| The Who – Doctor Jimmy Lyrics | 1 month ago |
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This song to me must have been at least partially inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R.L.Stevenson, and Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Mr Jim is a violent misogynist who is obsessed with destroying anything society sees as "positive" through direct and sublimated sexual violence (rape, fighting, violence, alcohol, gambling). Dr. Jimmy, as the title implies, is the alter ego of the protagonist, who is addicted to Amphetamines. Mr Jim is an alcoholic. "Doctor Jimmy and Mister Jim When I'm pilled you don't notice him He only comes out when I drink my gin" In my view, the song begins and continues in Mr Jim's voice. He is drunk. One can almost hear Alex boasting to his droogs at the Milk Bar about their past and planned exploits in "ultraviolence" through Daltrey's vitriolic flyting. Mr Jim is not satisfied with mere violence. It's about control of his peer group through dominance. His anger can only be satisfied by defiling what is objectively good in his surroundings: femininity, relationships, youth and innocence. "I'm going back soon Home to get the baboon Who cut up my eye" The baboon is the "monkey on his back"- his addiction to amphetamines, which inevitably leads to Mr Jim's boozy ranting. "Cut up my eye" suggests it has robbed him of his ability to see or think clearly about himself or his actions. Note the iconic movie poster for "Clockwork Orange" depicts Alex emerging from a triangle, holding a stiletto in front of one eye. In European releases, the posters depict a man (Alex) in a bowler hat with only one eye. In the movie, Alex is reprogrammed by forcing him to watch violence (with his eyes propped open), while Beethoven plays. The associative dissonance "ruins" both violence and Beethoven for him and left him a clockwork orange: a fusion of two unrelated identities, poetically describing a schizophrenic with contradictory personalities, both of which are self-destrucive. Kubrick's film was released in 1971. The song's first release (it was never a single) was on Quadrophenia, in 1973. I think the word "Quadrophenia", and its linguistic proximity to "schizophrenia", says much; and that album's content plays with this idea. In the album, and later the film ( 1979- which tells the story of Jimmy Cooper, a young mod who struggles with four different personalities and addictions to amphetamines, alcohol and meaningless violence, in his invented conflict with the "rockers") we find our Dr/Mr. Jim from the song. At the end of the song, much like Alex after his "behavioral reprogramming", we hear Dr Jimmy's bewildered voice, coming back in to the picture. Perhaps he is sobering up?Perhaps he has taken medically prescribed pills, and is experiencing a moment of lucidity (when I'M pilled you don't notice HIM). The change in the music, and in Daltrey's voice make it clear that that the voice in the repeated coda is not the same as the voice that began the song. This is the sober version of the same man, under the influence and supervision of a real doctor/psychiatrist who has prescribed him anti-psychotic medication. "Is it me? For a moment" Deep down, he knows that any relief from Dr Jimmy and Mr. Jim is only temporary, because: "The stars are falling The heat is rising The past is calling" Go watch Quadrophenia (1979). That should clear up any lingering questions about Jimmy Cooper and whether he is Dr/Mr Jimmy. I think this song inspired his character in the film. |
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| Tanya Tucker – Delta Dawn Lyrics | 2 months ago |
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This was a song that I always liked, but when I heard the real story, it gutted me. It’s hard to believe Tanya Tucker was only 13 when she recorded it. It was written by Alex Harvey, about his mama, Dawn. Harvey said “My mother had come from the Mississippi Delta and she always lived her life as if she had a suitcase in her hand but nowhere to put it down.” The lyrics describe her through the character of “Delta” Dawn who regularly "walks downtown with a suitcase in her hand / looking for a mysterious dark haired man" and she says will be taking her "to his mansion in the sky." It is implied that the man is Alex’s father. Considering Alex was a precocious musical talent, televised at 15, it is reasonable to assume Dawn had a reason to believe Alex would be talented musically, and invested in her son’s musical education from an early age. Perhaps the mysterious stranger was a musician. She took great pride in Alex, although her social eccentricity and struggles with alcoholism gave Alex conflicted feelings about her. She was a hairdresser in his hometown of Brownsville, TN, and described her as a free spirit, almost childlike. “Folks in a small town don’t always understand people like that.” In today’s world, with heightened sensitivity to mental health issues and alcohol abuse counseling it may have been different. In 1962, in small town eyes, she was a 41 year old single mom who had a one night stand with a man from the city 15 years ago. Her dad still calls her baby, subtly implying that she has never married or left the household. The odds of this man coming back again soon are about the same as that for the Rapture, and the chorus’ refrain of “mansion in the sky” expresses a double meaning of sarcasm perhaps comparing her faith to religious obsession. But Alex was very real, and she treasured him, and Alex knew it. Alex grew up just fine, went to college, got a degree in music, and became a successful musician. He wrote of the incident that led to the writing of the song. “When I was fifteen years old, I was in a band. We had just won a contest and we were going to be on a TV show in Jackson, Tennessee. My mother said she wanted to go. I told her that I thought she would embarrass me. She drank and sometimes would do things that would make me feel ashamed, so I asked her not to go that night.” She was crushed. When Harvey returned home from the taping, he discovered his mother had died in a car accident. She crashed her vehicle into a tree, and he suspected it had been a suicide. 10 years later, after he facing the guilt of this episode and is own struggle for identity as a man and as a musician, he begins to identify with his mother. He’s not so perfect, and in many ways, his faith in his future music career is about as well grounded in reality as his mother’s dream of a mansion in the sky. He’s thinking about her, and the first two lines of the song pop in his head. He looks up and sees his mama in a rocking chair laughing. “It’s alright” she said. Within an hour the song was written. Harvey described it like automatic writing. The song literally composed itself in the presence of the ghost of his mother. |
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| The Beatles – If I Fell Lyrics | 4 months ago |
