submissions
| Nas – Black Girl Lost Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Not really so into this song. "You should be ashamed of yourself," really? I personally see a complete disconnect between Nas's other lyrics about seeing women as sex objects and this song, which berates them for being sex objects. |
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| Chad Vangaalen – Gubbbish Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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The term "gubbish" is from Philip K Dick's book Martian Time-Slip, and is a term referring to a sort of viral entropic decay that affects everything. (It's a somewhat similar to the the term "kipple", coined by Dick in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) |
submissions
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – We Call Upon the Author Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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In the last few verses, Berryman is a reference to the poet John Berryman, who committed suicide (as did Hemingway, also referenced). Berryman's father was also a suicide, which maybe is what Cave is gesturing towards with the line "the powder trail straight to my father's heart." The line "the waves were soldiers moving" is from the poem "Dry Loaf" by Wallace Stevens (who didn't kill himself). A good deal of that poem is excerpted near the bottom of the essay here:
http://colloquium.upol.cz/coll00/quinn.htm |
submissions
| The Drones – Locust Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Not really sure what that those lines mean either, but I took it to mean that he could thank the politicians in Australia for contributing to things being the way he describes them in Ether, and the "chances are remote" line being about how the father, presumably a hard-scrabble blue collar type of guy given the town, has a rmote chance of ever meeting the politicians in person.
Just a guess. Their lead singer does tend to put a lot of pretty concrete political stuff in his songs, though (viz. Jezebel). |
submissions
| John Vanderslice – White Dove Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Y'all were correct about "eight". Corrected that, along with Bonita Point - http://www.rudyalicelighthouse.net/CalLts/PtBonita/PtBon99.htm |
submissions
| The Drones – Sixteen Straws Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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He sings "planned to kill" in the song but he wrote "meant to kill" in the lyric booklet... In any event, I can't edit the lyrics now (until songmeanings restores that feature). |
submissions
| Aloha – Ice Storming Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Blast it sm won't let me can't edit the lyrics, but thanks. I own the CD, but I didn't see a lyrics booklet in it. |
submissions
| Smog – Rock Bottom Riser Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I've always thought this song is about recovering from addiction (being at rock bottom, making pledges, the drowning imagery, getting by with the help of loved ones, etc).
On an unrelated note, because this song was released around the same time as the lord of the rings films, I often picture that scene where Smeagol strangles his cousin when Callahan talks about diving for the ring (which I guess the Smeagol / Gollum story also has a lot to do with addiction). |
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| Low – Murderer Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I believe the last line line in the second bit is "I'm cruel" rather than "I'm cool". |
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| Aloha – Ice Storming Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Thanks, just made those changes. I really like this song but some of the lyrics are hard to decipher, and they haven't played it the few times I've seen them. |
submissions
| The Drones – Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Note from the CD booklet:
"Alexander escaped Sarah Island's secondary penal settlement in Tasmania's West with 7 fellow convicts in 1822. He alone was recaptured 2 months later and returned. In 1823 he escaped again with convict Thomas Cox but again returned alone. He died having murdered and eaten 6 men."
Wikipedia has a brief article on Pearce here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pearce |
submissions
| The Drones – Sixteen Straws Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Note from the CD booklet:
"To avoid damnation by suicide, groups of Catholic convicts would draw straws. The long and the short straw decided the deceased and his killer. The killer could then repent. The group would assume responsibility and be sentenced to death." |
submissions
| The Drones – Jezebel Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think this is one of the best protest songs written in the last several years, just from the sheer apocalyptic horror and anger he expresses.
The lyrics listed here are actually not very close to the actual ones (not that I'm criticizing, it is hard to make in places). Here are some corrections (I don't have the CD booklet in front of me, but I remember a good deal of the words, and I'll check it when I get home):
"give it fan inside a cemetary" -> "give infanticide a cemetery"
"hanging at the washing" -> "hanging out the washing"
"I rode an eyebranch" -> "I rode an Abrams" (US Tank)
"There shone a woman" -> "there I shot a woman"
"Does my bum look big in this" -> "Does my bomb look big in this"
"Devil with extended reach single" -> "Devil with extended ring finger"
"They'll cut your head off on TV" -> "Hey, Dan Pearl / They cut your head off on TV"
"Still all this horror... my soul" -> "Still all this horror / Has made a trench out of my soul"
"You don't want to tire it... simple war" -> "You don't want a tyrant we're sure / You'd prefer a civil war" |
submissions
| Laura Veirs – Snow Camping Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Reminds me of the Tunnels song by Arcade Fire, with its preoccupation with family and winter imagery. I love the part in the last line where the children's voices come in. |
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| Crass – Punk Is Dead Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I love this conversation, it's like I'm living out my teens all over again.
Punk's a youth movement, and as such, people will always be getting older, feeling weird at shows, and declaring punk to be dead. (Yes, I know there are always the occasional true believers who stick it out even when they're older than everyone else in the room, but they're the exceptions.) That also accounts for the never-fucking-ending "X is punk, Y is not punk" arguments, and the punk is dead / punk is not dead arguments.
Anyways. This is a great song. I love that it was written in 1978, like 1-3 years after punk was born. Of course, everybody knows that punk's NOT dead...
