submissions
| Modest Mouse – What People Are Made Of Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The clock is a reference to quantum mechanics and/or chaos theory: when you look at a subatomic particle, you are unsure of its exact location and state because the very act of looking at it changes its location and state; and with chaos theory, things are just too complicated to figure everything in the universe out, because we are a *part* of this universe. |
submissions
| Red House Painters – Grace Cathedral Park Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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"Save me from my sickness" means, basically, "save me from my love for you." People who have had a history of abandonement usually can't stand to be in relationships, whether or not the other person loves them or not. |
submissions
| Lullaby for the Working Class – Hypnotist (Song for Daniel H.) Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The song-writers throws out a lot of bad lines in his songs, but, by means of the law of probability, he has some real killers, as seen in this song. "I dream I was a firefighter/but the flames were never real" -- if only he had more of those lyrics. |
submissions
| Mercury Rev – Goddess on a Hiway Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Their subtle variations keep this song fresh each time I hear it.
Like "I got us" goes to "a goddess" and how last rhymes with glass. |
submissions
| Cop Shoot Cop – Cause And Effect Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This song is about how there is a lot more than just dog eat dog, winner loser. "Could count past two" refers to how some people never see past the economics of capitalism. |
submissions
| Cop Shoot Cop – Room 429 Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Room 429 is the place where the rejects of the ugly, savage "modern" world outside go to hide, rejecting old religions, nostalgia and the inner voice inside (ocean.) |
submissions
| Low – Fear Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This is one of the bleakest songs ever. Low manage to fuse biblical themes with conventional song-writing and their slow, insomniac tone. |
submissions
| Slint – Washer Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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With the last verse it sounds like he overdosed on sleep medication. |
submissions
| Slint – Nosferatu Man Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I think this song has, advertanly or not, Jungian symbols. The girl could be his anima, but I'm not sure. The train could be death ... and the bat could be his shadow. |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – Stories of the Street Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky,
and lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye."
This is probably one of my favorites lines of all time. It perfectly summarizes urban angst and loneliness in one poetic swoop. |
submissions
| Robert Wyatt – Sea Song Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This song is uber creepy. I can't put my finger on it. It's like a really strange photo where you know that is *someting* wrong with the picture, *something* out of place. It's like when you feel you're being watched, but you turn around and see nothing.
I think this is a song about his insanity, or meeting this other side of him that comes out like the "tides." |
submissions
| Tom Waits – 9th & Hennepin Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This song is descriptive enough to be an entire movie. I imagine a black and white movie with the narroter introducing a bar while a couple step off of a train, before they head there because of "bad directions." Then they witness a murder, get lost, can't escape, etc. |
submissions
| Built to Spill – Randy Described Eternity Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"every thousand years / this metal sphere / ten times the size of Jupiter / floats just a few yards past the earth / you climb on your roof / and take a swipe at it / with a single feather / hit it once every thousand years / `til you've worn it down / to the size of a pea"
That is perhaps the greatest verse ever. |
submissions
| Mercury Rev – Chasing a Bee Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"Yerself is steam" (say it slow) refers to how your self-esteem is very fragile and can be lost forever.
"Chasing a bee inside a jar" is probably the perfect way to describe insanity. Throughout the whole song, he includes phrases about being lost, trapped or the need to find something. The song is also clearly about mind-altering drugs, like how our consciousness is but steam in distance as we chase bees in a jar.
The song has many meanings and it's nearly incomprehensible. There are so many details like yerself is steam meaning your self-esteem I can't fully break down this song. |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – Bird on the Wire Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The only line that seems out of place is "like a knight from some old-fashioned book". Does he mean that he imagines himself as a great, noble lover? |
submissions
| Radiohead – Paranoid Android Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Here's the Hitchhiker's part:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as 'a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes,' with a footnote to the effect that the editors would welcome applications from anyone interested in taking over the post of robotics correspondent.
Curiously enough, an edition of the Encyclopaedia Galactica that had the good fortune to fall through a time warp from a thousand years in the future defined the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as 'a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.'
- Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Yellow Brick Road Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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but every fucking pop song has 100 different meanings/comments
It is popular....
Don Van Vliet's lyrics aren't to be taken literally. He loves to play with words, meanings and the sound they make, so trying to understand the intent behind the song will leave you either confused or frightened. |
submissions
| The Books – Read, Eat, Sleep Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This is a genius song. The first time listening to this song is awesome. (Notice the letters read, eat and sleep take up.) |
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