protagonist shooting himself.
 Besides, shooting yourself in the eye with a rifle would be pretty
 awkward (not that I've ever tried it myself). Raising your rifle to
 your eye has to mean taking aim. He feels a sense of
 responsibility, but doubts that he is worthy of it, but still does
 what he thinks he has to do. I think he was a kid who "tried to do
 his best, but he could not." I definitely think he was shot by the
 people on the boat. If anybody was suicidal, it would have been Big
 John.
 
 
MR. SOUL again:
 
 For me, the lyrics serve as a set-up for the wondrous
 solo/CH thrashing in between...in which lies the real meat
 and emotion of the performance.  IMHO, the acoustic versions
 of Powderfinger can't hold a candle to the electric. The
 real gun battle is Neil and Poncho... Ralph and Billy, the
 boat powering upstream.
 
 
WAYNE ROBINSON:
 
 'there's a white boat comin' up the river'

 I always thought it meant the colour of the people on the boat, that's
 probably because the first time I heard this song a guy told me it was
 sang through the eyes of an indian....and i had no reason to doubt this.
 But now that i think about it there is no real reason to think that it is
 about an indian?   especially seeing they probably wouldn't be expecting
 "the mail"........
 
 
BARON ROUGE
 
 The only other alternative that came to my mind was, as the whole
 situation is quite unlucky for him ("Big John s been drinking
 and the river took Emmylou ( - good god, not Harris...)"), I was thinking,
 that maybe his gun exploded in his hand at that moment he pulled
 the trigger.
 Something like a Murphian law: Everything that can get wrong
 always gets worse...
 
 
PURPLE WORDS:
 
 I doubt any coast guard cutter would be up the river...
 
 The big red beacon I took to be a kinda warning thing like the flashing
 lights on a police car....although I bet the guy who uses it as his handle
 insinuates that it means something else... :)
 
 
LONE RED RIDER:
 
 a beacon is a bright light meant to let people know you're coming....
 
 a light to guide or signal someone....
 
 
BARON ROUGE:
 
 IMHO, the mystic side of the song is the story itself.
 As already somebody mentioned  - - and I agree totally - 
 it's about a young one (just turned 22) who's  thrown into
 a situation where he's supposed to take responsibility. He's
 wondering what to do and then it's to late. He didn't cope with.
 
 
LOOKOUT MAMA:
 
 I think that the reason he used white boat is threefold.
 #1:  it fits in nicely with the rhyme  (purple doesn't make it)
 #2:  picture a white boat sailing down a river - it stands out
 #3:  Neil owns a large sailing boat and don't most of those have white hulls?
      It's probably drawing on experience
 
 As for Indians expecting the mail.  Down here there's a large Seminole
 and Miccosukkee population and as far as I know the houses on the
 reservations have mailboxes.  :-}
 
 
STUJO4:
 
 This is the most shocking text I've seen on Rust, next to Mothy Ham's
 infamous post.  With all due respect to bh, I'm just stunned.
 
 Powderfinger touches me deeply and repeatedly, and I'm not sure why.  I never
 considered the suicide angle and I just can't accept it.  He had the rifle in
 his hand, it felt reassuring as he prepared to defend.  The first shot hit
 the dock, he saw it coming.  Raised his rifle to his eye (to take aim and
 return fire, presumably).  If he never stopped to wonder why, was suicide in
 mind all along, a foregone conclusion?  Red means run, get away from the
 danger, but does it mean shoot yourself?  Where is Daddy:  Did he run, or
 shoot himself?
 
 IMHO, no, no, no.  The kid is defending the homestead, never gets off a shot,
 and gets capped by the second round from the boat.  It's a head shot and he
 has sort of an out of body experience, seeing his face splashed in the sky.
 What else could it be?
 
 
PURPLE WORDS:
 
 At 01:39 PM 10/17/95 Lookout Mama spoke out:
 > Like what REALLY happened to Emmy Lou?  And why has this caused Big
 > John to hide in the bottle?  Maybe Big John is really the narrator in
 > Down By The River and Emmy Lou was the girlfriend?  IS there a connection
 > between the 2 songs?
 
 Rainer and I were talking about the very same thing so there MUST be!
 Altho, it was mentioned that it mighta been Springsteen's "River" that got
 her....and he's gonna be at the bridge show....WAIT!!!  This is all further
 inter-connected: at the 6/14/89 Jones Beach show I saw, Bruce showed up and
 performed the encore with Neil of DOWN by the RIVER!!   All too spooky for me!
 
 
LOCATOR:
 
 Yeah, I agree absolutely. While the suicide angle is very intriguing....made
 me start thinking about "Raised my rifle to my eye".........I think Merle has
 probably stated it the way I always saw it. And very well. I don't think even
 Neil's *that* dark.
 
 I think there's a script in it, too.
 
 So what *was* the situation? I like the revenue agents thing. I don't buy the
 drug dealer thing.
 
 
SCOTT JENSEN:
 
 I must admit that until yesterday I had always thought that he was shot
 by the people on the boat, and hadn't even considered any other
 possibility.  However, now I have to agree with the suicide theory
 advocates.  The line "when the first shot hit the dock I saw it coming"
 seems to be saying that he saw the futility of putting up a fight, so he
 pointed his rifle at his eye and pulled the trigger.  The line "cover me
 with the thought that pulled the trigger" seems to suggest that he may
 have been thinking of "my love, I know I'll miss her" as he regretfully
 feeds his grey matter to the fish around the dock.  Anyway, that's just
 today's interpretation of one of my favorite Neil songs.  (It just
 wouldn't be Neil if there was only one way to see it, right?)
 
 
SIMPSONM:
 
 Folks..I'm showing my age, but 23 years ago, I was 22. I think I can
 identify with the feelings behind powderfinger..Sort of a sequel to
 Sugar MT. where you can't be twenty!!! When I was 22 ..I just started
 teaching...My first son was born..I was finally on my own..I couldn't
 go on road trips with my old croonies, at will...I was responsible
 for things that someone else always did...AND I WASN'T READY!!!!
 Oh we all survived, and my face didn't flash, or splash or
 whatever..into the sky, but the feeling of being alone and in
 charge for the first time is extremely frightening, albeit
 exciting. Don't try to pin a time frame on anything from RNS,
 otherwise strange people get to meet across timelimes as in
 Pocohontas..
 
 
BRIAN "MORE BARN" OTTING:
 
 Had to get my opinion in--I always thought the line was "then I saw black
 and my face flash in the sky", not "splash". I think he was shot by the
 dudes on the boat and his life "FLASHED before his eyes" like they say.
 
 
CALISTAR finally decided we should check out the lyrics:
 
     POWDERFINGER
     ------------
     Look out, Mama, there's a white boat comin' up the river
     With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail
     I think you'd better call John,
     'Cause it don't look like they're here to deliver the mail
     And it's less than a mile away
     I hope they didn't come to stay
     It's got numbers on the side and a gun
     And it's makin' big waves.
 
