submissions
| Railroad Earth – Storms Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Another uplifting, positive tune from RRE. . . . I always liked From Good Homes for their upbeat, poppy roots rock, now RRE continues in that mold but with a celtic/bluegrassy feel. Great tune, it's obviously about love conquering all. |
submissions
| Dave Matthews Band – Bartender Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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In many of Dave's songs I sense a certain discomfort with fame and fortune and I think there's some of that here too ("if all this gold should steal my soul"). . . . As for the obviously religious aspects of the tune, remember that Jesus said it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. So perhaps Dave's personal discomfort over fame and fortune had led him to the spiritual crisis that many artists confront once they become popular: the fear that they're "selling out." And Dave uses fairly well-known religious imagery to make the point. The fact that he's speaking to a bartender is relevant too--he's drinking too much in an effort to ease his pain. The bartender will of course forgive him, b/c that's his job: pour drinks and offer a shoulder to cry on. . . . I also think to some degree in this song he contemplates suicide, or at least death, as a way out. Maybe not in the literal sense of killing himself or dying, but perhaps the figurative death of Dave the artist--by no longer making music he'll avoid the trap of fame and fortune and avoid "selling out" and thus save his soul. One could see it as a rebuttal to the whole thing with "Everyday" when he was widely criticized for selling out by producing an album of radio-friendly 3 minute songs--i.e., he's considering getting out of the business entirely to "save his soul" and be true to his art. . . . |
submissions
| Dave Matthews Band – Two Step Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Clearly a "Noah's Ark" thing going on here. One writer touched on an idea I've had as well: that this is about sex as both love and reproduction. "I came to you with best intentions" shows he approaches someone with love in mind, but she "laid down" and gave him just what he's seeking: sex, and perhaps not out of love but out of the Darwinian urge to reproduce. . . . Sure, it is a love song to some degree, with references to love lasting a thousand years or more. But perhaps it is also about reproduction and the offspring it creates, which, as with Noah's quest to bring all the animals on board, will ensure "these days continue." So maybe the way to make this love last a thousand years is to propagate the species, much in the way that the animals who "climbed on two by two" on the Ark did for their species. . . . In other words, the song is about the intersection of love and procreation in sex. Maybe. |
submissions
| Rush – The Pass Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I still believe it's about someone literally contemplating suicide (look to phrases like "done with life", for example). The reason why may be that "nothing's what you thought it would be" or it could be a result of a neurological disorder ("electrical storm in your veins"). Either way, the narrator is trying to 'talk him down' from his ledge, exhorting him to fight on, in part by assuring him that he's not alone ("all of us get lost in the darkness;" "it's not as if you're all alone in wanting to explode") and in part by trying to convince him that martyrdom is not a good choice. Again, I think that last line is a subtle attack on Christ's willingness to martyr himself, as Christ has "set a bad example" through his martydom (though at least Christ arguably had a cause--we know the individual in The Pass is simply a "martyr without a cause"). |
submissions
| Rush – The Pass Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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The song was written long before Neil's daughter was killed so it's not personal in that way (but the book Ghost Rider by Peart for a bio on that whole time in his life and afterwards; I believe his daughter was killed in 1997 while this song was released in the early 90s). . . . I once got in a discussion with a born-again Christian Rush fan who objected to the way Neil wrote "Christ, what have you done?" as if he was being profane, or "taking the Lord's name in vain" as he put it. After that discussion I re-examined the lyrics and concluded that perhaps that phrase should be taken literally. Christ is, after all, probably history's most famous martyr. In the lines leading up to that final line, the writer is advising anyone contemplating suicide (or martyrdom) that there is nothing glorious in killing yourself. Finally, in that last line, the writer exhorts Christ himself, for it is his martyrdom that makes suicide an appealing option for some people--i.e., "what have you done, Jesus, when by your example you make people think martydom is OK?" An interesting question and I think it's consistent with Neil's own personal conflict or disagreement with religion (see: Freewill). . . . |
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