what does it mean--skin tucked in and meat side out, etc.

[semantic nuance]

HI,

Please move it to the right forum if I misplace it.

I've done the Chinese translation of Regina Spektor's Consequence of Sounds and post it on my blog but I'm not quite sure if I misread some parts of the song. I don't want to wild guess its meaning. So, I'd like to ask questions here. I'd like to hear your comments when you read the blue parts. What do they mean? And how would you translate this stanza into Chinese? Thanks in advance. By the way, I think the lyrics are cool.

the whole Eglish lyrics here.

What has been puzzling me is :

Got a soundtrack in my mind

all the time

Kids screaming from too much beat up and they don't even rhyme

They just stand there

on a street corner

skin tucked in and meat side out and shouting

I'd like to turn them down but there ain't no knob

Born into picket fences

not into picket lines

All this hippie shit's for the sixties

Only cliche in our times

but what if one of these days your heart will just stop ticking

and they sort of just don't find you till your cubicle is reeking?

[deathtrap]

"Born into picket fences" : A picket fence is a kind of fence you'll usually see around middle class American houses.

"not into picket lines": a picket line is what you refer to a group of people holding up signs with words on them protesting something. This was done a lot by factory workers and laborers protesting low wages, bad conditions...etc.

What she means by those 2 lines is that they were born into a good middle class home and not a low class family with many problems.

"Skin tucked in and meat side out and shouting": I think meat side out means that their tongues are outside their body. They're constantly talking/shouting and making noise. I think thats what it means but I'm not sure. I have no idea what skin tucked in means.

[renzhe]

The "skin tucked in" and "meat side out" are slang terms that I'm not familiar with.

The "knob" refers to a volume knob, like on a radio, so you can turn the volume down.

[semantic nuance]

Thank you, deathtrap and renzhe for your input. I know the meanings of picket fences and picket lines. What I have no idea is the usage here in the song. Who were born into picket fences? Where is the subject? Is it possible that 'born into picket fences' is related to 'there's aint no knob' if I read it as 'the picket fence effect'?

As for skin tucked in and meat side out, is it possible that it means the kids show off their muscles to bluff as to intimidate their opponents?

[gato]

"Skin tucked in and meat side out" could be referring to baggy pants popular with wanna-be gangster kids that hang low and show underwear on the outside. "Meat" could be referring to buttocks. The section is a tirade against poser kids, so it would fit. These lyrics aren't that great, I'm afraid. The music probably makes up for it. She sounds a like a cross between Alanis Morrisette and Norah Jones.

[renzhe]

I really think that the "knob" is referring to the shouting from the previous line. They are loud, and she'd like to turn the volume down, like you can do with a TV or a radio.

Similarly, I think that the picket fences are referring to the poser kids, who are suburban momma's boys, and not from tough working-class neighbourhoods. But then, who knows.

[deathtrap]

The lines about picket fences and picket lines could be talking about the kids. I think what she means is that the kids stand there on the street corner singing/shouting about how unfair everything is, bad economy...etc. I'm guessing they might be rapping about it since that's what adolescent kids on street corners usually sing. The line "all this hippie shit's for the sixties" means that what the kids are doing is like the hippies did back in the sixties, protesting about all the ills in society, except that these kids weren't born into a bad family or bad conditions but were born into a comfortable lifestyle which is where the lines about picket fences and picket lines fit in. Therefore the kids have no right to be singing about all this stuff.

I think that's what it means.

[SiMaKe]

"Skin tucked in and meat side out and shouting"

My guess is it has to do with the idea of being "thin skinned". Protect your "skin" by exposing your "meat", as in acting "macho".

[semantic nuance]

Thank you guys. Greatly appreciated.

I really think that the "knob" is referring to the shouting from the previous line. They are loud, and she'd like to turn the volume down, like you can do with a TV or a radio.

I totally agree with you, renzhe. My question is on the' born into picket fences' part. Because the knob is followed by it, therefore, I was thinking if it had anything to do with 'the picket fence effect', the white noise in the speech. That's why I translated it as:

I'd like to turn them down but there ain't no knob

我想把聲音轉小，可是沒有音量控制鈕

Born into picket fences

嵌在嘈雜干擾的音波中

not into picket lines

也不在抗議的警戒線裡

Quoted from my translation of the song

However, I thought 'born into' connected with knob is kind of strange. As for the picket lines, I think it related to the following ' All this hippie shit's for the sixties

Only cliche in our times. The narrator wants to turn the noise down but there's no knob in the picket fences nor in picket lines. That's my surmise. But I have no idea if I was right or not?

Anyone wants to translate these lines into Chinese?

[SiMaKe]

The punctuation may help. From lyrics download

Screamin' from too much beat up

And they don't even rhyme,

They just stand there, on a street corner,

Skin tucked in

And meat side out and shot(sic),

And I'd like to turn them down

But there ain't no knob.

Run into picket fences

Not into picket lines.

All this hippie-shit for the 60's

And another cliche for our time.

I basically agree with deathtrap with these added comments.

The first half up to "..shot"(sic), sets the scene, the "like to ...knob" phrase is a transition to the last half which remarks about the scene.

The scene is out of middle American neighborhoods (picket fences), or at least culture, and not at government buildings/factories/streets/et al (picket lines of war or civil-rights protesters).

And the whole scene, or the ideas they are expressing, will be cliches just like many of the 60's scenes/words are now cliches.

Caution: this is from someone who struggled with Robert Frost's "Mending Wall".

[semantic nuance]

Screamin' from too much beat up

And they don't even rhyme,

They just stand there, on a street corner,

Skin tucked in

And meat side out and shot(sic),

And I'd like to turn them down

But there ain't no knob.

Run[sic] into picket fences

Not into picket lines.

All this hippie-shit for the 60's

And another cliche for our time.

Run into should be 'Born into'.

Thanks again, SiMake . So, my surmise about 'the picket fence effect' was totally awry? So the narrtor wants to turn down the noise from shouting. While 'Born into...' to the last is totally another idea, not conncecting to the idea of shutting down the noise of craps (cliche, proesting)?

[SiMaKe]

@semantic nuance

Yes, I believe "the narrtor wants to turn down the noise from shouting". The whole sentence before the picket fence reference is about "they" (just stand there) and (I'd like to turn) "them", and the "knob" is still part of the same sentence. So I think they all hang together.

The next sentence (born into picket fences, not picket lines) again refers back to "they" and is not related to the "knob" but rather, as gato, renzhe and deathtrap point out, to the kids standing on the corner, etc..

The last sentence "all the hippie...our time" is referring to the whole scene and is discounting the kid's actions as just more "hippie shit" and that it will become cliche just like the hippie-shit did.

Or you could be right. That's the beauty of poetry.:rolleyes:

[semantic nuance]

@SiMake: Thank you very much for your input. I guess I 'll have to ediit my Chinese Translation then. Thank you guys for your explanations. Thanks!