Vampire Weekend: Giving up the Gun Meaning

Giving up the Gun Lyrics

Your sword's grown old and rusty

Burn beneath the rising sun

Its locked up like a trophy

Forgetting all the things it's done

And though it's been a long time

You're right back where you started from

I see it in your eyes

But...

1. anonymous

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   Dec 1st 2021 !⃝

   Pretty sure the lyrics are meant to describe an old friend/band mate/peer from the singer’s past who failed to reach their potential and hasn’t moved forward and/or is at the point where they’ve lost the passion and drive to create music. I think the sword is a metaphor for a guitar and the rifle hits probably a metaphor for drums. “My ears are blown to bits from all the rifle hits, but still I crave that sound” pretty much sums up every musician who has played live for years and destroyed their hearing as a result. You still do it cuz you love it.
2. anonymous

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   Jul 17th 2018 !⃝

   "Your sword's grown old and rusty
   Burnt beneath the rising sun" - Laments the decay and disuse of the katanas of the Samurai, we know this because prior to WWII Japanese citizens referred to Japan as the Empire of The Rising Sun.
   
   "It's locked up like a trophy
   Forgetting all the things it's done" - Recalls the glory of the shogunate and the Edo era when Samurai were last the strongest.
   
   "And though it's been a long time
   You're right back where you started from
   I see it in your eyes
   That now you're giving up the gun" - The Japanese realize the downside of technology and return to swords, a metaphor for giving up the comforts of modern society to return to a simpler life.
   
   "When I was 17
   I had wrists like steel
   And I felt complete" - Both referring to the strength and idealism of youth, and to the anatomy of a katana, the 'wrist' of the sword, the suba, seppa, and habaki that connect the hilt guard, handle, and blade.
   
   "And now my body fades
   Behind a brass charade
   And I'm obsolete" - Gunmetal, or red brass, was used to make guns doing the first few centuries of gun's existence. The prevalence and spread of guns makes the sword's purpose useless.
   
   "But if the chance remained
   To see those better days
   I'd cut the cannons down" - If given a chance, the Samurai would destroy the cannons and guns.
   
   "My ears are blown to bits
   From all the rifle hits
   But still I crave that sound" - The sound of battle is to be craved, it was considered the highest shame to surrender to an enemy. This was true of both the Samurai and the Japanese army during WWII.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 18th 2012 !⃝

   Basically its About samurias returning to older technology.
   Instead of guns.. they return to swords.. and so on..
4. anonymous

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   Jan 10th 2011 !⃝

   The first line is about soul. 2 is about rust. 3 is about sun. :)

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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