| Beck – Loser Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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In my mind the song has some serious dark humor in it. I believe that the lyrics are in fact, mostly freeform, but that doesn't mean there's a method to the madness. The song is like a free association session with a psychologist. Sure, the words are supposed to be random, but it is very hard for the mind to find random words without associating with the other words. The themes that I see in the song are: 1: Pop Culture 2: Death 3: Reality vs. Perception 4: Animals (more of a motif though) In the end, I think this song is best interprited by a psychologist. |
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| Beck – Loser Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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In my mind the song has some serious dark humor in it. I believe that the lyrics are in fact, mostly freeform, but that doesn't mean there's a method to the madness. The song is like a free association session with a psychologist. Sure, the words are supposed to be random, but it is very hard for the mind to find random words without associating with the other words. The themes that I see in the song are: 1: Pop Culture 2: Death 3: Reality vs. Perception 4: Animals (more of a motif though) In the end, I think this song is best interprited by a psychologist. |
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| Modest Mouse – Cowboy Dan Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Cowboy dan is the other side of the classic cowboy of old western films. While the cowboys we see in westerns are loose cannon vigalantes who fight against robbers and those who might be seen as a threat to the town, Cowboy Dan is washed up, an alcoholic, and is living in our modern world (we know this becaus e of his pickup truck) in which the cowboy scene is a pointless, unheroic profession. Therefore, even if Cowboy Dan is "a major player in the cowboy scene," nobody could give to shits about it. But poor cowboy Dan, so in need of something to fight for, decides to go for the next best thing, finding something to fight agaisnt. And since he feels that God has failed him, he chooses him as his target. He goes to the middle of nowhere (the desert is used often in poetry as a second, desolate, profound world of humanistic and existentialist solitude combined with a philosophical divinity) and marks it as his battleground. Now, once Issack says "I didn't move to the city the city moved me and i want out desperately" We are taken to another story. A story of a man taken from the simple life who wants it back. Then just as suddenly, we are taken to that man's meditations on life which incorporate both religion and science ("Thinking nothing" is an acknowledgement of zen while moving the ground is an acknowledgement of Einsteins theories). These meditations are peaceful, yet submissive to limitations of life. Finally the "cant do it not even if... turned over" is a fustrated rant of all the things that are out of the possibilities of human beings even if it is our deepest desire, even if we have done everything we can to make it come true. |
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| Modest Mouse – I Came as a Rat (Long Walk Off a Short Dock) Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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"from listening to many mm songs, i have become a bit confused. i mean he says hes an athiest, and how he doesnt believe in god, yet it seems like god is all he talks about. i mean how can he be that upset about something that he doesnt even believe is there?" As a songwriter myself, I know the seeming hypocrisy in this. Issack Brock might not believe in God (neither do I), but the teachings and stories in the bible are so rich and awesome that you can use the bible to create a layer of supernatural symbolism over lyrics that are ultimately humanistic. |
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| Modest Mouse – I Came as a Rat (Long Walk Off a Short Dock) Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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For many people this song is about reincarnation. According to my experience with MM, however, many of Issac Brock's songs are about life, death, and what lays beyond. He also seems to have a very existentialist view of the world and of life (though paradoxically agnostic), so I would doubt that he would believe in reincarnation. What he is describing is how how he actually came into the world. To call them contradictions (such as "I came as gold, I came as crap") would be wrong. Instead, he is showing the possible states that every human being can take on while also exploring the duality of man. Next, Modest Mouse is a band of lite motifs (techniques that show up again and again, such as the bending of guitar notes). One of them is the line "I don't know, but I've been told, you'll never die if you never grow old." In order to understand the line, you have to move away from the idea that dying and growing old are physical concepts. Instead, think of growing old as ceasing to live life to the fullest and giving up on trying to be remembered. Think of not dying as "being gone but living on." Now when we look at the line it makes sense with the rest of the song. You come into the world with endless possibilities for both utter success and utter failure, but always in shades of gray. And you have to accept that even if God himself is going to die someday, you're going to die first. But if you want live on in memories and books and stories, you have to keep living until the day you die. You'll never die if you never grow old. |
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