submissions
| Cradle of Filth – Shat Out Of Hell Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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But the crucifix was veiled
When his decadence prevailed
Sadly, it wasn't. Great image, gets trotted out in serious biogs sometimes, the Bishop of Nantes so disgusted by the evidence that he gets up & throws a cloth over the crucifix. Never happened, taken from a novel. |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – The Death Of Love Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Where will you be when Babel builds my fire?
Will you not flee and label me pariah?
Where will you be my darling?
Where will you be when they light my pyre?
One of the things that's been played down in biographies of Gilles & (especially!) Jehanne is that we know exactly where he was. He was at Louviers, about 12 miles away, & he had an army with him, so it's likely he was planning a rescue attempt that went wrong. Why wouldn't he? He'd saved her life twice, in battle... |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – Midnight Shadows Crawl to Darken Counsel with Life Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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You must have great ears, Apollyon, I can't catch most of the lyrics forwards! I shan't go there with my "Gilles de Rais was innocent" schtick, as it's getting boring, but in his confessions (extracted under the threat of torture) he is very explicit that no orifices at all were penetrated. I leave your mind to boggle... |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Night of the Lotus Eaters Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I get the Odyssey references & the general gist of the song, but I don't understand the bit in the middle where the narrator seems to be a merman, or maybe a fake merman, in some kind of fairground show. There's a similar image in 'Midnight Man' where he refers to his dorsal fin. Very strange... |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – Honey and Sulphur Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The latest I heard is that Gilles was proposed for canonization recently & unaccountably turned down... He has a Facebook page now, thanks to Cradle, so come argue with me! |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Just the Right Bullets Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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There are definitely a lot of heroin references in the album. There's also a rather sick reference to the accident when William Burroughs (who was involved in making it & even sings) shot his wife dead while playing William Tell. This is pretty much what happens in The Black Rider - the Devil peddles his magic bullets but instead of winning the shooting contest, they kill the heroine. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Chocolate Jesus Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Just looked this up & my dictionary doesn't draw much distinction. Let's just say the local priest or vicar probably won't like it. |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Loom of the Land Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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There's a convention in plays that you don't bring a gun on stage unless somebody's going to fire it. I'm sure the same applies to knives etc in songs. He may not kill her, but the threat is there. |
submissions
| Alice Cooper – Blue Turk Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Yes, necophilia fits. Only ONE spastic explosion but TWO pressure cookers - his balls? Very crude, very Alice! Thanks, moik.
Still a weird title. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I apologise for the stout. Just trying to make a point that this is one of the most intelligent songwriters we have & it's only to be expected that his songs will work on more than one level. So you might listen to it when you're in love & hear a love song, but in a more cynical frame of mind you'll hear something else. There's a definite subtext that this guy is a loser & a fantasist & only really falls for this beautiful stranger when she's safely vanished. It's even clearer in the earlier version of the song, where the more beers he has the more he feels this woman is communicating with him. I think Mistermook got it about right. |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Good Son Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Morb is mortified! I didn't notice that. You're right, I seem to remember another son in the Prodigal Son story, moaning that nobody killed the fatted calf for HIM. On the other hand, Cain is a tiller & also a murderer. I wonder if Cave conflated the two stories -? |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – Darkness Incarnate Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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For anybody who really, really wants to know, all that sexed-up nature stuff comes from a fantasy passage in a French novel called 'La-Bas' ('Down There') by J-K Huysmans. It's quite close to the book. These guys did a lot of reading for this album... |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – The 13th Caesar Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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In