The Wine

Album: Vesper (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • Leonard Mynx is a singer/songwriter from Oregon. He told Songfacts: "This song is an apparition. It filters through the murk and comes out clean. It is a sieve. It was written in a flop house in Portland. There were no decorations on the walls. No art. The room was a hyperbaric chamber. The outside world didn't exist. I had to create one. 'Put My Little Shoes Away' is an old traditional song. It is about a young boy who dies of Scarlet Fever. He begs his mother to 'give his toys to all my playmates, but put my little shoes away.' Someday his baby brother can wear them. Both of these songs deal with nobility in the face of tragedy. America falls and rises. There is no set tradition, but we are steeped in customs. We wear our hair in hopes of the future. We recorded 'The Wine' on a 96 degree day in May. It was done in a flash. No need to beautify it. We left it raw. 'When Jesus comes to save us, there'll be Hell to pay.' No one thinks of the price of their deeds. We are mostly one dimensional. Anything beyond that scares us. We call it crazy. We feed it pills. The noble child begs us to put their little shoes away."

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