submissions
| Joy Division – Autosuggestion Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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That was actually the attempted remedy to which I was alluding. If you think about it, for someone with severe enough depression, trying to reaffirm or modify one's life through positive or constructive repeated ideas could potentially only trigger a backlash of far more negative thoughts.
Which, I posited, was the essence of the song: Trying, then failing, to modify one's own behaviour. The end is ambiguous, however...
The music is indeed sublime. The way the production balances each of the elements transforms the piece into something wonderfully deep and alien. In fact, it was this - in conjunction with a very weird in-joke about creating "therapy tapes for increasing insanity" - that I named my own band Autosuggestion. Aspirations, indeed. |
submissions
| Sufjan Stevens – You Are the Blood (Castanets cover) Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Possibly. But not *every* song Sufjan writes or records is about Jesus. (And, as Captain Obvious would say, this is a cover.)
As WheresPoochie pointed out in their analysis, it's all in the arrangement.
It's about love, death, fear, glory, all those things, I think. And a truly remarkable composition to boot, complete (and replete) with one of the most literally *awesome* codas in modern rock music. |
submissions
| Death in June – Black Radio Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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In essence, this song is about subversion of a very strange sort, specifically the radio transmissions sent by the Nazis into Czechoslovakia during WWII to help initiate their takeover of the country.
Yes, the Third Reich used pirate radio. That does not make KISS FM equal to Hitler... Unless you're some kind of fanatical dubstep DJ, in which case your best option at this point is to just take more 'luudes.
I digress. Great, weird song. |
submissions
| Death in June – Behind The Rose (Fields Of Rape) Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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The title is also the literal translation of the Latin term 'sub rosa', which is the formal equivalent of the phrase "under the radar". And lest we forget the intentional dual meaning of "rape", as it is also a grain-like plant common to the English countryside... |
submissions
| Wire – Blessed State Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A really lovely song with horrifyingly twisted lyrics. It is, apparently, about realising just how many lies one has been told, and how ultimately lies hold together everything in the world, and so there is nothing to do. Nothing is clean, and everything is perfect. "O, what a pearl, what a well-made world!" |
submissions
| Wire – Silk Skin Paws Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Yes, it is an amazing song. The version from the 2008 Daytrotter sessions is particularly exceptional. Or any version, really.
I digress.
As Graham Lewis so concisely put it, "Silk Skin Paws" was written "20 years ago about bankers throwing themselves out of office windows", specifically after the 1987 UK stock market crash. In light of this, the rather surreal imagery begins to make much more sense. For instance, the shifting of blame first to the most helpless stupid thing (or to power-drunkeness) on up until everyone but the accuser himself (a trader, a broker, a swindler) is blamed for their own mistakes. And how about the titular paws, clean hands doing dirty deeds...?
Is this wringing any unfortunate bells? |
submissions
| Angels of Light – Angels of Light Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A song with a story that is both direct and mysterious, with multiple implications and possible themes. Death and transformation, trascendence of the body, detachment and disassociation. Incredibly sad and happy at the same time. Complemented wonderfully by the Steve Reich-like instrumental build and pleading finale. Musical quicksilver. |
submissions
| Wire – Go Ahead Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Three words: Record industry smackdown.
It's odd to think about, but Bruce Gilbert plays pretty funky bass. He really should be totally incapable of funkiness, and yet... Well, this is the man who wrote "Former Airline", "Blessed State", "Epitaph For Henran Brenlar", and "Ticking Mouth". And DJs ambient from a shed. I shouldn't be surprised. |
submissions
| Wire – And Then.../Coda Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A pretty clear and harsh stab at religion, in particular the comparison of being forcefed ideas to "salmon sandwiches", which I admit is a really effing weird image. |
submissions
| Wire – Ahead Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I think that it's about feeling cheated and lied to, be it by a greater system that feels rigged or in a relationship that feels false. In the end, even the person deceiving you has been duped, thinking that they've gained something from pulling the wool over your eyes when they're just as screwed as you, and what you're both given is only enough to move "forward" and "up"... That is, nowhere of any meaning.
