Hinnom

For this blog, I chose one of my favorite songs of all time, I related it to Winesburg, Ohio. Especially by the tone, mood, setting, and diction of both pieces. 

The song itself is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCxvcv7H9V8

the lyrics are (Fall in

fall out
fall along)

in the first of light
past the Noachide
bodies wrapped in white

stranded every pain
baby, pasts are slain
“I got outta La Grange…”

in Hinnom

all this time
with your heart in mind
didn’t you edit

in Hinnom

go, the least
and the precious feast
the in-vetted

sand it starts to steal
dirt and ice imbed in cheeks
in the potter’s field

solar peace
well it swirls and sweeps
you just set it

strangers scattering
nether passage in the wind
off pennant tension ring

armor, down
on the wettest ground
not to vet it

This song is created by a man named Justin Vernon, who is comparable to George Willard. They were both born in a small town to a difficult childhood, both have the ability of art and words to do something of their life. La Grange refers to a city in Walworth County, WI, about 4 hours from where Justin grew up. This is the area he lived and knew as "home". There is a verse in the lyrics which state.  'I finally did it baby, I got out of La Grange.'" I think this line refers to the deep longing to get out of small-town Wisconsin and make something of yourself. Just as those grotesques wanted to get out of winesburg. This interperatation was a much more literal one. 

Hinnom is also a place where people where sacrificed and buried. It also means land without laws (hell).

I believe this comparison more directly refers to the mood or feeling that the stories of Sherwood's book gives us. I think the author mixes a man experience with women with this place. At the beginning he talks about this man having sex with someone, and without finding it enough he goes to La Grange. La Grange is a prostitute place in an old ZZ top song. 

I like the part that says "all this time, with your heart in mind, did you edit?" as he is asking him if he looked after his heart by doing this. 

An interview more directly states that the lead singer was dreaming of a burial place for strangers near Jerusalem being relocated in the heart of Texas. He explained the story behind the song to UK newspaper The Sun: "When I was working on the lyrics I was coming up with these images of the desert. I had the idea of taking Hinnom, a place near Jerusalem where they have a cemetery for people who don't have names and plopping it into Texas. The song became an amalgamation of this idea and my experience of a Lucinda Williams song 'Fruits Of My Labor.' She sings this line, 'Cause I finally did it, baby, I got out of La Grange, go in my Mercury and drove out west.'

She's actually explaining the end of something, which is actually the beginning of her life. When Lucinda got into the Mercury and drove out west, she was burying the stranger inside her. It's a metaphor for a lot of stuff on the record."-

So this goes in correlation with the first idea, but as with every literary piece, a personal interpretation will always be applicable.

I think the story refers to peoples past, and the letting go of what has happened and looking towards the future. The reason I chose this song as my blog was because I feel like if Winesburg Ohio had a theme song, this would be it. The diction is so surreal and dreamy, the tone is uplifting but so sad. It is an odd mix. And the author of the song plays a lot on the sound of the word rather than what it is… there are many underlying meanings behind each verse.