Pacifying Joint

(1)

I'm only 19
I hit the street
I was looking for
A pacifying joint

Pacifying joint
With carrots and meat  
Pacifying joint
Or a place where
Nice people should meet

Pacifying joint

The picture is of
The widow of Windsor (2)
Or any of her
Sons and daughters

Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint

Pacifying joint
With carrots and meat
Pacifying joint
Or a place where
Nice people could meet

I'm only 19
I don't want the kind that
Puts you to sleep   (3)

And you think about a joint
Where treaties are signed
Not that kind

I have a pacifying joint
With carrots and meat 
in a pacifying joint

Pacifying joint
Standing on the street
Pacifying joint

Pacifying joint!

A place to meet

Uh, keep your voice down
Keep your voice down

Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint
Pacifying joint!
Pacifying joint!
Standing on the street
Pacifying joint
We're gonna meet
Pacifying joint

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1. From Martin:

MES, in an interview during the Mixing It radio session (broadcast 10 February 2006):

"It's not what you think it's about. it's about this teenager and he's going to town, you know and he wants to find somewhere to sit down, a joint he can sit down. Got to remember a lot of this stuff was recorded in New York...so he needs somewhere where he can get carrots and meat. He's only 19. I tend to write objectively instead of 'I love you and you love' me and all this crap."

^

2. There is a poem called "The WIdow at Windsor" by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) that lauds (a bit sarcastically) Queen Victoria. Here "sons" are the men of the British military:

Then 'ere's to the Widow at Windsor, 
         An' 'ere's to the stores an' the guns, 
         The men an' the 'orses what makes up the forces 
         O' Missis Victorier's sons. 
         (Poor beggars! Victorier's sons!)  

^

3. Dan points out that repeating a word while giving it a different meaning each time is called "antanaclasis." "Joint" has several possible meanings in this song, three of which are arguably on display in this verse: a leg of meat, a pub or inn, and what used to be called a "marijuana cigarette" by the squares. MES weighed in on the latter in an interview with Pitchfork:

Pitchfork: Here's something I want to throw at you. This is this reading I've been doing of the album as I listen to it. I'm seeing a thematic link-- maybe this speaks to the thread you were talking about-- between "Pacifying Joint," "What About Us?," and "I Can Hear the Grass Grow." They've all got these drug references in them, and you can even sort of trace a high from looking for pot in "Pacifying Joint" to copping in "What About Us," to euphoria and paranoia in "I Can Hear the Grass Grow," and you can take it further to spaced-out tranquility in "Midnight in Aspen"...

MES: Yeah.

Pitchfork: ...and then a flashback ["Aspen Reprise"], talkativeness in "Assume", inebriated camaraderie in "Clasp Hands"-- am I imagining this, or do you think that's there?

MES: Well, it's there, but I can't be objective about it. But it is there, isn't it? It is, it is. Because there's a lot of skunk damage in Manchester, I'll tell you that.

Pitchfork: Skunk damage?

MES: Yeah, skunk. The weed, yeah.

Pitchfork: Did you say skunk damage, though?

MES: Yeah, there's a lot of damage there.

Pitchfork: How do you mean, "damage"?

MES: Well, I've got a lot of young mates, and the skunk is like 30 times more powerful, isn't it... I'm not a pothead, you see, so I don't fucking know about it, I'm just commenting on it. It's weird, that thread, though.

^

Pacifying Joint: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 2005