Pretty bleak, but beautiful.
Anyone ever heard a live version of this song? Very intense and far less dour than the original, in particular the rushing hi-hat-driven backbeat and psychotic, giddy vocal harmonies. Overall, not to far from Newman's early solo work, minus the heavy-as-hell Thorne production (which I love for quite different reasons). |
submissions
| Wire – Outdoor Miner Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It's an abstract interpretation of the experiences of a kind of inchworm known as the serpentine miner, which eats the chlorophyll in holly leaves. Graham Lewis wrote the words while watching a BBC nature documentary; he was flummoxed when Colin Newman decided to, rather perversely, put them to the Byrdsy little tune which became this song, but ultimately approved.
That said, this song is godly. Ranks with "Map Ref." as one of Wire's best pop songs of their first incarnation ("Madman's Honey", "Ahead" and "Kidney Bingos" probably being the best of their second). |
submissions
| Wire – Kidney Bingos Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It seems, basically, to be a kind of abstract, stream-of-consciousness portrait of all the things that subconsciously wear on people's minds, perceived indirectly or directly but constantly planting the seeds of latent emotions, in particular sensationalistic news reports of various unpleasantries (plane crashes, political scandals, organ sales). But in the end, it's "all the same", isn't it...? |
submissions
| Wire – Ambitious Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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In short, it's about DNA and its command over our behaviour, such as why we select certain people as mates or sex partners, ever seeking to create the "ideal copy" of ourselves. The point, of course, is gradually extrapolated to utter nonsense (to great effect, I might add)...
As for the song itself: Graham Lewis' manic half-rapped performance on the LP is excellent (and hilarious), but I'll admit that I prefer the take recorded on Coatings, with the quirky proto-techno effects and Colin Newman's wonderfully resigned, sweet delivery. |
submissions
| Wire – The 15th Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Unlike "Kidney Bingos", which does indeed have a rather pointed meaning, this song, possibly quite literally, is about nothing, as has been attested to by Colin Newman various times; the title refers to how it was the fifteenth song written and demo-ed for 154. Still, it sounds oddly meaningful, especially considering that the title sounds suspiciously like a military regiment...
Why this song wasn't chosen for a single, I have no idea. It's superbly constructed, insanely catchy, and despite not being quite the masterpiece that "Map Ref. 41ºN 93ºW" is, it has a much easier-to-remember title (in the conventional sense) and even simpler (if ultimately weirder) lyrics. |
submissions
| Wire – Fragile Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It's about love, and how it is, by turns, wonderful and insufferably painful. Great little song, without which there would be no R.E.M. |
submissions
| Wire – Strange Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Drug-induced paranoia? The supernatural? Simple fear? I have no idea, and I doubt that most other people do, either. This song is just plain creepy. Do not listen to this at 3 a.m. with the lights out. I have... |
submissions
| Wire – Mr. Suit Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I agree with ntwjones, although the parody is also of such heavyweights as The Sex Pistols and The Clash, who, despite preaching "anarchy", leapt to the majors immediately. |
submissions
| Wire – Straight Line Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A very brief ballad of total non-resistance, specifically from our protagonist, a young man apparently being seduced who, despite his total lack of sexual attraction to the seducer is effortlessly lead along. |
submissions
| Wire – Surgeon's Girl Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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P.S. The production is wonderfully bizarre, in particular the layered shouts and off-kilter echo-slathered toms. The live version on The Scottish Play is unrecognisable, yet still brilliant. |
submissions
| Wire – Surgeon's Girl Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Like "Brazil", a swipe at juvenile romance, here leaning towards the element of fantasy and celebrity obsession, namely of dating a glossy, somewhat manufactured (like canned tuna!) person, be they created by media or imagination. The jabber of the chorus only adds to the "what a moron our protagonist is" subtext. Snotty in the best way possible. |
submissions
| Wire – Brazil Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A song with curious (cognitive) dissonance between its title (derived from its almost Latin beat) and its lyric, which seems a rather dismissive jab at teenage love songs, specifically those played by many of their punk contemporaries, and especially The Ramones. To emphasise said underlying point, they use the same kind of extravagant metaphors ("until they split the atom" being redolent of "Today Your Heart, Tomorrow The World"), but to far more sardonic effect - "they're's nothing left at all". To top things off, they parody the militaristic obsessions of many other punks with a final march and salute.
