| Youth Lagoon – Afternoon Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
The TV lights the room Like a strobe against the wall. I've watched all afternoon without watching at all. I'm thinking of you dear, Every moment I'm awake. I've tied my hands with woe now want to escape Did I make a mistake? There's a demon on the loose. He's ahead, under, I'm sure Cause I saw him late last night, Knocking on my bedroom door. I have worries in my blood, Pumping through my body's veins, And when I speak I don't make sense, But believe me when I'm singing This is what I've taken away from a rather clear studio session flac I have. When reading the posted lyrics above with the album cut, I couldn't quite make heads or tails of it but after repeatedly listening rendition it became obvious to me that the song is about coping with anxiety. |
|
| TV on the Radio – Family Tree Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
Wow, years later and these lyrics are still not corrected. Anyway, I was listening to this tune and thought it'd be easier to just look up the lyrics rather than open up the gatefold and wade through how densely they're presented on the record art. Anyway, I wanted to check the missing lines here and found quite a few mistakes. Here are the lyrics as printed on the record's gatefold cover Anda, My love Wake up to your window. The day calls in billows. It's echoing moonlight onto the blue night. Mare of your heart. In cozy red rainbows It's sharking off hallows And the memory of our sacred so and so. Oh take my hand sweet. Complete your release. Unbury your feet. And married we'll be. Alone in receiving. Ours is a feeling. Not that they would see. They don't know that we could be. Down where your cradle escaped the sea And your raven haired mama. Caught told you-so's. We're hanging in the shadow of your family tree. Your haunted heart and me. Brought down by an old idea whose time has come. And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree. There's a hundred hearts or three. Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep them young. Ah me all mine. Is it safe to say that we've waited patiently? Call me on time. And recall the tune that has placed us gracefully all into line. There's a garden grave and a place there saved for me. I fall by your side though your silver haired mama throws told you-so's. We're hanging in the shadow of your family tree. Your haunted heart and me. Brought down by an old idea whose time has come. And in the shadow of the valley of your family tree. There's a hundred hearts or three. Pumping blood to the roots of Eden to keep us young. |
|
| The Antlers – Atrophy Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
The 'atrophy' the title refers to belongs to the narrator; his inability to act for his own well-being due to his overwhelming sense of commitment to the patient. The atrophy of his self-esteem and self-interest. "I'm freezing, infected, and rigid in that room inside her" |
|
| Why? – One Rose Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
I'd beg to differ about the album being less personal and emotional than earlier work. It is by far his most confessional and emotional songwriting to date. Let's consider the title of the album "Eskimo Snow" and it's relationship to the titular lyric: "All my words for sadness, like Eskimo snow". He's playing off of the belief that Eskimo's have hundreds of words for snow as a metaphor for album's hundreds of words exploring his depression, fears, anxieties and insecurities. Quite brilliant, imho. But let's not stop there. Below is an excerpt from every song to back up my previously stated belief: "These hands are my father's hands but smaller, soaked in paint thinner til they're so dry coming together they make a shril sound like two moving tires touching, hide nothing." "now my bike tires flat, i must have run over some glass in the dark, or it might have got slashed cause I was messing around with someone's ex-girlfriend again" "oh am i too concerned with the burn of scrutiny[...]will i gain weight in later life and when will someone swing a scythe against me!" "my true purpose which i will have taken the care to have kept hidden even from myself my whole life" "i wish i could feel close to somebody but i don't feel nothing. now they say i need to quit doing all this random ffff-[...]and i know saying all this in public should make me feel funny, but ya gotta yell something out you'd never tell nobody." "in time in the bathroom mirror i learned to accept my body." "The rat that's caught in the ribs of me will be released within the year" "Will this new year's see my rotting hair's release? Will my new black book pull the sick from my deepest creases?" "i wanna speak at an intimate decibel with the precision of an infinite decimal; to listen up and send back a true echo of something forever felt but never heard. i want that sharpened steel of truth in every word" "Then I'm still here. Bearing my watery fruits if fruits at all. Then I'm still here. Barely understanding what truth that rarely calls." |
|
| The National – Little Faith Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Listening to the NYTimes stream right now and this is an easy early favorite. Awesome tune. | |
| Band of Horses – Factory Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Wow, I fell asleep during Avatar 3D too! | |
| Band of Horses – On My Way Back Home Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| The tile of this song is "On My Way Back Home". I was just about to resubmit the lyrics when I noticed this hiding down the list. Also, a small correction: "word" in the 5th line should be "words". | |
