This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Now
I'm wakin' at the crack of dawn
To send a little money home
From here to the moon
Is risin' like a discotheque
And now my bags are down and packed for traveling
Lookin' at happiness
Keepin' my flavor fresh
Nobody knows I guess
How far I'll go, I know
So I'm leavin' at Six O' Clock
Meet in a parkin' lot
Harriet Hendershot
Sunglasses on, she waits by this
Glass and concrete and stone
It is just a house, not a home.
Skin, that covers me from head to toe
Except a couple tiny holes and openings
Where, the city's blowin' in and out
This is what it's all about, delightfully
Everything's possible
When you're an animal
Not inconceivable
How things can change, I know
So I'm puttin' on aftershave
Nothin' is out of place
Gonna be on my way
Try to pretend, it's not only
Glass and concrete and stone
That it's just, not a home.
And its glass and concrete and stone
It is just a house, not a home
And my head is fifty feet high
Let my body and soul be my guide
I'm wakin' at the crack of dawn
To send a little money home
From here to the moon
Is risin' like a discotheque
And now my bags are down and packed for traveling
Lookin' at happiness
Keepin' my flavor fresh
Nobody knows I guess
How far I'll go, I know
So I'm leavin' at Six O' Clock
Meet in a parkin' lot
Harriet Hendershot
Sunglasses on, she waits by this
Glass and concrete and stone
It is just a house, not a home.
Skin, that covers me from head to toe
Except a couple tiny holes and openings
Where, the city's blowin' in and out
This is what it's all about, delightfully
Everything's possible
When you're an animal
Not inconceivable
How things can change, I know
So I'm puttin' on aftershave
Nothin' is out of place
Gonna be on my way
Try to pretend, it's not only
Glass and concrete and stone
That it's just, not a home.
And its glass and concrete and stone
It is just a house, not a home
And my head is fifty feet high
Let my body and soul be my guide
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Ebba Grön
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Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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
Radiohead
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.
One would have to be mad to try to pinpoint the meaning of a David Byrne song. By his own admission he is borderline Asperger's. His songs are famous for being paradigms of the paradoxical and being ultra cryptic. Still, I am going to try to give an interpretation because I am perhaps just as playful and emotionally stunted as he is. Like most artists he wants to reveal himself even if he does this quite secretly and emblematically.
I was at first intrigued by the main refrain "its glass and concrete and stone, it's just a house not a home". And my own imagination led me to believe it had something to do with architecture and the coldness of a building without love and affection. A building without a hearth or a heart. I imagined the theme of separation, divorce, breakup of a relationship etc.
However, there are too many other references in the song. He talks about travel, money, a rendezvous with a certain Harriet Hendershot. There is a lot of personal imagery, and he is communicating a sense of hopefulness, a pursuit of happiness, in his playful, quirky way.
The tone of his voice is positive but wry and the percussions provide a driving beat which conveys a sense of cheeriness. When the cello comes in there is also strong emotion.
I think he is reflecting on a particular stage of his life and on a fundamental part of himself - a realisation that he enjoys the transitory and sensual delights of the body and that this keeps his "flavour fresh" while willingly denying, suppressing deeper feelings and commitment (home) and that he is prepared to fool himself and perhaps others too. He admits that he prefers to follow his instincts rather than logic, conditioning or conventions in the phrase "let my body and soul be my guide."