| Sheryl Crow – Leaving Las Vegas Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| "I\'m standing in the middle of the desert\nWaiting for my ship to come in"\n\nThis is both literal (people going to Las Vegas with dreams of getting rich) and figurative (standing still and expecting opportunity to come to you).\n\nIn so many ways, Las Vegas represents the artificiality of our daily lives, and the blinders so many of us wear just to get through the day.\n\nThe video\'s great too. Blackjack dealers, showgirls, and Flying Elvi. | |
| Linkin Park – Numb Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| I\'m pushing 50 and have a good, stable, well-paying job. It\'s just not the job my family envisioned for me back in high school in the 1980s. They\'re still pressuring me to quit and "get a real job".\n\nYep. 3 decades into my I.T. career and I\'m still the embarrassment to the family. But they sure as hell call me whenever their computers crash.\n\nIs it any wonder I blast this song every time I hear it? | |
| Dream Academy – love Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| These are the lyrics for "Love Parade", not "Love". They are two different songs. | |
| The Clash – Train in Vain Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| I remember hearing one of the many covers of this song in a Hardee's one time and started ranting to whoever I was with because the cover was a smooth, jazzy, happy version and this song is SO not those things. This is probably one of the best "F*** You Bitch" songs ever written. | |
| Vertical Horizon – Everything You Want Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| A lot of people interpret it that way. The songwriter has said in interviews that it's not religious, it's about a woman he knew, but that he wants people to take their own meaning from it. | |
| Dan Fogelberg – Leader of the Band Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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It always bums me out when I find out a song I really like turns out to be a tribute to the singer/songwriter's father. Thanks for all the baggage Dad :( So instead I choose to see it as a tribute to a "father figure". An older male influence that the songwriter looks up to, someone who inspired him. In this case, a bandleader. A man who brought together a group of musicians to create something magical, who changed lives and uplifted so many people through both leadership (the band members themselves) and art (the audience). The first two verses can be interpreted the same whether it's a father or father figure, it's about the bandleader choosing music over another path his parents may have chosen for him, the difficulty he faced in the Army, and learning his craft. Same with the third verse, it's all about the songwriter. When we hit the fourth verse, that's were the father figure interpretation diverges. "I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go" the bandleader never stood in the way of anyone chasing their dreams, so when it was time for the songwriter to leave and form his own band or solo act, the bandleader gave his blessing. "I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough" the bandleader occasionally had to give his band members some tough love but overall he was a gentle soul. "Papa I don't think I said I love you near enough" there are countless examples where a group of people gives their leader a parental nickname like Papa or Mama or Dad or Mom. For the chorus, "his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul" when the songwriter plays and/or sings you can hear echoes of the bandleader. The influence is unmistakable. "I'm just a living legacy to the leader of the band." The bandleader's legacy is all the band members over the years whose talent he has nurtured, uplifted, and influenced. |
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| Meat Puppets – Backwater Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Backwater can refer to a literal backwater (stagnant part of a river not reached by the current) or to a small town in the middle of nowhere, so named because a lot of them are on the banks of an actual stagnant river. Backwater town is where my interpretation comes from. I grew up in a backwater town. A place with zero economic development, that was slowly dying because young people were leaving to find jobs. In the 1960s there were several small businesses in the town. By 1990, exactly two people in the whole town worked there: one in the gas station and one in the post office. The rest of the businesses were boarded up and even one of the churches had folded. "They stand there looking backwards..." Everyone living in the town lamented "the good old days" without any regard to their own responsibility in the loss of businesses. Everyone had started driving a half-hour or farther to do all their shopping and other errands. Everyone aged out of the beach pool hall and they had stopped letting their kids go so it closed, then they complained that the owner of the pool hall "abandoned" the town. But instead of doing anything to try to bring new businesses and jobs to the town, they just wish things could go back to the way they were. Always looking backwards. "In the backwater swirling, there is something that'll never change..." It's the same story in small towns everywhere. Mom & Pop businesses closing up when Mom & Pop want to retire, but they pushed their children away decades before and now the whole town's mad that those kids, who are now grown and in their 40s or 50s with teenagers of their own, don't want to move back to the Backwater and assume their parents' lives. Rinse, repeat. |