| Okkervil River – Westfall Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I had to google Yogurt Shop Murders because it wasn't pretty clear to me. From what I read, 4 girls were found bound & gagged in a yogurt shop that was burned down. So yea, I guess you'd have to change the names, add some more girls, change the setting from going out somewhere where they'd need a flashlight to a yogurt shop then sprinkle it with arson. I don't want to criticize your interpretation, it's all subjective, but after reading about that incident I can't see any connection to this song whatsoever beside Okkervil River being an Austin band and the Yogurt Shop Murders occurring in Austin. | |
| Bella – Ocean or a Lakeshore Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
I love this tune but yea, these lyrics aren't ok. This is what I hear: It was the ocean or a lakeshore somewhere I had to swim from island to island that I might escape my dream I wasn't naked, I was not alone there there were many people asking questions that they might explain my dream i had to hold a 5 dollar bill up to my eyes to see the demons they were crawling on my skin the demons wanted in but the demons couldn't swim I woke up nearly screaming when you said my name I didn't think that i was sleeping I thought I was awake My, how things change couldn't we just rewind so you could resume your place in our lives now you're just a familiar face in disguise when i see you in my dreams couldn't we just rewind so you could resume your place in our lives now you're just a familiar face in disguise when i see you in my dreams It was the ocean or a lakeshore (x4) |
|
| Bon Iver – Creature Fear Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
eneyeseekaywhy: Interpreting a song is completely subjective. People will take whatever they want from it, regardless of the artists intention. There is no "wrong" interpretation and I fail to see how someone finding parallels between this song and current events is anymore juvenile than chastising someone in an internet forum for having an interpretation of completely subjective material contrary to yours. Furthermore, if any form of interpretation is over used on this website, it's interpreting the song in the context of a relationship. By your logic we should condemn your attempt to simplify these lyrics down into a love song. Anywho...when SongMeanings sends out the memo informing the rest of us morons that we're no longer entitled to a free thought and the your almighty opinion is the only acceptable way to interpret completely subjective art, I'll be sure to forward it along to the rest of the morons. Until then, STFU. |
|
| Aesop Rock – We're Famous (feat. El-P) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
Actually, the song is about 7L & Esoteric...which El-P acknowledges on his other Esoteric diss track "7700 Years to Date".. "We're Famous was a roach motel and you crawled right the fuck in it/you forgot I'm a god damn savage with a record of always winning" |
|
| Crass – White Punks On Hope Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
Joe Strummer had worn a Brigate Rosse t-shirt to the Rock Against Racism event** added for clarity. The song is mostly about the opinion had over The Clash's behavior and involvement with regards to the Rock Against Racism event. |
|
| Crass – White Punks On Hope Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| The jab at The Clash was over their Marxist rhetoric as well as their involvement in Rock Against Racism in 1978 which the Anarchist movement saw as attributing problems rooted in class to racism. Joe Strummer had worn a Brigate Rosse t-shirt, which was a violent Marxist terrorist organization based in Italy, which infuriated Anarcho-Punks. | |
| Elliott Smith – Fake It Through the Day (Miss Misery, early version) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I'm pretty sure the line "Tear up cards in the lines in my hand" is actually "Tarot cards and the lines in my hand" |
|
| Nine Inch Nails – Survivalism Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
Listen. This is a concept album. It takes place in the year 2015. Though it may draw inspiration and parallels from current events, it's entirely fiction. It's really hard to take the meaning of this song out of the meaning of the meaning of the album, since the album as a whole is the story, the song is just a small part of it. That being said, I've been through the puzzle of dozens of websites that have been set up to market the album and I will attempt to give a summary of the story as best I know. The story takes place in the year 2015 after a war with Iran (which is now called post-Iran). The government is a totalitarian regime similar to Orwell's Oceania in 1984 where subversive thoughts are considered illegal and often handled with brutality. There is a constant threat of a bio-terrorist attack from Post-Iranian terrorists and the government has introduced an immune boosting drug to the nation's drinking water called Parepin. What's strange about Parepin is that it effects dopamine and serotonin levels similarly to cocaine and methamphetamine. Parepin has been found to cause hallucinogenic side effects. Skeptics suggest that Parepin itself is bio-terrorism but the government insists that it's required to defend against a bio-terrorist attack. Recently people have begun vividly seeing apparitions of hands reaching from the sky. This phenomena has come to be known as The Presence. Some debate that The Presence is a Parepin induced hallucination while others insist that it has nothing to do with the drug at all. Some believe that it's an omen to the end of the world, when life ends and begins again, Year Zero. |
|
| Desaparecidos – Mall of America Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
