The song is about neo-liberalism and the separation of workers from the fruits of their labour. The trapper does all the hard work, but is undercut by the singer, who then gets wealthy from the trapper’s hard work. The trapper is left behind destitute, lacking the comfort of his own labour.
What a day to be alive!
The state of everything
I know you saw the sign (in the window)
The braying fist on hollow wood
Sticky fingers on sugar glass
Are you really so? (desperate desperate desperate)
All that divides us is evil/ All that unites us is evil
No, all that really divides is the binary hive mind
And the restraint that it takes, not to stick ourselves
Into every abstract object on the gallery shelves
Then the trapper came around
He was trying to sell me pelts
It was midday on a Monday
So all the smart people were at work
Trap music blaring from his furry boombox
The trapper tripped, I laughed he flipped, said
SHUT YOUR FUCKING TRAP
Or I’ll eradicate nature, right now forever
Or I’ll eradicate nature, right now forever
So I bought all his pelts (all his pelts!)
At a bulk buy discount
I took out a small business loan
And I bought all his pelts
I threw them in the boot of my car and drove downtown
I pitched up a stall, outside the office blocks
And come five o’clock, it was so cold
That everybody needed one, everybody wanted two
So I upped the price and I bled them dry cuz that’s what you do
And come six o’clock, I’d oversold
And my smile was made of solid gold
I collapsed under the weight of my own success (Yes)
And driving away with my many grapes, my many women
And my ginormous mountain of never ending blow
I saw the trapper disappear from my rear view mirror
With no pelts to call his own
Shivering, naked and all alone… In the snow
The senseless charm, the gnawing guilt (THE TRAPPER’S PELTS, THE TRAPPER’S PELTS!)
The senseless charm, the gnawing guilt (THE TRAPPER’S PELTS, THE TRAPPER’S PELTS!)
The senseless charm, the gnawing guilt (THE TRAPPER’S PELTS, THE TRAPPER’S PELTS!)
The senseless charm, the gnawing guilt (THE TRAPPER’S PELTS, THE TRAPPER’S PELTS!)
H.M.R.C. (pay as you feel)
The Trapper’s Pelts was written by James Smith (Yard Act).
Yard Act released The Trapper’s Pelts on Wed Mar 18 2020.