The Decemberists Lyrics

    ------ About the song Shankhill Butchers performed by The Decemberists

Excuse me, but my friend who was a catholic nationalist was almost murdered by these fucking wankers, had he not jumped over a motorway bridge into a river he would of been dead, and like I said they also killed protestants, I grew up in a loyalist community, my father served in the RIR aswell and we detested Paisly and his hate campaign and these murdering scum, these people called themselves loyalist but most of them didn't even know what loyalist meant, they were just violent phsycopaths.

    ------ About the song The Rake's Song performed by The Decemberists

This song is NOT I repeat NOT about fascism. It is also not about inner feelings of torture or childhood trauma-- as previously stated: it is from "the Hazards of Love" album; a concept album that tell the story of William & Margaret.

The story is about a woman (Margaret) who falls in love and becomes pregnant by Willam- a man who has been cursed to be a fawn by day and a man by night, he was cursed by his "mother" the Queen of the forest who stole him as a baby. When the Queen finds out William has fallen in love she threatens to hurt Margaret, but William bargains with her to leave her be and he will never see Margaret again if he can spend one more night with her. But while they are sleeping Margaret is taken by The Rake- a horrible person who hated being monogamous, and when his wife died giving birth he disposed of his other children to live a life of "freedom." The Rake comes to a powerful dangerous river with Margaret in tow, and he cannot cross, so the Queen flies him to the otherwise so that he can remove Margaret from ever seeing her son again.
When William wakes Margaret is gone and when he tracks her to the river finds that he cannot cross, he prays to the river to slow it's rapids and if it lets him cross safely to the otherside, after he saves margaret he will come back and let the river have his body. It's slows, he crosses and fights the Rake, whom he cannot defeat--

BUT his kids all come back to haunt him and THEY kill him. William and Margaret go back to the river but Margaret won't let him go alone so they say their solemn vows in the water and kiss as the river takes them together.

    ------ About the song We Both Go Down Together performed by The Decemberists

Interesting what every one has said here.
What seems clear to me is that regardless of whether this song is implying suicide or love making ( it's probably up to you to chose as it seems like one of those clever songs that has a double meaning ) it seems clear that she is not being forced or brutalized by the narrator. The implication is that she is willing to either die or have sex with this guy. He is not a forcing himself on her. And in the case of suicide I'd say one would likely to find themselves weeping even though the act was intentional. As for the romantic interpretation I can definitely see her crying do to emotional turmoil rather than the case of a forced sexual act.
And it's TRIUMPH not tramp.

    ------ About the song We Both Go Down Together performed by The Decemberists

Adding to my previous comment. What the song says is ' and my parents will never consent to this love but I hold your hand' which implys that due to their improper social situation his parents will not consent to marriage. Under the circumstances that trap them ( social hierarchy ) they decide
On a joint suicide. This kind of thing is pretty common even in today's society, perhaps not so much in the west, but in India this is certainly still a factor.
Any way sorry for wanking on but I really think the rapist theory is totally wrong.

    ------ About the song The Rake's Song performed by The Decemberists

Be not disturbed Nicole. It's simply a story being told in the form of a song. It's a mistake to assume a lyric is the artist's endorsement of a particular idea. I'm pretty sure Colin Meloy doesn't believe you should kill your children or that's his plan for his own kids.

And finding political ideology in a song like that probably means you could find it anywhere.

    ------ About the song Sixteen Military Wives performed by The Decemberists

mesage in this great pop song too important to ever get released as a pop song. Those in charge of the dummying down process won't allow it. There are minds at work here, and Cheney just won't have it!!

    ------ About the song We Both Go Down Together performed by The Decemberists

Come on, guys, you don't need to find rapists and stalkers EVERYWHERE. That's Weird Al's job.

I notice nobody's calling Romeo or Juliet "unreliable," and this is--essentially--the same thing. The only real difference is that the girl is a peasant, and the boy nobility, so the boy's parents aren't going to let him marry her.

Question: If he really was just taking advantage of her, why did he kill himself instead of ditching her and finding another peasant?

    ------ About the song Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect performed by The Decemberists

He's a brave man to dream to be a soldier accepting life as his own, as important- but also considering his path to be tough and lonely (and just to lie with you there's nothing that I wouldn't do- save lay my rifle down, here he talks about his need to be distant, his need for the thrill of adventure vs his need for the companionship of his lady love). He thinks of all the women of his past as he continues his jouurney and exploration, whethering tribulatution, regret and trials through the many and varying paths his life has roads to take him to/ has taken him down. Hence "try one, and try two- guess it always comes down to. . . better to turn this way." And when he drempt he was an architect, it was to house his love, to keep her safe, to finally settle down. Though he realized he was not much of a builder- so he quickly revised that dream and moved to a far away land (which he labled as spain) And here in spain he WAS a spanierd- he felt like he could belong in desolation, in a far off land that he couldn't relate to. Because that's what made him happy. Aswell, his wild teenage girlfriend made him feel younger more adventerous aswell. but he grew discontented with everything and everyone he came in contact with. He was so depressed he was already planning for death, (here I'll be buried with my marrionettes.)

    ------ About the song We Both Go Down Together performed by The Decemberists

well, this being my favorite song, i am going to pretend that they really are in love. WHO ARE YOU TO SAY HE'S A PSYCHO? he may well be but i don't care. i love this song. i teared up when i saw it in concert and i heard "we fall, but our souls were flying". its beautiful, who even cares if he is nuts...

    ------ About the song The Hazards of Love 4 performed by The Decemberists

Great story; however, some of the pedestrian attempts at translation include misspellings that are basically distracting, in that it makes it seem that certain lyrics were mindlessly transcribed without much thought about their contextual meanings: faun (fawn); bare (bear our witness; lye (lie). But at least most of the effort reflects very well upon the lyrical portion of this amazing album. Yes, I DID write that: 'album'... because that's what it is.