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There is a darker interpretation of this song than I have read around here. This is not to detract from the beauty of the composition, but rather to add to it. It was written in January, 1964 by a married John Lennon, who admitted after the recording (2/64) that it contained autobiographical elements, and that the ballad style, and the weaving of coded personal elements was inspired by Dylan. Musically, the Intro is a vaguely structured descent (Ebm, D, Db, Bbm; Ebm, D, Em, A), that goes in a circle and seems to waver around and try to hide the song’s key: D. It’s “beating around the bush” a little bit musically, as he sings the intro. He doesn’t want to reveal the song’s key yet for some reason because it's a confession. Exactly one year previously, he burst upon the scene and quite directly said (in the same key: D), that he all wanted to do was “hold your hand”. Things have progressed. Now there is more to it than “just holding hands”. “If I fell” takes on dual meanings: falling in love, and a fall from grace. If I Fell = If I eat the “apple” of temptation and cheat on my wife. It's not too much of a stretch to say that the lyrics are the contemplation of converting an adulterous affair into an eventual replacement of his wife, Cynthia. Based on the linkage with "holding hands", this affair has been underway for a long time, and in the song John contemplates their next steps.It has become much more than just holding hands. He makes excuses for feelings which he knows are wrong by finding fault with how Cynthia is treating him, such as revealing that he feels she doesn't love him very much ("I must be sure...that you would love me more than her") and that he is mistreated by her in some way ("Don't hurt my pride like her, 'cause I couldn't stand the pain"). What John is saying to his new love is that he wants to leave his wife but only if she promises "to be true," the source of his dissatisfaction with Cynthia. The vulnerability in John’s pleading is ironic. Lennon has a very contractual idea of love with a passive/aggressive communication style. The same emotional oxymoron found another telling later in “Don’t Let Me Down” (“I’m really in love with you” in soft and pleasing tones, then screaming “DON’T LET ME DOWN!” like a threat.) In the case of “If I Fell” we have Paul singing the upper half of a song which seems to have two melodies that intersect to form a single melody in the harmonization of the two parts. (See another example in The Everly Bros “Dream”) Although it doesn’t sound hard, anybody who has sung John’s part can tell you how incredibly difficult it is, and how much discipline it requires to “not go high” and follow Paul after the unison parts The version we all know was sung live into one mic at Abbey Road and is on one track of a 4-track master. The technology exists now to separate the parts. Having heard both Paul and John’s AI “isolated” parts, they almost sound like different songs emotionally. Paul is singing the happy part of love, and John is singing the pain. The harmony of those emotional poles forms the melody that we hear. Together, they summarize John’s anguish with what he feels he must do, and despite his optimism in his new love interest, he is exposing his vulnerability and need for reassurance. John has already "fallen" in his own mind: Julian was already 8 months old when he wrote the song. The relationship may be fantasy or John's imagination, but the "fall" is already there. Perhaps John felt manipulated into marriage and that his shotgun wedding and the price he paid for it weren't as accidental and innocent as they first seemed. Perhaps he felt as if Cynthia was "taking a ride" on his hard-earned fame? It's worth mentioning that Cynthia had her own fan club, the only non-Beatle to be so honored. So "hurt my pride like her" takes on many possibilities that don't necessarily mean that Lennon was actually having an affair. He was fantasizing it though, quite clearly: "If I fell" in this reading does not mean love. So, I think this song is very deep for John, and certainly much deeper than most gave it credit for. After all, "she will cry when she learns that we are two," will cause (and probably caused) Cynthia great pain as well (when she heard the song). It's interesting to note also that the love interest he is singing to is very aware of his being married and that he is still in love with his wife ("if I love you too"), otherwise he wouldn't be telling her this whole story with such openness. John's sincerity comes through supported by the dual melody lines as mentioned before that reflect his divided mind. Yet, in his affair there is a duplicity and insincerity, that “being in love” doesn’t absolve him of. His pleading, as in his repeating the phrase "oh please" in the second verse, shows his increasing desperation. In the transition from the third verse to the bridge, he shifts the resulting "pain" he felt from the thought of his own hurt "pride" in the first bridge to the "pain" of Cynthia learning that he and his new love interest were now "two" in both of the remaining bridges. So guilt. Did I mention that? Remember, “Pride comes before a fall”, and the title of the song is If I Fell. The second verse ends "Don't hurt my pride like her". Lennon already knows he is a slave to his ego and pride. That's the honesty: he's us telling the truth about himself and the affair, but he is wracked by the guilt of it. "If I Fell" is thus the contemplation of a willing transgression of "what is right". It’s very mature songwriting throughout and makes sense at many levels, both musically and lyrically. |
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| The Beatles – I Am the Walrus Lyrics | 6 months ago |
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The first and primary meaning is from Lewis Carroll’s poem, The Walrus, and the Carpenter. This was John Lennon's favorite poem. The walrus was the "soft machine" of academia, capitalism, and government which speaks through advertising and propaganda. The carpenter is religion. The subtle point of Carroll's poem is that the Walrus and The Carpenter conspire to poison the minds of the young for self-serving purposes using seductive propaganda that exploits their natural youthful curiosity and exuberance. In the poem, the Walrus and Carpenter seduce the young oysters out of the water with ridiculous untruths about the world around them, baiting them through their curiosity about “the unknown”. After baffling and boring the oysters to death, they eat them. The Walrus' deceptive speech in Carrol's poem describes things you would encounter in a world of goods, agriculture, commerce, trade, technology, and government- i.e.: things you would learn in College. Being young, and knowing nothing about what these strange things may be, the oysters are seduced by curiosity to know how such marvelous contradictions could actually exist in the real world of the beach (at the margins of rationality) where the Walrus and the Carpenter live and recruit their meals. For the oysters, it will always be