submissions

Rufus Wainwright – Go or Go Ahead Lyrics

19 years ago

From his website: "“In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree … ” I’m a little nervous talking about this one. It was written a couple of years ago on a horrible, frightening drug crash. The lyrics came to me fast and furious. I was shattered, and I had to resort to mythological metaphors in order to express what I was feeling. It was a very Rimbaud moment for me. It was about facing addiction, or facing this person I’d become. It was me fighting for my life, because it had become a battle at that point. The voices in the chorus are like the Furies; that song is my “Orpheus Ascending.”"

submissions

Rufus Wainwright – Movies of Myself Lyrics

19 years ago

What Rufus said in his website: "It’s about this guy. Behind every one of my records is some guy. And a lot of the lyrics are about him, but a few months after writing them, I realized they had nothing to do with this guy at all; the song is about knowing the end result of every situation you’re in, and being able to play it out in your mind and see it before it happens. It’s about addiction, really, about knowing how it’s all going to end up. In that sense, you’re watching a movie of yourself all the time – and then you want out of that movie."

submissions

Rufus Wainwright – Vicious World Lyrics

19 years ago

From his website: "I’d written this as an angry rock thing – it was supposed to be sung really loud, and the piano part was very flashy and complicated. But when I went into the studio and started hammering it out, it just didn’t work. I realized I had to approach it in a completely different way, and I found that Fender Rhodes sound and sang it really quietly and added harmonies. And somehow it really captured the sweetness of sadness. It’s one of those happy/sad songs, or, as my dad would say, the “happy blues.” It does sound like an exclamatory, joyous thing, but the words are so negative, which is ultimately what made it work."

submissions

Rufus Wainwright – I Don't Know What It Is Lyrics

19 years ago

From his website: "When I first came up with the lines, “I don’t know what it is, but you got to do it/ I don’t know where to go but you got to be there,” I was at this party for The Strokes in New York. There was this prevailing sense of, “We’re not quite sure what’s happening or what is cool, but we know that it’s somewhere around here, in this room.” It was this vague confusion, with everybody kind of sniffing for blood. It wasn’t that it was a bad party, or that I don’t like The Strokes; I just think there’s a lot of confusion right now in the music business. Then, later on, I realized the song was really personal. I didn’t know where I was, and I didn’t know I was actually lost. It wasn’t about the party at all; it’s about searching but not knowing what you’re searching for. There’s the train motif, being on this train heading for either oblivion or salvation – and just holding on for dear life. That song came down from some mountain somewhere, because it was right after I wrote it that I sort of packed it in."

submissions

Rufus Wainwright – Oh What a World Lyrics

19 years ago

From his website: "I wrote this on the train from Paris to London at the tail end of the Poses tour, and I was very numb. It’s about looking at the world and seeing what’s actually there, not feeling either good or bad about it, just feeling apart. I was grasping at some kind of mantra – like, even though the world is a strange place, you’re still on the train, you paid for your ticket, and it’s going to arrive at some point. There are a lot of trains on this album."

submissions

Rufus Wainwright – Pretty Things Lyrics

19 years ago

From his website: "I figured this one out listening to Cole Porter. The song is really important because I want to keep the modern lieder aspect of solo voice and piano alive. I want it to be one of the foundations of my career. I’m very influenced by Schubert. Someone said there’s more beauty and expression in two bars of a Schubert lieder than in a four-hour opera. At any rate, we definitely need a break at that point in the record."

submissions

Jimmy Buffett – Boat Drinks Lyrics	19 years ago
Considering I'm stuck in the middle of an Indiana winter, I could use a boat drink in Saint Somewhere right now...

submissions

Moby – Find My Baby Lyrics	19 years ago
Glad I took I look at the lyrics...I thought he was saying "Woo!" rather than "Whouh!" ;-)

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