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| Wilson Phillips – Eyes Like Twins Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| My favorite Wilson Phillips song. I always signed off my radio show with it in 1990-91. | |
| Lionel Richie – Running With the Night Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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This is my favorite Lionel Richie song. That bass line... just magic! I think it's about two people out on a date that's so hot the inevitable happens. |
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| Prince – U Got the Look Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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Prince, Sheena Easton, and Sheila E. Three epic '80s musicians come together for three and a half glorious minutes. This is why the '80s rocked! |
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| Matchbox Twenty – 3 A.M. Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| This song came out when I worked the morning shift, so 3am was when my alarm went off. I'm the opposite of a morning person, so the tempo of this song helped wake me up... especially when Rob belts out "But outside, it stopped rainiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing" It kind of became my theme song (without knowing the meaning behind it) and it was definitely my favorite song of the 1990s. It's still one of my top 5 songs ever. | |
| The Kinks – Come Dancing Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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LOL @ "Brain malfunction" :) And at 45, I have never and will never look back at high school as anything but the circle of Hell it was. |
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| 10,000 Maniacs – Because the Night (Patti Smith Group cover) Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Natalie Merchant makes everything she touches better. And that's not meant to take anything away from Bruce & Patti, they created an awesome song. Merchant took it and made it an iconic '90s song. | |
| New Model Army – Vagabonds Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| One of THE best bass lines ever played. | |
| The Wallflowers – One Headlight Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I'm of two minds about this song. When I first heard it, like a lot of people I saw a story about breast cancer. But in my 24-year-old mind (when the song was released) I heard him talking about two women. The verses are about a woman who died, and the chorus is him talking to his girlfriend/wife who just received a diagnosis. The woman who died tried to beat the cancer without taking the drastic step of mastectomy, because of the pressures of society, her family, whatever, and that decision likely killed her, so in the verse he is trying to reassure his lover that he will still be intimate with her if she gets the cancerous breast removed. I took the line "We can drive it home with one headlight" to mean "I'll still bang you with one breast." That was 24-year-old me. 44-year-old me has a somewhat mashed-up take on the lyrics. His parents have both passed. His father at some undetermined time in the past, his mother recently. The people attending the funeral are talking about how she died of a broken heart, probably after losing her husband and with her children all gone she just couldn't cope so she turned to "cheap wine, cigarettes" and had let the house become "such a mess". And he wonders why his mother stayed where she was after her husband died, instead of moving on. He feels like she had the potential to start a new chapter. But she stayed in familiar surroundings because that's what people do, and that probably drove her to depression because everything reminded her of everything she had lost. Now, here's where I take a bit of a left turn: "And I seen the sun up ahead at the county line bridge Sayin' all there's good and nothingness is dead We'll run until she's out of breath She ran until there's nothin' left She hit the end, it's just her window ledge" He's desperate to put this place in his rear view mirror and just drive until the car quits. "We'll run until she's out of breath". But he didn't make it very far. "She hit the end". So now his car's left him too, and he's stuck here for a while. The third verse is talking about their old house, which is nothing special and is run down "like a beat up truck". And there's no life left in it. "I turn the engine but the engine doesn't turn." He's trying to remember, but it's so far gone that he has no emotional connection at all to the house. There's not even any ghosts here, and the walls themselves have no stories to tell anymore. It just smells and looks like depression and disappointment (cheap wine, cigarettes, such a mess) and he'd lose no sleep if someone took a match to it. "I'm so alone and I feel just like somebody else Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same" That sense of being outside your body, watching yourself go through life after losing someone close to you (like a parent). You're so disconnected you don't even have yourself to keep you company. |
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| The Wallflowers – One Headlight Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| This song means so many different things to so many different people, but this is one of the more raw, honest ones I've read. And it reminds me so much of my back-woods home town that has withered and nobody there seems to care, they like their dying dump of a town that used to be so much more. And every time I go back there it makes me sad and angry that nobody there gives a shit anymore. | |
