submissions
| Jackson Browne – Hold Out Lyrics
| 7 months ago
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The lyrics are clearly about a romantic relationship that is ending and the singer is acknowledging that he wasn't always faithful to his departing partner. The "holdout' idea is just a way of saying that one party or both are not settling for an unsatisfactory relationship so they're seeking a partner they will feel closer, more connected, and more committed to.
But there's also something worth noticing about the melody -- it's based on one of the great melodies of rock 'n roll -- Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale." It's not a note-for-note ripoff of the whole Whiter Shade melody but has enough of the same chord progression to be readily recognizable. Browne knew that and talked about it in interviews at the time. . |
submissions
| David Crosby – What Are Their Names Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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So directly expressed and the lyric does have a certain power in its brevity, but now, with the informed perspective gained from having seen all the wars that followed the one in Vietnam, these words seem a bit naive. We can see that it's not necessarily a matter of having unknown and unseen people directing our engagements from the shadows. It's obvious that war is good for business, most especially for those who make military weapons and other equipment, so those businesses have powerful lobbyists who wield significant influence on the executive and legislative branches of government. All those parties combine to support ever-increasing "defense" (i.e., military) budgets and no matter what's going on in the world there's always some rationale given for needing more of it and more sophisticated weaponry. Even if you agree with that rationale what about the strong likelihood that some of these weapons will end up in the hands of the enemy? Not unlike the gun industry and its lobbying arm.
OK, so it's a bit naive to think that if only we knew who the decision-making people are we could talk them out of their militaristic inclinations. But, naivete aside, the desire to have an opportunity to give those folks a piece of one's mind is still admirable., if somehow enacted,(as in street protests) it's much better to speak out than do nothing in the face of what often looks like everyone's-armed-to-the-teeth insanity. . |
submissions
| David Crosby – In My Dreams Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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A charming and engaging song with some good lines, about the challenges of making long-term intimate relationships work. Tuneful, too, with some appealing shifts and changes as the song progresses --- characteristic of Crosby's songwriting. Love it. |
submissions
| David Crosby – Cowboy Movie Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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I agree with the "allmusic" interpretation given in MANT's comment, which mostly seemed obvious, and that makes the song interesting to hear the first few times.(I didn't know that the "Indian girl" represented Rita Coolidge, but the rest was easy to figure out.) The instrumental support from the Dead band, fairly spare, sounds good, too. But it's a long song with a repetitive humdrum melody and while Crosby's vocal starts out well enough, by the last couple of verses it's raspy and hard to listen to. So I consider this track the weakest cut on the album. |
submissions
| Neil Young – White Line Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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This song, one of my favorites of Young's, alludes to the tension between his significant-other relationship and his career, which given that he's a touring musician means that he spends a lot of time on the road. Sounds like it comes from a time when the love was flowing but he was aware of being away so much that he was neglecting his wife or girlfriend back home. Also, the lines "Right now I'm rolling down the open road where the daylight will soon be breaking" remind me of his song "Thrasher," where it goes
"And I was just getting up
Hit the road before it's light
Trying to catch an hour on the sun."
Of course the term white line can also refer to drugs and he used plenty but the song stands on some sturdy legs/wheels without the double entendre. |
submissions
| John Prine – Summer's End Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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What an evocative song, one that says so much without explaining anything. It just goes for the heart of what's happening.
Sounds like it's to someone who is having great difficulty, struggling, perhaps contemplating suicide. The singer is trying to find reassuring words to say/sing, and is coming from a place of love. The song captures the sadness and poignancy of that moment.
I most enjoy the live Tiny Desk show that includes a performance of this song. |
submissions
| Jackson Browne – The Birds of St. Marks Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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One element of this song that confirms it's from JB's youth is the casting of the main subject as a queen in a castle. At first listen I related that analogy to royalty to his early song The Shadow Dream Song, which he never released on his own recordings but was covered by Tom Rush. It's a love song and the actors in it are identified as the princess and the prince. "I can't remember how I used to think. What was the song she sang before the morning rang between the princess and the prince?" Both songs have appealing melodies; Birds of St. Marks is more intriguing. |
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| Neil Young – Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown [Live] Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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This song first appeared on Crazy Horse's first album, which was made without Neil Young's participation, though it did include one Young song (Dance, Dance , Dance). The studio version of C'mon Baby... on that album is much tamer than the live one on Tonight's the Night; it's kind of jaunty and lighthearted while the TtN version is a powerhouse blast of electric rock that sounds especially vital in contrast to the solo drug-weary musings of Borrowed Tune when it's heard in the original album sequence. |
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| Patty Griffin – Coming Home To Me Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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As with a few of Patti's other songs, this one is utterly poignant, expressing a heart full of sympathy and longing, tenderness and steadfast loyalty. Don't know her in person but in her songs you can hear these qualities and more so clearly. And the melody is lovely, complemented nicely by the tumbleweed of words being sung by two sweet voices out of sync with each other in the bridge part -- "when you get to that place that's just under the stars..." Beautiful, heart-rending, touching and ephemeral, as with other great songs, but with its own special way of getting there. |
submissions
| Patty Griffin – Rain Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Back in the late '90s I went to a Lucinda Williams concert with a friend, and Patty Griffin was the opening act. I had not heard her music until then. I remember not being taken in by any particular song but fully recognizing the power and expressiveness of her singing voice. I told my friend that I thought she was a great singer who just needed some stronger material to work with.
