{"id":1488,"date":"2012-01-11T14:02:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/?p=1488"},"modified":"2015-01-12T09:31:51","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T17:31:51","slug":"the-annotated-decemberists-no-8-here-i-dreamt-i-was-an-architect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2012\/01\/the-annotated-decemberists-no-8-here-i-dreamt-i-was-an-architect\/","title":{"rendered":"The Annotated Decemberists No. 8: “Here I Dreamt I was an Architect”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Perhaps no band\u2019s lyrics better lend themselves to pseudo-academic analysis than those of The Decemberists.\u00a0The Annotated Decemberists<\/a>\u00a0is an attempt to puzzle through the Portland, Oregon, group\u2019s entire catalog song by song\u2014examining all the obscure vocabulary, historical references and poetic subtext\u2014or go crazy trying.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>When Colin Meloy plays this song live, either solo acoustic<\/a> or with the rest of The Decemberists, he often combines it with a partial cover of “Dreams<\/a>” by Fleetwood Mac\u2014a tacit acknowledgment by Meloy of the songs’ similarities. It’s not just that they’re built around the same two-chord progression (complete with liberal use of major-sevenths and sixths) or that dreams figure heavily in both. They both carry the same sense of resigned sadness.<\/p>\n

Of course, only one contains a possible reference to a World War II death camp, and it ain’t Stevie Nicks’.<\/p>\n

“Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect”<\/strong>
\nfrom Castaways and Cutouts,<\/em> 2002<\/p>\n