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To be fair, Michigan looks like a mitten even when you’re sober:

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To be specific, Bay City, Michigan

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Gideon’s move to the “upper Midwest” is also mentioned on “Don’t Let Me Explode”

“Messed up with some messed up magicians” is a reference to a line from Secret Santa Cruz, one of the first Lifter Puller songs (an important piece of Craig Finn’s work, although not really part of The Hold Steady canon if such a thing exists).

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St. Paul, MN and its Twin City, Minneapolis, are the setting for a lot of the band’s material. The religious implications of the city’s name are also significant

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Both president John F. Kennedy and his brother, senator Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated during the 1960s (1963 and 1968 respectively).

JFK’s assassination would also be nodded to on the next album’s “Don’t Let Me Explode”

This could also be a reference to JFK’s alleged affair with Marilyn Monroe, as Monroe married Joe DiMaggio (who started his baseball career with the San Francisco Seals) in San Francisco.

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JFK’s assassination is also referenced on the previous album’s “Positive Jam”

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THS Wiki explains the St. Barbara/“blow up” reference:

Craig Finn described Saint Barbara as “The patron saint of land mines, more specifically, not stepping on a land mine” at Lollapallooza 2006. He’s not far wrong, she’s actually the patron saint in the Catholic church of anyone who works at risk of sudden and violent death, including artillery gunners, miners and military engineers

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A lyrical nod here to the 1947 song “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”. Louis Armstrong’s version, below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXFFI9budNI

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This exact response was suggested on THS' previous album, on the song “Killer Parties”

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This line would be nodded to on the following album’s “Don’t Let Me Explode”:

He asked what happened to Charlemagne
She just smiled all polite-like and said something vague
She said “Charlemagne got caught up in some complicated things”
Yeah, then she wiped at her nose and she winked

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