No Gringo (Lyrics)

[Ang Mo]

We were talking about the song No Gringo which if I carefully lay my head flat on a desk and drive a sharp pencil into my eardrum while listening to the song I can actually hear the lyrics change to No Ang Mo but don't try this at home kids, only shape shifters like myself can pull a trick like this.

It is a cool song, so different from any of the rest on all four albums. I love the radical departure from her usual style. I often wonder if she wrote it while in a Mexican Restaurant during one of her birthday celebrations where they put the giant sequin sombrero on her head and everyone sang Happy Birthday in spanish to her (I read somewhere Vienna has a love affair with Mexican food) or did she write it during her stay at old Richard Nixon's stomping grounds out in San Clamente. Something to ask her if she is gracious enough to let us have another Q&A.

[Lirulin]

oh Chicago don't forget me
as the miles between us grow
keep the maple tree carved with the name of my love
the hills we would sled race down
Lake Michigan stay endless and painted in sky
goodbye

Erm...Chicago doesn't really have hills substantial enough for sledding, as far as I know. It's really pretty much completely flat, topography-wise. Minor point, I know, but it niggles at me every time I listen to the song!

[Reileen]

oh Chicago don't forget me
as the miles between us grow
keep the maple tree carved with the name of my love
the hills we would sled race down
Lake Michigan stay endless and painted in sky
goodbye

Erm...Chicago doesn't really have hills substantial enough for sledding, as far as I know. It's really pretty much completely flat, topography-wise. Minor point, I know, but it niggles at me every time I listen to the song!

I kept thinking about that too! I was thinking, well, there ARE places in the suburb of Hickory Hills (near where I live, Burbank) that are very, very hilly, but that's at least 45 minutes south of the main city. Plus I'm not sure where the grassy hills are, I'm thinking more of the streets. XD

[roofboy179]

oh Chicago don't forget me
as the miles between us grow
keep the maple tree carved with the name of my love
the hills we would sled race down
Lake Michigan stay endless and painted in sky
goodbye

Erm...Chicago doesn't really have hills substantial enough for sledding, as far as I know. It's really pretty much completely flat, topography-wise. Minor point, I know, but it niggles at me every time I listen to the song!

I kept thinking about that too! I was thinking, well, there ARE places in the suburb of Hickory Hills (near where I live, Burbank) that are very, very hilly, but that's at least 45 minutes south of the main city. Plus I'm not sure where the grassy hills are, I'm thinking more of the streets. XD

... there's always the roofs of Chicago. IMPROVISATION!

[Ang Mo]

Chicago is a very big city and I kind of hear it is windy too, so maybe there is a grassy park with trees and hills where kids take their sleds.

Needless to say, No Gringo is one of my favorites on the new album.

[Steve]

I still tell people I grew up in Chicago, even though it was in a western suburb. We had sledding hills aplenty. That area has lots of glacial moraine and is surprisingly hilly, so I don't have any problem with the image Vienna chose.

[Reileen]

I still tell people I grew up in Chicago, even though it was in a western suburb. We had sledding hills aplenty. That area has lots of glacial moraine and is surprisingly hilly, so I don't have any problem with the image Vienna chose.

Which suburb are you from?

I have heard from another friend of mine (Chicago suburb native) who says that she knows people who get absolutely irate if you say you're from Chicago but you're actually from one of the suburbs, lol. I usually just say "Chicago" 'cause it's an easier reference point, plus I go to college right near the city so I feel like I kind of live there anyway.

[Isiolith]

I know people (I'm from downstate Illinois and currently reside about two-and-a-half hours south of Chicago) from Chicago who are like that, too. They think that if you're from the 'burbs, you're not a "real" Chicagoan. I say to each his or her own.

[marathonmark]

Arizona's burning...

Seems prophetic now.

[Reileen]

Reporting on the behemoth blizzard that swept through Chicago (and other parts of the Midwest) yesterday/today, the local news showed footage of some folks making the best of the weather by going sledding down some hills in their area (can't remember exactly where). Alas, there are no hills in my area...

[Michele]

Reporting on the behemoth blizzard that swept through Chicago (and other parts of the Midwest) yesterday/today, the local news showed footage of some folks making the best of the weather by going sledding down some hills in their area

Maybe we can say the entire album is framed in a big sci-fi fictional world/alternate reality.

You start with the cover, where she's leaving that brown dead place to go to the green inland territory.

In this world, The Last Snowfall is happening, (well, maybe that part's the world she's leaving...), In Another Life took place in chronological order, Augustine's pronounced correctly, No Gringo, Radio, and Watershed are really happening, there's hills in Chicago, and the area of St. Stephen's Cross really has a world-altering event taking place.

There. Inconsistencies with our reality are all explained away now!