Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
I don't need to talk about the world alright
I just want to sleep with a smile tonight
I don't want to talk about the hungry people
People down and out
Sleep when the sun goes down
When I wake up early in the morning I don't watch the news
I just wake up with a smile by you
And I don't want to talk about the world
I just want to smile and smile some more
We watched the sun come up
But take it down, to hide it
Seems like the spring has come and gone
Felt like forever
I don't want to talk about the world alright
I just want to sleep with a smile tonight
I don't want to talk about the hungry people
People down and out
Sleep when the sun goes down
When I wake up early in the morning I don't watch the news
I just get up with a smile by you
And I don't want to talk about the world
I just want to smile and smile some more
And I feel fine I feel good
That's what happy people do, and how are you?
When I feel fine I feel good
That's what happy people do, and how are you?
Let's watch the sun come up
To take it down, and hide it
Seems like the spring has come and gone
It felt like forever
We'll watch the sun come up
To take it down, and hide it
It seems like the spring has come and gone
It felt like forever
Until the summer comes then, you'll find me there
I'd like to try to forget the times
Have changed and we all live and die
Plastic soldiers
Never growing older
I'd like to try to forget the times
Have changed and we all live and die
Plastic soldiers
Slowly growing older
I'd like to try to forget the times
Have changed and we all live and die
Plastic soldiers
Slowly growing older
And I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I just want to sleep with a smile tonight
I don't want to talk about the hungry people
People down and out
Sleep when the sun goes down
When I wake up early in the morning I don't watch the news
I just wake up with a smile by you
And I don't want to talk about the world
I just want to smile and smile some more
We watched the sun come up
But take it down, to hide it
Seems like the spring has come and gone
Felt like forever
I don't want to talk about the world alright
I just want to sleep with a smile tonight
I don't want to talk about the hungry people
People down and out
Sleep when the sun goes down
When I wake up early in the morning I don't watch the news
I just get up with a smile by you
And I don't want to talk about the world
I just want to smile and smile some more
And I feel fine I feel good
That's what happy people do, and how are you?
When I feel fine I feel good
That's what happy people do, and how are you?
Let's watch the sun come up
To take it down, and hide it
Seems like the spring has come and gone
It felt like forever
We'll watch the sun come up
To take it down, and hide it
It seems like the spring has come and gone
It felt like forever
Until the summer comes then, you'll find me there
I'd like to try to forget the times
Have changed and we all live and die
Plastic soldiers
Never growing older
I'd like to try to forget the times
Have changed and we all live and die
Plastic soldiers
Slowly growing older
I'd like to try to forget the times
Have changed and we all live and die
Plastic soldiers
Slowly growing older
And I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
I'm sorry for the love you lost today
But I thank you for the love I need today
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Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
My take on this song is similar to my take on "Purple, Yellow, Red & Blue," but from the opposite perspective. It's told from the point of view of someone who has become heavily disillusioned from the constant onslaught of technology-provided information (the internet) and is trying to disassociate himself from the horrors of the modern problems that are online-- the "hungry people" and "the war" are metaphors for technozombies who engage in anonymous arguments over the third world and various military conflicts but never making a true point.
The storyteller says that "we watch the sun come up just to take down and hide it," I think what he means is that people are so attached to their computers, cell phones and internet that they don't sleep right, anymore (nobody goes to "sleep when the sun goes down" anymore), and that we've hidden "the sun" aka the light of day, reality, connection to the real reality, the real flesh only to hide behind the dots of light traveling up and down the information superhighway.
So, then he says he just wants to 'try and forget that the times have changed,' in the days since about 2001, humanity has gotten a technological boost a thousand times more advanced than the technological progresses made during World War I and World War II combined, and that we're all just "plastic soldiers" SLOWLY growing older using our computers who are also "plastic soldiers NEVER growing older."