hey there, you are knowledgeable in all things gaslight anthem and such, so my mom and me were wondering about one line from stray paper "And underneath the tyranny of august and her sons," - do you know what august and her sons refers to? thank you! :)
I’m honestly not sure! (Isn’t Stray Paper such an amazing song. On its own, just by lyrical content, it’s so good, but with Sharon Jones bring so gracious in having provided background vocals for the track, just takes it to another level entirely.)
My personal theory though is that it’s meant to reference everything a typical United States raised person would reflect back on their childhood. “August and her sons” to me means those hot, humid, dog days of Summer (August is a brutal month weather wise for most of us on the East Coast).
For the song that ‘verse continues with the lines “the holy vow of a teenage kiss...now we’re much to old for this” and so that, to me, backs up the theory that’s it’s all a reflection on a summer in the narrator’s past. Re-living the memories of the end of that magical period of summer vacation, where the days are just dragging as you countdown to the start of another school year, and for things like summer romances to give out their last dying breath.
(For someone like Brian Fallon, out of New Jersey, August would’ve been his last full month of summer vacation before going back to school after Labor Day. Some places, like here in North Carolina start back in mid-August, but when I grew up in New York it was always after Labor Day, so August just...it has a different feel than most other months.)
