| Franz Ferdinand – 40 Ft. Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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This song is all about taking a mind expanding drug and it's a recurring theme throughout history and more recently with the music industry about the search for new experiences or new meaning after you've been through the money, the booze, the girls and discovered those don't give you the highs or meaning you crave. While the Beatles tried transcendental meditation then onto LSD (except McCartney), as did many others (such as Moody Blues) , others with power , money and privilege seek out more extreme ways to get their kicks. The lyrics describe the physical effects of this mind bending drug ' cooling all the blood to slush' and 'Burn my back beneath the sun But I am cold beneath the burning rays' , there is also the hallucigenic effects 'As I glance once upon the foam Forty feet beneath my feet' , 'looking down down down again' , but he has not yet reached where he needs to be 'forty feet remain' . But the lyrics also describe the psychotic nature of the experience, with the highs and lows alternating , the 'la la la la la la lala la' is the 'I don't care ' highs. In the end, the drug doesn't give him what he's after , because '40 feet remain' and he never reaches whatever it is he was after. |
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| Steely Dan – Almost Gothic Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| Marshack has it right on this one, it's a constant theme with Fagen , old guy , young girl which comes up again on Slinky Thing ... | |
| Donald Fagen – Tomorrow's Girls Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51258 The song is a pure bit of fantasy by Fagen, influenced by his love of classic American science fiction as suggested by MCBrownShoes. Check out the cover of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine from 1964 - it's a recurring theme and the genre was full of scantily clad women. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Oh Well (Part 2) Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Part 2 of this was the band basically taking the p*ss .. they said " we can just play anything - they'll put it out" because the band had got so successful so quickly. So they just played the same two and a bit chords endlessly and added some flute to it .. | |
| Steely Dan – What A Shame About Me Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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It's a very straightforward song, and it's a commonly occurring theme. As with a lot of Fagen's lyrics , there's a lot of New York references. The narrator is a failed novelist, during the day he works at The Strand , a famous bookstore in NYC, doing boring work - "I was grinding through my day gig , stacking cutouts at The Strand". In walks Franny , she and the narrator used to be an item when they were at NYU. She is a famous Hollywood star, the group they used to hang out with have all been successful in various professions - Bobby , Alan and Barry. She asks if he ever sees any of them and said she heard in the early eighties he was going to the The Next Big Thing - ie he showed early promise (as a novelist) and everyone predicted he would really take off. Well he didn't. He's still working on that novel but he's an addict - drugs or booze , and is slowly coming out of rehab. He remembers how they used to be, one particular morning - maybe the first time they slept together and she was the 'goddess on the fire escape' . The conversation trails off - he was about to say 'have a nice life' - a very poor line for someone who was going to be a great novelist , when she thinks maybe for old times sake they could go back to her hotel and pretend it was like it was before. However , he gives her a reality check - she's gorgeous , he's a wreck - he's a ghost , 'what a shame about me' ... |
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| Steely Dan – Janie Runaway Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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Donald Fagen does this kind of stuff so well ... Janie is a runaway from Tampa who came to New York on the day her dad lost it, set [probably] their place on fire and she was gone even before the fire crews had put out the fire. She turned up at Gramercy Park which is a private park in NYC , though you can stroll round the outside of it, where she was spotted and picked up by this old wealthy guy (he's wealthy because he lives in that area and has access to the park). She awakens interest in him once more - he was ageing and bored but she's young and bright - he is 'old blue eyes' , and she's the showgirl. He's even thinking of painting again - presumably with her posing. Dean and Deluca is an upmarket deli which was first established in NYC , so let's get some food and wine from there and have some fun.. And let's go out of state for a 'fun weekend' and his red Chevy Blazer , or would that be a federal offence transporting a minor across state lines for immoral purposes ? - you bet. But there is another young girl Melanie who sounds sexually adventurous - ' not afraid to try new things' and if Janie plays along then maybe he'll take her [Janie] to Spain for her birthday - 'possibly'. They manage to paint very vivid pictures with sparse words , at the same time putting in often sly references you have to check out - who but a New Yorker would know Gramercy Park ? |
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