| Queensrÿche – Another Rainy Night (Without You) Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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Hear me out. I'm getting a different vibe from this song. I think they had an argument because she's having an affair. She's left, and he's waiting for her to come home. She might not come home, though: she's with her other man. Oh, and this is not the first time it's happened, either: the bridge fully implies that this happens regularly: "I know I said it before/I hate the sound of the closing door/and your footsteps walking away." It's kind of sad: this time, she might not come back, and he's alone at home waiting for her. |
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| Steve Winwood – Valerie Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[cmckinley:35139] Every thing I've been reading suggests that this song is about Valerie Carter, a singer who released several albums in the 70s that really didn't go much of anywhere. She struggled with drug addiction before *finally* kicking the habit in 2009 after being arrested on possession charges. She sadly died of a heart attack in 2017. Her obituary is at https://www.tampabay.com/news/valerie-carter-recording-artist-and-backup-singer-of-st-petersburg-dead-at/2315426/. | |
| The Hollies – Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| @[mobileinfantry:26498] I’m pretty sure that was intentional. | |
| Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| This song is one of my favorite songs of all time. I took up the saxophone because of this song. I haven’t touched it in 35 years because I sucked. | |
| The Spinners – The Rubberband Man Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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There used to be a brand of bass strings called “Rubber Bands.” This song is about a bass player, thus he is a “rubber band man.” The rumor I heard was that it was specifically in reference to Bootsy Collins. I’m not sure that fits the lyrics. A lot of things could be said about Collins (one of the best bassists of his generation, etc) but “short fat guy” is not one of them. So I think it’s about bass players in general and how they form the backbone of pop music. |
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| They Might Be Giants – Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| The meaning of the song is that there was a city named Constantinople but it is now called Istanbul. The reason the name was changed is nobody else's business but the current citizens of Turkey. After all, New York was once called "New Amsterdam," and look how that turned out. | |
| Led Zeppelin – Travelling Riverside Blues Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| FackingHell: There is a *big* difference between "connotation" and "explicitness." The lyric "Squeeze my lemon..." could mean any number of things, from the obvious sexual innuendo to its literal meaning of squeezing a sour, yellow citrus fruit. | |
| Katrina and the Waves – Walking on Sunshine Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| No, it is not ska. It *has* been covered by many other artists. I'm sure that some of them would be considered "ska." :) | |
| R.E.M. – Losing My Religion Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I think Zebra65 has it right here, and since he's done a much better job than I could have, I'll leave it alone. I can see, though, how the obsessive love interpretation can be made. There are some who make compelling cases on this front. However, judging by what was going on in Stipe's life at the time he wrote LMR (he was a closet homosexual, but the press were starting to put 2 and 2 together), that I kinda have to go with the closet homosexual interpretation. He clearly has a secret that he doesn't want anyone to know ("Oh, no, I've said too much", "the hint of the century", "choosing my confessions", and "the slip that brought me to my knees"--as in a slip of the tongue, or a Freudian slip). The problem is that he's "in the spotlight" (leading a public life of a rock star, perhaps?). Just my $0.02. YMMV, IMHO, ETC. |
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| Cutting Crew – (I Just) Died in Your Arms Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Personally, I think "deluded" is right on the money. Essentially, the narrator has fallen in deep for this woman, but he's found out that he's just "a name on a list"--he's one of many other conquests for this woman. He knows he's in trouble, but he can't help himself. What he thought was a one night stand has grown beyond his ability to control it. This is a very interesting switch of the usual roles--the man is the innocent, here, and the woman is the playa. About the word "died"--this isn't a literal death, and I don't really think he's talking about an orgasm, per se. Instead, he's talking indirectly about this situation he's in. He might as well be dead, because he knows how badly this is going to hurt when all is said and done, very much like the phrase "I died of embarassment." He even talks about it being his "final mistake," as if this hurt will be *very* bad. This is open to interpretation, however. I concede that the reverse interpretation is also valid--that he tried to play this woman and fell deeply in love with her. Only Nick Van Eede knows for sure. ;) This is definitely one of my favorite songs from the 80's. |
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| Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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A lot of people (critics, et al) have pointed this out: "So" (the album this song comes from) was the first of Gabriel's albums to show his face unobscured. It was as if, for the first time, he was discovering that he was a fairly good-looking man--he had been ashamed of his face before and hiding it from the world. It seems as if one day, he woke up and said, "Hey, you know, I'm not that bad-looking a chap." This song, filled with double entendres as it is, really brings that emerging "sexiness" (for lack of a better term). "Hey," Gabriel seems to be saying, as if discovering it for the first time, "I'm sexy! I'm the SledgeHammer!" Gabriel's music has always been about the marriage of lyric, music, and image to present the most complete message. The music absolutely must fit the lyric and the image (including the album cover, video, and live performance) most bring the whole thing together into a full performance piece that must be enjoyed/experienced as a whole. This song is no exception: the absolutely funky music in the background (Thank you, sweet Jesus, for Nile Rodgers!) seems to bring Gabriel's emerging sexiness to the fore even more. The song even seems to have the rhythm of sex embedded in it--try having sex with SledgeHammer playing, and you'll see what I mean. If you're not having hot animal sex within a few seconds, you're a better person than I am. ;) Personally? I'm just waiting for the day I finally look into the mirror and say, "Y'know? I'm not that bad-looking a chap." :) |
