submissions
| Simon and Garfunkel – Red Rubber Ball Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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@[super_dave:10314] Paul Simon wrote it and Simon & Garfunkel performed it after The Cyrkle had already made it a hit. S&G's version can be found on their box set Old Friends. |
submissions
| Dead Kennedys – Funland At The Beach Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[labtech2659:3330] Both songs were written for the sake of satire as well as shock value. I don't think Jello has anything against little kids at all. |
submissions
| The Ziggens – Fat Charlie Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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"[Fat Charlie is] referencing the guys we knew growing up. Desperately wanted to be cops but had no social skills and were ultimately turned away to a life of bitterness, vehicles painted like cop cars and low paying security jobs." -Bert Ziggen |
submissions
| They Might Be Giants – Dig My Grave Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Musically this song sounds like an homage to 1960s garage rock bands like the ones on the Back from the Grave compilation albums, which may explain the song's title and lyrics. |
submissions
| Sublime – We're Only Gonna Die For Our Own Arrogance Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Contrary to popular belief, Hitler had no Jewish ancestry. The line "slaughtered his own kind" refers to humankind, not a specific ethnicity. While many of the lyrics seem to refer to Hitler specifically, the song's lyrics can easily be applied to every corrupt empire from Rome to America. |
submissions
| Simon and Garfunkel – The Boxer Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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This is true in terms of the song being about a lonely boy in New York City who visits prostitutes, but the first line of the song alone, "I am just a poor boy," marks a strong difference between the lives of Holden Caulfield and "the Boxer." Though he experienced tragedy in the form of the early death of his brother Allie, Holden was a privileged young man from a wealthy family who had the luxury of attending multiple preparatory schools. Furthermore, Holden possesses none of the skills of endurance which form the metaphor of the Boxer, which leads to his constant failure in school (he even admits he lacks the ability to "apply himself") and his ultimate commitment to a psychiatric hospital. |
submissions
| They Might Be Giants – Token Back To Brooklyn Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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This song's message is very similar to the Kingston Trio's 1960s protest song "M.T.A." about a man who can't afford the city's expensive subway system and is forced to remain boarding it for all eternity as a consequence. |
submissions
| Weezer – Holiday Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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It sounds like he's saying "we don't understand ennui" instead of "we don't understand anyway." |
submissions
| Weird Al Yankovic – Jerry Springer Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Her name is Tress MacNeille. She also voiced Lucy Ricardo in Weird Al's song "Ricky" (parody of Toni Basil's "Mickey") from his first album. |
submissions
| Nirvana – Lounge Act Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I've been trying to convince Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine to cover this for a very long time. It would be so perfect. |
submissions
| Green Day – Sassafras Roots Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Yes, it's the same girl who he wrote "She" about. She left him to go to Ecuador for the Peace Corps and wrote him a feminist poem also entitled "She" when she broke up with him. The song "Chump" is written about the guy she left him for. |
submissions
| Mac DeMarco – Young Blood Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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According to DeMarco, this song is based on Youngblood, a 1986 film about hockey starring Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe. |
submissions
| Mccarthy Trenching – Mormon Girl Blues Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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"Let me be your little god until your big God comes" is a play on the lyric "Let me be your little dog until your big dog comes" from Carl Perkins' song "Matchbox." |
submissions
| Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense and Peppermints Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The song's writers were John S. Carter, Tim Gilbert, Mark Weitz, and Ed King. Strawberry Alarm Clock were a typical psychedelic pop band who were much more interested in promoting the "higher consciousness/psychedelic movement" than satirizing it, and this song's lyrics should be taken as straight psychedelia. |
submissions
| Dead Kennedys – I Am The Owl Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The live version of this song on the Rat Music for Rat People compilation begins with a spoken intro from Jello: "Remember Watergate? Watergate is legal now! President Reagan said so when he signed on the dotted line!"
Therefore this song is not just about Watergate but all of the other government wiretappings throughout America's history, which were (and still are) going on ("we still play our little games"), and most of which did not receive legal action. "I hear when you're drinking and cheating on your lovely wife" might be a reference to the FBI's 1963 wiretapping and blackmail of Martin Luther King, though obviously there have been many other instances of this happening. |
submissions
| Green Jelly – trippin' on xtc Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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This is a style parody of early Red Hot Chili Peppers. They could have made this a bonus track on What Hits!? and nobody would have noticed it wasn't RHCP. |
submissions
| They Might Be Giants – Hide Away Folk Family Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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The melody of this song sounds suspiciously similar to the Scottish folk song "Loch Lomond" ("you take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll get to Scotland before ye"). |
submissions
| Mike Doughty – Move On Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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This song contains all of the negative sentiment that Doughty had toward the first term of George W. Bush as well as all of the hope that he had for the 2004 election. What sound to merely be silly nonsense syllables are really repetitions of "dumb" (an adequate adjective for Bush and his policies) combined with "bay" as in "Guantanamo Bay." |
submissions
| Radiohead – Lurgee Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Everyone who hates on Pablo Honey should listen to this song, it's the best on the album (and I'm not just partial to it because of my name). |
submissions
| The Undertones – Get Over You Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Actually it's "dressed like that, you must be living in another world." Thankfully, this song has nothing to do with Margaret Thatcher. |
submissions
| Frank Zappa – San Ber'dino Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Mohave: Mohave Desert
Palomino: Palomino Club, a nightclub in Los Angeles which hosted many country and rock bands
San Ber'dino: San Bernardino County Jail in San Bernardino, California
Fontana: a city in San Bernardino County
Redlands: another city in San Bernardino County
Zulch Auto Works: a car repair company in San Bernardino
Sorry if this isn't as interesting as you hoped (San Bernardino is in the middle of nowhere). What's more interesting is that the song is loosely based on a real life incident. It's about a six month (not thirty days) jail sentence Frank Zappa received in San Bernardino County Jail for supposedly making pornography tapes (which were fake). I know that this is also one of Weird Al Yankovic's favorite Frank Zappa songs and I have audio of him playing it on his radio show in college.
I wish I knew where the potato head jokes come from (probably Mr. Potato Head), but Potato Head Bobby is a character in several other Frank Zappa songs.
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submissions
| Nirvana – Stay Away Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The official liner notes to this song (only found in the "Lithium" single) say that the final line are "God is gay, burn the flag." However, "burn the flag" is clearly not an audible lyric in this song. |
submissions
| Beastie Boys – Twenty Questions Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Such a gentle, philosophical song for the Beastie Boys. I believe that this song samples "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" by Paul Simon. |
submissions
| Deadeye Dick – New Age Girl Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song samples "Fight Like a Brave" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or at the very least is closely inspired by it. Listen to the first 10 seconds of both songs, and you'll notice a distinct similarity. |
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