Boeing 737 by The Low Anthem

Album: Smart Flesh (2011)

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

The Low Anthem is a folk rock trio from Providence, Rhode Island comprising Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky and Jocie Adams. This song from the band's fourth album, Smart Flesh, begins with the line: "I was in the air when the towers came down, in a bar on the 84th floor,"and is set to a tune borrowed from Springsteen's "Racing In The Street." In an interview with Mojo magazine, Miller refuted the suggestion that it is about America's response to 9/11, saying it instead refers to the album's inspirational hero, Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist who walked between New York's Twin Towers in 1974. "That song is a fictional bar-stool moment with Philippe Petit as the narrator, Miller explained. "9/11 recontextualised this iconic building that Petit had done something beautiful with and that is what this song is about. There's no political agenda for this album."

Comments: 1

AnonymousThis song has to be about 09/11. The fact that the song's subject was in the 84th floor cannot be coincidence. It references both the great Phillipe Petit and the 9/11 atrocity juxtaposing great beauty and endeavour, with great evil and destruction of the human soul and body. It one of the most moving songs I have ever heard both lyrically and sonically especially the live version here. The sheer fury of the drummers pounding is astonishing.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)Will Glahe

In 1939, a polka craze swept America thanks to "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)."

BloodstreamEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who is about a revolution, but it doesn't have a happy ending, since in the end the new regime becomes just like the old one. Pete Townshend thought that whoever was in power was destined to become corrupt.

Good TimesChic

The disco song "Good Tmes" by Chic was a huge influence on early rap, providing the bassline for "Rapper's Delight."

Dancing QueenABBA

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson conceived "Dancing Queen" as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo," drawing inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby." Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen."

Uptown FunkMark Ronson

The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").