Is The Pixies song Here Comes Your Man about the atomic bomb over Nagasaki?

Artists > Pixies, The > Here Comes Your Man
Submitted by riffic on December 13, 2001

outside there's a box car waiting
outside the family stew
out by the fire breathing
outside we wait 'til face turns blue
i know the nervous walking
i know the dirty beard hangs
out by the box car waiting
take me away to nowhere plains
there is a wait so long
here comes your man

big shake on the box car moving
big shake to the land that's falling down
is a wind makes a palm stop blowing
a big, big stone fall and break my crown
there is a wait so long
you'll never wait so long
here comes your man
there is a wait so long
you'll never wait so long
here comes your man

Here's what the comment left by Stak says (remember, this was posted back in 2002):

August 9th 1945. US bomber the 'Bockscar' dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Now re-read the lyrics. Thanks to Rachel N for sharing this.

And molko_deal adds later in the comments:

Back in the old days bodies were transported by train, when the train was arriving at the station with someone's dead loved one they used to say "Here comes your man" Read the lyrics, it all adds up and if you've ever heard any interviews with Black Francis you'll understand that it isn't really out of his nature do bring stuff luke this up in his songs.

But, lactosefreeman clears up the theorizing with:

Check out this part from an old interview from NME with Black Francis himself about "Here Comes Your Man":

"This is a pre-Pixies song that I wrote when I was about 15. It’s about wino’s and hobos travelling on the trains who dies in the California Earthquake. Before earthquakes everything gets very calm, animals stop talking and birds stop chirping and there’s no wind. It’s very ominous.
I’ve been through a few earthquakes actually ‘cos I grew up in California. I was only in one big one in 1971. I was very young and I slept through it. I’ve been awake through lots of small ones at school and at home. It’s very exciting actually, a very comical thing. It’s like the earth is shaking, and what can you do? Nothing."

That would explain why the lyric is "there's a box car waiting" instead of "there's a bockscar waiting".

Ok, mystery solved, right? No, the comments keep on going, some disbelieving the songwriter's own explanation, some talking about dog grammar:

This song is entirely written by a dog owned by a hobo. His owner is gone for now and he doesn't know why. The dog might look in the boxcar, he likes the other hobo families. He can smell the food. However, there is one guy, his master -- whom he calls his man. When he comes, the dog believes stuff will happen. Who cares what? The anticipation is unbearable. But the man comes, and he takes the dog to the next "nowhere plains." The dog can even poke his nose into the rushing air when the train moves. If it were not written by a dog, the grammar might parse. Dogs have very bad grammar.

So true. Dogs have horrible grammatical skills:

"Thiss haf bin 1 viry skirry yir 4 me. Thatt bebe lirn 2 walk and talkk and naw hi yills at mi 2 git outt ef hiss wey. Hi iss alwiy pritindingg that thir is a kiddee or 1 rabbitt en thi houss and thatt skirs mi su mush. Thir wass 1 squerril in thi attick and thatt frik mi out. Butt I didd git allat ef nas emmals frem peepil andd I didd git 2 snik sem trits outt ef thi garbij. Thatt wes nas. Nist yir I hup laf wel natt bi su harbil. Tefne is mekking NOO YIR RISSLUSHINNS. Shi wans 2 lus wait andd haf ANATHIR HARBIL BEBE. Hir R my noo yir rissilushins."

(nuked from accordianguy)
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