     Daddy's gone, my brother's out hunting in the mountains
     Big John's been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou
     So the Powers That Be left me here to do the thinkin'
     And I just turned twenty-two
     I was wonderin' what to do
     And the closer they got,
     The more those feelings grew.
 
     Daddy's rifle in my hand felt reassurin'
     He told me, Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothin'
     But when the first shot hit the docks I saw it comin'
     Raised my rifle to my eye
     Never stopped to wonder why.
     Then I saw black,
     And my face splashed in the sky.
 
     Shelter me from the powder and the finger
     Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger
     Think of me as one you'd never figured
     Would fade away so young
     With so much left undone
     Remember me to my love,
     I know I'll miss her.
 
 
CHUCK SINGER:
 
 Powderfinger always puts me in mind of River Pirates, Flatboats,
 muskets, and the 1820 to 1840 era of US History.
 
 I'm sure the lyrics have nothing to do with that but the music puts
 me there.
 
 
JOE BMUSIC:
 
 I have to agree with a few rusties who suggest that this is a young man, 22,
 feeling the heat of responsibilities.  Though I believe the person is shot by
 the people on the white boat.  He see's the first shot hit the dock, and I
 believe he actually see's a shot coming at him and knows he is going to die,
 thus saying "remember me to my LOVE, I know I'll miss her".
 
 I could be totally wrong, my first try at this kinda stuff.
 
 
LOOKOUT MAMA:
 
 Now another aspect of the song that has always bugged me.  When the
 narrator sings, "Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger",
 what thoughts are those?  I always assumed that the thoughts necessary to
 take a human life are anger or rage or no thoughts at all - just blindly
 following orders.  Why would you want to be covered with those?  Or are
 you just supposed to remember how horrible and futile those thoughts can
 be, everytime you look at this boys' grave?
 
 
LOOKOUT MAMA again (incidentally she posted on this thread about twenty
                 times, including several that it be stopped):
 
 On Wed, 18 Oct 1995, Rainer BUHLEIER wrote:
 > Sorry, but I really cannot see any drugs anywhere in that song.
 > Please enlighten me.
 
 I always had that impression from a few things.  The setting of the
 song.  These people are somewhere along a river bank in a rural setting
 (Daddy's out hunting in the mountains, they're close enuff to the banks
 of the river to see the white boat comin', etc.) Sort of a backwoodsy
 type location needed to hide the still or the 5 million pounds of drugs.
 Not too easily accessible.
 
 A family type operation which is commonly found in a moonshiner
 situation.  Daddy is the brains of the outfit but he's gone.  Could he be
 off hunting with brother, or could he be in hiding, or already in jail?
 Don't think he's dead - Neil still refers to Daddy's rifle like it's on
 loan to him or something.  Big John, who could be a cousin or something,
 was probably second in command but he's totally worthless at this point
 since he's got his head jammed inside the bottle.  So the chain of
 command has passed down to this 22 year old.  Almost an army situation in
 a way (a cartel?).
 
 A white boat with a big red beacon, a flag, and a man on the rail.
 Police boats in a lot of areas are white (with numbers on the side).  The
 big red beacon could be the flashing light you often see on cop cars - I
 believe the boats have em too (hafta check this out next time I'm on the
 intracoastal).  The flag - the banner of the DEA, the Coast Guard, your
 local stationhouse......  It's making big waves - obviously in a hurry to
 get where its going since the people on the boat don't want Neil & his
 gang to have time to dismantle/move whatever it is they're hiding.  I
 don't know about the guns on board the white boat - could be a naval type
 vessel or Neil could have stuck that in to make the boat seem more
 menacing.
 
 The whole scenario to me doesn't suggest wartime - if these people were
 under attack from a hostile army then how could the bro and the Dad be
 taking time off to go hunting and leave a drunk a kid and his lady (the
 "mama" he's reporting this news to in the first line) alone.  They'd try
 to take the family with them - safety in numbers for the hunters (extra
 rifles against any enemy they'd encounter in the mountains) and they're
 not leaving a vulnerable group of people defenseless on the shores.  IMHO
 it suggests that the leaders of this group felt that they were pretty
 safe in their location, enough to enjoy a little R&R and that they
 weren't worried about, or even thinking about, the possibility of attack.
 
 
 Thanks muchly for the Happy Birthday.
 
 
BARON ROUGE:
 
 I wrote:
 >
 > > Sorry, but I really cannot see any drugs anywhere in that song.
 > >Please enlighten me.
 >
 
 bh replied:
 > Hey Rain!
 > How about this:  WHITE boat and POWDER!!!!!!
 
 aaaah! You re right. I didn t take that into account.
 
 
POWDERFINGER (in what many rust.net historians consider the 
              definitive post, certainly the most comprehensive 
              one, and ain't that approrpriate):
 
 If I'm not mistaken, this is its
 second go-round on Rust, the 1st time being in summer 1994...
 
 1) What has Neil had to say about the song?  Well, on a radio phone-in
 interview in the 80's he had a question about Pfgr, and all he could say was
 that it just came to him and couldn't realy explain it.  Hmmm... maybe.
 Closer to the truth, I think, are his comments in an interview he
 gave in a recent issue of Spin from 1995:  the interview was almost over when
 he mentioned (by way of commenting on his seeming nonchalance in talking about
 his songs) the "anger and angst" behind this song, which may be not be always
 easily visible but is nevertheless there.  Weisblott, who conducted the
 intervew, said he could feel Neil's eyes boring through Neil's sunglasses into
 him. :) This leads me to believe there is more conscious thought behind Pfgr
 than we've been led to believe.  This does not mean, though, that if Neil
 did explain the song, it would be the only way to interpret it.  When we're
 talking great songs, the music and the lyrics, are always bigger than one
 person's explanation.  But a comment from Neil like those he gave for his songs
 on Decade wouldn't hurt.
    James McKelvey, if you're reading this, what did Elliot Roberts have to say
 about this song himself, or was he being his usual cagey self?
 
 2) Pfgr's genesis: If I'm not mistaken, Neil wrote this song (and Sedan
 Delivery in 1975) for the southern band Lynyrd Skynyrd.  The story behind that
 might be interesting. It's quite possible that someone from LynSkyn told Neil a
 story about some event in the South, and Neil transposed it into a song, which,
 as Locator suggested, reads like a script.  Now those of us who've seen Neil's
 movies or videos know how shaky :) his storylines can be.  More than a good
 story, he's after a certain feel or mood much more often than not, even in a
 story-like song like Pfgr.  But Neil is so all over the map where his visual
 imagination is concerned, there's no way I'm going to guess what script he had
 in mind here. All we have are the words, and more important, the music, and
 here I agree with Paul *SR* Gase's insightful comments on the words being a
 set up for those great guitar workouts, which are the heart and soul of this
 song.
         BTW, Locator, you're not the only one who appreciates the non-feedback
 solos in Country Home.  Ditto for me in Powderfinger, too  Maybe one of the
 reasons it is so popular is that Neil doesn't rely on feedback to convey the
 feelings hidden in this song.  More on that later.
 
