submissions
| Pedro the Lion – The Fleecing Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I've always really liked this song and felt like I could relate to it. To me, it's basically about having doubts but still maintaining a belief in God. It also touches on how difficult it is to explain to someone, because it is more of a "feeling" than a logical decision...
I saw David Bazan perform with a backing band last night, and they played this song. I found it a little depressing, but he changed some words to reflect his changed perspective:
"I could buy you a drink
I could tell you all about it
I could tell you why I doubt it
And why I don't believe it
And why I grieve it
And what for years I did not see..." |
submissions
| mewithoutYou – Bullet to Binary Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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On Leonard Cohen's album "Songs From A Room," he performs a traditional French song called "The Partisan" that also has the line "J'ai change' cent fois de nom." Whoever posted it on SongMeanings translated it as "I have changed names a hundred times". Don't know if it's related, but I have noticed another Leonard Cohen reference on this album, so maybe there are a few... Aaron likes to quote certain of his favourite authors/poets frequently, it seems. |
submissions
| David Bazan – Curse Your Branches Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Wow... the leaves thing is so obvious but it hadn't even occurred to me. Makes more sense considering he usually says "red and orange or brown and yellow" live, and on the record he says "red and orange and red and yellow"... I don't know where the person who put up the lyrics got "blue" from, but otherwise they are all just autumn leaf colours.
I guess the basic idea is no matter what choice you make, you're still a falling leaf... just different colours or versions of the same thing? |
submissions
| David Bazan – Curse Your Branches Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Thank you for your response! I was thinking something along those lines, but I was wondering if there was any specific meaning behind the colours he chose... I guess it's probably not overly important in understanding the song, though. |
submissions
| David Bazan – Harmless Sparks Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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mrsxbartz... very interesting interpretation. I am not sure I agree with you on everything, but it certainly makes sense in regards to some lines. For example, I didn't find anything particularly oppressive or degrading about the priests and nuns having sex... I thought Bazan was simply implying that it was natural and consensual... I could certainly be wrong, though.
Up until reading the comments here, the first and second verses always seemed somewhat unrelated to me. The first verse, I think undoubtedly, is about priests' vows of chastity, as johnb pointed out. I always figured he was just pointing out that if priests weren't made to refrain from having sex, something very natural and human, ("making harmless sparks") there wouldn't be so many cases of child sexual abuse in the church. I agree with Bazan to an extent, but I also understand the custom of priests' chastity to an extent as well... some people are 'called' to be chaste, and it is an act of discipline and obedience to God. I can respect that: putting aside "earthly pleasures" in order to concentrate on God. And obviously not every priest is a child-molester, although there have certainly been a lot of cases of such a thing in the past.
The second verse I am not so sure about. I always thought it was pretty much about what Hard to Be is about... the idea that if a Christian took a step back ("pondered the weight of an apple / compared to the trouble we're in"), they would realize all of the problems and contradictions ("the millions of small holes") that Bazan believes to be inherent in Christianity. Then, Bazan says, the doubt would begin, and spread throughout their families and into the church. It's very much a similar argument to what the so-called "New Atheists" have been using: that a logical examination of one's faith would make it invalid. (I have some problems with a lot of their writings, but I'm not going to get into them now.)
Now that some posters here have pointed out the bit about the birthright, and the wives and children, I am starting to see some similarities between the two verses, but I have still yet to work it out completely... |
submissions
| David Bazan – Curse Your Branches Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I always figured the choruses were about predestination, fate, etc. Why should someone (one of the "falling leaves") be accountable to God ("their branches") for their actions, temperament, etc. ("where they should fall") when it was God who put them in that situation? It's definitely a tricky question, and I'm sure a lot of people, even (or especially) Christians, struggle with it from time to time.
Another thing that I find interesting about the song is the line "And why are some hellbent upon there being an answer / While some are quite content to answer: 'I don't know'?" At first I thought this was a bit of a hole in the album's 'argument'... but now I believe it's something of a paradox that he uses to turn some questions back around to Christians...
A Bible-believing Christian will pretty much be forced to answer "I don't know" to the 'questions' Bazan raises in this song, and the many other songs on the album in which he points out problems or contradictions in the Bible and the Christian faith (ex. Hard to Be, In Stitches). Being able to say "I don't know" - to acknowledge that you don't have all the answers - and be at peace with it is critical to having complete faith in a god... especially with such an ancient text that has been translated and re-translated and analyzed to death. Here Bazan is using the same argument: Christians could say "How are you here if there is no God?"... "What gives you the power to think critically on these questions?", etc.... and Bazan is giving them the same response: "Why does there need to be an answer? Sometimes you just have to say 'I don't know.'"
