| Barbara Gaskin – Trash Planet Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| "Lord and Lady Muck" comes from the slang term "mucky-muck" meaning a powerful person, often implying they're rather self-import. | |
| Barbara Gaskin – Lenina Crowe Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| Also--"come up from the darkness where the babies grow" refers to Lenina's career as one of the fetus technicians at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre whose job is to genetically engineer the babies according to the needs of the World State government. | |
| Barbara Gaskin – Lenina Crowe Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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For a song about unrequited love in a dystopian novel ("A Brave New World"), it's oddly upbeat and catchy. Lenina Crowe is an attractive young woman and model citizen of the "World State"--the quasi-authoritarian government that maintains control of the population by flooding them with distractions like drugs, sex, and cheap gadgetry. She secretly grows tired of the loveless sex without attachment and longs for the sort of emotional passion that an exclusive relationship built on love ("all the world's dancing together, but she wants to be alone"). But when she meets a man, Bernard Marx, who shows her the world outside their protective bubble and tries to convince her to develop a sense of individuality by embracing her emotions ("she's only a girl, she's got feelings you know/you could show her some emotion, you could show her where to go") and becoming "antisocial" like him, she freaks out, rejecting him and racing back to the comforts of conformity. But once Lenina is awoken to this desire within in her, she is aware Bernard has "stolen" her blissful ignorance from her ("oh, what have you done to her? / You robbed her"). She falls in love with a man from outside of the World State, but when his values do not permit him to accept her freely-offered sex, she discovers the sort of negative emotions ("your Brave New World carved out the lines between her eyes, where Lenina cries") that lead her to act irrationally--the very things the World State attempts to deny its citizens in order to maintain peace and order. I can't tell if the song is admonishing Bernard to forge the personal relationship with Lenina, or John to set aside his moral purity and self-flagellation and let himself love her--the title drop of "Brave New World" comes from John's insistence in quoting Shakespeare's "The Tempest", and his beliefs represent a new world compared to what Lenina grew up in. But both men seem like funny choices--since Bernard ends up exiled, and John kills himself. |
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| Barbara Gaskin – Leipzig Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| Silly me. This is a cover of a Thomas Dolby song from 1982, so if anything, Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin's "Henry and James" were inspired by it. | |
| Barbara Gaskin – Leipzig Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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This seems to be a song about idolizing some faraway place as the solution to the ennui of everyday life: getting older, waiting for the train, sitting there stuck in traffic--although dreaming of a midsize German city as some sort of exotic Shangri-La seems odd to me. "Henry" and "James" pop up here the same way they did in...well, "Henry and James," with the addition of a Leonard. I wasn't aware of Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin creating the same sort of inter-song mythos the way (Daevid Allen-era) Gong did. Was there some sort of old story or TV show (or possibly cartoon, given Leonard's line in the chorus) featuring a Henry, James, and occasionally Leonard? |
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| Barbara Gaskin – Your Lucky Star Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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As a tribute to Joe Meek, the use of bits from "Telstar" make sense, but for some reason, the song ends repeating the guitar riff from "Walk, Don't Run"--the instrumental hit by American-based instrumental rockers The Ventures. And while Meek's production techniques no doubt inspired other instrumental rockers of the '60s, I can find no evidence he ever crossed paths with The Ventures. |
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| Joe Walsh – Help Me Thru The Night Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[rainbowviewer:29484] I think that has to do with trying to force yourself to feel normal and how it just makes the tragedy worse: "That's the danger in pretending"--you try to pretend you're fine, you're happy, everything's okay, but it's exhausting. "Trying to defend yourself from someone else's war"--you try to put on that happy face so people don't bother you, but instead they think you're available to fix their problems. "Don't know what they're fighting for"--The deeper they try to pull you in, the more you try to pull away. You want to be there for them, but on the inside you have your own problems and you don't want to have to deal with theirs too. "And they just don't care"--both of you are so absorbed in your problems that neither of you have the emotional capacity to care about the other person. |
