| Rammstein – Klavier Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I don't know where you guys are getting the idea of murder. If you watch the video they quite plainly rule out a literal murder. His pouring of her blood onto the fire of his rage does not imply that he spilt it. Rage is one of the five stages of grief. Though I understand the connection between "it seemed she played for me alone" and cheating, I think it is to be taken more literally. Others would much love to hear her play but only he remembers clearly, or only he saw the true depth of beauty in her music. This is represented in the video by the second pair of hands at the piano, presumably hers, although shown as a second pair of his hands. Only his hands can play her music now because she's dead, as a ship that he put her on exploded. He breaks the record of her playing because he feels that nobody else can truly appreciate the beauty of her playing. Her parents blame him for her death as he saw her off. The piano that she used to play is dusty and out of tune, so she had been at sea for awhile when the accident happened. He goes into her room and plays her piano, which he'd never done before. At first her parents are curious, but then they suspect something is wrong. It becomes a scream. "What could be behind it" could be the narrator's question or the parents' question, and neither case points to murder. If the narrator had murdered her, he would know why her parents were screaming. If it is the parents' question, They are clued into the tragedy by his strange behaviour. Perhaps they had a special bond with each other through her music. It seems they played for each other in a specially passionate way, revealed at the end of the song. Nobody believes him that he is sick with grief and the stench. I don't think this should be taken literally, but rather for the first clause, in the same way it is taken in English, and for the second clause, perhaps another idiom similar to English. This account is plausible because English derives from German, so long standing idioms should transfer very well, as long as German has the loans necessary, or the idioms are derived in German. Humans have been grieving for at least 500k years, when we started burying our dead. The expression "sick with grief" probably exists in every language. The stench could either be the imagined stench of her remains rotting in the ocean, or of coal. Or, given the video it's possible the stench might refer to that of pot, which the speaker uses to try to forget what he now knows. Of course that's just a literal interpretation of it. Murder is not necessary in the surface structure of the song. |
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| MC Lars – Stat-60 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Actually, I'm pretty sure it's xi^2 values. | |
| Relient K – The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This song most likely has the same theme as the book of James. "faith without works is dead." This song is about so many Christians who are Christian in name only. The question we are asked is, is a person really a Christian if that person does nothing a Christian does? A Christian's calling is to "go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Christians, by definition, are also called to be Christ-like. Christians are to have good works as well as faith. Where is the evidence that this song has anything to do with Christianity? First of all, let us consider that the members of this band are Christian. That's somewhat weak evidence from a New Critical perspective so I will provide stronger evidence which is all textual or allusion based. The spoken part offers strong evidence that this song is a wake up call to so-called "Sunday Christians." The lyricist is ironically saying that the band Reliant K consists of Sunday Christians. Then he goes on to question why they are so full of contradictions. Looking at the song itself, there are no apparent contradictions, so this reference to contradictions must be in relation to something else. Possibly about Sunday Christians "contradicting" themselves by proclaiming one thing and then proceeding to live another way. Then there is the Captain Crunch reference which is likely an allusion to the Newboys song "They don't serve breakfast in Hell." Also, a closing piece of evidence: The song was originally written for "Veggie Tales" a Christian children's show. | |
| Kenny Rogers – The Gambler Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Is it just me or does country music like this pack in a lot more meaning than those 7-11 songs? By 7-11 songs I mean those that have seven words repeated eleven times per chorus with an average of three choruses, wherein said chorus can be borrowed by verses. | |
| Blues Traveler – Run-Around Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| "My cup shall always be full" lends much credibility to the idea that the waitress is a a metaphor for fate. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane said "Lord, take this cup from my hands." What Jesus meant is inarguably suffering, specifically that which He would endure on the cross. Christ was using a cup, then, as a metaphor for fate. Variation on a theme? | |
| R.E.M. – It's the End of the World as We Know It Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| As a university debater I can say confidently that that references to debate in this song are probably incidental. The reference to "the Furies" does not follow from a debate tournament. Use of the term "the Furies" was a deliberate reference to Greek mythology. The Furies, would follow those around, specifically nobility, who had incurred guilt and torment such people. Also, the Furies are written about frequently in Classical tragedies. This could mean this song is meant to be tragic. Perhaps though it is the end of the world, the speaker feels fine because he is ignorant to it. As for the rest of the song, I'd have to write a full length essay to even begin to explicate it and I really don't feel like it. That's my take. To those who wrote that it was about a debate tournament, remember that the text/song is the only thing that matters in interpretation. Facts about singers etc. are interesting but not ultimately relevant. | |
| Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Just a thought but do you think there could be some double entendre here? I think September may be metonomous for the start of the university year, as may be suggested by the line: "ring out the bells again." | |