"people who live in the streets usually live there because they are crazy" Most people who live on the streets are not crazy at all. Perhaps you might want to work with organizations that work to improve the lives of the homeless population. Meet some homeless people instead of making completely moronic assumptions about a portion of the population you never have interacted with. |
|
| Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Counting Down The Hours Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| It's also important to note in reference to the Mr Mellor line that Ted Leo considers The Clash to be his biggest influence. | |
| Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Counting Down The Hours Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
This is just one of many protest songs Ted Leo has written. Below is my interpretation of it. "Innocence, it don't come easy, in a sense it never will. Accidents means no ones guilty, ignorance means someone's killed" This represents the Bush administration's refusal to take blame for entering into a war we shouldn't have begun in the first place. This lays the premise for the rest of the verse. "So I asked our Mr. Mellor how one gets to where one's going And he points to his survival, and he points me down the road" This is, in fact, a reference to Joe Strummer. Ted Leo identifies with Joe Strummer as both a musician and activist. Ted, finding it difficult to rise above his feelings of despair resulting from the war, finds inspiration in Joe Strummer overcoming the same personal obstacles. "On a dark wet night in April, on a street in Jersey where I went looking for some writing that I knew would not be there" April 2003 saw the climax of the War in Iraq with the fall of Baghdad and Saddam's regime. I believe the writing that Ted is talking about is a report on finding Weapons of Mass Destruction, which many people didn't believe existed, however if they did they were expected to be found around this time. This also gives relevance to the next lines... "And a punter from the Pelhams and the police, in the rain, Were concerned more with a car than with the fact the light had" The car represents the war in Iraq and the light represents the reasons for going to war. With the lack of Weapons of Mass Destruction, the light had changed from green to red. A punter is a gambler who bets against the house(used metaphorically in this sense to represent his opposition to who he's arguing) and the police is also metaphorical, representing an individual or organization that supports the government. The Pelhams is a middle class suburban area just outside of New York City. Both are arguing about the war but neglecting the fact that the very reasons used to go to war are now invalid. "But after listening all morning, as I drove down 95 To a story of detainees who were barely kept alive I could deal with trying to process pigeons acting like they're doves But not with interference from the power lines above" The first 2 lines are pretty self explanatory. I believe the pigeons acting like they're doves is trying to illustrate hypocrisy, perhaps on several levels. The hypocrisy of those who were outraged at the torture scandal but aren't outraged at the war in general and perhaps the hypocrisy of the people have become involved in the anti war movement because it's a popular movement yet ignore other social justice issues throughout the world. I believe that the interference is partisan political commentary that clouds core issues with personal opinions and the power lines are the media. "And oh, precautions, yes precaution But if you're playing with a gun, you could kill someone And in the dark it's hard to know a friend" I believe the above poster, liondanslepres, is spot on with his interpretation of these lines. "But I'm not angry, I won't be forever angry As I'm walking toward tomorrow with a rifle in my hand" I believe here Ted Leo has resolves the feelings he had earlier in the song (see my interpretation of Mr Mellor). Walking toward the future with his rifle (his music, or more specifically how he uses his music to confront social and political issues). "And I'm thinking about New England, and I'm missing old Japan" He's thinking about the effects of imperialism on the world (the name New England is itself a remnant of the British Empire's imperialist aspirations) and he's longing for a time or place where imperialist ideals didn't exist or were intensely opposed. "And a mountain in California where a spring runs hot and cold" I'm not sure exactly if he means a specific place here or if he's just missing a place where he could be at peace in general. This is what I believe the song to mean. |
|
| The Elected – The Bank and Trust Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| None of the songs on this album are about Jenny Lewis. They broke up durring the recording of The Execution of All Things, in March 2002. Idiots take ONE LINE in one song on one album and think it's the meaning behind his entire career since his split with her. You're a bunch of morons. | |
| The Elected – Sun, Sun, Sun Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This is the best Elected song, by far, imo. | |
| System of a Down – Prison Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
To fully understand the song you need to understand the prison industrial complex. The more people that are imprisoned, the more profitable the prison system becomes to the government. The song speaks about the government supporting drug trafficing while at the same time enforcing harsh penalties on drug offenders. All the while, ignoring the fact that studies show that treatment, not imprisonment, is what helps drug offenders. The song is essentially trying to show that the prison industrial compex doesn't want to treat drug offenders, even if it's the most effective method of helping them. Instead they require drug offenders to fuel the system. Do some research into the prison industrial system. SOAD surely knows what's up, they're always so subversive. |