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| Warren Zevon – Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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When I first heard it, I thought it was from the perspective of a desperate junkie ("down on my knees in pain" from withdrawal), begging for a second chance ("Swear to God I'll change"), though given the usual dark bent of Warren Zevon songs, he'll probably just take his second chance and screw up again ("I've been breaking all the rules"--it's not an isolated incident or a singular transgression; this behavior is a habit of his.) Wikipedia says that "dancing school" has long been a euphemism for a brothel, though. So he's been so unlucky that he can't even pay for it, so he's begging his ex to take him back because he can't get laid any other way? |
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| Paula Cole – Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I mean, okay, he could be better about sharing the burden of child-rearing and paying attention to you enough to notice your appearance and compliment you. Fair enough. But he's not sitting there faking disability, or abusing her or the kids, or so high on opioids that he's another child you have to take care of. And you're complaining that he's not a cowboy--who would be away from home for weeks at a time on the range, who would spend even more time with their work pals and even less time with the family? |
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| Paula Cole – Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I've always had a love-hate relationship with this song. The tune is catchy with its insistent "da-do-doot" vocal hook, the production is bright and clean, Paula Cole is a strong singer with a great handle on dynamics, and I normally love snarky kiss-offs. But the lyrics annoy me to no end. I could sympathize with a narrative about rushing into a relationship because he seemed "cool", only to discover he was a louse (a la Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car"), or she knows he's treating her bad but she thinks she deserves it (Pearl Jam's "Better Man") or he was the only thing available in this small dead-end town (The Dixie Chicks' "Earl"). But this guy apparently fixes things around the house (since he hurt his back fixing the tractor) and has a job at a factory. |
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| Paula Cole – Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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@[42:25745] steps Yeah, I'm reminded of the movie "Shane", where the title cowboy realizes that, while he admires the domesticity of the homesteaders in the valley and wants to protect them, his very presence and his rough-and-ready cowboy lifestyle endangers them all, and so...he must leave his newfound "family" behind and ride off alone. Granted, I haven't watched many Westerns, but I can't think of a single one that ends with the cowboy settling down with a family. But it's almost a cliche to have the mysterious stranger tip his hat, say "Sorry ma'am, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," and ride off--alone--into the sunset. |
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| Giles, Giles And Fripp – Why Don't You Just Drop In Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Found on "The Brondesbury Tapes" in two different versions; I chose the one with the drum intro because it has the "most" lyrics. | |
| King Crimson – Sleepless Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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It reminds me of when I suffered from sleep paralysis for a few months. When an incident of it struck, I felt like I was falling into the sea and crushed beneath waves, stuck seeing shadows and figures moving at the periphery of my vision as I couldn't pull my eyes from the ceiling, gripped with panic as I tried to sit up but couldn't move, tried to scream but could only breathe silently... |
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| OMC – How Bizarre Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| Does anyone else hear shades of Pavement's "Summer Babe" in the "every time I look around" section? Swap "look around" for "sit around," and it has the same sort of rhythmic sung-spoke repetition feeling to it. | |
| Pavement – Summer Babe (Winter Version) Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| Does anyone else think of OMC's "How Bizarre" during the "every time I sit around" section? It's weird for a New Zealand pop group to make a nod to Pavement, but I suppose it's not impossible--Blur's eponymous album was pretty much Blur Does Pavement. | |
| Pavement – Summer Babe (Winter Version) Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[Racazip:11862] The band originally recorded Summer Babe for single release. Once they were signed for an album, they rerecorded it for Slanted and Enchanted (and presumably, the session was in the winter). So there's the 7" release, and the album-released Winter Version. It does make a neat, profound-sounding parenthetical, though. |
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| Uriel – Garden of Earthly Delights Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The lyrics are adapted from a Renaissance poem, "And Would You See My Mistress' Face" by Thomas Campion (who willed his estate to Phillip Rosseter, which is why his name appears on some credits). The music is adapted from a song by British composer Martin Shaw (though I'm not sure which one.) Comparing it to the original text (http://www.poetrynook.com/poem/and-would-you-see-my-mistress-face), there's four minor differences probably done for flow (changing "mistress'" to "lady's", and rearranging "envy of whom" to "whose envy", the "reneweth/pursueth" couplet at the end is changed to "renews/pursues"), and two major ones: -The song drops the fourth stanza about "It is the face of death that smiles," and given how much they go for an eerie atmosphere with the interludes and the minor-key outro it's odd that they drop the most macabre verse. -"It is fair beauty's freshest youth" is changed to "It is the outward face of youth". |