| Supertramp – Take The Long Way Home Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I used to have these lyrics pinned at the top of my MySpace page. (Remember them???) I've always considered this verse to be a cautionary tale: Does it feel that your life's become a catastrophe? Oh, it has to be for you to grow , boy. When you look through the years and see what you could have been oh, what you might have been, If you'd had more time. The first two lines remind me that I learn from failure. Personally it reminds me of how much my 20s sucked but it's precisely because of how much I struggled and how many times I fell flat on my face in the 1990s that I am such a self-sufficient person today. And it reminds me that failure is not permanent, no matter how much I thought I would never escape. So now when I get knocked down, I do allow myself a bit of wallowing in self-pity, and then I kick myself in the ass. The last three lines remind me not to spend too much time on the self-pity, because if you allow yourself to become numb to the pain of failure, that's when you go to bed one night in your 20s and wake up the next day age 79 wondering where your life went. Failure should hurt. It's supposed to make you want to do better. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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This isn't an interpretation, but a story about where this song takes me. I was 10 when Hold Me was released as a single in the US. So the literal meaning was completely lost on me at the time. But in the summer of 1982 my family was on a road trip cross-country from Virginia to Colorado. And EVERY radio station from Richmond to Denver had "Hold Me" in heavy rotation. So I heard the song about a hundred times in the four-day drive out and subsequent four-day drive home a week later. Therefore, the imagery my brain calls up from the archives every time I hear this song is the scenery along I-64 and I-70, and the four of us crammed into the cab of a blue and silver 1979 GMC Sierra pickup. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Hold Me Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Knight Rider was infamous for that. Plenty of episodes featured popular songs of the time performed by cover artists so they didn't have to pay the royalties for the "real" version. It was cheesy, which just added to the overall cheesiness and charm of the show. | |
| Madness – Our House Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I think he's remembering when he left home. And he misses all the mundane day-to-day stuff that went on in his parents' house. He's describing a typical day in "our house" but then smack in the middle of that: "Something tells you that you've got to get away from it". He's nearing adulthood and he's starting to get the feeling it's time to leave the nest. "She's the one they're going to miss in lots of ways". Most kids who come from the kind of traditional family this song describes, miss their mothers (and everything that Mom did for them as children) when they first leave home. Mom was always the nurturer, the mother hen, the cat herder. Dad "wears his Sunday best" and "gets up late for work". He filled his traditional role of providing for his family but was aloof and distant from the kids, so when they leave home they're going to miss Mom but not so much Dad. "I remember way back then when everything was true and when We would have such a very good time such a fine time Such a happy time And I remember how we'd play simply waste the day away Then we'd say nothing would come between us two dreamers" The bridge lyrics suggest that the first half was a flashback, as the tense changes from present to past tense and remains that way for the remainder of the song. Where the main verses refer to the past in the present tense, the bridge drags us out of the daydream and back to remembering the past as the past. |
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| Icehouse – Electric Blue Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| Have you ever been in a bar or on a train or just walking down the street and saw someone whose looks blew you away and it was love at first sight? But you never spoke to them or got their name so when you're telling your friends about them you refer to them by a physical feature or item of clothing. "Green shirt" this, "Red hair" that, "Cowboy boots" was cute, etc. That's who "Electric Blue" is. A woman in a bar wearing an electric shade of blue. And the singer is head over heels in love with this stranger. | |
| The Doobie Brothers – What A Fool Believes Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| I think you're spot on. "Trying hard to recreate what had yet to be created" is a brilliant lyric. He's reminiscing about something that never was. Sure, the events he's recounting probably happened but he remembers them (and her) fondly, and she barely remembers them (or him) at all. | |
| Dead Man Fall – Bang Your Drum Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I. Love. This. Song. "I am wishing that I was making A list of all the good things that I've ever done with my life 'Cause everybody thinks I have wasted Wasted every chance I ever had to be somebody." This pretty much describes my relationship with one side of my family. They all see me as a failure because I don't fit their definition of "success". Despite everything I've done with my life, I don't fit their mold and therefore I'm wasting my life. "Keep banging on Banging on your drum Keep banging on And your day will come" You do you. To hell with what everybody thinks. Live your dream, not theirs. |
