Hallowed Ground by The Violent Femmes: If it were a rock opera
PREFACE: THIS IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A SERIOUS INTERPRETATION OF THE STORY OF THIS ALBUM. THIS IS PURPOSEFULLY A STRETCH.
Hallowed Ground presents a story of a family living on a haunted farm, build on sacred land, and how it leads to various awful events.
TW: murder
Country Death Song: A man living on a haunted farm begins to get more and more insane. This leads to him killing his daughter, and then himself.
I Hear the Rain: This song continues this storyline, showing the grief of the family after the events of Country Death Song-- sometimes from the perspective of the remaining siblings, slowly figuring out something is wrong with the farm, ("I HEAR THE RAIN, I HEAR THE RAIN"), the mom, ("SHE USED TO SIT AND WATCH THE RAIN NOW I THINK I'LL GO INSANE") and the dead father ("Bury me out on the lone prairie / prairie water washing over me", etc, verses)
Never Tell: Time skip a year or two to the future. The remaining siblings on the farm are brother and sister. The brother begins to feel the effects of the farm as well, and gets pulled into the underground crime ring of the south. He kills someone, and the sister witnesses it. He threatens her in order to keep her quiet.
Jesus Walking on the Water: The mother and her two children find solace in the church, singing a hymn, but sinister happenings still lurk beneath the exterior of happy church hymns.
I Know It's True but I'm Sorry to Say: The mother's slow ballad, lamenting her husband and daughter's death. She has started attempting to communicate with their ghosts, somewhat effectively. Their ghosts join her in a harmony.
Hallowed Ground: As the family falls deeper and deeper into despair, the sister becomes determined to find out what's wrong with her family's farm. She discovers the truth; the farm was built on sacred land, and is now terribly haunted. She starts planning to run away.
Sweet Misery Blues: Escaping from the farm, the sister is staying at a hotel in a faraway big city. She meets a man who attempts to seduce her. He promises a grandiose life, and says he'll take care of her and buy her things.
Black Girls: It turns out the guy that she met was kind of racist and kind of an idiot, so she's weirded out and leaves.
It's Gonna Rain: The sister makes a life for herself in the city, and leaves behind her past. She accepts the death of her father and sister, and stops worrying about her brother and mother, focusing on herself, calling back to the image of rain in I Hear The Rain-- but this time being happy and okay about it. It's *going* to rain, yes-- but it's alright.
Request albums in my asks or respond to this with an album request, and I might do it especially if I know it well! :)
--meow
