| Jimmy Eat World – Pain Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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A few folks have said it - I agree that the primary theme of the song is drug addiction. The lyric "it's a false sense of accomplishment every time I quit" is absolutely about addiction. What I think the video is showing is someone who's using drugs to take the pain out of his life. Sitting in the pool, throwing himself down the steps, the meat suit - they're all signs of self-destructive behavior, just like taking drugs. But note that through it all he never winces - never shows a single sign of any feeling. The twins are the demons of addiction which follow him around as he destroys his life, thinking about the woman he's lost. At the very end of the video, she comes back to him and starts peeling the meat off - she wants to help him heal and stop hurting himself. And right then, the twins of addiction hit him upside the head - and now he flinches. Now that his life has meaning again, he has to deal with the demons he's invited into his life, whether he wants to or not. And we see them walk away together - she's going to help him down this road to recovery. Note that as he starts off with her, he's still got the full meat suit on - it's going to take him time to get back to life without his self-induced pain. |
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| Amaranthe – Drop Dead Cynical Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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This has been bugging me since the song came out. I love it, but "cynical" just doesn't make any sense at all. I figure either they were stuck for a word that worked, poetically and lyrically, and finally just stuck "cynical" in there, or it was a language issue. They're Swedish, and often foreign songwriters write lyrics in their native language and translate them to english. Once in a while they'll get a clinker where a word is a synonym in some uses, but not the one in the context of the song. So I keep trying to figure out what word they might have mistranslated to end up with "Cynical" - maybe something like "cautious" or "discerning"? Being less gullible and not as trusting? |
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| Within Temptation – Somewhere Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Reading through the interpretations - so many beautiful and somber thoughts. Thanks to everyone for sharing. As another commenter said, it's wonderful that Within Temptation's lyrics are always ambiguous in a way that allows each person to make it their own. I also like that when she sings this as a duet the other voice is female. If she had a male sing the part it would kind of nail the "lost lovers" meaning into place. But by having a female singer it still leaves open mother / daughter, sister / sister, friend / friend, and lover / lover. I like to believe that Ms. den Adel would embrace all of the thoughts here and that there's no "wrong" answer. For myself, I keep thinking of a storyline in Law & Order SVU where a mother was looking for her daughter who had been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring and forced into prostitution. The plaintive feel of evaporating hope, and even surrender - "Almost hope that you're in heaven, so noone can hurt your soul" - it's true love to say that you'd give someone up if it would save them torment. Whatever the meaning you get out of it, the song is certainly heartbreaking. |
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| The Pierces – Kissing You Goodbye Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| I only just really paid attention to the lyrics of this song, and it really sounds like a woman who's just cheated. Afterwards she goes home to find him waiting up for her, and he knows it's over. | |
| Berlin – Matter Of Time Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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For me the most powerful part of this song is that Terri Nunn performed it live on TV in 1979, and she still performs it today, live on stage, almost forty years later. Just a matter of time, indeed. |
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| Low – Monkey Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I'm pretty sure the "Monkey" in this song refers to the idea of having "a monkey on your back" A "monkey on your back" is a long-standing burden. It's something that's been hanging over your head or nagging you at the back of your mind. More than that, it's something that you *let* bother you more than you probably should. If you have a long and successful career, but you never completed your degree, then the unfinished degree is a "monkey on your back" - it bothers you even though you've been successful. In the song, the "monkey on my back" is the uncommitted relationship. There's a woman he's always wanted to sleep with, and he's finally decided that tonight it's going to happen (and since we hear a man and a woman singing together, then it's obviously the two of them agreeing, as Vrshuddhi said) |
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| Amaranthe – Burn With Me Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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Oh wow. I finally got the lyrics, and they're powerful. First of all, the video really isn't related to the story the lyrics tell. The video shows a painful story about a couple getting into a fight right before she's killed in a car accident - telling a story of regret. The lyrics indicate these are two lovers who have ended up with other people. They're still soulmates, but each one thinks the other has decided to leave them behind. This is the lyric that really got me: Take your seat I cast a spell So you'll be less like you And more like someone else For the longest time, from the video I thought this was saying they were together but not in love, and so each of them was wishing the other person would change. But realizing that they're not together yet long to be, it seems the lyrics are saying each of them wishes the other would change so they would love them *less* and not have to watch their true love live with another. |
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| Steve Perry – Oh Sherrie Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| For folks that don't know, Steve Perry wrote this song for his girlfriend Sherrie Swafford, who is the young lady in the video. They dated for a while, and eventually broke up, but they remain friends to this day. | |
| Al Stewart – Year Of The Cat Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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@[lekdee444:15185] What's really fascinating about this song is that it tells the story of meeting the perfect woman and having one perfect night of love, and it happens in "The Year of the Cat" ... the Chinese Zodiac famously does not have a Year of the Cat. Mr. Stewart is singing about a dream of impossible perfection. (And there is no way that's accidental) I'm not challenging you - rather this is meant to add to what you've related about choices and decisions. |
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| Dolly Parton – Jolene Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[bokononist:15089] Agreed with this. And remember that this isn't about whether or not the guy would stray - it's about her fear. Even if he loves her with every bit of his heart, she's still going to worry. Insecurity is insidious that way. | |
