The Dead Flag Blues

The car is on fire
and there's no driver at the wheel
and the sewers are all muddied
with a thousand lonely suicides
and a dark wind blows

The government is corrupt
and we're all on so many drugs
with the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
and the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
and the billboards are all leering
and the flags are all dead
at the top of their poles

It went like this:
the buildings toppled in on themselves
mothers clutching babies
picked through the rubble
and pulled out their hair

The skyline was beautiful on fire
all twisted metal stretching upwards
everything washed in a thin orange haze

I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful, these are truly the last days"
You grabbed my hand, and we fell into it
like a daydream
or a fever.

We woke up one morning
and fell a little further down
For sure it's the valley of death
I open up my wallet
and it's full of blood

The Dead Flag Blues by Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a brooding, ambient, orchestral jeremiad set in the near future, after some tremendous, unspecified cataclysm. The monologue can be divided into two sections: first, a portrait of a diseased society, slouching painfully toward oblivion; and then the inevitable destruction and quietus that follow.

Part 1 is a harsh indictment of modernity, set to a constant, mechanical droning that augments the mind-numbing, suffocating quality of the narrative; and though he begins with histrionic, value-laden language ("muddied with a thousand lonely suicides"), the narrative ends in a simple, terse report; clearly, the narrator has been changed by what he has experienced. In the security of a mellow, suburban milieu, it is easy to wax eloquent about social ills; but the narrator appears to mature through his experience, and finds little to critique in what he sees when the story concludes.

In part 2, his lyrics are laconic and dispassionate, conveying the dreamlike state of shock that follows disaster. The narrator simply states what he observes, seemingly unable to process the emotional ramifications. He pauses to notice the morbid beauty of a burning city, and makes subtle comment on his circumstances ("these are truly the last days" -- "for sure it's the valley of death"); but there is no mourning, or even fear suggested. This makes the listener a participant in the story, as one is forced to infer or imagine the details.

The monologue ends three minutes into the track, and the listener is left to ponder the cryptic, half-told story through thirteen minutes of ambient, dirge-like violin and guitar. Interestingly, the song concludes with two minutes of incongruously cheerful xylophone and violin. This may simply be sarcastic or absurdist, or it may be a sincere expression of optimism.