So your favorite love song is called "dogs" ?.....

That was my reaction when Spencer and I first started becoming good friends and he was telling me about some of his favorite bands/songs. My skepticism soon evaporated when I started listening to the band who wrote and recorded "dogs" - Page France.

Page France has become one of my very favorite bands of all times. And I know what you're all thinking...but NO i do not love Page France just because Spencer loves them. I reserve the right to strongly dislike even some of his favorite bands if they don't appeal to me (Exhibit A - Coheed and Cambria). However, Spencer does have pretty amazing taste and I have come to love a lot of the bands he has introduced me to... and Page France is probably at the very top of that list.

They are a expressedly non-Christian band with no religious affiliations. I have always found this curious because their lyrics have a lot of Christian imagery in them (with titles like "Jesus," "Chariot," "Bush" - yes the burning one). However, the band claims that they don't write this imagery in for any purpose it just seems to "roll out that way". I'm not sure what that means, but I am sure I love them for one of the very same reasons many of us came to love Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys this past week. Their message about God and the meaning of life isn't always the most orthodox or positive, but they do give an honest account of the longing they feel for something deeper than what they have. I appreciate the honesty and imagery in their lyrics and I really like their raw sound. They have definately reached my most played category on itunes.

Anyways, I love a lot of their songs and I may even blog about another Page France song some other time because there are a lot of good ones. But for this blog, after much internal debate, I choose to blog about "Dogs" in the spirit of love songs with Valentines coming up. Here are the lyrics:

"Dogs"

I heard it's getting windy so I'll set and watch you blow
I will chain you to my boat
I will carry you back home
And I won't say I love you cause it's all been said before
Let's not say it anymore
'cause love nothing here's for sure

They treat us like dogs
So we play along
We bark and we moan
And play them more songs
But when we blow away
And get out of this place
We go down like a shower
And up like a prince

I heard it's getting windy and we'll all be blown away
Did you tell me you're afraid?
Darling, you look so afraid
And I'm not sure what happens when everything here ends
But I hope it's like they said
And I hope it never ends

They treat us like gold
Dug up to be sold
We shine and we shake
Assuming our roles
But when we blow away
Up over this place
We go down like a shout
And up like a praise

I know it's hard to see me darling
Let your eyes adjust
If you go blind just trust
You are made out of my dust
I was made out of your dust
And the wind will carry us
In the ocean's evening dust
Up above the mountaintops
He/You will have the both of us
He Will have the both of us
He/You will have the both of us

There is so much I could say about a lot of different parts of this song, but I don't want this to be too long so I think I'll just make a few comments and hopefully you guys will comment on parts you like/dislike and what you think about them. In general, I really like the overall theme that the two lovers assume the roles they are expected to  for a temporary period, but only in the expectation that there is something much greater that they will be "carried to" afterwards. They know there is something better than the way things are, even though the what is ambigous, and their love/connection is born out of the fact that they are both looking forward to this greater thing while the rest of society can only see the temporary.

I also like the line "We go down like a shout/ And up like a praise." I'm not sure exactly what Page France meant by it, but I think it is pretty obviously talking about death. I like the imagery that although death is often feared and usually unpleasant, the "shout" part, the life "goes up like a praise" after death.

My favorite part is at the very end where the lead singer changes the lyrics ever so slightly. Instead of saying "you will have the both of us" he says "He will have the both of us." I feel that this whole song is a journey of "hoping" something greater is out there with no confidence that it really is ("Love, nothing here's for sure," "I'm not sure what happens when everything here ends"). Yet, at the very end of the song, once the two main characters have escaped this world and are carried away "with the ocean's evening dust" it becomes suddenly clear that "He" is real and He will then finally have both lovers - just the thing they have been hoping for.

Thoughts??.....