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| Genesis – I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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I always thought the "fire escape trade" was cat-burglary: you sneak up onto the second storey via the fire escape, pry open an unlocked door or window, and slip back down to get away But "gambling only pays when you're winning"--he's content with his lazy life, why would he risk imprisonment and a criminal record for something as trivial as money? So, he "ha[s] to thank old Miss Mort for schooling a failure"--if he had been raised to pursue status and money, he might be willing to sell out like that. So, going with the album theme of England sacrificing its culture and history to try to compete with America, the lawnmower is pointing out how the lust for money that drives people to earn more and more also drives them to theft and crime, and what's wrong with being happy as a lawnmower? He's content to eavesdrop on the lords and ladies and listen to the neighbors sneaking around on a liaison (the "two little lovebirds"), dozing off on the garden bench. Why should he earn more money to try to impress others (e.g., spending all his money on getting a new outfit, "getting better in your wardrobe")? |
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| Wooden Horse – America Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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If anyone else has even heard of this band and is willing to offer corrections, I welcome it--especially on the "Picture it, a man to see, no" line. I listened to it a hundred times, and I can't make heads or tails to it, especially given the following lines; it doesn't sound like they're saying any state I've ever heard of. That aside, I'm guessing the lyrics are a kinda-biographical recollection of an Australian band growing up hearing stories of America ("America, I think I saw you somewhere/back in Sydney when I was young") and how it squared up with the actual experience. |
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| Jerry Harrison – I Cry for Iran Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Throughout the middle, there's two women singing deep in the mix, and I can't really separate them, so corrections are welcome. I wonder if the line about 'don't confuse your right with your left hand' is from the (possibly apocryphal) stories of other cultures where the left hand is the hand you use to wipe yourself with, and to offer anything with your left hand is an insult. Also, I suspect the title line is a bit of wordplay--both "I cry for the country of Iran" and since the protagonist sings over and over that "I'm on the run," then "I cry, for I ran"--I have to run, and I feel guilty. |
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| Cherry Poppin' Daddies – Flovilla Thatch Vs. The Virile Garbageman Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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One thing that's bugged me the past few years: "Pastrami" isn't a type of sausage, it's salted, smoked, sliced beef, and I doubt any man would want his sex to be sliced. I think they were going for "salami." |
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| Cherry Poppin' Daddies – Equus Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The song is marked on the lyric sheet as an instrumental, but I'm pretty sure it was the band trying to dodge getting an "Explicit Content" warning (record companies are notorious about not really listening to the content they put out). The vocals are run through an effect and mixed down into the rest of the band a bit, but they're definitely there. At the same time, corrections are welcome, because I doubt the lyrics are 100% accurate. As for the song itself, it seems like another euphemism-filled fell-in-love-with-a-dominatrix song (cf. Dirty Motha Fuzz): being order to get "your banana on my taboo," "I'm with ya and I'll obey ya," "locked your cueballs in a stock" being some sort of chastity device or cock-and-ball torture, maybe. Although I wonder if it's about him getting bored with it, since he declares it "the same old shit." |
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| Inner Circle – Bad Boys Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I assume it's patois, but what the heck is an idren, that naw give ya no break? I do like how the lyrics are chastising the criminal. Despite it being the theme for 'COPS,' it doesn't seem to be from the perspective of a cop saying "I'm the law and I'm gonna get you"--it's from the perspective of a peer saying "take responsibility and quit being an idiot." Which, admittedly, is how I feel when I watch COPS. |
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| M.O.P. – Ante Up Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I've wondered: What does "yap" mean in this song? It's obviously not "to sound like a small dog" or "to talk pointlessly". My best guess is "to stick someone up" ("yap that fool") or "to take by force" ("bracelets is yapped"). |