 3) The words:
 3.1) "Powderfinger": what does this word itself mean? Did Neil coin it himself?
 Is it a regional expression of some sort?  My take is that it's nickname for a
 trigger happy kinda guy, who solves his problems with a gun.  Come to think of
 it, it may well be a personification of or a metaphor for fate, even death,
 itself.  I don't think it necessarily refers to the 22 year-old (from here on,
 I'll call him "22"). If anything, 22 is a *victim* of Powderfinger.
  
 3.2) "white boat": It could be a Coast Guard cutter, or it could be another
 kind of boat from another federal, state or local policing agency of some sort.
 Take your pick.  For instance, I imagine there are several kinds of these boats
 operating in Florida. The important point for me here is it's some kind of
 inexorable authority that you can't get away from, a messenger of fate maybe?
 What the 22 and/or his family did or didn't do is also beside the point.  Maybe
 they're drug dealers or gun runners or makers of moonshine or (fill in the
 blank).  Whatever they did, the time has come to pay some terrible bill.
 
 3.3) "big red beacon":  To me this is a kind of serachlight boats use at night
 to watch where they're going.  The events in Pfgr, then, take place at night,
 which would help explain the black that 22 sees later on.
  
 3.4) "Daddy's gone...": Yet another song where the protagonist (22, in this
 case) is, or certainly, feels abandoned, like "Everybody's Alone."  I have the
 feeling that daddy is dead or at least is not coming back.  22's brothers are
 not in either, so he's left to face the music, the "powers that be" all by his
 lonesome.  And isn't that the way we sometimes feel once we grow up and face a
 big decision, go through a crisis, or deal with hostile, faceless forces day
 after day that are bigger than we are?  Here I have to thank Mike who talked
 about being 22 lo those many years ago.   Excellent point about having to take
 responsibility all too soon, and the very mixed feelings that result.
  
 3.5) "The closer they got, the more those feelings grew":  It's not hard to see
 why 22 gets shot.  He's too busy wonderin' and thinkin'!  He seems to be more
 of a thinker than a doer, but again, like so many of us, is thrown into a dire
 situation not of his own choosing.
 
 3.6) "Red means son, numbers add up to nothing": another symbol of authority,
 like flashing red lights that figure in other Neil songs: Roll Another Number,
 Don't Let It Bring You Down", the video of "Touch The Night".  The numbers
 could refer to the numbers on the side of the boat, the number of years to be
 spent in jail, and/or the fact that the most important things left can't be
 counted or measured.  A great line, IMHO.
 
 3.7) "When the first shot hit the dock I saw it comin'": If 22 sees the shot
 comin', he's already a dead men.  He's way too slow. The best he can do is
 raise his rifle in a futile but gutsy attempt to fight back.
 I had to laugh when Cathy (Purple Words) suggested that 22 shoots himself
 accidentally.  Certainly a black humor type of possibility.
 That's more plausible than the theory that 22 did himself in deliberately.
 He's too young for that, with "so much left undone" and I doubt he'd have much
 emtional room for missing his love if he were suicidal, being too consumed by
 fear and self-pity.  Characters in Neil songs may be losers in society's eyes,
 misfits, loners, at odds with their surroundings, they may be even be victims,
 but they do not give up.  If Neil stands for anything, it's for fighting back,
 no matter what the odds.  "I've been down, but I'm comin' back up again."
 "He tried his best but he could not."  For me, the guitar solos in Pfgr are not
 the music of or about a guy who throws in the towel.
 
 3.8) "I saw black and my face splash in the sky": If the events take place at
 night, there's black all around.  Even in the daylight, water can tend to be
 black.  So my take on this line is that 22 falls into the water, and just
 before he falls in, he sees his face reflected in the water which is already
 reflecting the sky.  For those who are into deeper analysis, you remember a
 discussion in early September revolving around "I'm The Ocean".  Among other
 things the archetypal significance of water and sky were discussed in
 connection with that song.  It may well apply here.  It's certainly a
 possibility.  I don't know.
 
 3.9) "Shelter me from the powder and the finger": In other words, "protect from
 a society where accounts have to be settled with guns, where lawlessness
 parades as the law; protect me from my fate; protect me from dying."
 
 3.10) "Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger": This line remains
 enigmatic to me.  Perhaps: "Make me like the Powers That Be, they're the one
 in charge, they're the ones running the show"?  I'm not happy with that
 explanation, though.
 
 3.11) "Remember me to my love, I know I'll miss her": this sounds like a very
 reluctant farewell to life and love to me.
 
 4) The music:  none of this would grab people as it does were it not for the
 great melodies in this song, and Neil's often changing variations on the themes
 in Pfgr.  In contrast to a lot of other electrical songs, this has a solid
 structure of words + music + words + music + words.  It's as if Neil were
 saying to himself, "Okay, buddy, instead of going on and on, you've got 5-6
 minutes to sing the song and say your piece."  The tight structure is a
 challenge that many musicians will set themselves to paradoxically break out of
 the corset by staying within its limits on the surface.  The freedom in Pfgr
 comes in the solos which follow distinct lines but never the same way twice.
 Now Neil doesn't always strike gold, but more often than not in Pfgr he aces
 it, hits a bulls-eye as it were, with sometimes 2, sometimes 3 guitar solos.
 He's played Pfgr with Crazy Horse in 1978, 1986, 1987, 1991 and 1995, and with
 the International Harvesters (the public at large has no idea of how good this
 band was, as there's no officially released recordings of them) in 1984 and
 1985, with Booker T & the MGs in 1993 (though so far I've only found one Pfgr
 from their tour that has the spark), and in 1995 with PJ.  I've heard only the
 Pfgr from the Jun.24 Golden Gate show.  If that's a taste of what was to come,
 then we're in for some Pfgr treats.
        BTW, Pfgr is one of the few songs (the other being Misfits) that Neil
 has played with both CH and IH at the same time, during his Australia tour of
 March 1985.  If someone has a high-quality copy of one of the Melbourne shows
 for example, it would be great if it could be treed.  My copies I have are okay
 sound-wise but not good enough to be treeable.  These shows are a great example
 of country Neil, acoustic Neil and r&r Neil during the *same* show, and of his
 balancing of golden oldies, somewhat familiar songs and new songs.
 
