Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Darker with the Day Lyrics | 2 years ago |
@[seanbrady:39254] WTF I replied to my own comment :( |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Darker with the Day Lyrics | 2 years ago |
@[seanbrady:39253] I always thought the same thing, but I don't know what it would be referring to in this song. |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Gates to the Garden Lyrics | 2 years ago |
Are these the official lyrics of the song from the album, or someone's transcription? I hear him singing "in unhappy roads (not rows) up to the gates of the garden" at least once. This would presumably refer to the sad funeral processions approaching the cemetary. |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Gates to the Garden Lyrics | 2 years ago |
I think @[AlexanderDumbass:39252] nailed it. The garden is obviously a cemetery and he visits her there, then he sees her breathing so he knows she is alive, in the next world. I think the "garden" reference changes in the last verse, to mean the garden of Eden, a metaphor for heaven, where he knows that they will one day meet again. |
Paul Simon – All Around the World or the Myth of Fingerprints Lyrics | 2 years ago |
"Ever since the watermelon" may be a reference to the first contact between Europeans and Africans. The watermelon is originally from Africa and it was brought to Europe by trade and became something of a sensation, popping up in a lot of Renaissance drawings and paintings. In this view it would be like saying "Ever since the potato" to mean "ever since the European 'discovery' of the Americas". This probably does feed into the theory that the song is about racial differences and colonialization. Personally I find the song to be a kind of bait and switch. The reference to the former army post being there because "the myth of fingerprints" would seem to mean that people were colonizing and warring because they mistakenly thought we were all different when in fact we're all the same. Putting that example in the past tense would seem to suggest that that era of history is over, so I would have expected the song to end on a hopeful note. But then he finishes with "that's we we must learn to live alone" which suggests that it might be a myth but we're not going to escape it. |
Paul Simon – Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes Lyrics | 2 years ago |
"Also you would use the city centre one if you are in the wider area of durban, the wave one is more appropriate if you are coming from further away such as a rural area. In other words they use the different signs because they come from different places." That's even more fascinating. |
Paul Simon – Diamonds On the Soles of Her Shoes Lyrics | 2 years ago |
@[eishwena:36899] Superb insight thank you. |
Wilco – Company In My Back Lyrics | 3 years ago |
@[Aspenaut:35400] Superb analysis. |
Talking Heads – And She Was Lyrics | 3 years ago |
What a beautiful song. It's even more interesting when you hear the story about the girl and the chocolate factory. |
Dire Straits – Wild West End Lyrics | 4 years ago |
@[Rodan2000:32836] You're both right. The area of London is simply the West End. There's no wild west end. There's a Wild West (in the US) and a West End (in London). He's drawing an analogy between the (long ago) craziness of what you might find in the West End by collapsing the term people use for the wildness of the American West together with it. |
Wilco – Theologians Lyrics | 4 years ago |
@[sjones44:32203] YOu don't have to be religious to quote scripture. John Steinbeck did it often. And so does Tweedy, twice in this one song: John 13:36 "Yeshua answered and said to him, “Where I go, you cannot now come ..." John 10:18 "No one takes my life from Me;I lay it down ..." Plenty of authors use a scriptural phrase or two in a work where it has multiple meanings (cf. William Shakespeare") so claiming the song is about suicide is interesting, but does not disprove the fact that these two quotes from from Scripture. Not only that, but they come, word for word from the same speaker in the same book only a few chapters apart. SO the chance that it's just a coincidence are (to quote another renowned source) "Not good." LLOYD: You mean not good, like one out of a hundred? MARY: I'd say more like one out of a million. |
Wilco – Theologians Lyrics | 4 years ago |
@[Samuel2:32179] Brilliant. I think your analysis is spot on. Especially the cherry ghost connection with blood. The other interpretations jump through hoops to connect one or two aspects of the song to a particular metaphor but only this, much more straightforward, interpretation explains each of the verses and the chorus coherently and in order. The only things I would quibble with is that I think you're making the song out to bit a bit more carefully orthodox than it really is. I think the ghost may be referring to the Holy Spirit or more likely the author is describing the resurrected Jesus as a ghost which may seem correct (he does pass through a locked door) but ignores the importance of the bodily resurrection and hence Then again, the author is no theologian. Which brings me to question of who are the "theologians" he is referring to? I think it's more straighforward to see them as theologians of the middle ages or of our day, and the author is criticizing them for focusing on the details and missing the essence of Christ. That's neither accurate nor fair in many cases (think St. Theresa of Avila for example), but it is a pretty common view. |
