Josh is a brilliant singer songwriter from Idaho (yup, there are actually people in Idaho. I know, I was shocked too.) Josh is known for his story-songs and classic Americana sound. While most of his songs are outstanding, "The Temptation of Adam" might just be his lyrical masterpiece. To adequately explain the song, I'm going to break it down like Bill Simmons breaks down NBA games.
To begin with, I heard via Josh's website that the song was inspired when he heard a story that soldiers stationed in missile silos must be of the same gender. This is to ensure that nothing romantic develops between them. You can't have the people responsible for firing ICBMs engaged in a lover's quarrel when it hits the fan. The song throws all that out the window and gives us the 2 occupants of a particular missile silo: Marie, and the narrator (presumably Adam). We meet them as they enter the silo, and Adam uses one of the all-time worst pick-up lines:
"If this was a cold war we could keep each other warm"
I said on the first occassion that I met Marie
Ugh, that's just bad...
We were crawling through the hatch, that was the missile silo door
And I don't think that she really thought that much of me
I never had to learn to love her, like I learned to love the bomb
She just came along and started to ignore me
Right from the beginning its clear that Adam likes Marie a lot more than she likes him. But nevertheless he wins her over, partly out of fear of nuclear winter, partly out of loneliness (fellas take note: the true way to a woman's heart is through isolation and a fear of the apocalypse). It doesn't matter to him. He loves her, and in that moment and in that place, she loves him too. The song's conflict (read: temptation) comes from Adam's realization that this will not last once they leave the silo.
Oh Marie there's something that tells me things just won't work out above
That our love wouldn't have a half life on the surface
So at night while you are sleeping I hold your closer just because
As our time grows short I get a little nervous
My favorite part of the song comes next. I love the imagery of what a silo-romance is like:
Oh Marie if you would stay then we could stick pins in the map
Of all the places where you thought that love would be found
But I would only need one pin to show where my love's at
In a top secret location, 300 feet under the ground
Oh we could hold each other close, and stay up every night
Looking up into the dark like it's the night sky
Pretend this giant missile, is an old oak tree instead
And carve our names in hearts into the warhead Here is Adam's temptation: does he press the button? By pressing the button, Adam can ensure that he and Marie will never leave, and that they will stay together forever. Of course there is the small, tiny detail of destroying the whole world in nuclear winter, but hey, details. People do crazy things in relationships: they spend way too much money on Italian food, stay in on Friday nights, give up going to basketball games to watch the season finale of "The Bachelor", but they probably don't bring about the end of humanity just to stay in a relationship. The song ends with Adam admitting that he is tempted. Not that he does it, because come on, that's crazy, but it's tempting.
It takes some guts to write a love song that takes place in a missile silo, and it takes more than guts to write a song about the moral conundrum of "Do I blow up the world so my girl doesn't leave me?", but it's just a damn good song. Good writers take risks and that's exactly what Josh does in this song. He keeps it simple too, no real instrumentation other than the guitar (by the way, I know a little something about guitar playing, and Josh's finger-picking in the song is pretty darn good). Click here to hear the song.
By the way, Josh's new album "So Runs the World Away" comes out on May 4. So May 5, you can expect another blog heaping obscene amounts of man-love Josh's way. Mark your calenders!
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