| Genesis – Mama Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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I've loved this song for decades, and have always felt the "prostitute" angle about it, but this just occurred to me... I just rewatched "Lost in Translation" last week and it occurs to me that if you flip the genders it's pretty close to what Scarlett Johanssen's character feels for Bill Murray. It's a love and passion that's a mix of passion and parental respect. In addition there's the unrequited aspect that the speaker realizes it can never be a real relationship. |
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| Lead Belly – Goodnight Irene Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[tired82:11455] It was written in 1933 - they didn't do "underage" in songs in those days. "Too young" didn't mean "under 18" (or "under 13" if we're talking 1930s Virginia). Parents would say a girl was "too young to get married" when they didn't approve of the suitor. Billy Bob the rough boy from the hog plant wants to ask out Irene? "She's too young to go courtin'." Captain Rogers, home from the war, wants to marry her? "Let me go pack her case for you." |
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| Ben Lee – Gamble Everything for Love Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[Cherub:9037] Rock Many songs require the listener to put something of themselves into hearing it. Maybe their experiences, or their hopes, or their dreams, or their sorrows. So often when someone says they don't get anything out of a song, it may tell us more about the listener than the song itself. | |
| Ultravox – Hymn Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[Lmac1970:8634] The video draws parallels between what is promised vs. what is delivered in politics, fame, business, and religions. | |
| Michael Martin Murphey – Wildfire Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[billyzc:7662] It's been a while, but think of it this way: "On Wildfire - we're going to ride her - we're gonna leave sod bustin' behind." Does that help? |
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| Alphaville – Sounds Like A Melody Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[gabedachink:5146] Obviously "fantasy" is the proper spelling, but whenever I've seen these lyrics written out, it has *always* been "phantasy" - I think it might have been spelled that way in the liner notes for the album. | |
| Nightwish – While Your Lips Are Still Red Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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It's about seizing the moment. The refrain is about loving the night - "while he's still silent" = at night, when all is still. "While the hand's without a tool" - for in the morning, he must return to work. "Drown into eyes while they're still blind" - because it's night. Love in the night before the dawn comes. |
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| Berlin – You Don't Know Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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She's singing to a lover, trying to tell him how much he means to her, and he simply cannot understand this. He sees "love" as simple companionship, while she sees him as part of her life. She is so deeply in love with him that it hurts her to think he can't understand how much she loves him. And so - she is asking him if she should just leave. |
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| Jimmy Eat World – Pain Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Every time I hear "A kiss with open eyes, and she's not breathing back" I picture a paramedic giving a junkie mouth-to-mouth. She's lying there, glassy eyes open, but not breathing back. But "Anything but bother me" is driving me up the wall - any ideas? |
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| The Pierces – Kings Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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We're so used to songs from one person to another being about a relationship, but this one is fascinating if you think of who is actually singing it - two sisters. In that light, the song could be Catherine and Allison agreeing that if they chose to, they live as royalty... but then there are themes of love and jealousy. The second video shows them taking up arms against each other, so perhaps there is too much turmoil between them to seize what they see as their rightful prize. So it's complicated, and painful, and it's gonna take some time... |
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| Pat Benatar – We Belong Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I'm not quite so sure about the negative spin on this. You need to realize that the album was released in 1984, and was written and recorded just after Pat Benatar married Neil Giraldo, her lead guitarist. At the time it was fairly well known that this album was their valentine to each other. So I believe that what you are reading as pain in an abusive relationship is more about the challenges of difficult circumstances. This is reinforced by the music video - Pat was at the peak of her fame and absolutely had the authority to exercise creative control over the video. It's pure romance. The "When you say 'we belong to the light, we belong to the thunder'" can certainly be seen as a forceful partner exerting his will on someone who can't stand up for themselves. But I've always seen it as a partner reassuring and supporting someone who's struggling. She questions if they should be together, and he assures her they are meant to be. My $.02 |
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| Daft Punk – Instant Crush (feat. Julian Casablancas) Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| You could call the three people Rick, Jessie, and Jessie's girl... | |
| Harry Chapin – Shooting Star Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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It sounds like a wife whose genius husband is suffering from Dementia or Alzheimers. A brilliant man whose vision went beyond the conventional, while she kept him grounded in reality. He was the sun - shining bright, and she was the moon, reflecting his light back to earth. Towards the end, his mind failed... but he always loved her as the one real thing in his life. And she watched him fade away, but she always saw the man she'd fallen in love with. |
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| Lady GaGa – Paparazzi Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I was in college when Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by her stalker - it was big news and prompted a lot of anti-stalker laws. She was a sweet girl killed by someone because of her fame. So the line "I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you 'til you love me" always makes me think of her. |
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| Within Temptation – Angels Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I have to disagree with you - I do think it's about breakup. Being abandoned by someone is one of the most powerful emotions a person can feel, and it's something you remember for the rest of your life. I remember the first girl who cheated on me, 25 years ago, like it was yesterday. What clinches it for me is the power behind "The smile when you tore me apart" - this is the song that makes me believe someone must have hurt Sharon so very badly. |
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| Within Temptation – Sinead Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The song was written based on a comic series called "The Unforgiving" Sinead is a vampire - the rest should become clear. |
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