submissions
| Ben Folds Five – Selfless, Cold, and Composed Lyrics
| 20 years ago
|
This song means a lot to me. I think the girl is feeling so much that she can't talk about it, so she's keeping everything controlled. He has hurt her in some way - "you've done no wrong", "now throw me a right to the chin" - and he wants to have a screaming row, get everything out in the open and have a proper breakup. She just wants him to leave so that she can collapse in a heap and cry.
(hmmm... I'm projecting a bit there!) |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – I'm Your Man Lyrics
| 20 years ago
|
|
This is one of my favourite Cohen songs. Lyrically it's simpler than some of his others, but some of the imagery in it is fantastic. Although the man is laying his life at her feet - he'll do anything she asks him to - and he can't sleep at night for the need of her, he's not going to beg because he knows she won't respect him for that. But it's the raw need in his voice when he sings how he _would_ beg - just abandon all self respect and dignity - if he thought for a moment that it would work, that makes me listen to this song again and again. This is a wonderful love song. |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – I'm Your Man Lyrics
| 20 years ago
|
|
This is one of my favourite Cohen songs. Lyrically it's simpler than some of his others, but some of the imagery in it is fantastic. Although the man is laying his life at her feet - he'll do anything she asks him to - and he can't sleep at night for the need of her, he's not going to beg because he knows she won't respect him for that. But it's the raw need in his voice when he sings how he _would_ beg - just abandon all self respect and dignity - if he thought for a moment that it would work, that makes me listen to this song again and again. This is a wonderful love song. |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat Lyrics
| 20 years ago
|
One of the nice things about these lyrics is that they're so ambiguous that a woman can sing them. I first knew the Jennifer Warnes version (better than the Tori Amos one, I think) and I always thought Jane was the singer's little sister. Read like that, and with a change from "my woman" to "some woman", the song is about the singer forgiving the man who broke Jane's heart - at the time it seemed he'd just played with her (a flake of your life) but in the end she's realised that he did give something to Jane after all (thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes).
This is the wonderful thing about songs - they can mean so many things dependent upon the context. |
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