| Arcade Fire – Intervention Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Guys, what you read into this depends entirely on your outlook in life and with a song that's quite cryptic about its meaning like this, it's impossible to say whether it's about bush or religion or something completely different. Me, I think it's about life struggle in general. So much of it applies just to life in general. "Hear the soldier groan or go it alone". Soldiers work as a team and suffer as a team. In life you can go with the team and suffer as the team does and succeed as the team does and work for the team. Or you can go it alone.... |
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| Billy Joel – Goodnight Saigon Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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As a 19 year old private infantry soldier I just can't find the words to express what this song means to me. I mean, the average soldier there was 19. Like, more than half of them were younger than me, just teenagers.. "Remember Charlie Remember Baker They left their childhood On every acre" That really sums it up like, the soldiers were still only kids, they were just kids and a lot of them were drafted. So what ya have is an army of drafted kids who're half scared to death in a foreign country and those that don't make it spill their blood all over the country (spill their childhood). Those that do make it are then treated like shit when they get home. Nobody deserves that! I don't agree with what happened in vietnam, I don't agree with what's happening in iraqistan either but I'd be the last person to blame the troops. Ya know why? Because it's not their fault. When you enlist you take an oath to obey all lawful orders. It's not the troops fault if the orders are f*cked up. They're just doing their job and trying to stay alive. Which brings me on to "And who was wrong? And who was right? It didn't matter in the thick of the fight " Vietnam was a slaughter house on both sides... I don't blame the soldiers for what they did and I don't understand how anyone else can. How can people sit on their high horse and preach when they've never been there? When they've never known the terror of sitting in enemy territory at night, knowing deep down that you're not going to win this war and just waiting for the day when a bullet sends you home?!? If you're living like that day in, day out it REALLY doesn't matter if your side are right or wrong, all that matters is getting out alive. It's very, very easy to take the easy option and be all anti-vietnam vets. What's not easy is to go into a situation like that and keep fighting and doing your best, even if you really don't want to. "They heard the hum of our motors They counted the rotors And waited for us to arrive" I'd like to see any of the crusties go into a situation like the one he describes above (which a lot of vietnam was) and remain anti-vets. This song just means so much to me. It's so right because it's not talking about the politics of the war, it's just talking about the war and the kids that were fighting it. |
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| VAST – Touched Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Can anyone work out what the choir are saying in the background? For me the meaning is simple, he fell in love with a girl who was mentally ill and he's pleading with himself not to abandon her and not to leave her alone in the "world that does not exist" that she has created in her mind. He knows that he's not in that world but he wishes that he was but feels that as he's not, he can't connect with her. he still loves her but knows he can't live with her (hence pleading with himself not to abandon her) which is why he's saying he'll never find someone quite like her again. She's the one to whom everyone else compares and yet just can't make it work. Simple :) |
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| Muse – Soldier's Poem Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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The riff isn't quite the same as REM although it did strike me at first! slightly different chords, not much else different though. I don't know why everyone is being so hung up on this being about iraq, all the themes and ideas of the poem apply to just about every war there has been from a soldier's point of view. " there's noone left for us to blame, it's a shame we're all dying" In a sustained war, the common soldier hardly has a personal vendetta against the politics that caused the war to occur. They don't blame the enemy soldiers - they didn't create the suffering; they can't blame their own people - they may aswell just dessert the army if they did. In theory they could blame enemy commanders, but that doesn't transfer to reality. Soldiers may sustain a false hatred of them but in reality after time on the battle field, people become too battle weary to bother with that. They just want to go home ("how could you send us so far away from home?"), they want the kiling and destruction to stop ("it's a shame we're all dying"). In all honesty I think this most cleary converys the mindset of a battle weary soldier. Too tired to blame anyone, too homesick to care about the war, too lacking in energy to be angry. Too tired to be angry that everyone knows that the killing and the reasons are wrong and so tired that they'll lay down their life for generals and politicians sitting behind a desk, miles and miles from the