Within a year of that show I heard this song on the radio, and immediately felt -- that's it, she has a song that does justice to that voice. (Little did I know, she had several more of them, but this is one of her most powerful early career songs.) |
submissions
| The Rolling Stones – Bitch Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[greendreamer:19869] -- I looked up "fortnight's sleep" and it's valid; it's a saying some English folk use to say they got a lot of rest. So that is the correct lyric. |
submissions
| Bruce Springsteen – Trapped Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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@[annazoff:13676] -- good of you to mention this. SongMeanings credits the lyrics to Bruce but that's incorrect attribution. |
submissions
| Blind Willie Johnson – The Soul of a Man Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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A timeless song that reaches for meaning and understanding by asking a question that has no definite single answer; it's open to interpretation, opinion, and feeling. The song carries weight because it touches on a universal concern -- what is it about us/humans that can be called a "soul"? Some of us think we know, some might say you can't define it but it's something you know when you see it in someone else -- but the song just captures the question and asks it in musical form, with a lively melody and standard blues song structure. Haunting and compelling, a song by a blind black musician/preacher from the late 1920s retains its power across the ages. |
submissions
| Billy Bragg – Levi Stubbs' Tears Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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@[Comrade_Liar:7051] -- you might have it figured out by now, but the girl is not crying. In the course of the song she is listening to songs sung by Levi Stubbs, who was the lead singer of the Four Tops, and the presumption is that he is crying as he sings his song(s). It is probably not accurate but that's the basis of the title and chorus of the song. The reference to tears could be literal but more likely it is to the highly emotional, despairing character of the lyrics to some of the Four Tops' songs. |
submissions
| The Rolling Stones – Bitch Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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One of the best straight-ahead rock 'n roll songs ever. I'm glad to see what the lyrics are in some places, 'cause as with several Stones songs they're kind of muddled to my ears just from listening to the recording. On this one in particular I had not figured out that Jagger was singing "Pavlov dog."
However, I do think the second line isn't "just had a fortnight's sleep," but "just had a full night's sleep." Could be wrong, but doesn't that make more sense? |
submissions
| Little Feat – A Apolitical Blues Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Credit Lowell G with one of the funnier lines in a rock song -- possibly showing the sardonic influence of being a member of F Zappa's band for some years -- "I have a apolitical blues, and it's the meanest blues of all." As if being adverse to politics is the worst thing that can happen to a guy, worse than all the things that blues songs have been written about for 100 years. Plus, the mere use of "apolitical" (or other multi-syllabic terms) in a song lyric is a delight in itself. |
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| Little Feat – Long Distance Love Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I have two more things to add to my comment -- one is that I think the line after "her toes were so pretty" either is or should be "and her lies (were) so sweet," not "her life so sweet," though I think the lyric shown on the LF album liner notes also says "life." Also, taking the Jackson Browne connection a step further -- when Lowell George died Jackson did a fundraising concert (at least one) for his family, and then on his next album at the time (Holdout) he included a song that was written to Lowell's daughter, and it's called "Of Missing Persons," which I take as a double-entendre reference to this song. The lyrics of that song are clearly about the death of a great musician. |
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| Little Feat – Long Distance Love Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The longing, sadness, and resignation embodied in the song speak well enough for themselves, but the title and first verse find a way of putting it that's endearing as well as sad -- the guy is calling as if to report a "missing person" though really it's not that the woman is truly "missing," as in lost, he's just missing her and sad to realize he will never win her love or have her back.