 5) Summing up:  I never expect to be standing on a dock firing at some sort of
 cops (or drug runners wanting to be paid up, yet another possibility).  But if
 Pfgr is about facing situations where I'm overmatched, about not wanting to die
 young, not wanting to die at all, then I, and many others, can idenitfy with
 Neil and 22, if only on a half-concsious level.  If so, Neil is saying with
 his guitar solos, "I'm gonna give it my best shot, I'm gonna give it my all"
 and goes on to express the hopes, the bittersweetness, the ecstasy, the love of
 life and now the regret, all too soon, of having to leave life and loved ones
 behind.  And he does it in a beautiful, melodic and musical way that over the
 course of many renditions of Pfgr has turned into a clinic on, an overview of
 his various guitar styles from country to rock to blues to 50s to various
 combinations of them.  The results are often profoundly moving, inspiring and
 exhilarating versions that continue to encourage me and help me live my life
 and, it seems, of many others. God bless him for it.
        And thanks to all you Rusties who have helped me get to know Neil
 better.  He's one of the treasures of modern music.
 
 
IAN WALSH:
 
 Sheila sez:
 >Now another aspect of the song that has always bugged me.  When the
 >narrator sings, "Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger",
 >what thoughts are those?  I always assumed that the thoughts necessary to
 >take a human life are anger or rage or no thoughts at all - just blindly
 >following orders.  Why would you want to be covered with those?  Or are
 >you just supposed to remember how horrible and futile those thoughts can
 >be, everytime you look at this boys' grave?
 
 Ahhh, but again as noted by much of the previous discussion, it is the POV
 that is important. From the boy/man/protagonist's viewpoint the 'thoughts
 that pulled the trigger' are thoughts of defending his home and loved ones,
 irrespective of the admonition from the father to run from trouble. So the
 'thoughts' are both a denial/separation from the father figure and an
 affirmation of familial loyalty.
 Further, the lyrics speak to me more of the angst of the protagonist and
 the automaton like response to his situation that leads him to 'raise the
 rifle' rather than an "anger or rage" on his part.
 
 I find it interesting that this song has generated so much discussion.
 Almost always in Mr. Young's lyrics there is ambiguity layered on
 ambiguity, not in a Dylanesque kaleidoscopic sense but rather in shifts in
 POV, temporal placement, and overlapping/exchanged images and metaphors.
 To me, Powderfinger is the most straightforward of Mr. Youngs 'story'
 songs.
 
 The protagonist is clearly indicated as the one telling story throughout.
 The first stanza sets the scene, the second the motivation and question,
 the third is the resolution of the question and the climax, the forth is
 the coda.
 
 I've always thought of it as a USA Civil War era scenario, I suppose
 influenced by those other Canadians working that vein (The Band). During
 the Civil War, Union flatboats controlled much of the navigable rivers in
 the Confederacy, and established that control fairly early on in the war
 (1862-63). In Vicksburg MS. there is a semi-restored flatboat at the
 battlefield park. Really a fascinating piece of sophisticated technology.
 
 As an aside, another major technology in the Civil War was the railroad.
 The network of rail and the ability to transfer troops long distances
 relatively quickly and have them ready to fight when they got there allowed
 the Confederacy to exploit their advantage of interior lines. To a large
 extent, the Confederacy fell when those interior lines were severed, not
 because the Union rolled up vast territorial gains. Given Mr. Young's
 railroad interests, I would expect him to be fairly cognizant of the U.S.
 Civil War era. Of course, he might be expected to be fairly cognizant of
 drug interdiction efforts also.
 
 
BARON ROUGE again:
 
 Sheila wrote:
 >But, who knows?  Maybe one day this song will be turned into a video and
 >then any creative thoughts we have on its meaning will be taken away from
 >us forever!
  
 You re right with that point.
 
 For me this song IS a script. That's why I love it that much.
 It's sung about a story which might be just a momentary glimpse
 at the situation. But with every good short story, it transports a
 much bigger one, with a lot of history and so on. How came
 Big John's been drinking, how came Emmylou fell into the river.
 Why's Daddy gone... etc...
 
 But I fill in the story in *my* head. Its *my* movie, just based on that script.
 So if there really would be a video on PF, I would always have images
 of that video on my mind, if I d try once again to make my personal movie
 out of it, listening to the song.
 I cannot avoid that. Always happens to me, if I go into the movie
 that's based on a novel I read beforehand.
 
 BTW: for me sometimes the songs images have something of a
 wartime/warzone feeling. Like that scene in "Apocalypse Now"
 where the Gang rides up the river and raids this Vietnamese
 farmers boat. Just seen from the other side.
 (ahem - see: I already have a given image in my mind, damn movie ;)
 
 
OUR LADY OF THE NORTH STAR:
 
 Oh my, I switch my PC and *wow* find a great discussion on Powderfinger
 going on.  So although I'm a bit late, I feel like tossing in a few more
 thoughts.
 
 >Wayne wrote:
 >>Well seeing we're getting right into this powderfinger thing,  what are
 >>peoples thoughts on this line....
 >>'there's a white boat comin' up the river'

 Several folks answered similarly:
 >I just take it literally: it s a white painted boat.
 
 Can add that in literature & lyrics the color white is often used to give an
 idea of something being innocent--or belonging to the good-guy-side. Since
 this boat is white, I feel this indirectly might be giving us a grotesque
 hint: that Powderfinger's fear of the boat might have all along been
 *totally* misplaced.
 
 >As already somebody mentioned
 >- and I agree totally - it s about a young one (just turned 22) who s
 >thrown into a situation where he s supposed to take responsibility. He s
 >wondering what to do and then it s to late. He didn t cope with.
 
 I believe for some unspecified reason--be it moonshine, civil war, unwanted
 revenue agents - or general deep mistrust of strangers, Powderfinger
 overreacts when thrust into a responsibility position he's not mature enough
 to cope with. Fearing the unknown, he ends up reacting in a paranoid way.
 Here, this reaction leads directly to Powderfinger's own death.
 I don't think the song's about suicide.  Otherwise, maybe the gun backfired
 on him or maybe he was shot down by the red beacon folks -- this doesn't
 matter much in my opinion.  I feel the song is more basically about how
 deadly dangerous a paranoid reaction like this can be.  "It had to go wrong"
 - - maybe a kind of Hybris thing.
 
 The Red Baron questions:
 >Aaah - question that I always wanted to ask: What s a Big Red Beacon?

 All I know is that a beacon can be a) a guiding or warning signal such as a
 light, a fire or a signal buoy  b) a fixed radar device.  Also--a beaconage
 is a tax or fee for maintaining beacons.  :-)
 But I bet the Americans/Canadians can explain better what a big red beacon
 might be.
 
 Sheila:
 >Now another aspect of the song that has always bugged me.  When the
 >narrator sings, "Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger",
 >what thoughts are those?
     "Shelter me from the powder and the finger
      Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger..."

 On the word cover Webster lists 48 very different meanings.  :-(   Cover can
 be synonymous to shelter or protect.  It can also mean "to hide the wrongful
 or embarrassing action of another..." or "to take charge or responsibility
 for".  Another plausible one: "to aim at, as with a pistol", maybe pointing
 to the outcome of this story(?)   :-(   Pick and choose -- !
 
