The Fiery Furnaces are an inventive and often challenging art pop group fro… Read Full Bio ↴The Fiery Furnaces are an inventive and often challenging art pop group from Brooklyn, New York. Originally from Oak Park, Illinois -- a suburb of Chicago -- they consist of the brother and sister team of Matthew Friedberger and Eleanor Friedberger, and are currently joined by Jason Loewenstein (Sebadoh), Bob D'Amico and Michael Goodman when playing live on tour.

The Fiery Furnaces signed with the Rough Trade Records music label in 2002, and recorded their debut album in the same year.

Gallowsbird's Bark, released in the autumn of 2003, garnered critical praise for its clever wordplay and original songwriting.

Anybody who thought they had the band pinned at that point was quickly proven wrong with the 2004 release Blueberry Boat, a rock-operatic album whose track lengths were often six minutes long or longer.
While some critics adored the album for its vast complexity, others found it all a little too overwhelming.

After releasing EP in 2005 (considered a full-length album because of its 41 minute play time, but is "officially" an EP) the band then released two further albums - Rehearsing My Choir (2005), a radio-dramaesque concept album about the Friedbergers' Greek grandmother; and Bitter Tea (2006), which is a comparably more conventional album built on still-bent song structures, but with more pop-oriented stylings.

In October 2007 the band released their fifth full-length album, Widow City.

Trivia

- Their name is both a reference to the film "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)" and to the book of Daniel in the Bible.
- Matthew Friedberger has also released two solo albums simultaneously.
- Eleanor Friedberger is rumoured to be in a relationship with Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, because the song "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" from their second album is about her.
- Due to the garage blues elements of the band’s sound and the fact that the band members are siblings, The Fiery Furnaces was often compared by the press to The White Stripes (The White Stripes sometimes promote themselves as siblings, though they are not).

Official Website: www.thefieryfurnaces.com

Oh Sweet Woods
The Fiery Furnaces Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I was in Tahoe, on the California side,
waiting in the lobby at 665 1/2 Frontage Road
when two extra-blond, short-sleeve, button-down,
white-shirt, blue-tie, mystery Mormons
came in and put this music on:
came in and took me by the arm,
and as they had me marching through the parking lot-
and as they were marching through the parking lot-

they blew into their shirt-pocket microphones
like this:
And then they drove me to an Albertson's outside of Boise
and took me into a back room.
And they said they wanted to balance my checkbook,
and they said the wanted to organize my receipts
and itemize my expenses
and that I had the key
to a safety deposit box,
with treasury bonds and the key
to another safety deposit box
where I'd stashed away
the only pewter pocket watch
that ever belonged to
Joseph Smith's Great-Great Uncle's
Brother-in-Law.

And I said You've got the wrong Eleanor Friedberger.
And then they sang at me like this:

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to The Fiery Furnaces' song "Oh Sweet Woods" are a surreal narrative about a strange encounter with two Mormon men in Tahoe. The singer describes waiting in a lobby when the two men enter, dressed in identical outfits and playing mysterious music. The men then take the singer by the arm and march them through a parking lot while blowing into shirt-pocket microphones.

The scene becomes even more surreal as the men take the singer to an Albertson's outside of Boise and into a back room. There, they claim they want to balance the singer's checkbook and organize their receipts, and reveal that the singer has the key to a safety deposit box with valuable items belonging to Joseph Smith's family. The singer protests that they have the wrong person, but the men continue to sing at them.

The lyrics of this song are open to interpretation, but it seems to be a commentary on the strange, unexpected encounters we can have in life and the ways in which people can try to take advantage of us. The use of specific, detailed imagery and a surreal narrative creates a dream-like quality to the song, adding to its mystique.

Line by Line Meaning

I was in Tahoe, on the California side,
I was staying in Tahoe, which is located on the California side of the state line.

waiting in the lobby at 665 1/2 Frontage Road
I was waiting in the lobby of a building located at 665 1/2 Frontage Road.

when two extra-blond, short-sleeve, button-down, white-shirt, blue-tie, mystery Mormons came in and put this music on:
At that moment, two mysterious Mormons, who were very blonde and wearing short-sleeve, button-down, white shirts and blue ties, arrived and played this song.

came in and took me by the arm,
The Mormons came over and took me by the arm.

and as they had me marching through the parking lot-
While they were marching me through the parking lot,

and as they were marching through the parking lot-
As we continued to march through the parking lot,

they blew into their shirt-pocket microphones like this:
They used their shirt-pocket microphones to amplify their voices while singing.

And then they drove me to an Albertson's outside of Boise
After that, they drove me to an Albertson's supermarket located outside of Boise.

and took me into a back room.
Once we were there, they took me into a back room.

And they said they wanted to balance my checkbook,
The Mormons told me they wanted to balance my checkbook.

and they said the wanted to organize my receipts and itemize my expenses
They also mentioned they wanted to organize my receipts and list out all of my expenses.

and that I had the key to a safety deposit box,
They informed me that I possessed a key to a safety deposit box.

with treasury bonds and the key to another safety deposit box
That safety deposit box contained treasury bonds, as well as the key to yet another safety deposit box.

where I'd stashed away the only pewter pocket watch
In that box, I had hidden the only pewter pocket watch that once belonged to Joseph Smith's great-great uncle's brother-in-law.

that ever belonged to Joseph Smith's Great-Great Uncle's Brother-in-Law.
The pocket watch belonged to a relative of Joseph Smith, who was an important figure in the Mormon religion.

And I said You've got the wrong Eleanor Friedberger.
I told them that they had the wrong person, and that my name is not Eleanor Friedberger.

And then they sang at me like this:
Despite my protest, the Mormons proceeded to sing at me.

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: MATTHEW FRIEDBERGER

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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