| Andrew Bird – Beware Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[abirata:14467] well nevermind | |
| The Wailin' Jennys – Across the Sea Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| This song is full of romantic ideas about coming to the "New World", behind family gone before. The journey is terrifying but beautiful because stars and love. How much hope is too much hope? When does fear win out over hope? This is a tender song / kind warning to everyone who is afraid of expectations. | |
| Emmylou Harris – Deeper Well Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| This is about war, and the futility of greed. | |
| St. Vincent – Neutered Fruit Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Reminds me of Marina Abramović, a Serbian performance artist - in 2010 she performed "The Artist is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art. She would sit immobile opposite a chair in which anyone could sit and she would silently maintain eye contact with them. People went through intensely emotional experiences - fear, love, challenge, anger...some of the performances are on Youtube, it is fascinating to watch | |
| David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[gren:13844] - I bet you you're right! "Curiously enough the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was, 'Oh, no not again.' Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we should know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now." | |
| St. Vincent – The Party Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Definitely "talking" as in you love talking to this person so much the time just flew past. Great song! | |
| St. Vincent – Oh My God Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| The narrator is numb from grief and drinking herself to death. Neglecting the daily maintenance of herself and her home. Comes to and sees the state of things and is horrified. Reminds me of "Hoarders" - often those people have had undergone a terrible loss and just stopped caring about the tasks of daily living, until the chaos becomes overwhelming. | |
| St. Vincent – Hysterical Strength Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Or "It ain't...over" | |
| Andrew Bird – Darkmatter Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Until very recently, certain parts of the human genome were a mystery - scientists could not determine the purpose of the material, which was labeled "junk DNA", or "dark matter". This year (Sept. 2012) findings were published in "Nature" to the effect that the "dark matter" contains millions of gene switches that determine how a cell behaves, and when. So if you are carrying a hereditary disease, the countdown clock for its onset is encoded somewhere in those switches. It's a huge breakthrough in genetic research. It seems to fit with the idea of a noose of DNA growing tighter but you can shoot right through it with "rays of dark matter". I don't know if that's what he's talking about or not but if so, it's prophetic - the song was written years before this discovery was published. He doesn't moonlight as some kind of mad scientist, does he? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/science/far-from-junk-dna-dark-matter-proves-crucial-to-health.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |
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| Andrew Bird – Beware Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think this is a caution about getting involved in a war in the Middle East, directed to America, especially about the Iraq war (would have been written about the time the war began). The general sense is "you don't know what you're in for". "...take a good, good look at the latest pie that they could cook" reminds me of "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The song refers to four and twenty blackbirds baked (alive) in a pie - the birds were baked alive in a pie and would fly out and surprise (and scare) wealthy medieval feast-goers. "Just before the time of Nero...We had no concept of zero" - Mathematicians in Babylonia (now called Iraq) were using the "concept of zero" thousands of years before the Western world...look at Roman numerals, which go on and on and on, because there is no placeholder for "nothing". No zeroes. "...as you near your Independence Day" is (seems) a direct reference to America. "The devil may care...and maybe he's the only one" No one, or not enough, people are paying attention to the issue of war profiteering. The "intervention" in Iraq is really all about oil reserves. Come on. I know it's irritating to compare artists (I can't help it) but this one in particular, though very Squirrel Nut Zippery, also reminds me of Tom Waits. |
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| Andrew Bird – Banking on a Myth Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Just a note @sovietbomb, since music is his vocation and is tremendously important to him, I don't know why it would be pretentious for him to comment on the music industry. He overtly refers to it in Plasticities, for instance (well, as overt as he gets, heh). I think The Confession is maybe an oblique reference to being treated pretty shabbily by big-label industry types. Lazy Projector hints at it too, perhaps. He does not strike me as a cynical person but when he addresses this topic - the dull sameness manufactured by and dilution of the power of music by commercial interests — he can be a bit cynical which is not surprising. Or maybe it isn't cynicism, just a weariness. And I agree that the “lukewarm liquid diet” being force fed could easily refer to fellatio — as in “hey, you're getting screwed by these jerks.” However, I also think that many / most of his songs can be taken as addressing more than one thing at a time. This song