 
MEMORY COUNTY JAIL:
 
 The narrator seems to be using a flintlock or muzzle-loading
 rifle (references to powder).  Breech loading rifles began to be developed as
 early as the 1820s, but they were not common in the US and were not standard
 military issue until the 1890s, I believe.  Still, based on this we can only
 go with "the 1800s" as the general time of the incident.
 
 There seems to be some hostility between the populace and the military
 (probably Army, not Coast Guard, if we're talking 1800s and the CG doesn't do
 rivers anyway, do they?).  Could be Civil War-related, could be
 revenue-related (the moonshine theory) though I don't think moonshining was
 illegal until Prohibition in the 1920s and later government regulation of
 alcohol production.  Drugs seem like a stretch to me.  Smuggling or piracy,
 maybe.  Or maybe it's a north-south thing, Civil War-related.
 
 The white boat comin' up the river has numbers on the side (so it's an
 official craft of some sort) and a "big red beacon."  The beacon is one thing
 that puzzles me.  I don't know much about lighting on watercraft, so how was
 this done before electricity?  Lanterns, I would assume.  But I take a beacon
 to be some sort of flashing or spot light.  Again, I don't know if there were
 such things before electricity.  Maybe chalk this one up to poetic license on
 NY's part.  Anachronism...
 
 The narator's family has a dock and the river "took Emmy Lou."  So they work
 and probably live on or near the river.
 
 The narrator says he saw the "first shot" hit the dock, implying, to me, that
 thers was a second shot, the one that hits him.  The suicide/mis-firing rifle
 theories seem to me to torture the info that we do have.  It dosen't make
 sense.  It's clear the white boat is hostile; its clear that the perhaps
 youngish, inexperienced protagonist is wrestling with the resposibility of
 protecting whatever he's been left in charge of; it's clear he raises the
 rifle to his eye to aim and return fire in defense.  I would be an
 exceedingly nihilisitc (and uncharasteristic for NY) plot device to simply
 have the kid shoot himself.  Why?  Because he's scared?  Confused?  Stupid?
 It just dosen't scan for me.  And the rifle mis-firing?  Same deal.  What
 would be the point of the song?  An ordinary person gets thrust into an
 extraordinary situation.  He makes his decisions on how to act, in the
 process giving the listener some background info that establishes his
 situation and builds the characterization a bit, and then the gun blow up in
 his face.  What would be the point?
 
   "Shelter me from the powder and the finger
   Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger"
 
 Who knows...  Maybe he's just saying protect me from all harm.
 
 Finally, Powderfinger has always reminded me of the Ambrose Bierce short
 story "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" wherein the reader does not discover
 that the narrator is dead until the very last lines (sorry if I ruined that
 story for anyone who hasn't read it.)
 
 
LOOKOUT MAMA:

 Ok all you guys responding to my point about the thoughts pulling the
 trigger.  Looking at it from the narrator's point of view then you're all
 more than likely correct.  But, and here's where I guess I wasn't clear,
 I was referring to being covered by the thoughts of the person who shot
 the narrator (assuming of course you don't buy into the suicide/gun
 backfires/bloody glove in the Bronco theory).  The 2 lines together:
    Shelter me from the powder and the finger
    Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger
 seem to suggest that he wants to be protected from senseless gunplay (the
 (gun)powder and the finger on the trigger) and that when you think of him
 in the future you should think of what a waste this senseless murder
 was.  But that's just my take and I'd love to see how other people read this.
 
 
THE PREACHER:
 
 I thought I got over this, but no. Sheila's comment made me post once more...
 
 >Now another aspect of the song that has always bugged me.  When the
 >narrator sings, "Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger",
 
 Cover me, literally, cover me with something. Put me in a grave and
 cover my coffin. The thought that pulled the trigger - the US flag.
 Or maybe the Confederate flag...
 
 Cover my coffin with the flag my action stood for.
 
 
WOLFPACK HOMER HOLMES:
 
 Lookout Mama wrote:
 > Now another aspect of the song that has always bugged me.  When the
 > narrator sings, "Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger",
 > what thoughts are those?
 
 Personally, I see it as the thoughts that he is doing the right thing in
 protecting his family, and even sacrificing his still unlived life for
 something he probably doesn't really understand.  It was the 'Powers that
 be' that left him to think, so he's trying to do what his father might
 have/would have done had he been there.
 
 Similarly, it could mean that he wants to be covered by the thoughts of
 the one who killed him (pulled the trigger).  The victor writes history,
 so if he is to die, at least it'll be for a noble cause (at least in the
 eyes of the shooter).  Better than dying in vain .... or is it?  I'm
 starting to get philosophical, so I had better end here.
 
 
THE OCEAN:
 
 I have enjoyed the PF discussions, and even threw in my 3 cents.  Sorry
 if I offended any postal employee.
 I think the final words of PF "remember me to my love, I know I'll miss
 her."  Go along with the "I know she's living there, love's me to this
 day, I still can't remember when or how I lost B
  way."  The love intrest is introduced in the last verse and
 would almost seem out of context.  It seems to go along with the looking
 for love that runs from Neil's first records all the way to Mirror Ball.
 Neil fans are so used to this topic that when the verse is sang in Cortez,
 we think it fits right in.  Time travel concept and all.  Actually, the
 great part of this line in Cortez is that not only do we think it fits
 right in, it actually does.  Much like the final line in PF.  Even the
 music structure of these two songs are alike.
 
 
IAN WALSH:
 
 Sheila et al.,
 
 In my reading/listening, the last stanza (coda) is all from the
 protagonist's viewpoint.
 
 >  Shelter me from the powder and the finger
 
 i see these as the situation/threat (powder) and the human response (finger),
 i.e. take me away from the human condition, lay me in the grave (shelter)
 
 >  Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger
 
 again, the protagonist's thoughts of family and homestead at the moment of
 his death, remember him not with thoughts of death/fear/despair and pain
 but rather with images of home, hearth and family, cover a reference to the
 grave and the memories of those the protagonist leaves behind.
 
 > Think of me as one you'd never figured
 > Would fade away so young
 > With so much left undone
 
 again, more instructions (an epitath) from the deceased protagonist to the
 survivors, and finally, the plea to the survivors to tell his story to the
 one closest to his heart who is not mentioned previously, and who is
 'remembered to', and therefore not present during the action (the first
 three stanzas), and must learn of the protagonist's fate (wait a second?
 are there ANY gender specific ref's to the protagonist?, quick, flip to
 Calistar's lyric post, yup, 'son' line 2, stanza 3, whooooo that was
 close!), from the survivors (Mama, Big John (didn't he die in a mine? oops,
 sorry 'bout that) the brother and perhaps Daddy.
 
 
     Remember me to my love,
     I know I'll miss her.
 
 a closing that reflects back on Cortez, albeit with a completely different
 role within the song itself.
 
