In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Do you ever get the feelin' that you got to get away
It's a sympton of the fever all across the U. S. A.
My family doctor told me "son the flu is what you have"
But I know it's island fever and I got it real bad
Hey doc I need a pain reliever
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
I got it bad I got the island fever
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
My baby caught it and I'm not quite sure how
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
She might have got it from her travel brochure now
(Oooo I got it bad)
(Bow bow bow ooo)
Come on baby wouldn't it be nice (Bow bow bow ooo)
If I could take you down to paradise (Bow bow bow ooo)
Sweet little mama gotta get away (Bow bow bow ooo)
Your daddy knows a little hideaway (Bow bow bow ooo)
Hey girl I got some good advice
Drive your dad mad and
Make him take you down to paradise
I've been pickin' up a love vibration
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
Comin' from a little island nation
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
For my own self-preservation
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
Better make a quick reservation
(Oooo I got it bad)
(Bow bow bow ooo)
Come on baby wouldn't it be nice (Bow bow bow ooo)
If I could take you down to paradise (Bow bow bow ooo)
Sweet little mama gotta get away (Bow bow bow ooo)
Your daddy knows a little hideaway (Bow bow bow ooo)
Hey girl I got some good advice
Drive your dad mad and
Make him take you down to paradise
(Bow bow bow ooo)
Come on baby wouldn't it be nice (Bow bow bow ooo)
If I could take you down to paradise (Bow bow bow ooo)
Sweet little mama gotta get away (Bow bow bow ooo)
Your daddy knows a little hideaway (Bow bow bow ooo)
It's a sympton of the fever all across the U. S. A.
My family doctor told me "son the flu is what you have"
But I know it's island fever and I got it real bad
Hey doc I need a pain reliever
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
I got it bad I got the island fever
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
My baby caught it and I'm not quite sure how
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
She might have got it from her travel brochure now
(Oooo I got it bad)
(Bow bow bow ooo)
Come on baby wouldn't it be nice (Bow bow bow ooo)
If I could take you down to paradise (Bow bow bow ooo)
Sweet little mama gotta get away (Bow bow bow ooo)
Your daddy knows a little hideaway (Bow bow bow ooo)
Hey girl I got some good advice
Drive your dad mad and
Make him take you down to paradise
I've been pickin' up a love vibration
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
Comin' from a little island nation
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
For my own self-preservation
(Oooo I got it bad) I got the island fever
Better make a quick reservation
(Oooo I got it bad)
(Bow bow bow ooo)
Come on baby wouldn't it be nice (Bow bow bow ooo)
If I could take you down to paradise (Bow bow bow ooo)
Sweet little mama gotta get away (Bow bow bow ooo)
Your daddy knows a little hideaway (Bow bow bow ooo)
Hey girl I got some good advice
Drive your dad mad and
Make him take you down to paradise
(Bow bow bow ooo)
Come on baby wouldn't it be nice (Bow bow bow ooo)
If I could take you down to paradise (Bow bow bow ooo)
Sweet little mama gotta get away (Bow bow bow ooo)
Your daddy knows a little hideaway (Bow bow bow ooo)
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Actually one of the better songs on its album, 'Summer In Paradise', this song somehow manages to get past its kind of dumb lyrics by sounding really good, especially the chorus. If you're a Beach Boys fan, then this is a great song and it should be in your playlist. Don't let the bad opinions on 'Summer In Paradise' keep you from enjoying this one (or "Lahaina Aloha": the best one on the CD).
As for the album: 'Summer In Paradise' was the Beach Boys' last album (1992), and their least successful (the only one not to chart). It has been ridiculed up and down as an embarrassing disaster, but that's not entirely the case. The album is bad because of three things: 1) It wanted to continue where "Kokomo" left off and they screwed it up; 2) half the songs are either outright terrible or plagued with dumb lyrics; and 3) it's good stuff is mired in all the crap so no one knew it was there since they probably threw it away after track 3. But it's really not garbage, there's great stuff on it... especially if you compare it to the Beach Boys' terrible artistic stuff after Pet Sounds (see my "Good Vibrations" review).