There you have it: Essential meta-punk in under forty-two seconds. |
submissions
| Wire – Another the Letter Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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No, the lyrics are correct, albeit seemingly abbreviated due to lack of repetition and speed. It is, indeed, about receiving a suicide's final letter. The lyric were written by Bruce Gilbert after seeing a peculiar carving or woodcut in which one hand passes a letter to another behind (betwixt?) the curtains of a window. He found it a very evocative piece, and so wrote this lyric, which is far more discernable in the original, slower version (see Behind The Curtain: Early Versions 1977-79). |
submissions
| The Fall – Fortress/Deer Park Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Note to whomever: This song was, indeed, initially played as two utterly separate entities, the former usually seguing into "Totally Wired". "Deer Park" continued to be played separately long after "Fortress", in fact, occasionally stretching out to extradordinary lengths (nearly ten minutes on the Hex bonus disc...). |
submissions
| The Fall – Winter 2 Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Another transcription of the first section of lyrics, as performed by Taylor Parkes in an article for The Quietus about Smith's lyrical style circa 1978-1983 (see http://thequietus.com/articles/03925-the-fall-and-mark-e-smith-as-a-narrative-lyric-writer), reads as such:
"On the first floor of the dryout house was a replica dartboard
And the man on the floor,
His soul went out of the window, over the lawn
And round into the mad kid
"Please take this medallion
Please wear this medallion
It's no sign of authority
Put the gold on, put it on
Courtesy winter
His soul went into the mad kid
And the man on the first floor said
'I just looked round
I just looked round
I just looked round
And my youth, it was sold.'"
He clearly say very similar lines (in a completely different order) on the Peel Session version, indicating that this is the likeliest interpretation.
Hence, not merely an odd narrative sequence, but a truly eerie one.
The "lights" bit is both hilarious and perversely charming. |
submissions
| Animal Collective – Fireworks Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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This song makes a great one-two punch with "For Reverand Green", album-wise.
Thinking about it, both seem to be rather obtuse, psychedelic love songs, both exploring different facets and emotions associated with the same thing via rather cryptic and silly thoughts and images. |
submissions
| Wire – Mr. Suit Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Agreed. Sarcastic and yet also revelling in the idea of telling someone to go screw themselves. |
submissions
| Wire – Map Ref. 41°N 93°W Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A flight over open fields and planes as surveyed by someone only acquainted with maps of a region, mind utterly blown, enraptured with the experience of seeing such vistas, such living enormity. |
submissions
| Wire – 40 Versions Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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The perspective of someone with either schizophrenia or multiple personalities (or perhaps bipolar?) describing their mental state. Very ominous, yet serene. |
submissions
| Coil – I Don't Want to Be the One (Live Four) Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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The lyrics seem, pretty straightforwardly really, to be a lament about being "the one" who, by means of some discovery, heralds the coming of some horrible force; what that force is, human or alien or supernatural, is, however, extremely vague, as is what "they" shall do, or have done, on arrival. |
submissions
| Wire – A Mutual Friend Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I think the final lines are: "He might replace the earth with the moon / He might replace the old with the new / He might replace the earth with the moon / He might replace the old quite soon".
Or it may be intentionally impenetrable. Whatever. |
submissions
| Coil – Blood from the Air Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I thought it was "... in the body of Christ..."
I was probably wrong. Either way, the lyrics strongly lean towards the idea of enlightenment - or, rather, endarkenment - being a source of suffering, and ultimately only a conformation of truths necessarily excepted to go forward on the esoteric quest: All things change, suffer, die. Entropy as the source of infinite/ultimate wisdom, death as the great pacifier and clarifier.
