Post by Nonfatman on Dec 21, 2011 0:07:52 GMT -5
This is another interesting song for discussion in our Look into the Song sub-board, because the term 'seal driver' refers to a set of tools used to repair wheel bearings on automobiles, and I suppose certain ship machinery as well. Here is a photo of a seal driver kit:
See, also:
buy1.snapon.com/catalog/search_keyword.asp?keyword=Seal+Driver+Set
So is Ian basically saying that he is going to use the woman in this song in a sexual way, similar to Velvet Green? Note the phallic nature of the tool, which has both a male and female component. He's literally going to drill her.
Further support for this is in the line "I can captain you if you'd crew for me." I take this to mean he is going to order her around sexually, and she is going to love it. Her heart "comes alive" while the summer lighting cuts the sky "like a hot wire", and the mountain is "on fire".
But, as often is the case with Ian's songs, there is much more going on. Ian is clearly using the phrase seal driver (i.e., referring to the tools) as an ironic play on words on the phrase 'soul driver', which I believe means a lover who provides emotional support to his or her mate. Check out the Springsteen song, Soul Driver:
Rode through forty nights of the gospels’ rain
Black sky pourin’ snakes frogs
And love in vain
You were down where the river grows wider
Baby let me be your soul driver
Well if something in the air feels a little unkind
Don’t worry darlin’
It’ll slip your mind
I’ll be your gypsy joker your shotgun rider
Baby let me be your soul driver
Now no one knows which way love’s wheel turns
Will we hit it rich
Or crash and burn
Does fortune wait or just the black hand of fate
This love potion’s all we’ve got
One toast before it’s too late
If the angels are unkind or the season is dark
Or if in the end
Love just falls apart
Then here’s to our destruction
Baby let me be your soul driver
So which is it? Or is it both? Very interesting song indeed, and more complex than it seems.
Jeff
See, also:
buy1.snapon.com/catalog/search_keyword.asp?keyword=Seal+Driver+Set
So is Ian basically saying that he is going to use the woman in this song in a sexual way, similar to Velvet Green? Note the phallic nature of the tool, which has both a male and female component. He's literally going to drill her.
Further support for this is in the line "I can captain you if you'd crew for me." I take this to mean he is going to order her around sexually, and she is going to love it. Her heart "comes alive" while the summer lighting cuts the sky "like a hot wire", and the mountain is "on fire".
But, as often is the case with Ian's songs, there is much more going on. Ian is clearly using the phrase seal driver (i.e., referring to the tools) as an ironic play on words on the phrase 'soul driver', which I believe means a lover who provides emotional support to his or her mate. Check out the Springsteen song, Soul Driver:
Rode through forty nights of the gospels’ rain
Black sky pourin’ snakes frogs
And love in vain
You were down where the river grows wider
Baby let me be your soul driver
Well if something in the air feels a little unkind
Don’t worry darlin’
It’ll slip your mind
I’ll be your gypsy joker your shotgun rider
Baby let me be your soul driver
Now no one knows which way love’s wheel turns
Will we hit it rich
Or crash and burn
Does fortune wait or just the black hand of fate
This love potion’s all we’ve got
One toast before it’s too late
If the angels are unkind or the season is dark
Or if in the end
Love just falls apart
Then here’s to our destruction
Baby let me be your soul driver
So which is it? Or is it both? Very interesting song indeed, and more complex than it seems.
Jeff
when I saw the line I'll captain you if you crew for me I thought of Ian and Martin 