M79 (song)

Infobox Single
Name = M79


Artist = Vampire Weekend
from Album = Vampire Weekend
Released = February 28 2008
Recorded = 2007
Genre = Indie pop
Ska
Length = 2:17
Label = XL
Writer =
Producer = Rostam Batmanglij
Certification =
Last single = "Oxford Comma"
(2008)
This single = "M79"
(2008)
Next single = "M79" is a single by indie rock band Vampire Weekend, released on February 28 2008.

Music video

Critical reception

Interpretation

It's a song about a failed relationship with a Middle-Eastern girl, and I think it goes along with their other song "Campus". In "Campus" the narrator mentions "kaffiyah" which is an Arab headdress, which is what makes me think the girl is Middle-Eastern, and then talks about having to pretend not to be with someone he is sleeping (or in love) with -- "How am I supposed to pretend/ that I never want to see you again?"("I have to leave here before I go" I believe refers to secretly sleeping over at a girl's place, and having to get out without being noticed), which makes me think that the narrator is having a secret relationship with a girl who can't have a real relationship with him. M79 (which stands for a NY bus by that number that the narrator probably takes to either visit her or go home) gives a hint as to why the relationship failed: her "racist" dreams make me think she didn't want a real relationship with the narrator who wasn't Middle Eastern (thus the secret relationship or simply hooking up that he writes about in "Campus"), and when he tells her to "Dress yourself in bleeding madras" ("madras" being a kerchief often worn as a turban) and to "Charm your way across the Khyber pass", he's essentially telling her that if she is so Middle Eastern that she can't date him, she should go be with her people, being sarcastic of course because Khyber Pass, as a physical location, is very violent, so it's like saying "if you don't want to be with me, go charm the terrorists, if you think any Middle Eastern guy is better for you than I am." In the next stanza "Jackson Crowther" refers to a Minor League baseball player, underlining the irony -- this girl is so Americanized, she sings praises to an unknown baseball player, yet won't consider a serious relationship with the narrator because he's not Middle Eastern. And when he finally tells her to "Watch yourself along the arch of glass" he's bitterly referring to how thin the line is that she draws between what's acceptable to her, as a Middle Eastern girl, and what's not.

References

External links