An odd thought: Dimethyltryptamine, the chemical produced in the brain during certain states of dream, religious ecstasy, and near-death experiences, is a close relative to one of Coil's favourite psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT... Although, considering that both are used "recreationally" (loose term, considering the rarity and odd effects), and the predilection of the group's members towards the psychedelic experience, I don't doubt that both were encountered in their travels... |
submissions
| Coil – S Is for Sleep Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Thank you, Blue Kephra. Your comments have lead me down new roads... There is a definite tinge of Spare-ness to the lyrics of this song. Sort of an early-Coil manifesto, this one, and a personal favourite of mine.
I believe that the primary theme of the song is that of transmigration and projection, by lucid dream and esoteric ritual alike, aided by the restriction of prior sleep, both the initiation of the "travel" and the induction of state via deprivation of sleep itself being pure exercises of will. True magic, if you will, black as night but not "evil", per se, just dark... |
submissions
| Angels of Light – On the Mountain Looking Down Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Resentful, vindictive, contemptuous and violent emotion towards a former lover for her rejection of the narrator, treating him like her other "weak and useless men", used and tossed off, mixed with a self-consciously fragile need for her love. Very Gira. |
submissions
| Sonic Youth – Eyeliner Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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What? I like those songs! It's just... They are, I agree, a sort of pointlessly/incongruously ugly ending to a very good album. But "ugly" does not mean "bad"... An interesting single. |
submissions
| Swans – I Crawled Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It does, so very much. Those vocal contortions... The only comparison I really have is Diamanda Galas, but even then.... |
submissions
| Swans – Cop Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Furthermore, the lyrics of live versions tended to be even more perverse and vicious, as did the hysterical delivery... Scary stuff. |
submissions
| Swans – All Lined Up Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I'm personally a fan of the acoustic solo version Gira performed on I Am Singing To You From My Room. Subtle, and extremely gratifying. |
submissions
| Swans – Sealed in Skin Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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But I get the feeling that there's more to it, especially after listening to a demo of the song from around 1984 (it appeared as such on the magazine comp Abstract No. 5). The earlier version has a very different feel, similar in sound to the material on Body to Body, Job to Job, relatively fast (ie. mid-tempo to slow) and with much clearer lyrics. The lyrics are somewhat longer, including the lines "I need your strong arms", "hold me against the wall" and "I can't feel myself when you feel me". But the demo version's final line is quite clear: "I hide in your world". The implications of this, along with the other lyrics are pretty sinister: Namely, that of someone who has no will, who is totally dependent on their possibly abusive "lover", who desires only to be totally absorbed or destroyed by their companion.
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submissions
| Devo – Mongoloid Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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A commentary, I think, about how ignorance is bliss. If you were mentally retarded or which and whatever, would you really worry about taxes? The government? Your salary? The mortgage? No, because why would you? How could you? Most likely, if you wouldn't even know that you were as you were, and if everyone else were, would and could anyone notice, and so possibly give a damn? No. And why should you, if no one else does...
Which becomes very dangerous if anyone IS aware.
Ignorance is bliss. |
submissions
| Devo – Blockhead Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It's basically a description of someone ordinary, pays his bills on time, does everything right, and so is completely mechanical, boring, and mentally vacuous. A square and a blockhead. |
submissions
| Whitehouse – Why You Never Became a Dancer Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Or really a jab at any pretentious artist, nastily digging at their intentionally bent truths and secret fears, at their real past, beneath all of the showmanship, as viewed through the eyes of someone who knows them well enough to see through it. |
submissions
| Coil – Ether Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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A play on the multiform meanings of the word "ether". |
submissions
| Coil – Red Queen Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The "red queen" of the title is, I believe, a reference to the mind control stimulus in the original Manchurian Candidate; Which, I think, fits well with the lyrics, which could easily be about the titular character and his woes, at least metaphorically. |
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