paddle on (info)   [lyrics]

capo 2nd chord formations:

You might hear this song and wonder if that spider thread connecting me to reality has finally snapped.  It hasn't.  I was driving home from work one day and all the normal radio stations were playing stupid public service morning shows and diet supplement commercials, but there was one playing bluegrass music.

I was listening to it, singing along, and I thought, 'If you take away those awful accents and biblical references, you might be able to consider this real music...'

So I set about learning how to play bluegrass.  It took all of three minutes, and now I'm a professional.  And now to the actual song...

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

The chorus is a repetition of the command 'paddle on, mighty Vikings.'  The repetition represents the repeated movements of actually paddling.  The verb row would be more appropriate for Vikings and oars in a normal situation, but paddle is a bluegrass verb because of the frequent references the songs make to rivers and it has two syllables, making it doubly suited for this song.  It also sounds a lot like battle, which is something Vikings do a lot.

The verse in the rhyme scheme is typical ABAB, with the A part always ending with the phrase 'deep sea' in all three verses.  This is to stress the deepness of the sea and to match the simple language used in most of the song.  The two slightly complex words (captors and bloodshed) are placed close to references to the townsfolk to show just how foreign these concepts are to their peaceful way of life.

The second to last line of the song is 'and you find them, and toss them in the deep sea,' and this line is ambiguous because it's not 100 percent clear if it is referring to the captors or the women, and the way you interpret this line will determine the way you perceive the Vikings' intentions in this song.