Wilco – Theologians Lyrics | 4 years ago |
@[Samuel2:32178] Brilliant |
Wilco – Company In My Back Lyrics | 4 years ago |
@[Aspenaut:32177] Brilliant |
Dire Straits – Down To The Waterline Lyrics | 4 years ago |
I've been listening to this song since it came out 40 years ago. I always interpreted it literally -- they are hiding on the docks to secretly make out and they see the numbers on the ship which tell how low the ship is riding in the water. The numbers count down to the waterline of the ship. Today I suddenly realized the title may actually be a double-entendre. The couple is likely engaging in more than kissing in darkened doorways, as they have "near misses" and almost get caught by a cop. Which makes me think that "counting all the numbers down to the waterline" could be a playful metaphor they invented for counting the buttons as they unbutton their clothes, down to the metaphorical waterline and to "sweet surrender on the quayside". Later she's dreaming about her first love/ first time, or rather the singer is imagining that she's dreaming about it. Just an idea; the song could be about a more innocent love, but the evocative phrasing of their encounters seem to suggest that the title line means more than just checking out the ships while they are in the neighborhood. |
R.E.M. – So Fast, So Numb Lyrics | 9 years ago |
I think the River Phoenix connection is interesting, but this song is in the present tense so it sounds more like a warning to someone who is alive than a lament over someone who died. Also, the song feels angry, like he's singing at someone and not about them. |
Jack White – Blunderbuss Lyrics | 9 years ago |
I feel like this song is set in a particular place, like when he wrote it he had a particular city in mind: a broad avenue, a grand hotel with Persian rugs and ivory, red and brown colors, a door that's too short to walk through without leaning over, a big market outside (where they can be alone in the crowd), a place where public displays of affection are frowned upon. It could be Tangier? Istanbul? |
Jack White – Blunderbuss Lyrics | 9 years ago |
Excellent. One small correction: I think It's "gait" not "gate". |
U2 – Until The End Of The World Lyrics | 11 years ago |
" "I spiked your drink" -- why spiked? What was the drink? His blood. What is a spike? A nail. He was part of nailing him (the passion). A brillant turn of a phrase by Bono (probably the best one in the song). This was obviously intentionally done. " Brilliant insight! I think about this song all the time and I never even considered that meaning, but as soon as I read your interpretation I am convinced that you are correct. Brilliant. |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Darker with the Day Lyrics | 12 years ago |
I really like all of the interpretations above. Cioni's insight that maybe the narrator returns as a ghost is intriguing. the last lines of the song remind me of the final scene of the Shining, where the boy's father sits slumped in the deepening snow, while he runs around the maze, connected by "the shining" to something he doesn't really understand. I wonder if anyone could make some sense of how that might tie to the rest of the song?? |
Gillian Welch – Time (The Revelator) Lyrics | 12 years ago |
Fabulous song. I recommend the cover version by Camille O'Sullivan. |
Wilco – Jesus, Etc. Lyrics | 12 years ago |
Jesus Etc sung by the crowd at Mass MoCA, with Tweedy joining in at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8pyX_Lc7qM&feature=channel_video_title |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – O Children Lyrics | 13 years ago |
Interesting. He does mention the Kingdom, which would be out of place in a Greek myth, so perhaps he's 'Christianizing' the Greek myth. Can you elaborate a bit on how some of the lines of the songs match the elements of the myth? |
Dire Straits – Follow Me Home Lyrics | 13 years ago |
This song is about being in a small town in a Catholic country (probably Sapin, maybe Italy) on August 15th. August 15th is the Feast of the Assumption, which celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven (as believed by Catholics and some other Christians). There is a minor error in the lyrics above (virgins instead of virgin) which changes the meaning of the song, by the way. It's likely that the parish church in that town is named after Mary ("Church of Our Lady of ...") so this feast day would also be the Church's "patron day", resulting in a huge feast/festival that would last all day and involve most of the town. I think Knopfler must ahve been there on that day, because the feeling of the song is so visceral. The line about the bells rinnging but staying in the tower was surely from his experience of wanting to see the sunset of the tower and so not running down when the bells exploded next to him. I think he and was so deeply impressed with the sirit of the people ("but I love all of these people yes I share the Feast") that he felt it necessary to explain why he himself would not become Catholic ("I don't need no priest"). |
