Comments on: Ballad of San Francisco http://caedmonscall.net The officially unofficial fan site of Caedmon's Call. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:32:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Definitely RA | Audio memory http://caedmonscall.net/song-vault/long-line-of-leavers/ballad-of-san-francisco/comment-page-1/#comment-24859 Definitely RA | Audio memory Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:50:23 +0000 http://caedmonscall.net/song-vault/long-line-of-leavers/ballad-of-san-francisco/#comment-24859 [...] course, the concert couldn’t include all of our favorites. “Ballad of San Francisco” would have taken me straight back to my dorm room, as I strained to plunk out power chords on a [...] [...] course, the concert couldn’t include all of our favorites. “Ballad of San Francisco” would have taken me straight back to my dorm room, as I strained to plunk out power chords on a [...]

]]> By: Chris Hubbs http://caedmonscall.net/song-vault/long-line-of-leavers/ballad-of-san-francisco/comment-page-1/#comment-19935 Chris Hubbs Thu, 24 May 2007 01:14:22 +0000 http://caedmonscall.net/song-vault/long-line-of-leavers/ballad-of-san-francisco/#comment-19935 From the Author: "During a day off from the tour, I found myself wandering around San Francisco, California, looking for adventure. I soon realized that I was without companionship, without purpose, and without a map. In the time it took me to find my way back to the bus, I had written this song." What it Means: The song is sort of a pre-cursor to the song "Mistake of My Life". We can see Derek begin to grapple with the idea of moving to find Sandra in parts of this song, though we don’t see his resolve to actually do so until "Mistake of My Life". "But here is where I live and so I guess that means the carrot’s gonna dangle for at least another year"...'here' is not actually in reference to San Francisco, but Houston, where Derek resided when the song was written. Here we can see Derek begin to think about the idea of moving, or decidedly NOT moving, as this line would seem to suggest. "It’s like you gave me up just like I gave up drinking coffee So I guess I would’ve done the same"...No official word has come as to whom this line is talking about. Best guess could be either Derek’s ex-girlfriend (that moved to London), or possibly Sandra McCracken (Derek’s now wife), before they officially 'got together'. From the Author: “During a day off from the tour, I found myself wandering around San Francisco, California, looking for adventure. I soon realized that I was without companionship, without purpose, and without a map. In the time it took me to find my way back to the bus, I had written this song.”

What it Means:

The song is sort of a pre-cursor to the song “Mistake of My Life”. We can see Derek begin to grapple with the idea of moving to find Sandra in parts of this song, though we don’t see his resolve to actually do so until “Mistake of My Life”.

“But here is where I live and so I guess that means the carrot’s gonna dangle for at least another year”…’here’ is not actually in reference to San Francisco, but Houston, where Derek resided when the song was written. Here we can see Derek begin to think about the idea of moving, or decidedly NOT moving, as this line would seem to suggest.

“It’s like you gave me up just like I gave up drinking coffee So I guess I would’ve done the same”…No official word has come as to whom this line is talking about. Best guess could be either Derek’s ex-girlfriend (that moved to London), or possibly Sandra McCracken (Derek’s now wife), before they officially ‘got together’.

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