battle fields anyway because they've accepted that their life will never be the same again, that they'll probably be killed anyway, that no matter what they do, they'll never be free. thus leaving them at the point that laying down their life has little signifigance to them anymore. It also reminds me of an experience I once had while practising battle drills. It was at the end of a really intense training course and everyone was filthy, exhausted, sick (pretending not to be) and fed up. Yet still everyone slugged on and I found myself lying in long grass beside a river. I looked down the river and was struck with the natural beauty of it. not once had I noticed it in the many, many times I had been in that place before and this song reminds me completely of the feeling I had then. It's like such a longing (lets lose ourselves... it's a shame we're all dying) to be absorbed by this beauty yet knowing you'll never experience it fully as you're in combat and things will never be the same again. Anyway, I suppose this rant should end now. |
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| The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| Saw them in Dublin. Ace concert, as per usual. Their performance on Jonathon Ross was, indeed, poor. Katie Melua wasn't gelling well with Shane, plus it didn't sound as it should because it was entirely live and there was no orchestra in the background. Whereas at the concert they have the orchestra backing track, as they do on the recorded song. Have you seen them in concert? | |
| The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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quiffporn, she's not strung out on smack, she's lying on her deathbed in hospital. seriously, that is what it actually IS. |
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| The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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What nobody has mentioned yet is that the girl dies in this song. The above comments have it fairly right, although you'll probably find that it depicts how the poor irish live, even in ireland. So yeah, old couple on christmas eve, looking back at when they first met on christmas eve long ago and built their lives around each other, how their dreams were never realised, and now the woman is lying in hospital dying and dies as the bells ring out for christmas. Ultimate christmas song. Such a pity about poor Kirsty, so talented. Just like shane. It's such a beautiful song, yet so sad, which strangely makes it all the more beautiful. A subtle realisation that christmas isn't all smiles and happyness. Can't wait til the pogues concert this christmas |
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| Toto – Africa Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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To me this song has nothing to do with slavery, I can't pick it out at all. What I do think it's about is a boy who's heart is deeply fond of Africa, with deep rooted respect for it "I bless the rains down in Africa" and "As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serangetti" who is being asked to leave it. His lover, in my opinion, is flying in to meet him and then he will leave with her, hence stopping to ask the old man "some long forgotten words or ancient melodies" in hope of quickly deepening his knowledge of Africa or gaining knowledge that would otherwise be lost to him when/if he leaves, it is like a memoir to take with him, possibly his last memory of encountering a respected elder african. I think the "hurry boy it's waiting there for you" is not in reference to a physical object, but a decision that has to be made by the boy, whether he should leave with his lover, or stay where his roots are, yet the “Hurry boy she’s waiting there for you” is making it clear that his mind is already made up that he is leaving, even if his heart is against it. "It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you" That line I think is supposed to be ambiguous, and give the impression that he doesn't want to be separated from his lover. I am of the impression though, that as he doesn't mention a human, he is talking about how hard it will be for him to leave Africa, not the lover. Throughout the song there are references to the boy taking in the sights and sounds, maybe knowing that he will never hear/see them again “I hear the drums echoing tonight” and “The wild dogs cry out in the night/As they grow restless longing for some solitary company” “I know that I must do what's right” and “Gonna take some time to do the things we never had” are, imho, speaking of his impending departure and the oppertunities that lie ahead of him in a richer country. The oppertunities that are now open to him, that may not be there for generations after him in Africa. “I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become” I’m not entirely sure what this line means and I would greatly appreciate if somebody could explain this in better detail to me. My only guess is that the boy is turning into his ancestors, and by going away he hopes that he can fight that and avoid becoming his forfathers by bettering himself, although possibly he knows that he may fail, demonstrated my saying that it’s deep inside, ie, something almost unchangable and inherent in everything that he is. Also note: It’s not “I passed the rains down in Africa”, it’s “I blessed the rains down in Africa” |
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