submissions
| Harry Chapin – Taxi Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I heard an interview with Harry Chapin back before he died when I was working at WGBS in Miami. He said he was actually a cab driver and had heard his old girlfriend was in town and he started to think what would she say if he picked her up as a fare. He was terrified of how she would react if this happened and she saw that all he had done with his life (his singing career had not yet taken off, of course). He had this vision of her getting in his cab and saying, and here I can quote the comment he made verbatim, "Harry, what happened to YOU?" |
submissions
| Emmylou Harris – My Baby Needs A Shepherd Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Could this one be about a woman who now regrets the abortion she has had? It works almost perfectly when read this way.
The line "Toora loora loora lo" is a reference to an old lullaby and "My kindom for a lullaby" seems a reference to Shakespeare's Richard III where King Richard III is unhorsed on a battlefield and knows he will die unless he gets a horse (My kingdom for a horse). He doesn't get a horse and he does, in fact, get killed.
A powerful song. |
submissions
| Emmylou Harris – The Pearl Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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No comments here?! How can that be?! It can be read to be about crusaders and the seemingly endless fighting and how weary they are and how abandoned they seem.
Or, if we take "Oh the dragons are going to fly tonight" with "the dragons" being a reference to heroin "ride the dragon" then it's about heroin addicts and how alienated they are from the world and society in general. Read the lyrics both ways and you might see this as one of the most dual natured songs ever written. Brilliant. |
submissions
| Emmylou Harris – Michelangelo Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I read that she said this was literally about a dream she had regarding Michelangelo. I've recently read The Agony and the Ecstacy and no where in it was there any mention of Paris. Some of this can fit him, but not all of it. He never had any children of his own so far as I read. |
submissions
| Suzanne Vega – Cracking Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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First off, this is an amazing song with wonderfully poetic lyrics. If you care to see what Suzanne Vega says about the lyrics' meaning, go to: http://rustedpipe.vega.net/cracking.htm |
submissions
| Shivaree – Goodnight Moon Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I first heard this song on The River in Boston and the DJ introduced the song by telling the story that she had spent the night in a haunted house (or, at least, a house reputed to be haunted) and she began hearing all sorts of sounds that, together with the stories surrounding the house, creeped her out. She decided to stay up until the moon set and the sun came up before trying to sleep. Thus the lyric, "And it won't be too soon 'til I say goodnight moon." |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Boy Blue Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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This album has several references to Arthurian literature. While this song doesn't have those specific references, it does deal with knights. It seems to be about a knight returning from a Crusade and deciding all that fighting and violence is no longer for him and he is putting down his sword for good. I get the impression that he is the head knight of his townand his return is anxiously awaited and the last two verses are his speech to the people of his town. From what little I know of the crusades, it is an understandable sentiment. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Boy Blue Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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This album has several references to Arthurian literature. While this song doesn't have those specific references, it does deal with knights. It seems to be about a knight returning from a Crusade and deciding all that fighting and violence is no longer for him and he is putting down his sword for good. I get the impression that he is the head knight of his townand his return is anxiously awaited and the last two verses are his speech to the people of his town. From what little I know of the crusades, it is an understandable sentiment. |
submissions
| Electric Light Orchestra – Poor Boy (The Greenwood) Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Almost certainly about Robin Hood. The Greenwood is another name for Sherwood Forest in the Robin Hood tales. The Merry Men were just that, merry; they enjoyed dancing, ale, etc. And the line "Sweet Maid Marion..." I mean, could it be more clear? |
submissions
| Milla – Charlie Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I always had the impression this was about a woman coming home to find her boyfriend/husband (Charlie)dead of an overdose. The OD almost certainly had to do with something like heroin, the "steel" being a needle. If you read the lyrics with this in mind, it shoudl sort itself out. |
submissions
| Stereophonics – Nice To Be Out Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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The lines, "Paris came and summer went
The tunnel's now a flower bed," almost certainly refer to the tunnel in Paris where Princess Diana was mortally injured in a car wreck. It was the very end of summer, in Paris, in a tunnel, and after this happened people brought flowers turning the tunnel into a virtual "flower bed." |
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