”‘The Big Country’ is a curious song,” Byrne said recently by email. “If you look, the lyrics in the verses are more or less objective—there’s no disdain for the folks down there. It’s pure description; in fact, one could even say it’s sweet and bucolic, which makes the venom of the chorus more surprising (in my view). To me this song is about revealing the irrationality of that venom.
Allan Lasser
Compostmodernist