a false world by design that always remains just beyond their ability to perceive it directly through the senses, and hence about which they must rely on second-hand testimony from the Walrus and Carpenter’s propaganda. They come marching right up while the older, wiser oysters stay put. The other Walrus is from Lennon’s favorite book as a kid, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. In the classic pirate’s tale, Capt. Flint’s ship is called The Walrus, and the name figures throughout the tale in the action, much like The Black Pearl does in Pirates of the Caribbean, which it also inspired. The book contains maps and clues which allow a young reader to participate in the solving of the mystery of the buried treasure along with the young protagonist. This is in a long tradition, like Edgar Allen Poe, and Arthur Conan Doyle who wrote stories that required the reader to solve a mystery or do cryptography along with say, Sherlock Holmes. In many cases there were challenges that the reader could submit, as often these were released in serialized form in newspapers and journals Just like record albums. Lennon said he wrote the song in response to an article in The Daily Mail, Lennon’s favorite newspaper, about an 11th grade teacher who had used Beatles lyrics in Modern History class. Lennon wrote I Am the Walrus as a challenge and was recorded to have said:” Let’s see those little fuckers figure this one out.” Given what I’ve said before, I Am the Walrus in the Lewis Carroll sense is about Advertising and Propaganda’s exploitation of youth. It provides coded examples in Lennon’s style and calls out high-profile personalities by name but in deep code. I Am the Walrus in the Robert L Stevenson sense means “I have made this song like a cryptographic challenge for you to decipher with my somewhat unreliable guidance, because I’m deliberately hiding stuff and using lingo and argot to convey multiple meanings.” Lennon mentions Poe in the song, just in case you missed the Treasure Island references in the word “Walrus”, which along with Lewis Carroll, was often cited by Lennon as inspirational to him as a youth. Via "Walrus", he hat tips another favorite: The Gold Bug, by Poe, who did the same thing as Treasure Island as far as using cryptic clues and multimedia like maps and pictures and probably inspired Stevenson in the first place. So, let’s take a quick look at I Am the Walrus from that perspective. The whole first line matches lyrics and cadence with Marching to Pretoria, a propaganda song popular with British forces during the Boer War, which for students of history (remember who he wrote the song to), was a genocide. That genocide was made to sound much nicer to those who carried it out if singing a catchy tune. It played better at home too. See how they run like pigs from a gun plays on Boer/Boar, and of course a Boar is a male Pig. So basically, British Troops marched from Cape Town to Pretoria singing this song, shooting any Boers they could find, and sending the rest running for their lives. “I’m crying” is Lennon saying how propaganda and popular media sanitizes evil and victimizes the innocent. It is causing an existential and creative crisis for him personally. Did you notice that "Sgt Pepper" images and paraphernalia that come with the album (Statue on cover, insert, mustache, uniform, etc) are based on an Edwardian Era British military officer of the Boer War period, James Melville Babington? Clearly not a random choice in this reading. Perhaps Lennon felt that the early Beatles' music was being used something like "Marching to Pretoria" in the modern context, providing cheerful distraction from Vietnam to a gullible youth- the oysters. So Lennon took his time setting this one up, didn't he? Once you see this, the rest of the images fall right into line. Corporation T-Shirt? The old Brian Epstein created, suit wearing Beatles. Stupid bloody Tuesday? The day before Wednesday morning at 5:00. You’ve let your face grow long? Since the funeral scene depicted on the cover of Sgt Peppers, you’re no longer as marketable now that you’ve abandoned the mop-top boy-band personae. He mentions Poe getting kicked around, just as he has been. Recall that Poe died as a result of an election fraud scheme called "cooping". The song was written as a challenge to 11th grade Modern history students who may know this. Is Lennon suggesting that Paul, whose funeral is perhaps depicted on SPLHCB's cover, was "cooped" as well? There's more. In certain circles it is speculated that Poe may have faked his own death. I digress. The album art of MMT shows John wearing the Walrus costume (Paul is a Hippo), and later Lennon lyrics/clues("another clue for you all") in Glass Onion contradict that saying "the Walrus was Paul". What gives? So there's a broader pattern of Lennon's usage here that reveals its central importance to his puzzle. Students of Beatles history will note that an early stage name for John was "Long John" (ref: Treasure Island- Long John Silver). Paul's was Paul Ramon, and George's was Carl Harrison. After Quarrymen I and II, and then Johnny and the Moondogs in the fall of '59, it was The Silver Beat, then Long John and the Silver Beetles, then just the Silver Beetles, and finally The Beatles, with an "a" by September 1960. So Treasure Island has been there for John from the start, hasn't it? So has Alice in Wonderland. The "Eggman" refers to Humpty Dumpty which is chapter 6 in ‘Through the Looking Glass’, by Lewis Carroll. Humpty provides Alice with a solution to the nonsense poem Jabberwocky. Hmm. You don't say...Now does it make more sense why he would say "I am the Eggman"? Fans of Lewis Carroll didn't need the nudge, but many dismiss this song without a thorough treatment. I'm not making this stuff up, it's quite clearly there if you happened to research Lennon's lifelong interest in authors like Carroll, Lear, Stevenson and Poe. To protect himself, he throws the usual Carroll soft rope like Goo Goo g'Joob. The phrase: "Goo goo g'Joob" (hitherto unidentified by all commentators, sadly) is from Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. Good luck figuring that out. They make sense to him but it's above our pay grade. It's misdirection. Those maguffins are present to make the song plausibly sound like the ravings of an acid trip or perhaps directly inspired by Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. He did say he was the Eggman, right? Perfect. He's provided a coded solution, which as in the case of Alice, can mean different things depending how far down the rabbit hole you've gone . For example, he lobs a few hand grenades at infamous people of the day, but the average person didn’t then know that Diana Dors was the coded Pornographic Priestess, deeply involved in the Profumo Affair, organized crime (the Kray twins), and Jimmy Saville. Just to make sure we got the hint, she is depicted on the cover of SPLHCB (like Babington). There was a "City Policeman" named Norman Pilcher (aka "Semolina Pilchard") who had been actively framing pop stars like John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Donovan, etc, etc. Pilcher is clearly the "Mister City Policeman". I'm quite sure they knew they were named, though, so Lennon is content to let his jabs sail over hippies' heads. To a certain extent, John put something in there for everybody regardless of background or how much you knew of his code. Cigarette advertising? Sure. The joker laughing at choking smokers. Environment? What’s the prob, you can get a tan from standing in the (polluted, acid) rain. Hollywood? Seen the cover? Is there anybody else you want to piss off, John? Taking inspiration from Carroll, he deliberately set out to give himself some plausible denial, yet make his points in code. “Oh yeah, I was on acid.” When he says that, it’s usually a signal to read deeper. |
