Pavement, a band started by Malkmus post-Ectoslavia, pre-New York, at this point began to gain attention. This attention resulted in a record deal and a constant inferiority plague placed upon the 'Joos with Berman totally at the forefront of the group. Misinformed music fans now saw the band as a side-project and, even worse, Berman as being not good enough to play with Pavement, many band members being shared between the two bands.
The connection to Malkmus and the now blossoming Pavement was not all negative, however. Drag City, then not the bastion of American folk music it is today, agreed to release the band's debut EPs which has led to a fruitful relationship (the label continues to release the band's records, right up to album number 7 in 2008, (Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea).
The Silver Jews in their later days primarily consisted of David and Cassie Berman who contributed most of the lyrics, and a changing cast of characters. They had numerous indie stars in a rotating line up, including Willie T. of Lambchop, and Brian Kotzer of Tim Chad and Sherry.
David Berman is also a poet and has been published in numerous poetry magazines and journals. He also has a book of poetry and rants entitled "Actual Air," which was released in 1999 and received favorable reviews from The New Yorker and GQ.
On the 22nd of January, 2009, David Berman announced on the Drag City messageboard that their show on the 31st of January in Tennessee would be their last. "Can't be like all the careerists doncha know. I'm forty two and I know what to do. I'm a writer, see? I always said we would stop before we got bad." After 10 years off, Berman reappeared in 2019 as Purple Mountains.
David Berman died from suicide on August 22, 2019 after a long battle with depression.
New Orleans
Silver Jews Lyrics
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The darkest walls of blue, there's beasts & ther's men
& there's something on this earth that comes back again:
Alpha...delta....gamma... everybody's smoked
You can't say that my soul has died away(x2) There's trouble
In the hall & trouble up the stairs & trouble in the trouble
That's troubling the air. Please don't say that my
Soul has died away.
There is a house in New Orleans, not the one
You've heard about. I'm talking about another house.
They spoke of gold in the cellar that a Spanish
Gentleman had left. I broke in one hundred years ago
With a dagger tucked in my vest. Legends of gold
I've tried to hold in the grey half-lite of the
Halway at night....one....two... 3 4 5 we're
Trapped inside the song. We're trapped inside the song(x3)
Where the nights are so long. There's traps inside us
All(x3) and the nights are so tall. And the night
Is so tall. And the knife is so tall.
The lyrics to Silver Jews' song New Orleans have an eerie and unsettling tone to them, filled with references to darkness, trouble, and the feeling of being trapped. The first stanza paints a picture of being in a tunnel surrounded by darkness, where there are beasts and men lurking. The singer is scared, but they also seem to be surrounded by smoking ("everybody's smoked") which can add to the sense of unease. Despite all of this, the singer says "You can't say that my soul has died away" twice, perhaps meaning that even in the darkest of situations, they still have some sense of self and spirit.
The second stanza refers to a particular house in New Orleans, which is distinct from the more well-known one often referred to in songs. The singer describes how there are legends of gold left behind by a Spanish gentleman, and how they themselves broke in 100 years ago with a dagger in their vest. The imagery here is of someone seeking out treasure, but also of a sense of desperation and maybe even lawlessness. The final line repeats "We're trapped inside the song" several times, with the penultimate line emphasizing how there are "traps inside us all." The song seems to be evoking a sense of being stuck, whether that's in a particular place, a particular time, or a particular mindset. The final lines, "And the night is so tall / And the knife is so tall," bring back the feeling of danger and unease.
Overall, the lyrics to New Orleans feel like a dark and moody journey through a place and time full of uncertainty and fear. There are hints of adventure and excitement, but always with the undercurrent of something ominous lurking just beneath the surface.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm scared (I swear) of you. In the tunnel, in the darkness,
The darkness in the tunnel scares me immensely.
The darkest walls of blue, there's beasts & ther's men
In the tunnel, there are both animals and people lurking about.
& there's something on this earth that comes back again:
There is an inexplicable phenomenon that keeps recurring on this planet.
Alpha...delta....gamma... everybody's smoked
People have smoked so much that they seem to be speaking in random codes.
You can't say that my soul has died away(x2) There's trouble
Despite everything that's happening, I firmly believe my soul hasn't perished completely because of the trouble that is brewing around us.
In the hall & trouble up the stairs & trouble in the trouble
There is trouble everywhere, be it in the hall or up the stairs, or even in the air that's filled with trouble.
That's troubling the air. Please don't say that my
Soul has died away.
I insist you don't say that my soul has died away even though there's trouble everywhere because it isn't true.
There is a house in New Orleans, not the one
You've heard about.
There's a lesser-known house in New Orleans that most people don't know about.
I'm talking about another house.
They spoke of gold in the cellar that a Spanish
Gentleman had left.
This is a different house where people talked about a Spanish gentleman leaving gold in the cellar.
I broke in one hundred years ago
With a dagger tucked in my vest.
I broke into that house one hundred years ago with a dagger tucked in my vest.
Legends of gold
I've tried to hold in the grey half-lite of the
Halway at night....one....two... 3 4 5 we're
Trapped inside the song.
I've been trying to hold onto the legends of that gold in the dim, grey hallway at night, where we're trapped inside the song counting one to five.
We're trapped inside the song(x3)
Where the nights are so long.
We're stuck within this song with never-ending nights that seem exponentially long.
There's traps inside us
All(x3) and the nights are so tall.
We are all trapped within ourselves and the nights seem dangerously towering.
And the night
Is so tall. And the knife is so tall.
The night and the knife both seem towering and dauntingly high.
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING
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