was released 2004 / 2005 so it's not about the financial crisis of a few years ago, though it stil could refer to the fiat monetary system / IMF / The Fed... However I hear something far, far more hopeful in this song, and it's so different than the (excellent) interpretations on here that I thought at first maybe I'm way off base. But I think Bird has a very strong spiritual bent and he may be talking about his own relationship with God, or the Muses, or whatever feeds / sustains his soul. A deep topic discussed in playful language — like most of his songs. He never hits you over the head with things. By the way, I think the lyric is “When the words we use have lost their banter” rather than “lost their bite”. It's not really his style to bite. Tap you on the shoulder maybe, or give you a puzzle to get your attention, but he's pretty gentle about it, he's a writer, not a biter. “The game is rigged / go fig your slideshow tanked and your flagship sank” - The first couple of verses sound like a father encouraging a son after initial failures or disappointments in pursuing a creative career. “Taking all our myths to the bank” refers to having resolute faith — walking the walk and keeping on going even though it's sometimes discouraging (“drinking a fifth to the [bank]”). “Though it might involve child labor” might refer to the concept that we're children of God. “Join his entourage” - don't lose hope, stay close to your Source. “You're inside, you're in tight” again I see this as encouraging, a pep talk of sorts. Illegitimi non carborundum. “It doesn't matter if you blow” - again, this is encouragement after some bad disappointments (clearly Bird doesn't “blow” but anyone can have doubts about themselves after a string of bad luck / unresponsive audiences / projects that didn't pan out). I just think when in doubt, he seems to nearly always have a playful tone. What's more playful than a “pillowfight”? Or...maybe I'm just trying to ride the concept of a horse. Who knows? |
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| Andrew Bird – Not a Robot, But a Ghost Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This sounds to me like someone losing his or her mind. It starts out with a wet wave sound like a disembodied brain contracting in fevered concentration. It makes me think of the frenzy around the "Bible Code" and also Kabbalists and those who study the Torah obsessively to the exclusion of reason. The lyric - "The hour, the hour, the hour, the hour" — often, the point of all these fevered attempts to reduce the Bible to numbers and figures is to determine the exact date of the Apocalypse. So I think that the lyric “the hour...the hour...the hour....” refers to the futility of this kind of thinking, and is a reference to the famous verse in Matthew 24 that goes “But about that day or hour no one knows...Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” The idea behind this verse, or at least one interpretation, is that the hour of man's face-to-face meeting with the Divine is NOW, every moment of life. The narrator of this song is a bit of a lost soul, and is suffering in confusion and loneliness, not realizing that he or she is not (spiritually) alone. I realize I read and hear all things according to my own prejudices, and I'm not always sure that's how I see the world, but I understand a little bit of that kind of gnostic philosophy, and it seems to me to be a recurring theme in his lyrics. |
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| Andrew Bird – Oh No Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| A three year old and the sense of abject fear and dread in his "oh nos" that resonates with someone decades older. Maybe the kid's just saying what the rest of us are thinking. | |
| Andrew Bird – MX Missiles Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The line about calcium being deadly tender to the tooth may refer to the "Baby Tooth Survey" undertaken in St. Louis in the early 1960's which measured the levels of radioactive isotropes found in the baby teeth of children - it found levels of Strontium-90, a radioactive isotrope chemically similar to calcium, that was five times higher than levels measured before large-scale atomic testing began. This study led to the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the UK and USSR, which ultimately led to the SALT treaties and détente. So...in short, I didn't really see you as a real person but I was wrong, I didn't know you were just as human as I am. He is just too freaking cool. I analyze this stuff too much but it's just too much fun not to. There is a very flirtatious version of this song on the Fingerlings 2 album, which sounds like it is addressed to a woman he is attracted to (changes to the lyrics are just to the first verse, but the music is much more light in tone): "Now tell me again what it is that you do? I'm hard pressed to tell just by looking at you And Im looking at you I want to know what you're doing And those that would judge or would say you're aloof It's because you know that the truth is a seed You know what you need is a conflagration..." (& etc...) |
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| Andrew Bird – Don't Be Scared Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This is truly beautiful. I love the harmony especially. It's a wonderful song that seems to be about the beauty and strangeness of the world and how it's ok if you're a little strange too. | |
| Andrew Bird – Measuring Cups Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "He described experiencing a sort of hierarchy and false labeling" Absolutely a theme throughout everything he's ever done. Language fails. But then what? He's fantastic and clever and, I think, has a kind spirit about these questions. | |