|
| The Decemberists – Summersong Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
Excellent song. PS Lindsay, you don't bury people in sand. |
|
| Kid Dakota – So Pretty Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Miles, I believe life is so bad for some. This song is about heroin addiction. | |
| Neil Young – Don't Let It Bring You Down Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Pincho82 is 100% correct. This was one of the most famous protest songs from the Vietnam War era. It was released on one of the best protest albums of it's era. Neil Young himself has talked openly about the meaning of the song. PROTIP: Not all songs should be taken literally. |
|
| Against Me! – Unprotected Sex with Multiple Partners Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
A song about selling out from the kings of selling out. Plan-it X can't even press "Crime as forgiven by..." anymore. "Baby, i'm a reactionary and truely a liberal, I wrote songs for the movement that i pretended to follow but when it came time to get some cash i signed away my dignity" |
|
| Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Shake the Sheets Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
"This is one of the most important songs of my generation." Quoted for truth |
|
| Radiohead – True Love Waits Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| this song is used at the end of Submediatv's short film "Join the Resistance, Fall in Love" which is based upon an exerpt from CrimethInc's book "Days of War, Nights of Love"...it's available in high quality at www.archive.org under Open Source Movies. The song is at the end and is incredible to hear after the story you're given. I highly recommend people go check it out...definately worth the download. | |
| Desaparecidos – Mall of America Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
" who cares about capitalism...at least we dont all live in the streets" The millions who DO live in the streets live there because of capitalism, idiot. |
|
| This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb – The Black Panther Song Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| actually, I don't think it's about getting into the black panthers, I think it's a song about solidarity with the black panthers. the black panther party has been defunct for some time now, so i doubt this song is about the songwriter himself, but perhaps from the perspective of a white 60's radical, like those in SDS who often aligned themselves with the Black Panthers as being part of the same struggle. | |
| Against Me! – Burn Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| take a thousand hits to prove that we're still not movin* | |
| Against Me! – Burn Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| take a thousand hits to prove that we're still not movin* | |
| Against Me! – Impact Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| there are so many incredibly intelligent drop out anarchists. the nicest people you'll ever meet | |
| Against Me! – Walking Is Still Honest Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| molotov cocktails > hair peace | |
| Against Me! – Walking Is Still Honest Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| molotov cocktails > hair peace | |
| Against Me! – What We Worked For Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| a great critique on consumer culture | |
| Sage Francis – Hopeless Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
SIT stripped before your full length... he's telling her to sit infront of a mirror naked and examine her reflection to understand how he feels about her this poem ends with: THIS is my poker face Mr Feel Nothing. |
|
| Against Me! – We Laugh at Danger (And Break All the Rules) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
If you love this song, read this story: http://www.saveourcivilliberties.org/en/2004/01/187.shtml It will have so much more meaning afterwards |
|
| Against Me! – Baby, I'm an Anarchist! Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| sometimes i sing this to my girlfriend...because she's a spineless liberal :x | |
| Against Me! – Baby, I'm an Anarchist! Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| a minor correction in tomorrowsashes post...no anarchists were killed at haymarket, police were actually killed by a makeshift bomb exploded at when police were trying to (violently as always) disperse the crowd. 8 anarchists were tried and found guilty, 6 were put to death and executed by the state, 2 were eventually freed after it was found out that NONE of the anarchists tried had anything to do with the bomb, and infact were targeted by the chicago police because of their political affliation. | |
| Alphaville – Forever Young Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I like your sleeves. They're real big. | |
| Team America Soundtrack – Only A Woman Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
And on saturdays when I've been partying hard And it's 4 in the morning, and I'm on my fith tab of E that's the only time I don't even care if you are a woman lmfao! |
|
| Team America Soundtrack – Only A Woman Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
And on saturdays when I've been partying hard And it's 4 in the morning, and I'm on my fith tab of E that's the only time I don't even care if you are a woman lmfao! |
|
| Modest Mouse – I've Got It All (Most) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| haunches is not a word | |
| Bright Eyes – Soon You Will Be Leaving Your Man Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
i'd like to give a big shout out to the bitch that left her man for me, played with my emotions for a month, and then went back to her man... you were a rockin mindfuck slut! keep keeping it real kristen! |
