| Sandi Thom – I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This song is wonderfully drenched in layer after layer of irony. The yearning for this totally blurred memory of the past is delicious, but the songwriter clearly recognizes that there seems to be no going back. "When popstars still remained a myth, and ignorance could still be bliss," is a wonderful line. Most allusions to this idea are entirely ironic, but she manages to blur the line between irony and sincerity. It's as if she's trying to point a way to the resurrection of a music that cares, but doesn't know exactly what the way is. All she knows is that it'll have some things in common with either music of the Hippie consciousness or with punk rock- two very different musics that shared a crucial social consciousness. |
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| R.E.M. – It's the End of the World as We Know It Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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At my summer camp, when this song is played, you grab the hands of the two people nearest you and huge human chains are formed. These chains then sprint across a huge grassy area, weaving in and among themselves. It's pure chaos, and yet it's pure fun. That's what the song is about to me. Everything around you is disorder, and you can't help but revel in the chaos. Every once in a while, you need to just take a step back and laugh at the world around you. |
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| They Might Be Giants – Dr Worm Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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It's clear that the Johns are not completely drug-free. Look at a song like "Till My Heads Fall Off" for clear proof that they have drug references in their songs. But songs like "Drink!" demonstrate the dark side of drug abuse. I think it's clear that the Johns have used drugs, but I don't think it's the primary creative influence in their life. And I think they recognize the harm caused by drugs more than the benefits they offer. As Fizzward notes, coffee seems to be their drug of choice at the moment. The documentary Gigantic showed repeated consumption of massive amounts of coffee. In any case, the struggling musician interpretation makes the most sense to me. The drug explanation makes the least sense. And Sir Larrikin's theory is not at all a killjoy. Sometimes the literal explanation is the most offbeat of all. I have to admit that it never occurred to me to interpret Doctor Worm literally. |
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| Moxy Früvous – Entropy Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I'm firmly of the belief that the scientific concept of entropy needs to be incorporated into our philosophical system if we're going to move forward as a society. MF's Entropy song makes a stab at it, showing how the idea of entropy translates on a macroscopic level, perhaps not as a scientific law, but certainly as a principle to consider. But it's silly rather than serious about the idea... so you're best off considering this song as just a non sequitur song rather than as a song with an important philosophical message. Or perhaps as a didactic song for children, though I wonder if any science teachers have actually played this song for their students. |
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| Moxy Früvous – Gulf War Song Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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The Gulf War Song is MF's attempt to create a Vietnam-War-Protest-Song-style song. Musically, it comes out beautifully, with tremendous harmonies. Lyrically, well... I can't help but feeling the song's somewhat ironic. They can't sing about Vietnam, because they're a Canadian group and anyway, they're 20 years too late. So the song is about the Gulf War, a war fraught with ethical concerns, to be sure, but a war with hardly any casualties, which ended quickly and without any problems. The comparison to Vietnam doesn't work very well, making it a little strange. The most interesting lines of the song are the first four, a really interesting analysis of both politically correct posturing and patriotic posturing. There's no way to make a song that won't offend someone, in some way, especially when you trod on such contentious territory. As a result, the Gulf War Song is a little devoid of emotion. It wraps its beautiful music with a message about a cliched universal peace, as if to demonstrate that the only way to keep from offending is to not really say anything. In the end, though, they do make a fairly effective sentimental appeal for the end of violence. But it's not really particularly hopeful that the appeal will be listened to. That may be the main thing that distinguishes this from one of the old Vietnam Protest Songs- the cynicism inherent in it. A Vietnam protest song believed that the song could change the listener and the listener could change the system. This song makes a statement, but doesn't expect the statement to affect the listener in any real way. |
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| They Might Be Giants – New York City Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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There are two differences between the original lyrics by Cub and the version that They Might Be Giants sing on Factory Showroom. Firstly, instead of singing "Katz's and Tiffany's", Cub sings "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Secondly, instead of singing "The Empire State Where Dylan Lived", Cub sings "The Empire State Where King Kong Lived". Flansburgh apparently misheard the lyrics, at least for the Dylan/King Kong one. I think the change to Katz's may have been intentional, because the Johns are on the record as saying that they felt this song, though it was a cover, reflected their own New York experiences very well. Maybe they changed it to Katz's, a Lower East Side fixture, to better reflect that. It should be noted that in live performances nowadays, They Might Be Giants sing "King Kong" and not "Dylan", but "Katz's and Tiffany's" remains. This song is just amazing. When I got into college in New York City, I played this song over and over again for about a week, while bouncing off walls in exuberance. So I know it pretty well now. And I have to say that the accordion adds something that the original song by Cub lacks. |
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