 
DAVID SCHOENBAUM:
 
 I agree that the line "cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger"
 is enigmatic.  Perhaps he's referrring top the burial of those thoughts.
 Presumably the singer has died by this time and awaiting burial.  The
 singer is asking that the source of the violence (his and those on the
 boat) be buried.
 
 
OLD LAUGHING LADY:
 
 Since this line follows "Shelter me from the powder and the finger",
 I took "Cover" in the context of protection, i.e. to fend off the
 incoming fire.  The "narrator" here is looking for protection in the
 form of positive thoughts, as in "don't let anything hit me, my
 intentions (the thoughts) that make me pull the trigger are noble; to
 save my family/home from intruders".
 
 I hope someone is saving this whole thread-we can print it out and
 make a hilarious birthday card for Neil with it...  :-)
 
 
CUTLASS SUPREME:
 
 For my $0.02 worth, Mark (Powderfinger) / klusm@flp.lib.pa.us explanation
 of Powderfinger was the best one going. To me, that about sums it up.
 
 Except for a couple of little things.
 
 Like others, I have always placed this song back in the 1800s. Just the
 words such as " Big John's been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou"
 give it that feel. If that's the case, is the big red beacon a light? In
 the 1800s? And if it's night time (which I don't really see in the song),
 how would he be able to see the boat "less than a mile away", the man on
 the rail, the flag,the numbers and the gun? Now if it were in more modern
 times and in daylight, all of these things would add up.
 
 And to ask Mark's question again, has anyone heard the word "powderfinger"
 before they heard the song? A Neil invention or not?
 
 
DANGERBIRD:
 
 if powderfinger was written for lynyrd skynyrd then i see that as
 evidence of a north/south civil war time setting.  also, could the powder
 in the finger be a reference to cocaine and the caracter wants to be
 'covered' from the drug?
 
 
BLUENOTE:
 
 This is fun!
 
 What about this: cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger
 means the thoughts that the narrator was having - meaning the
 resposnibility to stand up for your homestead and your way of life.  I
 admit that its ambigous whether or not he actually pulled his trigger,
 but this could be a more positive interpretation.
 
 
BIG RED BEACON:
 
   "Shelter me from the powder and the finger.
   Cover me with the thought that pulls the trigger."
 
 This works in a lot of ways on different levels. One, it just plain
 *sounds* good, whether it means anything or not.
 
 Then there is the chain of causation. The thought causes the finger
 to move. The finger pulls the trigger. The trigger ignites the
 powder. BOOM! Thoughts and actions have consequences.
 
 But the order is jumbled. Not thought-finger-trigger-powder, but
 powder-finger-thought-trigger.
 
 The first line seems pretty straightforward: "Protect me from
 violence." The second is the mindblower. If he meant the second
 line to mean something like: "Protect me also from the thought that
 give rise to violence," he could easily have said, "Shelter me from
 the thought that pulls the trigger."
 
 So the questions are: Why "with" rather than "from?" Why "cover"
 rather than "shelter?" The answers are surely interrelated, but
 beyond me. It doesn't make sense to ask to be protected from
 violence by asking to be "covered" by the very cause of the
 violence.
 
 The key, I think, might be the different meanings of "cover," which
 can be a synonym for "shelter," but can also have a lot of other
 meanings. Based on that, a possible interpretation (which I do not
 represent as *my* interpretation) derives from a more active
 interpretation of "cover." He wants *his own* "thought that pulls
 the trigger" to give him the will to shoot so that he can "cover"
 himself, not by seeking physical shelter, but by meeting violence
 with violence. As the cliche has it, the best defense is a good
 offense. (That interpretation sounded pretty good to me until I put
 it in writing. Extremely dubious.)
 
 I said "a little more," didn't I? Oh, well.
 
 Finally, a subject on which I hope I can speak with some authority:
 My concept of a "beacon" is not a light used to *see* something in
 the dark, but a light intended to *be seen*. A light to see would
 be a searchlight, more than a beacon. The setting overall has to be
 daytime, so the beacon would be a warning light. Though a candle or
 oil flame could be a "beacon" at night (as in early lighthouses),
 only an electric flashing red light (WHOA - it just hit me -
 "Lookout Mama" in two red-light songs - who's gonna run with that
 one?) would have any use as a "beacon" in the daytime. Well, that's
 all the damage I can do for now.
 
 
the venerable SHAKEY:
 
 Powderfinger, on Powderfinger, said:
 
  > 3.1) "Powderfinger": what does this word itself mean? Did Neil coin it
  > himself?  Is it a regional expression of some sort?  My take is that
  > it's nickname for a  trigger happy kinda guy, who solves his problems

        I think it's just a title taken from the lyrics...
 
  > 3.3) "big red beacon":  To me this is a kind of serachlight boats use at
  > night  to watch where they're going.  The events in Pfgr, then, take
  > place at night,  which would help explain the black that 22 sees later
  > on.

        But if it was night, how could he see the numbers on the side,
        especially if it was shining a big red light at you?
 
  > 3.6) "Red means son, numbers add up to nothing": another symbol of
  > authority,  like flashing red lights that figure in other Neil songs:
  > Roll Another Number,  Don't Let It Bring You Down", the video of "Touch
  > The Night".  The numbers  could refer to the numbers on the side of the
  > boat, the number of years to be  spent in jail, and/or the fact that the
  > most important things left can't be  counted or measured.  A great line,

        I always figure it meant don't do too much thinkg, you get your ass
        in gear!!!
 
  > 3.8) "I saw black and my face splash in the sky": If the events take
  > place at  night, there's black all around.  Even in the daylight, water
  > can tend to be  black.  So my take on this line is that 22 falls into
  > the water, and just  before he falls in, he sees his face reflected in
  > the water which is already  reflecting the sky.

        I think this would mean just blacking out or seeming like you do for
        a split second. I'm sure getting shot distorts time and make a second 
        feel like an hour...

        As for the "shelter me" line, the gunPOWDER and the trigger FINGER
        are what makes a gun kill someone, so that's a start...
 
 
SHAKEY again:
 
 Shelia asks:
 
  > Now another aspect of the song that has always bugged me.  When the
  > narrator sings, "Cover me with the thoughts that pulled the trigger",
  > what thoughts are those?  I always assumed that the thoughts necessary
  > to  take a human life are anger or rage or no thoughts at all - just
  > blindly  following orders.  Why would you want to be covered with those?
 
        Well, I thought it was an honor thing. Neil would've only been
        pulling the trigger to defend his family. So in other words, 
        remember him and the spirit of honor at the same time.

        But interestingly enough, Neil never pulls the trigger in the song!
 
 
CHUCK SINGER (let loose with a surrealist interpretation, that 
             swayed the entire direction of debate):
 
 Hey!  Maybe everybody is right!
 
 What if a Coast Guard cutter hit a time warp whilst chasing down drug
 runners and wound up in the 1800's, somewhere  along the Mississippi.
 The hero and the Coast Guard both wig out and the next thing you
 know...
 