| Andrew Bird – Armchairs Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I don't know where his dad is but I can tell you where my mind goes This is one of my favorites and one of the reasons I am just completely in love with this artist It starts out in a vague romantic vein but ends up talking about a much older relationship, an absent father. Not completely absent, but someone who shows up just for the parties. It's a censure and longing for something the narrator doesn't even know how to describe - so the stories of mom and dad are just apocryphal, rather than factual. The line about bootstraps just makes my heart break and soar at the same time, and it's not specific to anything else but my very own broken heart - Andrew, you can work a lyric, can't you? And there's so much wit in the lines about fixing it all with epoxy and pliers - in god knows how much time we'll get around to it eventually when the sea slugs well, you know The 55 3/8 might refer to someone's age and how tall you ought to be by then I don't freaking know. But I love this artist so much |
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| St. Vincent – Marrow Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "ten strings tied to all ten of my fingers" implies to me that the narrator is the one doing the controlling of a puppet, rather than the one being controlled. I think the song is saying something about the idea that feminine is the same as helpless -- and rejecting that idea pretty forcefully. | |
| Brian Eno – Needles in the Camel's Eye Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| It's a play on a Gospel verse "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24). I like EifL's ideas | |
| St. Vincent – Marry Me Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I took "I hope your open sign is blinking still" to mean she hopes he hasn't wised up and he is still blinking, stupidly, when she's back around again. A "blinking idiot". | |
| Andrew Bird – Two Way Action Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think you're reading your own rather narrow-minded, ugly bigotry towards the South into it. Clearly you've never been to Tennessee, there's nothing "uninspiring" about the geography. Although I do agree that it's about being lonely on the road. | |
| Andrew Bird – Glass Figurine Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Well it's confusing, didn't know this was a Bowl of Fire song. Look here http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858546099/ |
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| Andrew Bird – Glass Figurine Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This is a great song and the lyrics are awfully accurate for a personal situation and I can't help but notice a similarity (homage?) to "Creep" by Radiohead in the first few measures. | |
| Andrew Bird – Dear Dirty Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Here's how the lyrics sounded to me from a recording taken at Gezelligheid 12-16-2012 (Live at Fourth Presbyterian Church) found at archive org slash details slash AndrewBird (downloadable, apparently with his permission). Dear dirty, I’m a man strong and tall And I live in a cave, Using the blood to draw, blood to draw Animal like the boar Oh animal like the boar Dear dirty I'm a manstrument too And I live in a cave Using the blood to draw blood to draw And I go to find more things Go for walk to find things 'Cause I could use some goo Animal love the gore He said the lyrics were written by a friend named Jay (Jay Ryan maybe? Who has done a lot of his posters) |
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| Andrew Bird – Lazy Projector Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think the beginning phrases are "And it's written in your marrow / That your passages are narrow" | |
| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| A great song to sing while being burned at the stake, fer shure | |
| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Hey, the first listen I thought he said "pussy" and then I thought "the hell'd you say?" Then he immediately said nearly the same thing. Spooky funny |
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| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I like Bird fans, smart y'all are | |
| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Nor mine, neither, nope | |
| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Good call, I think it's both, you win either way! | |
| Andrew Bird – Heretics Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I've listened to it a few dozen times and still, WTF? And why did it make me laugh? | |
| Andrew Bird – Respiration Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This is beautiful | |
| Squirrel Nut Zippers – Blue Angel Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This is such a fantastic song. Very dark. I always feel so stupid trying to describe why I like what music pulls me in. I wind up sounding dumb or insane but goddamn I miss this band and this style! | |
| Andrew Bird – Lazy Projector Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Also "an archer we don't know" = "I'm not sure we don't know" he's clever. Love his voice. | |
| Andrew Bird – Lazy Projector Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Could this be at least partially about the breakup of a past band? The Squirrel Nut Zippers' breakup involved litigation about past due royalties and even more heartaches and headaches than that. (Who owns the master / too many cooks / mighty must fall) Also I think he said in an interview that he ended up going solo after Bowl of Fire members couldn't (wouldn't?) show up for a gig he was trying to organize. And from then on he spent however many *years* solo, that's one lonesome path. It's all conjecture on my part, and he never, ever seems angry or bitter talking about past projects. But maybe this is a lament for old friends (I can't see the sense in us breaking up at all) |
