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

Paw Paw Tree
The Fiery Furnaces Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

At last when the choice was neither nor,
Bottom of the bay we're set ashore.
Went into town beg what we lack:
Two hundred stripes on horseback.
Wearing my yellow coat,
Rope tied around my throat:
Great green wax candle unlit;
Silence! And then the sentence spit.

I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
Wait they make mango mush outta me.
Pick axe I can't stay
Silver mines all day.
Cut down the weedwood
And think that I just could.
I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
Wait they make mango mush outta me.
Tied down with brown twine
Up past the tree line
Up by I hope where
The King of Spain don't care.

I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
Wait they make mango mush outta me.

Overall Meaning

The Fiery Furnaces's song "Paw Paw Tree" is a confusing yet intriguing song that conveys the story of a person who is being punished severely for a crime they have committed. The lyrics suggest that the singer is on a ship that gets stranded at the bottom of a bay, leading them to face grave consequences. The lyrics "Bottom of the bay we're set ashore" convey the idea of being physically punished by making the singer carry out difficult tasks like riding a horse for two hundred stripes or mining for silver all day.

The lyrics also suggest that the singer is tied up with brown twine, past the tree line. The line "Up by I hope where the King of Spain don't care" could mean that they hope they are far away enough from civilization and the law enforcement to avoid punishment. The sentence "Wait they make mango mush outta me" could be interpreted as a metaphorical representation that their life has turned into a chaotic mess after committing a crime.

Overall, the song's imagery depicts the sense of confinement and punishment that the singer faces. The lyrics are cryptic and can be viewed and interpreted in various ways depending on the listener's perspective.

Line by Line Meaning

At last when the choice was neither nor,
When we had no options left to choose from,

Bottom of the bay we're set ashore.
We were stranded at the bottom of the bay without a way out.

Went into town beg what we lack:
We went into town to ask for what we needed.

Two hundred stripes on horseback.
We received punishment of two hundred stripes while being carried on horseback.

Wearing my yellow coat,
While wearing my yellow coat,

Rope tied around my throat:
A rope was tied around my throat as a form of punishment.

Great green wax candle unlit;
There was a large green wax candle nearby, unlit.

Silence! And then the sentence spit.
After a moment of silence, the punishment was announced without warning.

I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
I am currently sitting in a paw paw tree.

Wait they make mango mush outta me.
I am waiting for them to turn me into mango mush.

Pick axe I can't stay
I cannot stay near the pick axe.