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| The Police – Every Breath You Take Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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I kinda had a vision about his song. All of the stanzas that begin with "every" were written by Hoover as a threat to Ian Fleming. Sting came in to possession of this note somehow while staying at Goldeneye in Jamaica years later, after both men were dead. Maybe he found it in a book. Quite understandably, given how it cam into his possession, he came up with the ruse of waking up in the middle of the night and just jotting it down off the top of his head. After the poem discovery, Sting added the stanzas that begin "Oh" and :"Since". You will see they are quite out of context with the original intent of the poem as a threat to an intelligence rival that he will be closely watched. They obscure the starkness of the original by adding a sort of retort back from Fleming, implying they two are engaged in a bizarre love affair: "Oh can't you see? You belong to me." For spies like them this mutual voyeurism and posturing was the essence of true romance. Who writes a poem as a threat? A guy like Hoover, that's who. Maybe Angleton. Just my $.02. It's definitely not a love song, and I'm not expecting a real confession from Sting about it anytime soon if I'm right. |
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| The Backseat Lovers – Kilby Girl Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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There's an outdoor venue on the edge of Salt Lake City called Kilby Court. Kilby is probably the coolest thing in Utah. Death Cab for Cutie, Macklemore, St. Vincent, and Walk the Moon all played there before they were big. The Backseat Lovers are from Utah and play there too. The song is probably based on a day when they were scheduled for an afternoon set at Kilby Court, but it rained. The rest all kinda tells itself. |
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| David Bowie – Fashion Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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There is an unspoken context to this song that relates to David Bowie's odyssey through the turbulent, late-seventies period in which he wrote it. I shouldn't need to mention here that Bowie had only a few years earlier invented the idea of the "character" front man. I never thought Bowie was really Ziggy, or Major Tom, or Aladdin. I always believed that these were characters Bowie created to express things directly, that he couldn't as David Jones. I also realize that when he played these characters, he did a bit more than act: he lived them out on stage and off. This was hard for Bowie. The Thin White Duke was the hardest, and In my opinion, this song is Bowie's 1980 rejection of that character. I will always associate this song with the Thin White Duke. I interpret it as an openly political statement about how the mainstream social media enforces political agendas through conformity (during this period, young people listened to music and went to concerts for information about their peers' political ideas and how to "fit in"). The hard thing to accept about this song is that it is about Fascism, and Bowie's commentary doesn't necessarily lead you to conclude that he thinks it is such a bad thing. That's actually the Thin White Duke you're hearing, not Bowie. Not that you'd get it from the song, but really everybody should know why he rejected the Thin White Duke and why the guilt about that period of his life hounded his private thoughts to the grave. He felt responsible for Lennon's death. In 1976 he gave an interview to Cameron Crowe (for Playboy) in which he said the following: Playboy: You’ve often said that you believe very strongly in fascism. Yet you also claim you’ll one day run for Prime Minister of England. More media manipulation? Bowie: "Christ, everything is a media manipulation. I’d love to enter politics. I will one day. I’d adore to be Prime Minister. And, yes, I believe very strongly in fascism. The only way we can speed up the sort of liberalism that’s hanging foul in the air at the moment is to speed up the progress of a right-wing, totally dictatorial tyranny and get it over as fast as possible. People have always responded with greater efficiency under a regimental leadership. A liberal wastes time saying, “Well, now, what ideas have you got?” Show them what to do, for God’s sake. If you don’t, nothing will get done. I can’t stand people just hanging about. Television is the most successful fascist, needless to say. Rock stars are fascists, too. Adolf Hitler was one of the first rock stars." This reminds me of John Lennon declaring the Beatles more popular than Jesus in 1966. It's not that we intellectually can't follow Bowie and understand, as in the case of Lennon, that he is making a rhetorical argument about mass media's political influence and its manipulation of class conflict and society. Like Lennon, he came to regret the analogy quickly. Lennon, by 1980, had been associated with the failure of the 60's left, and hadn't released an album in years. The Metal, Disco and Punk scenes then nascent had completely rejected the Lennon utopia envisioned by Imagine, and left it behind for a brave new world of fascism. Now the Thin White Duke's comments in Playboy didn't seem so tame. With the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, Ronald Reagan in November 1980, and a month later, the assassination of John Lennon, many of the things he forecast as desirable in his 1976 interview had come true - to his horror! He gave this interview to NME in 1980, by which time he had already realized the damage he had done: "That whole Station To Station tour was done under duress. I was out of my mind totally, completely crazed. Really. But the main thing I was functioning on was, as far as that whole thing about Hitler and rightism was concerned, it was mythology." "This whole racist thing which came up, quite inevitably and rightly. But, and I know this sounds terribly naive, but none of that had actually occurred to me, inasmuch as I’d been working and still do work with Black musicians for the past six or seven years. And we’d all talk about it together: about the Arthurian period, about the magical side of the whole Nazi campaign, and about the mythology involved." Mixed up too of course were my own fucking characters. The Thin White Duke, and throwing him, it was like kicking a drug. There was such an addictive thing about what was happening there, that actually being able to ride that particular storm, I was able to send a lot to those demons back to their — well, wherever it is they live. Altogether, none of it is something to be dealt with unless you’re in a particularly stable frame of mind." Bowie is a complex character. I wrote this because this song goes a lot deeper in his overall work than the comments give it credit for. |
