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Frank Black is a huge sci-if fan, and he wrote this song based on a triolgy of books about colonizing Mars from author Kim Stanley Robinson. Robinson wrote three books (first novellas), “Red Mars,” “Green Mars,” and “Blue Mars.” These novellas are references in the lyrics; “ When they do they're gonna make that green map blue.”

Positive
Subjective
Enjoyment
Sci-fi Fan
Mars Colonization
Kim Stanley Robinson
Book References
Trilogy

My take is that the song is about a man who loves a young woman (perhaps it’s romantic love or perhaps it’s paternal or fraternal love), and because he loves her, he thinks he has to protect her from the world, but she grows to see this behavior (rightly or wrongly) as malicious, believing he’s holding her back, that he’s keeping her in a cage. Eventually it builds up to the point that she attempts suicide because she believes that is the only means she has to escape. I think she survives, but her actions make the narrator...

Negative
Subjective
Sadness
Love
Protection
Regret
Letting Go
Emotional Conflict

The lyrics here are wrong at one point, “indisguisable” is clearly what is sung, and Dave Rawlings plays a kind of musical question mark about this non-word.

Negative
Subjective
Disgust
Lyrics
Misinterpretation
Musicality

"No not me it's for a friend." I hear many references to addiction.

Negative
Subjective
Fear
Addiction
Friendship

While the song's surface narrative appears to be about trappers and frontier life, it actually serves as a metaphor for the music business and the relationship between record labels and artists. The trapper represents the artist bringing in their raw creative material (the "furs"), while the trader represents the record label executives who determine its commercial value The vivid imagery of making "a butcher's block out of the fat man's desk" symbolizes how the raw, artistic work gets processed through the commercial machinery of the music industry. The fat men "smoking cigars" represent industry executives profiting from the artists' labor. Brilliant songwriting...

My Interpretation
Positive
Subjective
Admiration
Metaphor
Music Industry
Commercial Value
Artist Labor
Songwriting

Zombie Zoo was different, Inside Caves and colored hidden lights. Saw Holly Sisters of the Ga Ga Da Da and other decent bands. Never so crowded that it was a pain. The people we nice. What I remember 35 years. Had a T shirt from that club. Fun to go to after clubs closed for the night.

Heard this song many years ago and Flashbacks of imaginary.

Positive
Subjective
Enjoyment
Nostalgia
Live Music
Fun
Memories
Nightlife

I know this song is old but I just heard it and i absolutely love it. I don’t really have an interpretation but I wanted to say that I wish Lana Del Rey could cover this.

Positive
Subjective
Enjoyment
Nostalgia
Wishful Thinking
Music Appreciation

Thi song is about man's desperate and eternal struggle to locate the fabled "clitoris."

My Interpretation
Negative
Subjective
Disgust
Misinterpretation
Explicit
Sexual Frustration
Inappropriate
Humorous

For me, the song suggests a complex emotional dynamic between the lyricist and the other person, marked by difficulty in communication and mutual recognition. The lyricist tries to express their feelings but faces internal barriers that make this expression challenging (as seen in the part "Don't open up to everyone / Don't bloom for every stranger"). The lyricist admits they are different but accepts and loves the other despite all the differences ("You came to those who are not like you/Promising to love them too"), while the other is unable to do the same. Despite this, they make an effort,...

My Interpretation
Negative
Subjective
Frustration
Communication Struggle
Unreciprocated Love
Emotional Pain
Blame Shifting
Fear Of Rejection

Marty about Wendy Sadd: This was based on the kind of police brutality that you meet in certain sections of America. I saw the song, like I see most of the others, as a mini film with a very sad dejected girl falling into the hands of a very powerful authority. The actual name ‘Wendy Sadd’ comes from Top of the Pops, where there used to be a girl – or she may still work there for all I know – called Wendy Sadd. When Ricky came home and said he had met a girl by that name, I said that...

Positive
Subjective
Sadness
Police Brutality
Powerful Authority
Dejected Girl
Top Of The Pops
Naming Inspiration