Wheat Kings - The Tragically Hip.

I love this song and have been strumming and singing it for a few days now. It's so mellow, which makes it one of the Tragically Hip's best strictly acoustic songs. The chord progression is rather simple just G, C#add 9, and D. That's why I've taken a break from playing it for awhile, because it's not challenging enough. Yet, it's a song that's really close to me.

Wheat Kings is a track from 1992 Fully Completely, the best Tragically Hip album ever recorded. The reason I like it so much, is the name of the local hockey team Brandon Wheat Kings, but the song isn't about them. The song covers the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard, and his 22 years imprisonment for a crime he did not commit. He was ordered life in prison when he was only sixteen years old.

When you listen closely to this song you can really feel the story. Gord Downie uses excellent metaphors in describing David's case. For instance the high school is the prison, and represents how he was thrown in jail at a very young age. Tonight, I plan on sitting outside, listening to Wheat Kings, and watching the sunset on my deck.

Yours,

Jarrett

P.S. Here's the lyrics:

Sundown in the Paris of the prairies
Wheat kings have all their treasures buried
And all you hear are the rusty breezes
Pushing around the weather vane Jesus

In his Zippo lighter, he sees the killer's face
Maybe it's someone standing in a killer's place
Twenty years for nothing, well that's nothing new,
besides, No one's interested in something you didn't do
Wheat kings and pretty things,
let's just see what the morning brings.

There's a dream he dreams where the high school is dead and stark
It's a museum and we're all locked up in it after dark
Where the walls are lined all yellow, grey and sinister
Hung with pictures of our parents' prime ministers
Wheat Kings and pretty things,
wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Late-breaking story on the CBC,
A nation whispers, "we always knew that he'd go free""
They add, "you can't be fond of living in the past,
cause if you are then there's no way that you're gonna last".
Wheat Kings and pretty things
let's just see what tomorrow brings
Wheat kings and pretty things,
that's what tomorrow brings.