| Disturbed – Voices Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| I, having at one point been schizophrenic, can say almost definitively that that's what this song's about. As a schizophrenic, the voices you hear in your head are usually very snyde, say "freaky shit", and yes do encourage you to kill yourself and others. Most schizophrenics also have an elevated sense of causality. Since the voices are present constantly, and telling the sufferer to do things, later when an accident happens they associate with disobeying the voice. This leads do an almost animalistic compulsion. Believe me, having been through it, the voices can be quite convincing even to an otherwise logical person. | |
| Disturbed – Mistress Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Plainly, it's about feeling suicidal after being dumped. I think my evidence has been mentioned already by everyone else. | |
| Blues Traveler – Run-Around Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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It's so refreshing to see genuine literary criticism. Generally, all I seem to see is, "singer x is gay." "band x is gay." "You're stupid." I was wondering for awhile where those who actually discussed the content of a song went. Obviously the answer is, well, right here. As to the first few lines possibly being modelled after Poe's "The Raven", I honestly don't see it. As most good poets do, Popper seems to have simply borrowed and slightly modified a line. According to my reading of "The Raven", my argument for which I will not give in its entirety, the narrator was prone to fits of rage and actually killed Lenore. One strong piece of evidence for that reading is the frightened by the knock at the door, and it took awhile to build up the courage to answer it. When he finally did, what did he say? He whispered actually, "Lenore?" In black and white, we only know that Lenore is "lost", and it is not certain that she is dead, but from Poe's own essay about the poem, the name of which escapes me at the moment, he says, "there is nothing more beautiful than the death of a beautiful woman." Taking into account that Poe was one of the forefathers of detective fiction, and wrote about murder quite frequently in his prose, with further analysis it can be, but need not be concluded that "The Raven" is a poem about murder. Of course, Popper may have had a different interpretation of the poem, and may have concluded only that she died. If Popper read Poe's essay, then he may have been using "the death of a beautiful woman" in a more metaphoric sence, equating it only to the death of a beautiful relationship. In any case, this poem does not conjure up the idea of murder for me, but certainly like Poe's poem, it is well constructed and genuinely fascinating. Regarding the rest of the song, I pretty much agree with your interpretation. |
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| Semisonic – Closing Time Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I agree with the view that this song is about graduation. The poet himself says so, therefore it's the case unless one applies a deconstructionist reading to it. I personally think it is about graduation from high school. "Turn all of the lights on over every boy and every girl" sounds like a principal talking fondly of his bright students. A common idiom for an idea is "a light bulb just went off in my head...", so I can say confidently that that particular line is about inspiring new ideas. Later, in the next verse, we have the line "This room won't be open 'til your brothers or your sisters come." Fraternities and sororities have secret rooms which are only open to members. Membership in a frat makes one a "brother" and likewise a "sister" for a soroity. "Time for you to go out to the places you will be from," offers more evidence that this is about high school graduation. Most people move away from home, away from their family, get there degree and suddenly they've been in a new place for four years. They're from there. The final piece of evidence I offer for the high-school graduation view is the final line. "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." I know when I started high school I thought I'd never finish. Four years just seemed such a cruelly long time. Finally when it was over, I got to start my life, and I think it goes that way for most people. Cheers! |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Don't Fear The Reaper Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Also, if you take into account the meter, you will notice it's largely trochaic. Trochaic meter almost invariably signifies supernatural poetry. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Don't Fear The Reaper Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I can't say for sure that the whole song is about suicide, but I can confidently state that the last verse is. The speaker is the woman's dead lover. We can tell that the speaker is a ghost because of the line: "the candles blew and disappeared." Compare to Julius Ceaser IV ? when Brutus encounters Ceaser's ghost. Interestingly, when we enter the third verse, the speaker transitions to a third person omniscient narrator. We might draw the conclusion that the speaker is Death, but I have no direct evidence for that, although it does make logical sense. Postulating that the speaker in teh third verse is in fact Death reporting on some recent events, the speaker in the first two verses was her lover. The ghost was not trying to get her to commit suicide, but rather to console her. "Don't fear the reaper" was to say, don't fear that anything bad has happened to me. Tragically, the woman took the message the wrong way and killed herself by jumping out of her window. |
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| Pearl Jam – I Am Mine Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| This song is truly astonishing! It encompasses everything I love about E.E. Cummings, and Pearl Jam. I mean it's basically Cummings in Vedder's voice. His use of anthimeria, chiasmus and other such devices lead to an equally chaotic and beautiful piece. What I love about PJ is they usually write in well established meters. It's usually iambic and usually about 5 feet. Alexandrines give too much of a hectic feel which is often accidental. In the favorite part cited above, we have very interesting rhymes. Criying/denied, and obviously tide/mind, which are of course near rhymes but rhymes none the less. You could get meaning out of the poem just by reading the rhyme words, and that is the earmark of good poetry. I'm tired, so sorry if that sounded terrible. Thanks for lettin' me practise for my Poetry midterm! | |