...it's just hung over. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Sporting Life Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This is a great song, so poppy and less cutesy than usual for them. I like that they're using "Lust for Life" as the beat. "though I think I might lie here a little longer..." |
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| The Coup – Cars and Shoes Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This song is so awesome. It's like the anithesis of all the boring bling-bling cliches that most rappers, even very original rappers, seem to fall into eventually. At last, hip-hop that speaks to my demographic! I love the weird rhymes, and the offhand "if you want that door to open you gon' have to use yo' shoulder." |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Step Right Up Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Totally. Ironically, The Frito-Lay company totally ripped off this song and used it (well, a song based on it) in a commercial selling Doritos. Tom Waits sued them and won - he's one of the few artists left with the integrity to not want his music used in commercials. |
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| Tom Waits – Everything Goes to Hell Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I think it's more about everyone on Earth being basically self-centered hypocrites at the root of it all (not just specifically in relationships). |
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| Tom Waits – God's Away on Business Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This one is a masterpiece of bitterness. "Who are the ones that they left in charge? / Killers, thieves and lawyers". I love it. He's at his most incisive here, this is one of the best tracks on Blood Money. |
submissions
| Talking Heads – Memories Can't Wait Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I agree with mikeelikes. I see it as only peripherally about death though, more about consciousness. Not to get over pretentious but I always think of "Nausea" by Sartre. Ok, I guess I got over pretentious after all. But anyways it's about the horror of being eternally trapped within one's own consciousness.
OTOH, I also think it could just be about a bad acid trip. |
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| Talking Heads – Love -> Building on Fire Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Silly lyrics but it's a great song because it's so silly. "They go tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, like little birds!" Yay! The actual meaning looks a little darker than I thought it was when I see it written out. |
submissions
| Talking Heads – Life During Wartime Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I see it as describing the generally paranoid mood of the US in the early 80's, what with the Cold War, post-Watergate mistrust of the government, etc.
I don't see it as being about touring specifically since he specifically has the lines about this ain't no CBGB's - to me, he's saying all that music stuff isn't as important as escaping the gunfire etc, and so is a criticism of the new wave scene for being irrelevant. |
submissions
| Talking Heads – No Compassion Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I love this song, although maybe more for the music than the lyrics. It's pretty snarky, like most of their songs. "My interest level's dropping, my interest level is dropping." I take it as a parody of self-centered New York hipster types of the late 70's. It's maybe a little more straightforward in its sarcasm than most of their songs, which is a drawback. |
submissions
| Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I love Joy Division probably more than any other band ever but this has always been one of my least-favorite songs. I've come to appreciate it a little more over the years, but I'm still not too enthusiastic about it. I'd urge anyone who likes this to check out their album Closer and, if you like that, Unknown Pleasures (which is much more sparse and bleak). |
submissions
| Mos Def – Mr. Nigga Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Another great track from Black on Both Sides. I like the way it starts off like a cliched song bragging about his material sucess and then he morphs it into a critique of racism. |
submissions
| Mos Def – Mathematics Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This song is awesome. The first part is a little too unfocused, but once he starts getting into the political stuff it kicks ass. |
submissions
| Smog – Nineteen Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I always heard this one as "leopard in the snow", not leper, and thought of it as kind a romantic song (well, in Smog's range of romance, anyways).
I think there's a sort of unexpected empathy at the end there where he realizes that she had been a virgin too, and the line "the next day she never called me again" indicates that the narrator is kind of heartbroken by that. |
submissions
| Smog – Cold Discovery Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I really love my song but my girlfriend can't stand it - she calls it the "rape song". I don't think the singer is talking about a literal rape, the picture in my head is an argument that devolves into something physical, but totally non-sexual, and that the song is about his own ability to cope with that. Ie, his discovery is that he is capable of violence.
The piano line in this song is really awesome. |
submissions
| Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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All hail the Canadian Explosion of the 2000's!
I catch a serious Sub Rosa era Pixies vibe from this track (which is great), especially with the bass and vocals at the beginning (cf "Bone Machine"). Also, the string crescendo from the end seems to be a pretty direct lift from Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks theme song of 1990 or so. And the very beginning is reminiscent of the first Walkmen album, what with the weird wavery piano and all.
Talking Heads-wise, I don't see it so much here, especially in the lyrics. Thematically they both share some themes, but the Talking Heads are a lot more ironic and oblique, and rarely seem entirely sincere, esp. in the Remain in Light / Fear of Music period (whence "How did I get here").
Great song. |
submissions
| Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Can somebody identify the 80s-era song that the "Lies, lies" chorus (the female voices) is based on? It's driving me nuts. The 80's song goes like - this is going to look dumb - LA la la, LA la la. (That's the chorus of the 80's song.)
This is a brilliant album, I totally love it, but it's also like a mash-up of a lot of really good music from the early 80's until now. I don't want to call it derivative, 'cause it isn't in the way that other recent bands such as the Strokes or the Walkmen are, but it seems like at some point during every song on the album I recognize a musical phrase from another one of my favorite albums. Mostly it's Talking Heads-inspired stuff in the arrangements and vocals and Joy Division / early New Order in the bass lines.
I can't lay my finger on it here, but it's definitely 80's power-pop, and there's a very particular song I'm thinking of. Anybody else recognize it? |
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