Scott and Schlauderaff continued writing and recording with drummer Ryan Anderson and bassist Chad Christensen. Songs from these sessions led to two more albums "One More Daye" (an EP) and the full length acoustic album "Archway (through the thorny veil)", recorded in Minneapolis on the Oarfin Records label. However; due to artistic and "legal" differences Lesh dropped Oarfin and these recordings were released with limited press and saw only regional distribution. In 1993 prompted by their recent experience with "corpirate" music, Lesh moved to "the ranch" a thirty acre forest on the Crow River and built "Lesh Studio's", the bands own recording studio and headquarters. It was there that Lesh recorded two albums between 94 and 2000, "Look into the Sun" (featuring Pianist Timothy Schomer and drummer DeAbra Stewart ) and the very rare "Obscurities" (a retrospective sound of Lesh up to that point). Many friends/musicians were involved with these projects and the Studio vibe spawned many projects and brought in many artists during this era including Urge Overkill, Modest Mouse, All The Pretty Horses and Sam Andrews (guitarist of Big Brother/Janis Joplin).
Although Watt recorded on many songs between One More Daye and Obscurities he didn't officially return to the band until 2003 for The Colorful Album, Lesh's sixth effort. With the bands core members and sound intact, Lesh's unique ability to reinvent itself has led one critic to dub them "America's most selfish prairie rock band".
On the Wire
baron lesh Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's burning me scorching me up
Oh God, can't you hear my cry?. Water. A poor little cup.
It's laughing I hear the cursed sun
I see it swell and swell
It's fearous as one hundred hells, Oh God will it
Ever have done, It's searing the flesh from my bones it's beating me with hamers red.
See it's the size of the sky
Drone in me as I lie
Here on the wire
Stained here an now of night I dream
A night that will bring me peace
Coolness in a stary gleam
The stillness of deaths release
Again... The guns over my head
Again... Yellow red and red
And then it starts to dawn
Again I have not gone
I hear but I can not see
Someone else is caught like me
Thundering now in my ear
He pulls the trigger of his fear
The man whom I heard is dead
A bullet hole in his head
Under a stouping sky
A see thing of sulfurous fire
Scorching me up as I lie
Here on the wire
The song "On the Wire" by Baron Lesh paints a vivid picture of a soldier's experience on the battlefield during war. The opening stanza is a plea directed at God to alleviate the intense heat from the scorching sun. Throughout the song, the sun is personified as a malevolent presence, taunting and torturing the singer with its unrelenting power. The metaphor of the sun being "the size of the sky" emphasizes the magnitude of the soldier's suffering. The image of the soldier being beaten with hammers red underscores the brutality of war and the destruction it causes to both the physical and mental well-being of soldiers.
The second stanza reveals that the soldier is not alone in his suffering. He dreams of a night that will bring him peace, but the sound of gunfire above his head pulls him back to his reality. The repetition of "again" emphasizes the cyclical nature of war and the never-ending struggle that soldiers face. The line "someone else is caught like me" shows that the singer is part of a collective, and that his experiences are shared by others fighting alongside him. The final stanza brings the song to a climactic end with the imagery of a "sulfurous fire" scorching the soldier as he lies on the wire. The use of the word "stouping" in this stanza adds to the bleak atmosphere of the song, and suggests that the soldier is close to giving up.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh God, take the sun from the sky
The unbearable heat of the sun is torturing me, please take it away
It's burning me scorching me up
The heat of the sun is literally burning me up, causing me great pain
Oh God, can't you hear my cry?. Water. A poor little cup.
I am desperately in need of water to alleviate my suffering, even a small amount would help
It's laughing I hear the cursed sun
The heat and brightness of the sun is mocking me
I see it swell and swell
The sun seems to be getting bigger and more intense as time goes on
It's fearous as one hundred hells, Oh God will it Ever have done
The sun is as terrifying as hell and I am praying for it to go away
It's searing the flesh from my bones it's beating me with hamers red
The sun's intense heat is causing my flesh to burn and feel as if I am being physically beaten
See it's the size of the sky
The sun appears to be taking up the entire sky
And the sky is a torrent of fire
The sky is a violent and fiery abyss
Drone in me as I lie
I am consumed by the destructive power of the sun and the fiery sky
Stained here an now of night I dream
Even in my sleep, I am haunted by the sun's intensity
A night that will bring me peace
I am hoping for a peaceful night where I can escape the sun's torture
Coolness in a stary gleam
I long for the coolness of the night sky and stars
The stillness of deaths release
The only way to escape the sun's torture is through death
Again... The guns over my head
I am once again trapped in a warzone, where the sound of guns is ever present
Again... Yellow red and red
The colors of war are dominating my world once again
And then it starts to dawn
The dawn brings a new day, but with it comes more torture
Again I have not gone
I am still trapped in this terrible place and situation
I hear but I can not see
I am aware of the danger around me, but cannot see it
Someone else is caught like me
I am not alone in my suffering, and see others around me in a similar predicament
Thundering now in my ear
The sound of gunfire is getting louder and more intense, exacerbating my pain
He pulls the trigger of his fear
The sound of a gun being fired represents someone's fear and aggression
The man whom I heard is dead
Someone close to me has been killed in the ongoing violence
A bullet hole in his head
The reality of the situation is violent and deadly, with physical evidence of the violence all around
Under a stouping sky
The sky is oppressive and heavy, making the situation even more unbearable
A see thing of sulfurous fire
I see the horrors of war all around me, including the metaphorical imagery of a fiery, sulfurous landscape
Scorching me up as I lie
The heat and violence of the war is causing me great pain and suffering as I lay trapped and unable to escape
Contributed by Elena W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.