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| The Rolling Stones – 100 Years Ago Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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Went out walkin' through the wood the other day And the world was a carpet laid before me The buds were bursting and the air smelled sweet and strange Seemed about a hundred years ago Through the song, the metaphor of “walking in the woods” refers to the speaker’s reflections on his outlook on his life at various points in his career, beginning with the earliest beginnings of fame. The speaker uses the first flush of spring to symbolize the richness of opportunity and temptations that lay ahead on the red carpet laid before him. This carpet also symbolizes a pathway through the newfound fame that lay ahead, which to his more innocent sensibilities seemed both “sweet” and “strange”. Mary and I, we would sit upon a gate Just gazin' at some dragon in the sky What tender days we had no secrets hid away Well, it seemed about a hundred years ago Marianne Faithful was Mick’s girlfriend in the period referenced, and he describes their innocence. I believe this to be a straightforward verse describing young, bored lovers, gazing up at the clouds and talking about the fantastic shapes of their imaginations like dragons. In times like these we expose ourselves at a very basic level to another: “what we see in clouds” is revealing our subconscious in an unguarded and honest way, like a Rorschach Blot used by a therapist. Later, he describes a wish to “hide away”, and perhaps return to the times when he could be completely unguarded emotionally with another, as he was with Mary(anne). Now all my friends are wearing worried smiles Living out a dream of what they was Don't you think it's sometimes wise not to grow up? Here Mick raises the issue of the guardedness required of fame and how it has changed his relationships. He describes his friends feigning happiness while chasing a false hope of recapturing their youthful dreams. The theme of the song is nostalgia, however in this case the speaker asserts that there is an inauthenticity (worried smiles) which cannot be overcome by trying to recapture youth and possibility later in life. Mick seems to suggest some of their social circle may be living out a perpetual reenactment of their youth, whereas Mick thinks that “growing up” may be more about attitude than reality. Went out walkin' through the wood the other day Can't you see the furrows in my forehead? What tender days we had no secrets hid away Now it seems about a hundred years ago It is evident at the end of this verse that considerable time has passed between the earlier reflections of “walking in the woods”, and those of the present time. The word furrows refers to the speaker’s now worried brow, and also to the agricultural context of furrows. Earlier in the song the speaker invoked the notion of the fertility of spring. The furrows in the speaker’s forehead have been planted with the seed of secrets. In this spring, the world no longer appears as a fertile carpet laid before him. That freshness of youth and possibility, and and the safety and comfort of his relationship with Marianne now seems about a hundred years ago. Now if you see me drinkin' bad red wine Don't worry 'bout this man that you love Don't you think it's sometimes wise not to grow up? In order for him to survive in his world, he admits that he needs a certain amount of escapism to maintain his sanity. He repeats that he knows that it is immature and regressive. You're gonna kiss and say goodbye, yeah, I warn you You're gonna kiss and say goodbye, yeah, I warn you You're gonna kiss and say goodbye, oh Lord, I warn you Please excuse me while I hide away He knows that she will (and should) eventually reject him. When that occurs, he will retreat to the memory of the unguarded innocence of their early relationship. By hiding away, and artificially creating the boredom that they treasured together, it may be easier for him to retreat into this nostalgic world in his mind as a way of shutting out the artificiality of his lonely fame. Call me lazy bones, ain't got no time to waste away Lazy bones ain't got no time to waste away Don't you think, don't you think it's just about time to hide away? Yeah, yeah Kiss your baby Kiss your baby Goodbye, goodbye |
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| Steely Dan – Home At Last Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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Much good commentary here. Some thoughts: In Homer's words: To the Sirens first shalt thou come, who beguile all men whosoever comes to them. Whoso in ignorance draws near to them and hears the Sirens' voice, he nevermore returns, that his wife and little children may stand at his side rejoicing, but the Sirens beguile him with their clear-toned song, as they sit in a meadow, and about them is a great heap of bones of mouldering men, and round the bones the skin is shrivelling. But do thou row past them, and anoint the ears of thy comrades with sweet wax, which thou hast kneaded, lest any of the rest may hear. But if thou thyself hast a will to listen, let them bind thee in the swift ship hand and foot upright in the step of the mast, and let the ropes be made fast at the ends to the mast itself, that with delight thou mayest listen to the voice of the two Sirens. And if thou shalt implore and bid thy comrades to loose thee, then let them bind thee with yet more bonds."(Source: Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation, trans. A.T. Murray, 2 vols. (Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press, 1919).) The "rocks" which all have correctly identified as Chez Siren have names. Most notably the reputed siren sound stage: Scylla, and across the straits of Messina, Charybdis. The idiom "between Scylla and Charybdis" has come to mean being forced to choose between two similarly dangerous situations. In New York City, in Astoria and on Randall's Island there are locally famous pair of Scylla and Charybdis directly opposing each other, separated by the infamous Hell's Gate waterway. I hear much talk that assumes being tied to the mast describes a West coast ennui. "Homer located the island of the Sirens near the rock of Scylla. They were sea-nymphs, who had the power of luring to ruin by their charming voices. At one time only two were recognized—Aglaopheme and Thelxiepia; then there were three—Aglaope, Pisinoe, and Thelxiepia. Later writers describe them as having wings. [...] The Sirens endeavored to attract Ulysses and his companions to their ruin, but he stuffed the ears of his men with wax and lashed himself to the mast of the vessel, and thus escaped. The Sirens attempted to draw the Argonauts from their course, but their singing was drowned by the sweeter music of Orpheus."(S. A. Scull, Greek Mythology Systematized (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1880). Finally it was Butes who just couldn't resist. What happened to this poor soul? Became Aphrodite's boyfriend. So there's a lesson there somewhere. |