|
| Green Day – American Idiot Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| "Patriotism ... is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit." - Emma Goldman | |
| Green Day – American Idiot Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
Actually, Nazi's are fascists, fascism is a far right political ideology. Far left would be communism (a'la Fidel Castro), which is approximately opposite to fascism. Both think they know what's best for everyone else. Even further left would be Anarchism, something you probably know nothing of yet wear the word like a badge of courage purchased at hot topic. Bush is much closer to far right fascism for his merging of corporate and state interests (a trademark of the fascist state) and his systematic destruction of constitutionally protected civil rights. For a better reference point, check out http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm As far as "living in a country where we can criticize whatever", if that is so true then why are peace and activist groups being targeted under the USA Patriot Act? Why were people being rounded up in mass arrests at the republican national convention for doing nothing but walking on sidewalks? Look into it further or don't speak, because you know LITTLE of what's going on in this nation. By the way, this war IS evil. There was no reason to go to war with Iraq, all lies. Now it all rests on Iraqi freedom, and if we really cared much about freedom, we'd free the Saudi's first, seeing how their government is much more brutal than Iraq's was. But we're friendly with the Saudi government, so who cares if they hold public executions to behead political dissidents. "REAL cold blooded killers cutting the heads off of innocent people!" Well, tell me this...if Russia spent a week dropping bombs all over residental neighborhoods of your city, killing friends and relatives of yours, then they invaded and occupied....what would you do if you got your hands on one? Is it wrong? yes. But retalliation should be expected. We killed an estimated 13,000 - 30,000 innocent civilians durring the 1 year of war with Iraq, that averages more deaths than a year of civilian deaths durring the vietnam war. In times of doubt ALWAYS investigate and think. Is what we're doing right? and more importantly WHY are we doing this and WHY are we the focus of so much hatred. Everyone was complacent durring the Holocaust, 6 million lives later and you're preaching the same complacency. |
|
| Incubus – Here In My Room Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
which might make sense if it wasn't for "Yeah, love is a verb here in my room" |
|
| Kid Dakota – 2001 Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
The album cover for Kid Dakota's first album shows a picture of the lead singer, Darren Jackson, all bloodied up and in a sling. This is how that picture came about, and also why he quit heroin. This song is the happy (or not so happy) ending to the So Pretty album. Anyway, Kid Dakota has been a favorite of mine for a long time and the recent release of their latest album has motivated me to post up most of the lyrics from it (and others). I'll see about getting to the transcribing the rest of their songs. |
|
| Bright Eyes – Lua Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
I know alot of people want to think of this song about an eating disorder, but lets get real for a second. Conor Oberst has gotten a pretty big reputation for coke use over the past couple of years, and his writing of other songs about it on every album he's dropped since fevers and mirrors doesn't help much. This song seems (at least pretty obviously to me) that it's about cocaine use and the depression that results the following day. It's placed in a time frame of a night and the next morning with repeated references to how great the night is and how horrible the morning is. The only references to an eating disorder I can even see in here are (pointed out crf): "you're looking skinny like a model....just keep going to the bathroom always say you'll be right back...well it takes one to know one kid i think you got it bad" can ellude to an eating bulimia, i suppose, but she must eat ALOT to keep going to the bathroom to vomit in one night. The euphoria of a cocaine high is relatively short, and very short for the tollerant addict...which to me would seem to be why she keeps going to the bathroom. The song also references the use of alcohol to ease the depression and exhaustion of a coke hangover, self medication, the feeling of normalcy of use, and warnings to stay away. Also, if someone's so self conscious about their self image to develop an eating disorder, they would probably want to stay away from all the calories and carbs in alcohol. Recently it's seemed that most (granted, not all) of the songs coming out of Bright Eyes are about Conor's drug use, alcoholism, womanizing or all of the above. I know you all would like to think he's a sweet sensative guy all the time, but you gotta snap out of the denial. I think this pretty much sums up the theme of the song: "yeah we might die from medication but we sure killed all the pain but what was normal in the evening by the morning seems insane " As for songs about coping with drug abuse, I think you should skip over this (it was disappointing for me at least) and check out the So Pretty by Kid Dakota...a much better tune that describes drug use much more acurately by a much better musician (in my opinion) and recovering addict. |
|
| Finch – Worms Of The Earth Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Perhaps it's about absolutely nothing but pretentious crap like every other Finch song? | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.