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| Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Immigration Man Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I've always heard that this song was about Vietnam War draft-dodgers trying to flee to Canada, but given that Graham Nash, a Brit, wrote this tune, I've wondered if it's not a personal encounter with the immigration hassles that come with being an international rockstar. If so, he's probably not the first and definitely not the last (Daevid Allen, John Lennon, M.I.A, e.g.) to be caught between fame and immigration law. | |
| Cherry Poppin' Daddies – Inertia Rhapsody Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I gave it a listen using out-of-phase stereo (which cuts out the sound in the middle of the stereo image) and ended up with this (lyric cues in brackets): "[Before you leave] I sell myself under [I want you to look over] You see me as above [Look here at me] I fell without a point [For once I'm sittin' still] At the point in the place I was born [This barn is red] I'm safe inside my house [These hills are green with summer] And I'm filled with promise ignored [The past is dead ]I still myself, (come?) [And all is forgiven] (more of them??)" [To be real...etc.] |
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| Giles, Giles And Fripp – The Saga of Rodney Toady, parts 1-5 Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Part Five reminds me of the urban legend/playground story about a young man who retires to his bedroom for a good long wank, and when he finishes and opens up his eyes, he sees a steaming hot cup of tea and some biscuits on his bedside table (some versions also include a loving note written by the mother along the lines of "I hope you enjoyed it"). | |
| Cherry Poppin' Daddies – Flovilla Thatch Vs. The Virile Garbageman Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I don't think I've ever seen so many sexual-euphemisms-that-are-actually-more-crass-than-the-thing-they're-obscuring in one song. | |
| Giles, Giles And Fripp – She Is Loaded Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This song is about a girlfriend/wife who has suddenly hit it rich in, well, a football pool (i.e., soccer to Americans, as this was a distinctly British band); "that decimal stuff" is probably money, although this was recorded in 1967 and England didn't decimalize their currency until 1971and decided to treat the singer like crap, while he suffers her because "she is loaded" (and he hopes to litigate some of that money from her--"I'll sue her, try to make this stick..."). That, or the singer treated her like crap ("she used to give me anything I wanted"--he treated her like a slave, perhaps?) and when she hit the jackpot, she turned the tables on him. Or, the woman won the money, and the singer is hoping to become her lover so that he can lay claim to a share of it. For American listeners, "lino" (read: lie-no) is short for linoleum, i.e. that cheap imitation tile you put down in the kitchen. |
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| Steely Dan – Hey Nineteen Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Surely no more scandalous than three-quarters of "Walk on the Wild Side". "Dad, what does he mean about 'Even when she was giving head?'" "Erm. I'll tell you when you're older." |
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| Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I will admit, though,, throughout the song, he does exaggerate the plosives (D and T sounds) to the point of hissing ("whatever kind of mood you're in TSSSonight"), which does make it sound a little like "a bottle of reds, a bottle of whites." But I think that's just Billy Joel's odd enunciation, not a hidden message. | |
| k.d. lang – Constant Craving Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The chorus of this popped up in my head at least five years ago (after I hadn't heard it for probably five years prior), and all that time, I've wondered who did this song. Heard it in a concert ad today and ran home to look it up. Now that's a sign of effective songwriting. |
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| Billy Joel – Angry Young Man Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This song reminds me of how I used to be. I used to be pretty damned wrapped up in myself, and I would see my philosophical and political debates as the be-all-end-all and harangue those I disagreed with. And I have no doubt that I was "fair and true and boring as hell." Then I had to start fending for myself. I grew resentful listening to people lecture me on this and that, and then I realized how obnoxious I must have been when I did that. So I tried not to harass others so much with my politics and philosophies and just get on with living my life; indeed, now more than ever it seems like "just surviving is a noble fight." I don't think it's mocking the rebellious per se, but I do think it's telling the dorm-room pundits that they'll be whistling a different tune about not working for "The Man" when their parents aren't paying their way through life anymore. |