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| Stevie Nicks – Talk to Me Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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First, I'm going to wax nostalgic about this song, then I'm going to get into what I think this song means--that's why we're all here, isn't it? This song will always have a special place in my heart. This song came out the year of my first love. I got home from school day spent staring at the object of my affection for hours on end, and this was the first song that was playing on the radio. Of course, being 16, I had very little concept of what this song was about. This is not one of Stevie's better songs (IMO, that would be "Edge of Seventeen"), but it will always have a special place in my heart for reasons cited. This song seems to be about a relationship that the Narrator has with a person. It seems to be an intimate relationship (we lay face-to-face, cheek-to-cheek) in more ways than one. However, there is some question to my mind of the legitimacy of this relationship ("I can see your expression when the phone rings"--implying that her significant other must panic when the phone rings for fear it's the wife). However, it's explicitly stated that this relationship is painful for her ("A wound gets worse when it's treated with neglect"). Perhaps it's painful because she knows that the man (I assume it's a man) would never leave his wife for Stevie. However, she's trying to get this man to open up to her, something he's unwilling or unable to do. She's tries to reassure him that she has no ill intent--that she poses no threat. Now, I do want to point out that at one point, after breaking up with Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks had a short affair with Mick Fleetwood (who was married at the time). Not saying that this was the extent of the Nicks/Micks relationship, but it would IMO fit the profile presented here. |
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| Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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To me, this song is about the temporal nature of our physical reality--things change constantly, and this song warns us to not get too comfortable with things as they are, because our situation can change. Byrne also proclaims that this law is eternal and universal. He uses water symbolically to express this (eternal: "Letting the days go by/Water flowing underground"; universal: "There is water at the bottom of the ocean..." IOW, there is water *everywhere*: at the bottom of the ocean, underground). There is a journey implied, here, too ("Where does that highway go to?" and "Into the blue again"). The individual verses don't really mean much by themselves, and IMO, it would be a mistake to interpret them to mean anything other than about the passage of time, and the changes it implies. Note that in verse 1, the Narrator has things (house, car, wife, etc.), but in later verses, he no longer has these things ("after the money is gone"). IMHO, YMMV, ETC., of course. |
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| Stone Temple Pilots – Plush Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This song is about a *stalker*. It might have been inspired by a real event, but it is definitely about a stalker. "Where you going to tomorrow?" The Narrator is *obsessed* with his victim, and will do anything to find her, including sending "dogs" after her. And when the dogs find her, will she be with a lover? Or will she be alone? He must know, but he's "got time to wait 'til tomorrow." The stalker's luxury is time: he knows that he can get to her anytime, anywhere. According to one source (www.antistalking.com/aboutstalkers.htm) 1.4 million Americans are stalked every year, the vast majority of them women (I believe it's 80%, but my math may be wonky). According to another source, (http://www.ncvc.org/src/main.aspx?dbID=DB_ThreatAssessment563), "76% of [women who were murdered by a former intimate partner] had been stalked before the murder." This is, to me, an anti-stalking song; the Narrator describes that "these are the eyes of disarray," to me, an obvious implication that the Narrator is psychotic and/or delusional... not exactly an endorsement. So, is this a dark song? You betcha. Just like Police's "Every Breath You Take" before it, this is a song about unhealthy obsession mistaken for "love." |
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| Rush – The Spirit Of Radio Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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The line about "Modern machinery making modern music" isn't about the tape recorder, IMHO. It's about the synthesizer--an instrument which is extensively used in this song. At one time, the synthesizer was seen as the death-knell of rock-and-roll, just as the drum machine did, and for mostly the same reasons. However, the synthesizer didn't turn out to be as detrimental to rock music as its general lack of substance did. That's what this song is about--popular music's lack of substance is going to harm it in the long run: "But glittering prizes/And endless compromises/Shatter the illusion of integrity." It's a warning to the music industry--one which they have ignored with much prejudice, and now they're paying the price. |
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| Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Southern Cross Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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My thinking is that Stills is singing about music itself. tms6879, I think, is mostly right, but I think the song is *much* deeper than that. That line ( "I have my ship and all her flags are a flying. She is all that I have left and music is her name.") shows the many layers of this song--It could be about a woman, a ship (which are referred to as "she"), but Stills reveals that this ship's name is "Music." "Spirits are using me/Larger voices callin'" is about musical inspiration--some musicians describe this as if the music came from somewhere higher than themselves. "I have been around the world, looking for the woman-girl who knows love can endure" might be Stills saying that he has traveled the world looking for that one form of music (or perhaps that one song) that shall truly last forever, but he keeps on going to the one that brought him to the dance ("Rock and Roll?" "Folk Music?"). I don't have all of the pieces of the puzzle yet... but I think I'm on the right track. |
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