his confession (extracted under the threat of torture) Gilles de Rais claimed that he had been corrupted by reading about the vices of the Roman emperors - Caligula, Nero, Tiberius & that mob - in a book called 'The Twelve Caesars' by Suetonius. So here he becomes the 13th Caesar. Ichor is the blood of the gods - the Roman emperors were deified but only, I believe, on their death. |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – The Death Of Love Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Best song on the album. Yes, Gilles de Rais was one of Joan's captains - the idea here is that he was so enthralled by her that when she died it drove him mad. This is something that has intrigued many writers over the centuries - this coming together of a saint & (allegedly) the ultimate monster. The truth is probably that Gilles wasn't so black as he's painted, nor Joan so white... |
submissions
| The Birthday Party – Several Sins Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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One of my favourites. Is there something a bit vampiric about it? "The marks on your throat", "oak & iron" which to me suggests a coffin... Just an idea. Spooky little song. |
submissions
| The Birthday Party – Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Hamlet in the play is a famous ditherer - he spends most of his time agonizing over what to do & when he finally gets round to doing it everything goes spectacularly pear-shaped. Cue piles of dead bodies. This Hamlet has a gun & he's not at all indecisive - sees Cadillac, wants Cadillac, pow pow pow, gets Cadillac. So I suppose the message is, the gun changes him. Not necessarily for the better. That line about "fishing in the grave/through the custard bones & stuff" makes me feel delightfully queasy! |
submissions
| Nico – Das Lied Der Deutschen Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I know hardly any German, but I do know this is the old version of the German national anthem. After that bit of unpleasantness in the 1940s the first stanza was dropped because it sounded triumphalist - actually, it doesn't mean "Germany rules OK", it's more "I love Germany above everything else", but people were feeling a bit sensitive. Nico sings the banned verse; &, what's more, she sang it in Berlin, accompanied by John Cale, & damn near started a riot! You can't fault her courage. Strange woman, gorgeous voice. This is sung like a dirge & is just a joy to listen to, even if (like me) you can't understand a word. It seems to be made up entirely of cliches - freedom, heart & hand, fatherland, la la la - but the way she sings it does kind of make you want to go right out there & invade Poland... |
submissions
| Tom Waits – In the Colosseum Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It's definitely more about America than Rome. The giveaway is the line about the "presidential whore" - Rome had emperors, not presidents. Great song, but not for the squeamish, you can hear the catarrh rattling in his lungs. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Jesus Gonna Be Here Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I love "Hollywood be thy name" (instead of "hallowed"). Thought I was hearing things the first few times I heard that. This is the track where he starts coughing at the end - some singers would have cut that bit out, but not Tom. |
submissions
| Cradle of Filth – Honey and Sulphur Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I've heard this song (& this album) two or three times now & it sounds gorgeous but I can honestly say I can't make out more than a dozen words in the whole thing! If you're going to go for an "explicit lyrics" sticker it seems only fair to make the words audible. A lot of content in here, not sure how much sense it will make to the average listener. Most people will have heard of Gilles de Rais: Tiffauges is one of his castles, Sille & Briqueville are his cousins & Prelati a fake alchemist from Italy. The idea is that children are being abducted & killed; partly for black magic rituals, partly for fun. I think the woman is supposed to be a glammed-up version of La Meffraye, an old woman who was used to lure children because they'd be more likely to go with a woman.
It's all very dark & Gothic, but a bit out-of-date now. In 1992 Gilles de Rais was retried & found not guilty! He's now reckoned to be the victim of one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in history, effectively murdered by judges who had divided up his estates between them before he was even convicted. So - no dead kiddies, no satanic rites. Sorry... |
submissions
| John Cale – Darling I Need You Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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One of his best. You expect it to be a bit soppy because of the title, but that's not John Cale's style - it's hard as nails. "Rrrrrattlesnakes & strychnine & prayer", what a line, the way he rolls that "r"! The lady seems to have gone off with one of those snake-handling cults. But who cares? Just listen to it, it's wonderful. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Coattails of a Dead Man Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Waits only does backing vocals on this one, but what backing vocals they are! He sounds like he's having a great time.