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| Baltimora – Tarzan Boy Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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This verse has always spoken to me: Jungle life You're far away from nothing It's all right You won't miss home Take a chance Leave everything behind you Come and join me, won't be sorry It's easy to survive I have a great uncle who, at age 90+, just a few months ago "retired' from his nomadic existence (due to a stroke he sadly can no longer live alone or drive). After retiring from his job in the mid-1980s he became a nomad, driving around the American west, spending his pension on gas and food and beer. No house to maintain, nobody to support but himself, and had one hell of a rolling apartment in his van! And while I am still very much a taxpaying working slob, I long for the day when the Powerball folks draw my numbers and I can follow in my uncle's footsteps and spend the next 40-50 years exploring the world. (Hey, as long as I'm dreaming, shoot for the moon, right?) But in the meantime I find myself able to take one long road trip every two or three years. And even if my ultimate destination is a city or landmark (Grand Canyon, Times Square), I always take the scenic route. "You're far away from nothing." And while I am maneuvering my Jeep through the back roads of nowhere, I'm not even thinking about home or work. "You won't miss home... Leave everything behind you." It's very easy to forget about your day-to-day existence back home if you "Take a chance" and just let yourself get lost. It really is "easy to survive". Come and join me! Won't be sorry :) |
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| Paul Carrack – Don't Shed A Tear Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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One of the best "**** you" songs of the '80s :) He lists a bunch of things that are dead ends, just like their relationship. "All that I saw in you, now I see through." I see you for what you are. And you were never what I first thought you were. "I'm not missing what we ain't making." And you were terrible in the sack, too! "Don't shed a tear for me." Don't cry for me Argentina. "My life won't end without you... The sun will rise without you." Life goes on. I don't need you. |
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| Jude Cole – Baby, It's Tonight Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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As with most '80s & '90s pop music, the video tells a different story than the lyrics. The video is your standard-issue MTV-era pop music video: The singer/band playing guitar in one or more locations (bedroom/hotel room, beside a pool, and usually walking down a street somewhere in L.A.) with random shots of a sexy woman edited in with no apparent rhyme or reason because she was probably the video producer's girlfriend. And the whole thing screams "I need a hookup baby! It's tonight!" But the lyrics tell a much different story. "Too many words have not been said for us to be living alone." He's trying to reconcile with his ex. He feels like she won't give him a chance to talk it out. He probably did something to piss her off, and tried to explain but she didn't want to hear it. Maybe it's happened before and she's sick of his excuses, so she left him. "You're the only one I can turn to. If I ever needed your arms to hold me, baby it's tonight." Either depression is setting in, or some personal tragedy has happened and he really needs someone to talk to, and he feels like she's the "only one [he] can turn to". And tonight more than ever he needs her company. "Now all of the fighting, and all of the tears, they don't matter now." "Let's take it to where it all began and start again from there." Yeah, there's some baggage between them, but he wants to put that behind them and get back to what drew them together in the first place. Start over. Clean slate. (He probably screwed up one too many times. Been there, dude!) "I'm walkin' in a world of strangers, and you're the only one who really knows me." They were probably together for a long time, maybe had been friends before entering into a relationship, and he feels like she's the only person in the world who "gets" him. "So won't you please, please pick up the phone. Don't leave me to face this world all alone." He's hurting, and feels abandoned. He knows she's ignoring him, and he's desperately trying to get her attention to try and talk things out. TL;DR: This is a plea to an ex for reconciliation. |
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| Mike And The Mechanics – The Living Years Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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As a child, I always hated this song. My mom always said it was about telling your parents you love them before they're gone. Yeah, not so much. I heard this song for the first time in years today. I'm still not crazy about it but the lyrics make more sense to me now. In my mind, it's not about burying the hatchet or making nice with a parent you would rather stayed out of your life. It's about not holding a grudge but getting everything out in the open, and then letting it all go. Tell them exactly how you feel, instead of just letting this cloud of tension hover over everything while you fake being nice to them. Don't let them go to their grave wondering. Air it all out, and then walk away. At least then you both know where you stand. For all the things my father did to me growing up, I don't wish him any ill. I severed all ties with him a decade ago and I'm a much better person without him in my life. And I have no regrets, I said what I needed to say and gave him a chance to say his peace, and washed my hands of it. I did just what the song said, I told him while he was still alive to hear it. |
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