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| The Black Keys – Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles (Captain Beefheart cover) Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| You are just delightfully whacko, I've been stalking your comments I'll admit, please keep on keeping on all that top hat | |
| Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire – Feetlips Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| There ya go, my thoughts too. Also, I wonder if there was anyone named "Phillips" in or associated with Bowl of Fire? I love how theatrical and silly this is | |
| Andrew Bird – Imitosis Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "I can't make the song say something that Bird didn't intend for it to" None of us has any idea what he intended while writing it. Your interpretation was very interesting and thoughtful. | |
| Andrew Bird – Action/Adventure Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Or playing the melody on the violin while thinking of the lyrics, looking at the back of his hand on the bow | |
| Andrew Bird – Lusitania Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I also get the feeling that it's about the start of a new relationship, particularly after being "out of the ring" for a while. ("We don't study this war no more") Someone who is reluctant to enter the fray but is provoked to do so by someone who sparks his passions - good and bad. The sinking of the Lusitania was a catalyst for American involvement in World War I (I only know this because I had to look it up after this song got stuck in my head - he's right, we don't study this war no more). The sinking of the Maine likewise sparked American involvement in the Spanish-American war and the line "It will help us not remember the Maine" is a little jaded reference to a prior heartache in a sly, funny way. You also get the sense that the new relationship is HOT, sparks all over the place, and it's with someone who has been in a similar situation ("Go on and say something dumb boy, there's no shame") | |
| Andrew Bird – Lull Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Don't forsake the love of the magic squid, or it will rape and kill you before birthing thousands of the mutant spawn of your loins. | |
| Andrew Bird – Fiery Crash Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| '...a sort of ridiculous hatred toward each other..." Exactly. We become fearful and suspicious of one another based on the theater we call the news. It's played out most dramatically at the airports. But if you knew you were going to die in a fiery crash and the strangers stuck in that tin can in the sky with you were the last people you'd ever see on earth, would you feel kinder toward them? Be nicer to them? Think more of them? | |
| Andrew Bird – The Confession Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Sorry to let you down, Jeffrey! I guess we can call off the marriage, damn it | |
| Andrew Bird – Nomenclature Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think one facet of it goes something like...Is Andrew Bird's music "indie pop?" Or is it "chamber pop?" Isn't he the whistling guy who sings folk music? Is he a hot jazz revivalist? Because if I know how to categorize music, I can decide whether or not I like it without actually listening to it... | |
| Andrew Bird – Opposite Day Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I thought it sounded a lot like Elliott Smith, but people always say Elliott Smith was Beatles-esque. I thought of Smith because he was also an incredibly talented songwriter and this would have been written in the general time frame of his rather shocking suicide -- he was at the peak of his popularity, and he stabbed himself in the heart. Holy fuck. | |
| Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire – Candy Shop Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I don't know why I said catcall! I meant "An extended, raunchy, *wolf whistle* done entirely in sexual innuendo." Anyway, it's hot! |
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| Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire – Candy Shop Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| An extended, raunchy, catcall done entirely in sexual innuendo | |
| Andrew Bird – Action/Adventure Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Me too. | |
| Andrew Bird – Nomenclature Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The posted lyrics are from a different song also called "Nomenclature" by The Grand Silent System. The lyrics to Bird's "Nomenclature" are Just think of the lives you could swap with your own While you're selling your coats, you're sewing your own You know it's not the easy way Sometimes we've got to pay to play With finger paints and macramé It's time we asked the sea and say Could you bring a different nomenclature? Now the colors have bled to gray To ones that don't exist in nature A nomenclature is washing away, washing away A nomenclature is washing away, washing away But did it carry you away, carry you all the way? Did it carry you away, carry you all the way? Nomenclature's washing away, oh it's washing us all away Nomenclature's washing away, oh it's washing us all away |
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| Andrew Bird – Opposite Day Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think that's Bird himself, breaking the fourth wall. If you can break a fourth wall in song, since there aren't any walls - anyway, stepping out of character to say something Mysterious, in a teasing way. "I just work here" is so funny. | |
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