| Evanescence – My Immortal Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Unlike Linkin Park, the singer/songwriter of Evanescence actually has poetic talent. Most singers put stress on the rhymes by the way they write their music, which is strucurally wrong in most meters. Also, most other singer/songwriters resort to predictable and convenient rhymes around which they write the syntactic unit of the line. Evanescence on the other hand appears to compose the rhyme in complement to the syntactic unit. Anyway, the music does not carry the meaning of the song so much as the poetry of the lyrics does. | |
| Everclear – Amphetamine Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Wow, Rabid.. Somebody beat me to my pet theory. Yup, this is probably about eating disorders, and I was going to use the same evidence you did. | |
| Evanescence – My Immortal (Piano - Vocal Version) Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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Whether or not Evanessence is who she says she is, she is right. There are several references to abuse. "Supressed by all your childhood fears" is a great example. Also "your presence still lingers here, and it won't leave me alone" probably indicates that he is stalking her. In addition, references to abuse don't get more obvious than "these wounds won't seem to heal." Those of you who disagree without offering any evidence as I just have really ought to seek some education in poetry before fallaciously criticizing somebody else's work. |
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| Evanescence – My Immortal Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I'm not sure why, but this video suggests that this song is about suicide. If you watch the video, you see bandages around both her wrists, and in most of the scenes she's lying down. This leads me to believe that she is not speaking in her own voice, but perhaps the voice of a previous lover. I disagree with the posted lyrics. I think the line goes "you still don't have all of me." Based on the video, I would interpret this to mean, if it is in her voice, that her lover can't have all of her because she has killed herself. If it is in her lover's voice, then he is lamenting her death, more or less saying that if only he'd been there for him, he'd still be alive. Actually, I believe that some of this is her own voice, and other parts not. It's usually really hard to draw that line. In a part I believe to be her own voice "I'm so tired of being here/ Supressed by all your childhood fears", I'm pretty sure she is saying more or less "I'm already dead, stop remembering me." I definitely agree that this is a sad, even tragic song. Of course to define it as a tragedy would be fallacy, because we don't know the narrator's postition in society at large, or even if the true narrator is still alive. If this is in her own voice, it can almost be interpreted as a suicide note of sorts. Evanessence demonstrates a mastery over persona in this song, switching flawlessly between at least two |
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| Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| PS. Kudos to the animator on this! Either he is, or he hired a linguist, because he took phonetics and coarticulation into account in his drawings. In otherwords, all of the manners of articulation are accounted for in the song. You could actually read lips with this song! | |
| Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| I think this song is about inspiration. I think the lyric "Look, I'll make you all managable" suggests that their inspiration will make a label want to sign them. The strange blue person from Russ's hat, in the video, says he is intangible, which is further evidence that he is inspiration. 2-D keeps singing that he is "useless, but not for long", meaning that once they are signed they will get the respect they deserve. I think people are confused by the video and link it to drugs because of its hallucinatory quality, and because of the lyric "I've got sunshine in a bag." The "sunshine in a bag" could mean he has everything he needs to be happy, and it's easy to access, he just has to do it. While that could be a direct link to marijuana, it is more likely in the realm of metaphysical conceit. | |
| Eminem – The Way I Am Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| I am really surprised that you all missed the crucial metaphor in this song. "I am whatever you say I am" is a clear indication that he is comparing his plight to that of Jesus'. What he's saying is that he thinks he's going to be crucified for trying to change the world. The song is a brilliant metaphysical conceit and deserves recognition on that grounds alone. Finally, it is not fame that Eminem is unhappy with, but really the state of the world. If anyone tells me to go back to English class, I'll shoot them, because I am an English major. BTW. Rainbow, here's the dictionary definition of venting from Webster.. Vent vt. (transative verb) 2 -- To express; let out. Humans have been able to express things for millenia, so it is certainly a human verb. Alright, I'm done ranting. Great song. For those of you who are dead set against Eminem for being misogynistic, take a closer look at his lyrics. He is a master of irony. Irony in the literary sense that is. | |
| The Smashing Pumpkins – Zero Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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Good points, only you may consider a more specific argument, that being the nature of the self destructive behaviour. I would suggest the particular behaviour is bulimia. This is strongly suggested by "charcoal" or blackened teeth. Fahion victims follows logically as the victims of bulimia. The bullshit fakers and enchanted kingdoms are the respectively the modelling industry and department stores. Models usually have naturally high metabolisms, which they don't tell overweight women, and thus they are bullshit fakers. Department stores can almost take people off into a fantasy land of sorts, and that suggests the metaphor I put forth. In the beginning of the song, we see the lines "My reflection: dirty mirror/ There's no connection to myself" The meter is trochaic octameter suggesting a religious element, as though the narrator worships the mirror, but it does not connect to the thin figure being reflected. In the bridge, the narrator rants, "emptiness is loneliness," so he needs food to fill that void. "Loneliness is cleanliness" suggests that when he eats, he feels dirty. Then he says that "cleanliness is godliness", implying that once he is empty again, by purging, he will feel powerful. |
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