I love this song, very cruel & sly. "The bigger the camera the bigger the tear", indeed! I'll leave it to others to point out that it's a very one-sided & controversial account of a certain ill-starred marriage... |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Chocolate Jesus Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Google ads crack me up... They're supposed to be relevant to the subject on the page, but in fact they just pick up a word. Mention booze &, sure enough, Alcoholics Anonymous pops up. One of life's minor pleasures. |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Carny Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Interesting idea. And one of the dwarfs is actually called Noah - the other also has a biblical name, Moses, who led his people to the promised land.
I still think Bellini offed the carny. |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Right Out of Your Hand Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I'm trying not to be a nit-picky person, but will somebody PLEASE buy our Nick a guide to flowers? I have a hollyhock outside my window & you never saw anything more phallic & rampant, it's about 9 feet tall & the last thing it's ever going to do is hang harmlessly!
Nice song, tho'. I have this picture in my head from a child's edition of Spenser, a blonde woman with a lion which protects her. Una & the Lion was the story, I forget most of the details. I wonder if Nick saw that picture? |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Nocturama Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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FoiNaCruz, a nocturama is something they have in zoos. It's a special area which is kept nearly dark during the daytime so the nocturnal animals are fooled into going about their daily routine. Otherwise the visitors would never get to see them! This seems to be a particularly grim zoo as all the animals are miserable, sick or dead; but in the nocturama everything seems OK. Weird. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Downtown Train Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Funny you should say that, pconl - I was listening to this song the other day & thought: how sad, what previous generations called courtship we call stalking. It's a wonder anybody ever hooks up at all! Have you never hung round somebody's house hoping to get a glimpse? I know I have. This is no more stalkerish than that old standard The Street Where You Live. It's wonderful. |
submissions
| The Velvet Underground – Some Kinda Love Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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When I replaced my knackered vinyl copy of this album with a shiny new CD, I found that this song was totally different. Anybody know if the vinyl version is available anywhere? I preferred it (Lou's voice sounded filthier, for one thing!) |
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| John Cale – Dying On The Vine Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It is "Hollywood". There are two versions of this one, so different they might not be the same song. The studio version is slow, tortured & stately: the live one is jaunty, so the tune clashes with the meaning. I love 'em both, in different moods. Particularly the scary verse that seems to be set in a militaristic, authoritarian country & ends "If I wasn't such a coward, I would run". |
submissions
| John Cale – Amsterdam Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"Going to Amsterdam" is slang for having a sex change. I wonder if that's relevant or not. |
submissions
| The Birthday Party – Mutiny in Heaven Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Makes Lou Reed sound like a pussy! Put this next to Heroin - both great drug songs, but this is far & away better & more real. He sees himself as Lucifer being cast out of Heaven - too many wonderful lines to pick from - "fucken wings burst out mah back (like ah was cuttin teeth)"! And that voice! The shrieks! UTOPIATE! Just amazing. |
submissions
| The Birthday Party – Fears of Gun Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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With the Birthday Party, you're lucky if you can make out all the words, never mind know what they mean! I think Gun is sitting around his room, drunk as a skunk, because his woman done left him. Very old story but doesn't sound remotely traditional. "Fingers down the throat of love" - fantastic chorus! Not sure of the exact meaning, but very violent image. |
submissions
| The Rolling Stones – Fingerprint File Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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When this was recorded you could read it as somebody being a bit paranoid.Turned out to be prescient because these days some little jerk in the FBI probably has files on us all. "What a price to pay"- damn right! |
submissions
| The Rolling Stones – Time Is On My Side Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I think this song is a cover, isn't it? It was first recorded by a woman. The original version is very different, you sense that the singer is fooling herself - "He WILL come back to me, won't he?" Yeah, sure he will... All the cockiness comes from Jagger's vocals, if you just read the lyrics on the page they're very ambiguous. |
submissions
| Alice Cooper – Vengeance Is Mine Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This is the only song on the album that stuck in my mind - nice chorus. Mind you, I've only heard two thirds of it; then I got bored & gave up. I wish I could like it more, but it seems so - antiseptic. Rock by numbers. Come on, Alice, you're better than this! |
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