I was daydreaming as I was studying for this dreaded bar, and "Sovay" popped in my head. Then, I asked myself, "What does that mean?" Well, thanks to Google check this out.
"Sovay" is the name of the album's first song, but don't run off to look up the word in a dictionary; not knowing what the word means, says Bird, is what makes it so much fun. In an interview, Bird explained that the song was born during a time of writer's block. Thinking that his muse had left him, Bird cracked open a volume of old English poetry and came across the mysterious word that serves as this song's title. Bird had no idea what he meant, but, for whatever reason, the song seemed to flood him with inspiration, and the great songs began gushing out. It's an easy-going, lilting little pop song about fighting back against the forces that seek to contain and confine creativity. It's a song about the tricky nature of inspiration. It's a song about something happening that's never happened before… "and a word washed ashore…"
Sovay, Sovay all on a day
She dressed herself in man's array
With a sword and pistol all by her side
To meet her true love, to meet her true love, away did ride
As she was riding over the plain
She met her true love and bid him stand
"Your gold and silver, kind Sir," she said
"Or else this moment, or else this moment, your life I'll have"
The Bird version is sort of similar.
sovay, sovay,sovay
all along the day
I was getting ready to consider my next plan of attack
I think I'm gonna sack
the whole board of trustees
all those Don Quixotes and their B-17s
and I swear this time
yeah this time
they'll blow us back to the 70's
and this time
they're playin Ride of the Valkyries
with no semblance of grace or ease
and they're acting on vagaries
with their violent proclivities
and they're playing ride
Ride of the Valkyries
sovay,sovay,sovay
all along the day
1 comment:
Obviously I wasn't checking your page the week before the bar...I might as well have, considering how badly I suspect I did...but now I'm back online, and just thought I'd mention how accurately you read my mind with this post. I got a little, shall we say, obsessed with the song Sovay a good while ago, but I honestly didn't bother to ponder what the lyrics or the word meant until some idiot (three guesses) told me it was solely and completely a statement against our military presence in Iraq. I'm not saying it might not be, in some fashion, but I very much prefer the interpretation you give, Clydester. And I adore the fact that the mysterious word came from a dusty old volume of poetry. Why didn't I follow up on my Bachelor's degree in English, again???
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