submissions
| Jets to Brazil – Chinatown Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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yeah, and the end, musically, is the "triumph" after a beating. and the lead line realtes violence to sex. so amazing! |
submissions
| Jets to Brazil – Chinatown Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I just watched "Betrayed" - that Debra Winger movie. And at the moment, for me, this song is one of those "this is how we're different; this is why i'm here" kinds of songs. i see it as ant-racist; anti-white-supremacist. "i'm a question...answer...wrong" line, would then be about hope; he's tired of fighting, unlike the people he's singing to, who fight minority infringement. But then Lundt is not a minority name as far as i can see. Still, back-water white supremacists do go out hunting for black folk, which could be what he's hinting at in verse 3. though on another site, i saw that "Harry Lundt" was the 1st pitcher to kill a man with a fastball. I couldn't confirm that online. I still think it's about laying the guns down. |
submissions
| Elliott Smith – Wouldn't Mama Be Proud? Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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NCO, for me, means Non-Commissioned Officer. I hear this song in the 1st 2 verses and the bridge as a conversation he's having with somone Elliott's met on a plane. that's how i make sense of the NCO / great pretender line, as a job the other kid got, and "you gotta tell me quickly.." cause the plane's about to land. single serving friendships. |
submissions
| Cat Power – Evolution Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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So what is up with this one? I really like Cat Power, but this one just eludes me. Like it's written to defy literal interp - or maybe it's just me missing it. Does it have to do with warning the people that someone is coming to persecute them for being themselves? That we’d better call on evolution – the opposite of creationism – in defense against the rising tide of fundamentalism in the world? 'Coming on land' has an invasion thing going on.... The ambiguity is part of her thing, though and part of what I like about her... Does anybody else out there sit around tearing apart cat power lyrics? |
submissions
| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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This is probably my favorite song of the year. I see this song as written in the circumstance of the singer's Dad having died, literally or no. Like as though his Dad had a heart attack (power's out in the heart of man), and now he's 6 feet under (ice has covered up... hands). Now that he's gone, the kids have free reign (swinging from power lines), and the singer is in the position of decision, of choice. He grew up "in some strange storm / nobody's cold, nobody's warm" and now he sees, in the context of his grief (don't have any dreams / plans; went out to pick a fight with anyone), that the light is where it's at.
The 3rd set of 4 lines is like the picture of the neighbors dancing to the cop's lights at the end of Laika, but for me here it reads like the night his Dad died, and the ambulance lights came shining through the windows (throwing shadows). The shadows of his past? But it's also where he locates the source of light as outside the house with the neighbors, then later as within (take it from your hearts).
So if the light is where it's at, and he didn't get it as a kid, then he needs to 'light a candle for the kids' now and not 'keep it hid' like his Dad did. Cause they're 'dying out in the snow (of Tunnels?). "Take it from your heart / put it in your hands" is the most immediate call for love I've seen maybe ever; it's breathtaking. "What's (his) plan?" To tell us to make up our minds and shine the f*$%ing light, now. And not f&%* it up like his Dad did, who he deserves to be angry with (you ain't fooling nobody with the lights out.)
I think the music explodes in spots that underline the greatest injustices of the song. People hiding the light from kids; kids dying out in the snow; and where it's personal, "you ain't fooling nobody with the lights out!" Which can then take on a kind of ironic double meaning. If he's saying this to the Dad of the past, in the past, then it's straight anger. If he's saying it to a dead man, then he's acknowledging that his dad has only died physically, and perhaps that this physical death can't fool the singer from the spiritual truth of his Dad's continuing life.
Such an excellent use of metaphor! This band should be enshrined! Such great stuff! |
submissions
| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #2 (Laika) Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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I didn't know about the russian dog until just now. I thought that calling someone Laika was kind of a slam" Like saying, "I'm 'Joe Jones,' our mom is 'Mary Jones,' and you're 'Laika Jones,' but not exactly. |
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