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| Talking Heads – Memories Can't Wait Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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This song is about Frontman's experiences as an intelligence asset. He is describing a debriefing. During this period field assets were often debriefed using combination of hypnotherapy and psychotropic drugs. This is why at the end of the "Do you remember anyone here?" line, Eno added a sound effect of a reel-to-reel machine being run backwards, as if to "re-cue the prompt". Frontman is literally laying on a gurney, in an institutional medical setting, reliving the party over and over again. His employers are concerned with retrieving useful information from the party in his mind (a clever play on words- a political party is intended also). Frontman is an "alter": an artificial personality embedded within the subject's unconsciousness. Frontman is able to observe things and create intelligence for his handlers while David Byrne is the "active" consciousness. Later, what Frontman saw is extracted through drug assisted hypnosis. With the sole exception of I Zimbra, every song on Remain in Light describes aspects of Frontman's relationship and activities with British and American intelligence. "Don't look so disappointed It isn't what you hoped for, is it?" |
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| The Rolling Stones – Memo From Turner Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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youtube.com/… It was made in 1968, but release was delayed until 1970 by movie execs shocked and concerned about how the public would react to this graphic essay in sex, drugs, rock and roll and violence, Complicating matters, throughout the 1969 US tour, the Stones had become a magnet for the tabloid press culminating in the Altamont speedway incident in December 1969. There's never really a good time to release a film like Performance. It is a film about identity, what we choose to show, what’s behind the masks we wear and what happens when we lose control. Mick as Turner shows the ways in which it can be exploited in both directions. (the song video music track, as I understand, features Jagger, Ry Cooder on slide guitar, Russ Titelman (guitar), Randy Newman (piano), Jerry Scheff (bass) and Gene Parsons (drums) The best version of it, in my opinion, appears on the Stones' "London Years" retrospective. It may be one of the most amazing things ever recorded) We are seeing Turner after he has "traded places" with an underworld mobster. In the context of the film, Turner is an aging rockstar, whose lifestyle was consumed by excess and he is attracted to the idea of playing the part of a mobster, who has far more prosaic reasons to need to disappear into another identity; that of an aging rockstar hermit in hiding from the press. Mick's clean cut, suit-wearing Turner now realizes that the underworld of crime, like politics and show business, is populated with people very much like him, except his awareness of their secret backgrounds and his willingness to use it as a means of control gives him incredible power, out of the reach of anybody who has anything to hide. Remember, this film was shot in 1968, not long after the release of Sgt Pepper's, and it was that world Mick had in mind. Where at a club like "Sammies", while "eating eggs" one might see underworld figures like the Krays, politicians like Lord Boothby or Tom Driberg, A-list actors, Famous musicians and probably Brian Epstein, rubbing shoulders. Venues like these had recently become "respectable" in London because of the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act, which decriminalized homosexuality. Turner knows all these people intimately. Now he is in charge. Turner surveys his new cohort, and one by one confronts them with his knowledge of their past. The second stanza refers to Rampton, a psychiatric hospital, where Turner is apparently aware the man in front of him was once a patient who killed a doctor. In those days, the field of psychiatry in England was bigotedly referred by the underclass to as a "Jewish" profession and the reference to "sleeveless shirt" carries double meaning as both a straitjacket and the actual sleeveless shirt worn on sabbath by orthodox observers of the Jewish faith. "Come now, Gentlemen..." He mocks the straight laced and upstanding members of society they have apparently become. He snarls in to the climactic "set your business STRAIGHT", sarcastically suggesting they have covered their own homosexuality and violent deviance into normal and straight looking executive "skins". He confronts the smaller sticked man from Hemlock Road, a reference to a rest stop location on the road from London to Oxford notorious for casual encounters. Hemlock Road also doubles for a reference to Socrates, whose refusal to deny his sexual identity led to suicide by Hemlock, and also the historical relationship of academia with homosexuality in a general sense. Another poster here wrote: "The dominant theme is, of course, one of homosexuality. I think it may be the first time in popular culture where gayness is linked not with effeminacy but with an overt masculine sexuality. For examply the same year that Performance was released The Boys in the Band showed us a selection of campy self-hating drama queens. Also the line "the young girls eat their mother's meat from tubes of plasticon" is the kind of queasily sexual/violent image you'd find in William Burroughs. Also, just remembered that there is indeed a Burrough's book called The Soft Machine. I suppose the song, and the film Performance, were informed at some level by the fact of Reggie Kray's sexuality and the fact that an incredibly masculine (in fact psychotic) man could be gay." The only think I really can add to that is the theme transcends homosexuality in important ways, in addition to those accurate points. Consider this stanza: Be wary of these my gentle friends Of all the skins you breed They have a tasty habit They eat the hands that bleed Turner expresses a total ambivalence as to whatever their deviance does: Sex, Drugs, Violence. He doesn't care, won't judge, and will in fact participate if it's "wrong" enough. Turner will make you take your clothes off and have sex with him just to assert his dominance, and create something that can be used to control you. He tells them "Just make a face and an identity where the need to gratify your urges can't also be your undoing if you are exposed." Ironically, being a rock star, where deviance is in fact expected of a public personality, would be a better cover for these "misbred grey executives." My main point is that Turner's moral ambivalence goes far beyond any simple "it's about gay" interpretation, and extends to all forms of social identities as somehow being crude coverings for the dark primal secrets we try to keep inside, but are ultimately used to control and exploit us. After reading the fine comment below by @izertizer I propose the character Rosebloom and the "Rosie" line is perhaps a loose reference to Lewis Rosenstiel, a close associate of J Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn. |