 Shots!  I hear Shots!
 well, it's as good as anyone elses interpetation  :-)
 
 
BARON ROUGE:
 
 But on the other hand, that's the great thing about music: nobody is ever
 really right with their own kind of interpretation.
 
 
BS AT AUC:
 
 >And to ask Mark's question again, has anyone heard the word "powderfinger"
 >before they heard the song? A Neil invention or not?
 
 Somewhere along the way I got the idea into my head that "powderfinger"
 was a re-translation into American of an Indian word for rifle, like
 "firewater" for whisky... Can anyone corroborate that? Perhaps someone who
 watched the same Western movies I did...
 
 Further:
 It seems to me that no-one can explain the "big red beacon" in
 terms of 19th C. technology. To me that indicates that the setting must be
 contemporary late 20th C. to be anachronism free...
 
 David (Who's a Big Red Beacon himself) asked:
 >"Shelter me from the powder and the finger.
 >Cover me with the thought that pulls the trigger."
 >Why "with" rather than "from?" Why "cover" rather than "shelter?"
 
 When you're dead, the body must be covered. The metaphor for the
 cover/sheet here is then "the thought that pulls the trigger". How to
 interpret that metaphor? Some have argued that the narrator is the one who
 pulls the trigger, thus the thoughts are his (Ian Walsh); some (Sheila?)
 have said that he never gets a shot off. Perhaps it is better to think in
 general terms, fx. as of mentalities that will even resort to the use of
 weapons anyhow.
 
 What happens in the song to the person who raises his weapon to fire?
 He dies. A futile, regrettable death. The narrator is a young idealistic
 fool who hasn't taken his Dad's advice to heart: "Red means run, Son."
 Instead he fights with guns, and dies. All he is left with as a dying
 thought is a young man's sentimental expression of Weltschmerz: "Remember
 me to my love, I know I'll miss her" - not much of a legacy, folks...
 
 So, I agree with this quote from Anne's interpretation:
 >Fearing the unknown, he ends up reacting in a paranoid way.
 >Here, this reaction leads directly to Powderfinger's own death.
 
 In other words there is a narrator who is mistaken in his display of futile
 bravery, and another viewpoint buried in the text, which for simplicity's
 sake can be called NY's viewpoint (the implied author), who is saying to us
 a readers/listeners: Don't shoot!!!
 
 Just my wooden nickel's worth
 
 BTW, what's going on in the minds of people who see lyric discussions as
 subjective dead-end activities (Jim?). Surely, we're all collaborating in
 charting multiplicities of meaning, which can only enrich our understanding
 of Neil as an artist. Nothing dead-end about that. (Vent-mode disengaged...)
 
 
PUBGCSSAFNET (could contain this no longer):
 
 my 2 cents:  i always thought the song was about womens make-up.
 
 
BRIAN CONW:
 
 I think Lookout Mama has a very plausible explanation for the song. I find
 this tune to be in the same vein as Revolution Blues. More a song of complete
 paranoia than anything really worth guarding. I have a hard time with the
 drug operation idea. Although I think the way Shelia has described the chain
 of command is brilliant. I don't think these people were hiding anything. I
 make the same point. If they had something so important to hide, why leave it
 in the hands of a kid and a drunk? As to alternatives to why the boat is
 coming, I don't have any at this point. I have loved reading these posts
 though, we should discuss some other songs. . .
 
 
ROB THE BASS DRUM HEAD:
 
 Hey Rusties,
 Just to jump in to this Powderfinger thread, I was thinking maybe the
 kid was blown up by a mortar shell. Maybe the thought that pulled the
 trigger was his courage in trying to protect his home.
 On a similar note, who gets killed at the end of "Don't Cry"? Does the
 guy commit suicide or does he kill his "Sweet Love"? That song always
 reminds me of the end of the movie "Star 80".
 
 
WILLIAM MONTGOMERY:
 
 Does someone see a connection of "Powderfinger" to the larger theme of Rust
 Never Sleeps as a whole?
 
 Like "Then I saw black..."  to "out of the blue and into the black"?
 
 Is this the story of Johnny Rotten?
 
 
ZAIN:
 
 On Thu, 19 Oct 1995, bs at AUC wrote:
 > Somewhere along the way I got the idea into my head that "powderfinger"
 > was a re-translation into American of an Indian word for rifle, like
 > "firewater" for whisky... Can anyone corroborate that? Perhaps someone who
 > watched the same Western movies I did...
 
 As far as I know, "firestick" is the Native term for a rifle, as in
 "...and the firesticks and the wagons came..." from "Pocahontas".
 
 
SCHEBBY:
 
 Why is the protagonist telling Mama that he thinks she better call John,
 when John's been drinkin' since the river took Emmy-Lou? John probably
 wouldn't be much help, the drunk bastard! He's probably passed out back
 behind the shed next to the still .
 
 
SHAKEY:
 
  Mr Chuck! wondered:
  > What if a Coast Guard cutter hit a time warp whilst chasing down drug
  > runners and wound up in the 1800's, somewhere  along the Mississippi.
  > The hero and the Coast Guard both wig out and the next thing you
  > know... Shots!  I hear Shots!
 
        Better yet, what if a Coast guard cutter left L.A. at 1pm going 75
        miles per hour, and one left New York at 1:45 pm going an everage 
        of 87 miles per hour? Where and when would they meet? :) :) :)
 
        Sorry!
 
  Schebby asks:
  > Why is the protagonist telling Mama that he thinks she better call John,
  > when John's been drinkin' since the river took Emmy-Lou? John probably
  > wouldn't be much help, the drunk bastard! He's probably passed out back
  > behind the shed next to the still .
 
        Better call John, but Big John's been drinking...
 
 
ZAIN:
 
 >        Better call John, but Big John's been drinking...
 
 I wonder if the John referred to in "Powderfinger" has any connection to
 John Smith, the man who supposedly fell in love with Pocahontas.
 
 
LOOKOUT MAMA:
 
 On Thu, 19 Oct 1995 heinsohn@pd.saic.com wrote:
 > Does anyone have any idea what happens to Mama?????
 
 Yeah.  After Powderfinger gets wasted, Big John surrenders to the guy on
 the deck holding the bottle of Jim Beam.  While Big John is wading out to
 the boat, Mama takes the opportunity to slip unnoticed into the cabin,
 where she grabs all the money that Daddy and the brother had stashed
 away, and slips out the back.  She then hikes into town, calls the cab
 company to get her to the airport and is now living under an assumed name
 in a condo off Biscayne Bay where she has a 17 year old lover and parties
 nightly with some nice Colombian boys she recently met.
 
