Look at the way this gun fits the crook of your arm
To make a thing like that you’d need to know what you were about
You’d need to know where you were going and go there in a straight line
And everything else you’d have to shut right out
Can you see the man who made that?
Can you see him putting it down and standing back?
Can you see the moment when he said, “that’s it, that’s perfect”?
At a time like that you wouldn’t care about your job
Or your mortgage or the fight you had with your wife
‘Cause when a man holds a thing well made there’s connection
There’s completeness when a man holds a thing well made
Sorry, I know this is getting a bit musicky and less addy, but i kind of feel Don McGlashan hit the nail on the head here for anyone who aspires to craft something.
Albeit in a fairly creepy way.
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2 comments:
I so completeley agree. I have loved this particular song for 10 years. Any artist will know what McGlashan is talking about when he sings "Can you see the moment when he says "that's it; that's perfect"
It's what we all aspire to. It's a beautifully crafted song.
Hey, I saw Don MacGlashan playing in London last night and wanted to remind myself about the background to this song.
Yes, it's beautiful and incredibly vivid... but it's also horrific.
The song is the imagined story of the gun shop owner who sold the gun to the NZ serial killer David Gray
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Aramoana-Massacre
The point of it is that sometimes our selfish obsessions can have devastating consequences on those around us, the gun shop owner retreating from the world around him into a blinkered obsession with the craftmanship his guns - and, MacGlashan suggests, a willful, deliberate ignorance of the consequences.
But then it's just such a gorgeous song...it's awful that he had to use it to deal with so horrendous a subject.
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