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – O Children Lyrics | 13 years ago |
This is among the most sophisticated songs ever written; it is true literature. The verses alternate between a young person with a broken heart and old folks who are passing away. What links them together is Time, in this song represented by "the cleaners". Time heals all wounds, including the young person's broken heart. But there's a paradox because the passage of time is also leading us inexorably toward death. The cleaners will clean our broken little hearts but they will also, eventually, clean every last trace of us off the Earth. What is the solution to this paradox (the "answer to all our fears")? For a Christian like Nick Cave, the solution is to embrace Christ, so that Time ceases to be a set of cleaners wiping us from history, and becomes a train carrying us in the direction of the Kingdom which we will reach at death. We lost this answer in our pursuit of winnings (earthly possessions); the desire for earthly possessions is a trap ("a gulag") which keeps us from discovering the way out. Jim rediscovered the answer (the Kingdom) at death, and then the narrator has a conversion experience (much like Nick Cave). He "once was blind" but now can see, he was "held in chains" (in the gulag) but now is free. As soon as he has this conversion experience, his experience of time changes from dread (fear of getting old) to anticipation (of meeting God at death). Instantaneously he is free of the gulag and celebrates, even before the train of his new life starts moving. Merely being pointed in the right direction (being born again) is a basis for happiness. You might expect that having been freed of his chains and having gotten on the train, the narrator would now "lift up his voice" and "rejoice". But here is where the song, to me, becomes literature. If you'll note, the rejoicing comes before he gets on the train. That is, I think, because the song is actually the means by which he will be saved. Lifting up his voice to God in song (accepting Christ) is the act that converts his heart to God, puts him on the train and keeps him heading toward the Kingdom. You might even say that rejoicing (ie exclaiming Christ as one's saviour) is the train itself. The lesson of the song is that instead of singing our woes (our broken little hearts, poor old Jim, the light is dim) we should change our tune so to speak and lift up our voices in song to God. It is a song, therefore, about song. |
U2 – Babyface Lyrics | 17 years ago |
To my mind, eirenightshade is closest to the truth in analyzing this song, but is still just a bit off. The song is dedicated to the TV itslef, which is his best friend. He turns it on literally. All the references to girl and child are just personifications of the love of his life, the TV. The whole Zooropa tour is about vapid pop culture and TV is the star of it, that's why a song simply about TV is perfect. This theory explains a couple facts that the other theories can't explain: "You're everywhere child -- you're all over the place". That is literally true of TVs which have invaded every crevice of our world to push pop culture at us even in the elevator. "Tin foil hair all tied up in lace" That's the antenna. I can't think of any interpretation of porn or pop stars that suggests they have tin foil hair. |
Dire Straits – Single-Handed Sailor Lyrics | 17 years ago |
Mark Knofler is the single handed sailor. He can't sleep and is wandering Greenwich at 2 am and the scene unfolds. The mother is pushing a baby carriage for some unkown reason on one side, the "College of War" is on the other and between them are the sad sights of two great ships held down in chains. The line "What do you call this thing" is indeed spoken by a man sliding by on a barge, not by the man on the river bank in Greenwich. The river is rolling away in the night (the Thames is tidal at this point) so the barge is slipping away downriver. A boat going downriver shows its starboard side to Greenwich, so from Greenwich you would see a green light on the boat. Perhaps Mark Knofler is thinking of going it alone rather than staying with the band at this point, perhaps he's conttemplating the fact that great success can end in concrete graves or, worse empty tourist-trail popularity. In any case he is the single handed sailor in dry-dock land who could say that these boats are the pride of london but he just wanders off away from the scene in the dark without resolving anything. |
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