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| Billy Joel – Scenes From An Italian Restaurant Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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gkaiser: Finally, someone sense! No offense meant to the man, but Billy Joel never exactly seemed to couch his lyrics in symbolism or obscurity; he usually said (sang?) what he meant. I don't think he'd "disguise" drug references as red and white wine and use a dinner at an Italian restaurant as a metaphor for a funeral. It sounds like looking back at your salad days with an old flame: the opening and closing parts are in the present day, at the restaurant, the "Things are okay with me these days" bit is catching up on your lives and thinking about the past, which segues into reminiscence and the Brenda and Eddie story. If rich20b is right and it was essentially built around the middle section, it's a great way to extend a short song into a neat little suite--just the "Brenda and Eddie" section on its own doesn't seem that interesting, but it fits great as a piece of a whole. It's one of his best-constructed songs, in my opinion. |
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| Billy Joel – Christmas In Fallujah Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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There's a video of Cass Dillon and Billy Joel performing the song here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/017370.html |
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| Billy Joel – A Minor Variation Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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There's an underlying musical pun here, too: Basic theory rundown: the most common two scales in Western music are the major and minor scales. Songs written in major keys tend to be described as positive or light--not always, but generally speaking. Think of "Only the Good Die Young" or "Uptown Girl"--or most pop music, really. Minor keys are often described as sad, somber, haunting, or dark. It's less common for a pop song to be wholly in a minor key; minor tonality in pop music is usually used to provide contrast to the rest of the song: "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" is primarily minor up until the car-revving part at the end, and the moody-sounding piano interlude in "Piano Man" is minor, while the rest of the song trends towards major. The lyrics make reference to a "sad composition" (probably referring to this song, which is likely in a minor key, too), and a "blue situation"--the blues scale, which most blues musicians base their solos on, is a variation on the minor pentatonic scale. And in classical music, variations are when a part is repeated, but altered during the repetitions; so, a minor variation would sound familiar, but darker than its major counterpart. The lyrics indicate that, like a musical variation, this is an ongoing and recurring thing ("ain't nothing new," "more of the same thing," "it's just a part of the pattern," "it's not as though I don't know the condition"). So he's saying both that it's just a slight (minor) change (variation) in his condition, and that he's in a dark, brooding, minor-keyed mood, and a recurring one at that. |
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| Men at Work – Overkill Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| And day after day, we drink beers... | |
| Kate Bush – Kashka from Baghdad Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"A la lune" would mean "by the moon"--she only sees them visiting at night, and they never go out when they could be seen, since they'd probably be harassed (or worse) for it. Coincidentally, I can't help but wonder if there's some influence on Kate by Susan Traynor, aka Noosha Fox of '70s British pop group Fox--they both had a high, squeaky vocal style, somewhat fantastical songs, a band of crack pop musicians playing in an unmistakably '70s style, and Fox also had a song, "Georgina Bailey," which makes reference to a pair of gay men living in France. I won't divulge more, in case you want to check out the song yourself (a Top of the Pops performance of the song can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEMmmPn-Esw). |
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| Steely Dan – Daddy Don't Live In That New York City No More Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My guess is that "Daddy" is--or, rather, was--a pimp, gangster, or assorted low-life of some sort (a fixation of the 'Dan--see "Sign In Stranger," "With A Gun," "Pearl of the Quarter," "Do It Again," and "Charlie Freak," among others). The lyrics talk about his various depravities: partying ("celebrating Sunday on a Saturday night"), keeping a gun stored in case of 'emergencies' ("the piece he stowed out on Avenue D"--aren't the letter-streets in a bad part of NYC?), showing off his wealth by cruising around town ("don't drive that El Dorado no more"), and getting drunk on cheap liquor ("drinkin' his dinner from a paper sack"). The last verse implies that the reason he "don't live in that New York City no more" is because he's dead and burning in hell--"Daddy can't get no fine cigar/But we know you're smoking, wherever you are". I've wondered if this is a vignette of their creation, or based on a real person or fictional character. |
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| Tears for Fears – Head Over Heels Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I'm wondering if "it's hard to be a man when there's a gun in your hand" means that you can talk the talk, but when you've actually got the opportunity--the gun in your hand--it's not easy to follow through. "I wanted to be with you tonight/And talk about the weather"--I wanted love to be like all the cliches, where we wade through small talk and gradually fall for each other. But love's not all that easy, and for as much as we talk about how it ought to be, "it's hard to be a man when there's a gun in your hand," and it's never as easy to deal with love as it is to talk about it. |