 
VICTOR:
 
 I see a similiarity between "Cortez" and "Powderfinger" too. Both songs
 have long  guitar solo's between verses. They're both about someone hostile 
 coming through water to invade their space. In Cortez it's Cortez, and in 
 Powderfinger it's the big white boat. In Cortez there is Montezuma living in 
 a wilderness utopian setting (with dark undertones, human sacrifice). In 
 Powderfinger you have 22 living in a wilderness setting although there isn't 
 enough information on how life was there. There are dark undertones there 
 also (daddy gone, Big John drinking, Emmylou drowning). And in the end both 
 Montezuma and 22 are doomed but defiant. Anyway, the songs sound great next 
 to each other in Live Rust.
 
 
MR DAVID RESNICK:
 
 Whew!!
 
 Just figured that since everyone else has an opinion here, I might as
 well chime in...and b/c I'm not
 extremely patient and have not read every single post along this
 thread, (missed one or two! %>) I might be duplicating someone else's
 interpretation but, here goes nothing anyway.
 
 Drugs!  definitely drugs!
 
 And narcs, yes that's it NARCS!!
 
 Shelter me from the powder (Mr. Whitey) and the FINGER (the guy who
 ratted out the operation) So these guys got mixed up in the wrong
 family business, who knows where (mountains and rivers are
 everywhere!) and pissed someone off or an acquaintance got busted etc.,
 and told the man on the rail where to find the bigger fish.
 
 Anyway you cut it, its not a happy ending.  Sounds like a statement
 against drugs, guns, wasted life etc.
 
 
FRODO:
 
 >Better yet, what if a Coast guard cutter left L.A. at 1pm going 75
 >miles per hour, and one left New York at 1:45 pm going an everage of 87
 >miles per hour? Where and when would they meet? :) :) :)
 >
 
 why they'd meet down by the river of course......  :}
 
 
MY OWN CONTRIBUTION:
 
 It doesn't matter who's coming or why-that part's left vague on purpose,
 fill in whatever situation you like so long as there's a boat, gun, drunk
 guy, mom, etc.  ...and most important a situation that he's thrust into,
 and isn't sure that he's ready for.
 
 but the big part is this:  no one necessarily dies!!! the song is simply
 about the preparation for a defining moment.....critical
 mass.....kismet.....arching your back to greet the swirling winds of fate
 and assuming a heavy load.
 
 "cover me with the the thought that pulled the trigger" is kind of
 Neil's play on Genet's "bathe yourself in light," which I think may have
 a Biblical origin or reference............paraphrased "Ok, I'm taking
 this burden for a purpose (i.e. love), immerse me in and protect me by
 that love" directed to God or celestial insiders
 
 seeing his face flash (or splash) in the sky is the epiphany of
 recognition....a celetial/cerebral communion/affirmation of the purpose,
 a promise that "the thought that pulled the trigger" will be enough!!
 
 So, in this interpretation, the outcome is left entirely to the
 subjective selection of the listener.  It's true that the kid fired a
 lucky shot that hit a bunch of firecrackers on the boat, that in turn lit
 a fuse that led to the ammo and blew up the boat......but that the guys
 on the boat thence thrust into the air, upon landing were served up hooch
 by the kid, thanked him and later nominated him for the Nobel Peace
 Prize.  If you want it to be true.
 
   Truth is subjectivity
         --Kierkegaard
 
 the trick is to find not a truth that is subjective, but a subjectivity
 that is true
 
  "He was a paranoid in reverse.  He thought people were plotting 
  to make him happy."
        --J.D. Salinger
 
 
WOLFGANG DEIMEL:
 
 I wonder if anyone reads this 999th post on PF...
 anyway, Jeremy supposed:
 
 > >rusties,
 > >my 2 cents:  i always thought the song was about womens make-up.
 > >jeremy
 > >
 
 And the Big Rat Baron wondered:
 
 > That's interesting. That's a whole new point. Why that? Where is the
 > make-up?
 
 Perhaps it's misogyny expressed by lipstick phobia: Red means run, son. :-)
 
 
IAN WALSH
 
 i knew if we kept this up long enough it would get good
 
 
CHUCK SINGER wrapped it up:
 
 It was written:
 
  Maybe one day this song will be turned into a video and
  then any creative thoughts we have on its meaning will be taken away from
  us forever!
 
 I comment:  That's a wonderful point about something I do not recall
             being discussed before.
 
             Video's are capable of becalming one's imagination.
 
             Take a song like Powerfinger.  Everybodies interpetationa
             is just as good as anyone elses.  A video would ruin that
             song for me.  Well, ruin is too strong a word but
             video's do tend to stifle mental images IMHO

Thus concludes our Powderfinger Revisited Marathon..... Thank you kindly for your patronage!

peace,

. . . . . Clayton

I thought it was about time somebody made some sense out of all this catterwauling about Powderfinger, so I decided to do an objective analysis of it line by line. You may be surprised at the results...

Look out, Mama, there's a white boat comin' up the river

Here Young seeks to communicate his interest in boats. Lookout Mama is, as we all know, Sheila, so we can interpret this line as "Hey Sheila! Look at boat!" Here is our first clue - the song is written through the eyes of a child!

With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail

Child-like imagery here. Could Big Red Beacon be taken as a euphemism for some kind of phallic symbolism? What is the man on the rail doing with the flag and the big red beacon? Probably the best we can do here is "What's that man doing?" There is no answer from Sheila so we can assume it's probably not very nice whatever it is.

I think you'd better call John,

The question we must ask ourselves here is "why?" Why call John when John is the family's pet skunk and of little or no use in interpreting obscure lyrics. Not too difficult, let's go with "Where's the skunk?"

'Cause it don't look like they're here to deliver the mail

The disappointment here is obvious. Perhaps it's the child's birthday. He's waiting for the mailman to deliver card, presents, greetings. His excitement at the prospect of seeing the big boat turns to dismay that whatever else he might be doing the man with the big red beacon isn't bringing any goodies. "I want some PRESENTS!" is as good a translation as any.

And it's less than a mile away

As we all know, children have limited understanding of perspective. Often, they will only distinguish between "big" and "small" with nothing in between. "I WANT SOME PRESENTS!!" is what is being said here, no doubt about that.

I hope they didn't come to stay

Given the overall feeling of the song, disappointed child, probably about to throw a tantrum, the writer captures perfectly the child's hope that if this IS somebody bearing gifts then they'd better be GOOD presents if they expect him to kiss them. "Uncle Dave? YEEEEUUKKKK!!"

It's got numbers on the side and a gun

Expectation. The child's curiosity is aroused - maybe instead of the usual stuff he might get something he wants this time. "I WANNA GUN!! I WANNA GUN!!"

And it's makin' big waves.

We revert to the childlike imagery and that strange double talk which families adopt when discussing things of an embarassing nature. The child's excitement has got the better of him. "Mom, I've wet myself..."

Hey Sheila! Look at boat!
What's that man doing?
Where's the skunk?
I want some PRESENTS
I WANT SOME PRESENTS
Uncle Dave? YEEEEUUKKKK!!
I WANNA GUN!! I WANNA GUN!!
Mom, I've wet myself...

Uncle ;-) Dave

The Rust List Page     The Words zone     HyperRust Home