The Little Feat version of this song isn't a great recording; it doesn't capture the poignancy of the lyric and melody all that well. But I first heard this song on a Jackson Browne bootleg album (a vinyl LP) where he introduces it and then plays it live in concert on piano. He says he learned it from Lowell George's rough tape recording "when Lowell got so drunk at my house he couldn't ride home on his motorcycle and hold on to the tapes at the same time." So Jackson played the tape Lowell had left behind and learned the song from it. His version (bootlegged though it is; he never released a studio or live version intentionally) does capture the essence of the song. Wish I could share it with you. |
submissions
| Greg Brown – Here in the Going Going Gone Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The song touches on various topics and each verse introduces something new but mostly it's about the passing of time and how ephemeral life is. Nothing is resolved happily, every moment we love slips away. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Woman Of Heart And Mind Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I agree strongly with most of what ZFT says about this song; it's an exposé of the parties to a relationship from both sides, with a critical eye on the male partner. It gets at something typical of many men that women used to have to put up with -- but it's not that simple; she seems to love him despite his selfishness in the relationship and other shortcomings. It's not just remarkable for what it expresses but how succinct it is -- under 40 lines, as it progresses through three verses, no chorus, and says so much in that short span. So, I was astonished at how incisive and direct it is when I first heard it in the '70s, and there was a long period when I sang it over and over to myself, trying to learn from or draw on it I think. It is a remarkable song, and in addition to the Dylan songs that ZFT mentions I'll add "Positively 4th Street," the song Joni credits for opening up lyric writing in ways no one had before ("You've got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend"). I'll only add that while it's a great song, it's not what everyone wants in a song, not upbeat or danceable or goofy or fun. If you like serious, poetic, insightful and meaningful lyrics tied to an enchanting melody, this is undoubtedly one of the greatest of those songs. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Rainy Night House Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song was supposedly written about long-time (late, died in the early '80s) L.A. and New York DJ B. MItchel Reed, who reportedly had a brief affair with Joni early in her career. He was an established DJ by the late '50s; by the late '60s he had helped usher in the first FM stations that played alternate album tracks and other music, not just the established hits played on AM radio. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Lakota Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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A song that has been relevant since long before it was written down and remains so now.; She was writing about exploitation of former native American territory for one or more minerals but it was before they started destroying wide landscapes for dirty oil in tar sands. As in the past, once those are taken and the people move on, they will leave behind a destroyed natural environment (only this time it won't be a small area but many square miles, not counting the damage done to transport the oil and then wherever the oil is used) for which, if any recovery lies ahead, it will take dozens of generations to occur. A sad and angry song indeed, for a short-sighted capitalist profit-making misadventure. . |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Banquet Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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As with many of the songs on the For the Roses album this one springs from a questioning and critical nature -- occasioned by the event of going to a big outdoor party. Never one to just eat drink and be merry without some serious contemplation, Joni's asking the broad questions it brings up for a thinking person who knows their good fortune isn't shared by everyone -- why do basic life situations vary so much among people and why do some people end up wanting in a world of such abundance? --- is it greed, is it neglect, is it luck or misfortune? is it fate or some choices people make along the way that explains their circumstances? And even in a situation such as a banquet where everyone in line gets something to eat, why do some people get fed better and sooner than others? The questions a sensitive person might ask, put in the context of the picture she paints with the non-questioning descriptive lyrics. The combination of those and a melodic structure makes this, as with so many of Joni's songs, a song one can listen to over and over without tiring of it. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Not to Blame Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song was obviously directly addressed at Jackson Browne since it refers to two incidents that involved him. But it appears from what I can tell that Joni has an incorrect take on the primary incident mentioned in the song; the assertion that Jackson B beat his former girlfriend, actress Daryl Hannah, on the occasion of their breakup in the early '90s. With a little internet research it's pretty apparent that that's not really what happened. As to the other matter, the death of Jackson's wife (Phyllis) by suicide (in the mid '70s), the circumstances involved there have never been made public as far as I know (it might not be fully understood by anyone), and Joni's depiction may or may not be valid. Obviously it was a sad event in any case. When the song was released Jackson was questioned about it and said Joni should focus on her art and that maybe she still had some residual feelings to resolve from their (brief, I think) liaison many years earlier. I know nothing about that but in the mid 70s I went to a Jackson Browne concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and after it started a small group of people arrived and took seats about 10 rows from the front. When intermission came and the house lights went up a buzz started in the crowd and grew as more and more people gathered around the people who had arrived late. Eventually word worked its way back to where I was sitting that Joni was among those people -- the crowd had gathered around her. So she had gone out into public to see Jackson perform. A couple of songs before the concert ended, she and her entourage left. Take that for whatever it's worth; it's not necessarily relevant to this song, just thought I'd note that it happened. Good concert, by the way -- it was in the period when JB was introducing his listening public to the music of Warren Zevon, before he produced Zevon's first album. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Barangrill Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song introduced Joni's long foray -- more of an evolution, actually -- into the genre of jazz instrumentation and jazz-style vocals. The song structure does away with the standard verse-chorus-verse in favor of just repeating the same line-to-line progression three times, all ending with a reference to the place identified in the title. I first heard it after having already listened a lot to "Court and Spark," and was struck that unlike most of the rest of the "For the Roses" album, it sounded similar to some songs on that album, particularly "Just Like this Train" and "People's Parties," in style, melodic structure, and instrumentation. So it was a foreshadowing of what was to come in her big commercial breakthrough album, which also featured a jazz band playing pop, rock, and jazzy melodies. |