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| Supertramp – Breakfast in America Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I've always liked the oom-pah beat and the old music-hall feel of the song; if the lyrics weren't originally sarcastic, the silliness of the music makes it come across as such. It's someone dreaming of an America where all the men are rich billionaires, and the women are all 'California girls'. And since it seems to be a game with prog-rockers to play connect-the-dots with the songs, think on this: Pair it up with "Gone Hollywood", you've got the portrait of a man who's come to America with the dreams of making it big in USA only to end up at his wit's end, stuck in this dumb motel next to the Taco Bell without a hope in hell of making it here. And string it with "Child of Vision", and it's can be an outsider-on-the-inside's concept of what America truly is--it's not seen as paradise because it's perfect, it's seen as a paradise because it's got the best salesmen around who can sell it as such. |
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| Kate Bush – Them Heavy People Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Actually I can see the masturbation angle: "Rollin' the ball"--a euphemism for female self-pleasure. "Inconvenient time/a room in my mind"--someone interrupting a jilling-off session "I must work on my mind"--figuring out what turns her on, fantasizing about things. "Every one of us have a heaven inside"--referring to the joy 'those parts' bring her. Unfortunately, the interpretation kind of falls apart in the second verse. But it is fun to be immature and giggle about it while it lasts. |
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| Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Best saxophone riff ever? Best saxophone riff ever. The lyrics, as others have said, seem to be about being stuck in a rut and kidding yourself that if you just work hard and keep at it, things'll get better ("another year and then you'll be happy"), but you don't believe yourself ("but you're cryin', you're cryin' now"), and there's some small solace that you're not alone in the feeling, but there's still an overwhelming hopelessness. |
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| The Faces – Ooh La La Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Like a lot of people, the first time I head this song was on a commercial. Then I finally listened to the whole song. It's interesting that the bittersweet, folksy feel masks the latent misogyny inherent in the song (and some of the Faces' other work, like "Stay With Me.") I think it's clever that it manages to sugarcoat a song of an old man saying "Rah rah women suck because I can't get laid." It's also funny that everyone is interpreting it as a heartwarming ditty about learning life-lessons. It's about a grumpy old man complaining to his grandson that women are the devil and are only out to deceive, swindle, and frustrate men. Oh, and tease them and give them blue-balls. Gramps says "I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger" so that he could've taken advantage of women back then instead of letting them take advantage of him. Not quite my version of heartwarming. |
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| Stealers Wheel – Stuck In The Middle With You Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm tempted to be smug and say "I liked it before it was in Reservoir Dogs." But I'm fairly young and, ironically, I probably wouldn't have heard it on oldies stations if its use in that movie hadn't caused a resurgence in popularity, thus causing it to re-enter popular consciousness and make it worthwhile for oldies stations to put it back in rotation. So thanks, Q.T., for keeping a good song alive. For the record, though, I still haven't seen the movie. kayteeoh - A review of the song allmusic.com calls it a "clever corporate snub", so you could be right: You're at a fancy dinner with these bigwigs and suits and snobs and assorted other elites, and you feel awkward ("I don't know why I came here tonight/I got the feelin' that something ain't right") and, in the presence of The Powers That Be, you're terrified of making a bad impression-- "I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair/And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs...It's so hard to keep this smile from my face/Losing control, yeah, I'm all over the place." But you spend time with them, and you realize that they're nothing but a pack of assholes--"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right/Here I am, stuck in the middle with you." This would especially make sense if he was at the dinner with a bandmate and he knew they both felt the same way. If you interpret it that way, the "started off with nothin'" bridge could be about the guys in the band all psyched that they've finally gone from a no-name group gigging at dives (starting off from nothing) to a decently successful group. But now that they're big, their 'friends' come out of the woodwork, asking for money or connections or what-have-you, slapping you on the back and begging for a hand-out. Maybe it's another "success isn't what I thought it would be" song. Also, I always thought "And your friends, they all come crawlin'/Slap you on the back and say, 'Please, please,'" was "And your fat old uncle Charlie...". |