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| Beck – Broken Train Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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Beck has developed an internal vocabulary to his work, and he invites us to experience the whole song, not just the lyrics. I think this song is a major statement of Beck's beliefs, and an example of a completely successful song, one of his best, and among his most political. It's over 15 years old now, and I daresay our situation has actually declined, and if he ever sequeled the song, I believe pt.II would sound much darker. The snipers are passed out in the bushes in a society where even the government agents of control don't even give a shit about professionalism. The riots must be a common event at this point, so Beck notes his advantage at having his suits cleaned, expressing the same blase indifference to current affairs or social conflict. Within this world, we are presented with mechanical metaphors and the sounds of urban inertia and labor in the music itself. The broken train is the Orwellian dystopia that Beck suggests is already here, close by, or coming soon. It is world of contrast between rich and poor, billionaires and breadlines, crystal tiaras and grey rivieras, etc. The song opens with an intoxicating rhythm recalling for me Working In The Coal Mine, by Alan Toussaint, a song about the sufferings of a working class man too exhausted to able to enjoy his free time. Devo covered the song in '81, their electronic style finding the same pick on stone drum beat a versatile carrier for their social commentary as well. A synthesizer overlay has a twilight zone feel, suggesting to us we are entering a different world much in the way the wavy effect recalls a flashback memory in visual terms. As the whole thing just maintains it's perfect synch inexorably marching forward, what sounds to me like a baritone sax, comes in with a G, doubling down on the synths ascending triad, then a defeatist whaaaaaaah: a crass response to the ethereal synth. To me it sounds like a truck hitting its horn and downshifting while stuck in traffic. The background din surrounds us with the clinking of construction. Hold On! I don't know if I want to ride your train Beck! Beck gives us a wink, In this song the voice of the speaker is that of an intelligence "advisor" to a client state in the midst of adopting US methods of societal control and repression. It is a post Orwellian fascist client state which trades exploitation of their subjects and country's resources, for political backing and financial military aid. Dollar Diplomacy. It suggests the apathy of a society that is overwhelmingly "have not", controlled by a minority of "haves." "Cause there's only rehashed faces on the bread line tonight Soon you'll be a figment of some infamous life" suggests that there is no real rehabilitation in this society, only the purgatory of death row by apparent free will for those who fail to conform. Billionaires smile like weapons passing out platinum pensions They're out of control No one know how low they'll go is self explanatory. Beck is looking back at his own "controllers". military and intelligence bigwigs peddling aid packages to countries and corporations with which they will buy weapons and self-enrich themselves, while using the weapons to enforce the police state that maintains their power over an enslaved populace. Beck invites us to take a ride on this train. "What are you suggesting, Mr. Beck? Right here in the US? OMG. Are we that apathetic to ever allow that? That harmonica reminds me of a hobo music from the economically ravaged south and west of the dust bowl and great depression. The next stanza is somewhat difficult, but IMHO: These bra burning deportees At the service station They know that beige Is the color of resignation. This is a society that exiles any social activists that confront issues of gender equality. In a functioning democracy, the parts contribute like a mosaic of separateness and dissent. In this society women's issues have to do with breeding. Beige is what you get when you blend Black, White, Red and Yellow, and turn it into an institutional monochrome. I think this reading really calls attention to what Beck may be referring to as a service station. Allow feminism, but insofar it doesn't interfere with their purpose of breeding: producing the beige uniconsumers of the future in their womb factories. Wanna burn your bra (i.e.: advocate feminism or homosexuality and express you freedom of speech or non-violent protest)? GTFO. Deportee. The last stanza has to do with the ease with which people of subsistence means can be exploited to gratify their oppressors' appetites. He is so blase that he comes right out and blows his own cover, knowing they don't care, nor is there any possibility of any counterintelligence threat. He is only trolling, hoping some girl might find it exciting enough to throw him a lay. After all, what is he there for anyway? Isn't he a cowboy? Sound's better than shepherd. Zip code is another one of those metaphors linking economic and social codes with geographic zones like ghettos, and calling attention to the many and various ironies and contradictions that the extreme inequity of the society imposes through stereotyping and environmental racism. |