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| Joni Mitchell – The Silky Veils of Ardor Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Joni took the first few lines of the lyrics (not the melody) from a well-known slave-era spiritual and applied them in a different context. That context being the sense of disappointment (at best) and being discouraged by the outcome of romantic trials and tribulations. The songs on Don Juan's Reckless Daughter cover a wide range of emotional states and this one ends the album on a note of sadness and longing for happier outcomes in romantic forays. It also contrasts with the other songs in that many of them are jazzy and are largely supported instrumentally by piano and band, but this is backed by what sounds like solo acoustic guitar and has a standard song structure. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Come In From The Cold Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song is about a few different things but a couple of them appear to be the interdependent facts that people just generally need each other and having each other's company can be both comforting and arousing -- and then the matter of choosing who to be with, and then once two people have chosen each other, whether he/she is really the "right" person for me, and whether I'm the right person for him/her. The verse about "vulgar electricity" seems to be about all of this, including the ongoing questioning of the other person's motives and her own in the relationship they're already having. The needs for company & partnering are human nature, the choices we make to fulfill those needs are personal and give rise to more questioning. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Blonde In The Bleachers Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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It's a good song but not one of her best; it's about the circumstance of being a rock 'n roll star; something her listeners can understand but not generally identify with. I read an interview with Joni many years ago where she said that after the For the Roses album came out, some friends of hers told her they thought she was writing a bit too much about the music biz and they'd like her to write more about real life. She took that to heart and wrote very few songs that had any reference to the business she was in for the rest of her career. This is definitely one of those "music biz, life of a rock 'n roller" songs. Doesn't matter which particular rock star she was writing about; she knew plenty of 'em. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – For Free Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I guess it sounds like she's putting herself down to you, but I don't hear it that way; she's just acknowledging the difference, and (by making a song about it) admiring the person who plays with no guaranteed income. Buskers play for free for most people who hear them, but it's not for lack of hope or means of getting paid -- they do go out there hoping to make money, they put out a can or a hat or a case for people to drop money into. It's just optional, unlike when you go to a theater or arena to hear/see a show, and of course way cheaper and most people don't hang around to hear many songs. All in all, a lovely song, but she's not putting herself down for playing for money, she's just pointing out that beautiful music gets made "for free," too, and sometimes people don't notice or give it enough credit. |
submissions
| Richard Shindell – Are You Happy Now? Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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These lyrics are shown as:
You left a role of black and white
I set the timer and thought of you
And put the lense up to my head
But there are two misspellings there -- they should be:
You left a roll of black and white
I set the timer and thought of you
And put the lens up to my head |
submissions
| Richard Shindell – Are You Happy Now? Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song mixes humor, poignancy, and a clever chorus/title line that is a little ambiguous in its intent -- is it the frustrated/disappointed "there, I responded. Are you happy now"? or is it the sad/curious "I'm sad and sorry we're not together any more. Are you happy"? If you only hear the chorus to it -- which is attached to an infectious melodic line that sticks in one's head -- you might think it has the latter intent. But a more thorough reading of the verse lyrics ties it to something very specific -- events/time of Halloween, the detritus of the broken relationship, and after hearing or reading those I tend to think that the former meaning is more what's intended. |
submissions
| Jane Siberry – The Bird In The Gravel Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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This song is about a variety of feelings and behaviors, but as to just one -- at the time it came out I got
the sense that the part about the leaves falling without changing color (and perhaps the dead bird in
the gravel, too) had to do with the phenomenon of acid rain & its effect on the trees & wildlife,
which was a serious problem in the northern U.S. and Canada,
and remains so though somewhat abated now by environmental protection measures taken in response. That's
only part of what the song refers to but some of the rest of it is about the routines and patterns of
people going about their business. If you a drawn in by the song, it's a great way to illustrate
how environmental degradation -- in its relatively early stages -- does have noticeable effects,
but people tend to go blithely on about their business, only a few even paying any attention. |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – Mercy Street Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I have nothing to add to the interpretations, I just think that in a couple of places the lyrics (here and on other lyric sites) are written incorrectly. Not a huge variation, but two (rather slight) points -- shouldn't it be "Mercy Street, where you're inside out" (which is comprehensible) not "wear your inside out" (which I don't get any meaning from)
and, in a very slight distinction -- it's just "Swear they moved that sign" not 'Swear they moved... -- as if there were letters missing from in front of "swear" though it's a whole word. So many lyric sites have these lyrics printed exactly the same way that I wonder if they all copy from each other -- or were these lyrics actually printed this way in the album liner notes? I don't have the album to refer to. |
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