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| Peter Gabriel – White Shadow Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Dear Mr. Gabriel: Please go back in time and hit your past self upside the head with a rhyming dictionary. "Kentucky Fried" should never be used as a rhyme outside of godawful American Country-and-Western songs. There's better poetic rhymes, like "lied" or "cried" or "hide". Maybe even "wide." But not "Kentucky Fried." That just ruins it. --Much love, Professor Know-It-All |
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| Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Realizing this song was referencing a silly gameshow, yet still managed to be as dark and menacing as it is, puts me in awe of Peter Gabriel's songwriting ability (in spite of lines like "All wrapped to go like Kentucy Fried" in "White Shadow"). It all fits together now: Perhaps it's in human nature to be violent. As kids, we imitate the wars and fights we've seen from adults as games ; and as we get older, we watch silly gameshows ("It's a Knockout!"/"Jeux Sans Frontieres") where the contestants are subject to various kinds of physical abuse (battling with foam wants, getting dunked in water, falling in mud, etc.) for our enjoyment. And as nations, we get into the violence and wars that, oddly enough, sparked our imaginations as kids and still hold fascination for us as adults. Even though we view the TV shows and kiddie fights as harmless and wars as violent, they're both sides of the same coin. |
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| Duran Duran – Too Much Information Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Yeah, but they hardly sound like they're biting said hand with any sort of reluctance. | |
| Cherry Poppin' Daddies – Master And Slave Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I've been thinking about this more, and since nobody else will comment, I'll use this place as a scratchpad: "Master and slave, in equal parts/Split down the middle, drinkin' doubles at the bar" -- Not two people, but one person who feels like they're "split down the middle:" part master, part slave, and maybe "drinking doubles at the bar" because of the stress. There's a lot of mentions of sons and fathers, too: Abraham and his (unspecified) son, the prodigal son, "Such a deal for your only son," "Never tossed a nickel to his son, " "Think you're drinkin' wine, dad, it's blood of a lamb," "For fallen sons and fathers, too") There's also a common thread about being poor: "No pennies from heaven, no pennies in my hand," (i.e. having nothing and getting no help) "Never saw a slice of no pie/Too busy standing in line, just waiting for bread," "Never tossed a nickel to his son", "I'm scratching to hang on" (financially?), "when a can of pork-and-beans can change my attitude"--when I'm so broke and hungry that basic amenities like cheap food are a luxury to me--and every chorus ends in "Two for the price of one"--a bargain. The album this is originally off of, "Ferociously Stoned", has a couple of songs about an abusive past ("Drunk Daddy" and arguably "Answering Machine" for its "Daddy daddy daddy what's your problem?" chorus) and rising up from bad conditions ("Up From the Gutter"). But how all the Bible references, American iconography, split personality, thematic continuity of the album, and rich/poor dichotomy fit together is still unclear to me. Is it another abused-son-pissed-at-his-father rant? Perhaps the father is a hypocritical preacher; hence, the Biblical references: the son feels angry at his father's poor treatment ("that's no way to treat your son, now is it, Abraham?") and refusal to help him out in life ("No pennies from heaven...," "Never tossed a nickel to his son"), and throws the father's two-facedness back at him ("Ain't I your prodigal boy?") . But then, what does this have to do with American iconography and slaves, as well as the opening verse about how whoever the protagonist of the song is addressing is a coward who's "never known no hunger..."? Besides, would a priest or preacher really have a condescending, psychotic 'boss'? (And would the boss be the next step up on the Church's hierarchy, or God Itself?) Hm. |
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| Cherry Poppin' Daddies – Master And Slave Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The song's not simply about an ordinary 'master and slave,' but I can't figure out what it's about. There's Biblical references: wine and lamb's blood, Abraham (who was a prolific father), the prodigal son, walking on water. But there's also a lot of American references and iconography: the pursuit of happiness (an inalienable right, according to the Declaration of Independence), and carpetbaggers (after the American Civil War, some Northerners moved into the weakened South in order to exploit it for personal and political gain; they were called 'carpetbaggers' because they supposedly packed all their stuff into a cheap bag made of carpet and rushed South to take advantage of what they could), purple mountain majesties (from the song 'America the Beautiful'), stars and red, white (and blue) bars. I almost want to interpret it as a condemnation of those who dismiss the poor as lazy when they themselves never had to struggle with being poor--it's a poor man telling a middle-class one that it's easy to look down your nose at me because "You've never known hunger, you've never took a risk/If the boss asked you to jump , you know you'd find the nearest cliff": you're as much a slave to your meager job as I am to poverty. I'm not totally sure what it's about, though. For a band whose bread and butter were songs about sex, drugs, and violence, this is a pretty deep song. |
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