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| Steely Dan – Rikki Don't Lose That Number Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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| Steely Dan – Rikki Don't Lose That Number Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I feel this song is written to Rick Nelson in the wake of the "Garden Party" fiasco. "we hear you're leaving, that's ok" Rick had come to New York, where Fagen and Becker were still just starting out and Fagen was part of the drug culture that was the scene at the time. The garden party saw Rick N debut a new style, a departure from his previous pop confections, and he was booed off the stage (or so he thought- look it up). He walked off the stage in the middle of his set, and withdrew from public life for two years, until he came out with his song- Garden Party- where he relates his feelings about the incident succinctly: "you can't please everyone, so ya got please yourself" Fagen thinks Nelson (who he's got a mancrush on), will leave the music scene forever. He will never be able to finish making his play for Rick. The number is Fagen's phone number. I have a friend into town refers to Eric Clapton. We can go driving on slowhand road means we can get together and Jam with Eric and maybe work on developing a newer sound in the studio at CBS. If you have a change of heart means, if you decide to come back to music and the scene, etc. |
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| Oasis – Wonderwall Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Wonderwall is one of Noel Gallagher’s most important and personal songs, and his evasiveness over the years in explaining it (the right of any artist, imho), exposes the song to a lot of interpretations. Despite what he said, Noel did indeed write this song to a real person: Paul McCartney, but it was the friendship at that point in his life that was imaginary, not the person. The film “Wonderwall”, which I will discuss shortly, gave him the pretext at a superficial meaning of speaking about Meg, his wife at the time. But the only way you could conclude it was written to her is if you didn’t understand what “Wonderwall” really meant to Noel, or overlooked the context of Oasis in ’93 being heralded as the next Beatles, with Noel being placed in the Paul McCartney typecast alongside Liam cast as Lennon. Liam named his first son "Lennon", so it's quite clear that this typecasting was and is present throughout Noel and Liam's lives at a basic and formative level, and that it precedes their fame and marital relationships. The song was written prior to Noel and Paul becoming well acquainted and having a real relationship, as happened throughout the mid-late 1990’s. At this early stage Paul was Noel’s "Wonderwall" in fantasy and he sensed that Paul’s experience with fame and Lennon and the conflicts and ennui that played out served as a model for the identity crisis that he was facing after the hugely successful Definitely Maybe album and the stormy relationship with Liam in his own life. But most people are not aware of the movie Wonderwall which features a score called Wonderwall Music, composed by George Harrison. The Movie, “Wonderwall” (1968) is about an aging, absent-minded biologist named Collins who has spent a lifetime peering through the small aperture of a microscope. Then, a young model named Penny Lane moves in next door. One night he sees a ray of light coming from the wall in his darkened flat and discovers a peephole into which he can observe Penny’s apartment. Peering through this aperture opens a completely fantastic and alien world of sex, drugs, psychedelia, and of course Penny naked. Collins gradually withdraws further and further into the wonderwall; or perhaps with a different perspective, allows his mind to expand into this new universe untethered by “ego” or “reality”. As he begins to drill more peepholes, and his observations become increasingly more fantastic and psychedelic. The act of observing another life unobserved by the subject (similar to the relationship of artists to their fans) has become transformational- it’s not really just about his love interest in Penny anymore- the wonderwall opens up an entirely new reality where none of the banality or limitation of actual life applies. Noel’s Wonderwall is therefore "music", and his Penny Lane is Paul McCartney. Like Collins, he has spent his whole life peering into the light coming through the narrow aperture of media- observing his artistic hero living a public life. Through music Noel is having an imaginary dialogue with Paul, much as Collins did with Penny Lane. Who wrote Penny Lane? Paul McCartney. "Today, is gonna be the day" (as opposed to Yesterday, Paul's famous solo song). "Backbeat" (a direct Paul reference, and title of a 1994 film), "the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out." One of McCartney's many artistic pseudonyms in this period was "The Fireman". Recall in the song Penny Lane "‘there is a fireman with an hourglass". "All the roads were winding" refers to The Long and Winding Road, reputedly Lennon's favorite Macca work. Note that the orchestration and arrangement of the song "Wonderwall" is dominated by the Cello (Just as in Eleanor Rigby- another Paul solo work), and that in orchestral settings the Cello is the analog of the Bass Guitar- just like Paul's instrumental role in the Beatles. Paul McCartney is therefore named throughout the song explicitly as Noel's imaginary listener. The relationship of the Noel and Paul is that of role model and apprentice. Noel is struggling internally with the idea that songwriting and performance has nothing to do with artistic authenticity- it’s just acting and burlesque to the Collins’ of the world- the word on the street. Noel wishes Paul would respond to criticism of his later work by producing new great material but that's a bit ironic if satisfying the masses means being inauthentic to one's artistic self. Maybe Paul likes the stuff that the fans and Noel didn't? Maybe he's not compromising anymore? He doesn't really yet know Paul well enough to ask why the fire seems to have gone out. That's why there "are so many things that (Noel) would like to say to (Paul) but (Noel) doesn't yet know how." Noel is living in both worlds at the time of the songwriting: just like Collins at his Wonderwall (While looking at "Penny Lane", yet another Paul song reference), Noel feels himself being drawn into the same vortex of alternate reality now that he has been crowned “the next Paul”, and he’s scared he’ll follow Paul’s winding road where "all the lights were blinding". He’s met the real Paul, and so he has to square his fantasy version to a new reality- one which ultimately will help him define his own artistic identity. But the dialogue from Noel's perspective is still internal- the Paul inside his head is not the real Paul. Paul is to Noel, as Penny Lane is to Collins. Hence Noel titled the song "Wonderwall", to allow access to the song's deeper layers for his more informed and attentive listeners. The dialogue’s subtext is that of disenchantment. You can almost hear Noel saying “Paul, you’re the greatest singer songwriter of the 20th century and it’s been 15 years since London Town. "Buck up man, because people are saying you’ve gone soft, and I’m afraid if I follow your steps I’ll get the same. And Liam! He's worse than Lennon! But ultimately it’s a road I must follow, maybe by continuing to place my faith in your guidance I’ll ultimately save myself from what happened to you and John. If I go off the path now, I’m lost: since you've always been my Wonderwall." |
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