Hopefully that makes sense... I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this song... It's very dense, I think, and there's a lot of meaning in the few words he chooses (carefully!) for each verse. I'm actually at a bit of a loss in understanding the first verse entirely... any ideas what the colours could represent? |
submissions
| Make Believe – Anything/Sell That Thing Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I hadn't noticed it until you pointed out that lyric, but there's a spoken word bit in "Field Recordings of Dreams" by Tim Kinsella where he also talks about these "two sides"... Interesting interpretation, too. |
submissions
| mewithoutYou – Bullet to Binary Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Turns out the song I saw live turned into "Goodbye, I!" from the new album, but I guess he was just toying with the lyrics still, and borrowed some "Bullet to Binary" lyrics for that particular performance. Kinda cool to catch a glimpse of how the songs were formed slowly over time, worked and reworked... |
submissions
| Jedi Mind Tricks – Trinity Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think instead of "Pimpin' talk and jump and knock that shit" it's "Pick up the 12-inch and knock that shit." |
submissions
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945 Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I just noticed in the liner notes that it says "now we ride this circus wheel with your dark brother (h.p.) wrapped in white..." Does anybody have any idea what the H.P. part stands for? I assume it's someone's initials? |
submissions
| A Silver Mt. Zion – 1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think the "silk-screen that, ye twits, across thy internet" line is more like Efrim saying "go ahead and write whatever you want about us or our music on the internet, we don't care". I think it's another attack on the problems and contradictions in North American culture, with all these stuck-up internet sites taking the art and passion out of music and such. Pitchfork specifically comes to mind, and I remember Efrim mentioning a distaste for that website in an interview once. |
submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Pelican Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song wasn't on any of their albums, was it? Where can I hear it?
The line "Will we find a better place?" is also in the song "Elephants" from "Waiter: You Vultures!", so maybe they are related or something? |
submissions
| mewithoutYou – January 1979 Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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"As I sit here on August 1st, 1979, my ear is pressed up against the past as if to the wall of a house that no longer exists."
- Richard Brautigan, from the novel 'So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away'
It's worth a read. I'm noticing Aaron borrows a lot of his lines from other people. It's cool though - he puts his own twist on it and such. |
submissions
| mewithoutYou – Bullet to Binary Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Last night I saw these guys live, and they played a new song, and at the end he kept saying the lines "Let us die, let us die" and "in dying, we reply" and such. It was pretty neat. The song was pretty different from their other stuff; it was a lot more upbeat and happy-sounding, and reminded me a bit of Arcade Fire. It was pretty awesome though. Maybe it'll be "Bullet to Binary, Pt. 2" on the new CD? |
submissions
| Circa Survive – Mandala Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I just read in my Psychology textbook about a Tibetan symbol called a "Mandala" (which is Sanskrit for "circle"), which symbolizes wholeness and completion. It also mentions that this symbol is found across many cultures and religions across the world. |
submissions
| Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This is how it went down. Courtney Love and Sir Cobain had been experimenting with astral projection and all that metaphysical jazz for some time. Love was especially interested. On a fateful night in April 1994, Courtney Love had her first out-of-body experience. Her soul was transplucked from her frail body and lifted beyond this world and into the Astral Plane. As her lifeless body lay on the bed, a UFO full of ghosts entered the room. Three ghouls entered Courtney Love's flesh-figure and proceeded to destroy her beautiful husband. They then ate the evidence and stole Cobain's talent. When Love returned from the Astral World, she found her lover's corpse being picked clean by vultures. She shooed them away from her lover's corpse and set the singer/songwriter up. The next day, Cobe was found dead in his apartment. The authorities ruled it as a suicide. His real fans knew otherwise. |
submissions
| Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Box Set version) Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This is how it went down. Courtney Love and Sir Cobain had been experimenting with astral projection and all that metaphysical jazz for some time. Love was especially interested. On a fateful night in April 1994, Courtney Love had her first out-of-body experience. Her soul was transplucked from her frail body and lifted beyond this world and into the Astral Plane. As her lifeless body lay on the bed, a UFO full of ghosts entered the room. Three ghouls entered Courtney Love's flesh-figure and proceeded to destroy her beautiful husband. They then ate the evidence and stole Cobain's talent. When Love returned from the Astral World, she found her lover's corpse being picked clean by vultures. She shooed them away from her lover's corpse and set the singer/songwriter up. The next day, Cobe was found dead in his apartment. The authorities ruled it as a suicide. His real fans knew otherwise. |
submissions
| Dredg – Of The Room Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Does anyone actually own this cd? The lyrics of loads of these songs are based off the letters from sufferers of sleep paralysis... A lot of the images in this one are taken from the letter in the booklet, at least that's what I remember, I don't have my cd here to check. |
submissions
| Coheed and Cambria – The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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You guys are all idiots! The meaning to this song is so obvious!
This song is totally about Claudio when he battles the Witch with his electric battle axe!
If you guys knew the story, you'd know Claudio had to give all his blood vessels to save Coheed from the wrath of the underground moths. Cambria is still trapped in the dungeon during this part of the album, so there's no way he could help Claudio against that Witch... Anyways, if you guys would just pay a little more attention the lyrics and the story, you'd understand a bit more.
Keep COing and CAing. |
submissions
| Brew Dogs – Wyld Rose Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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i luv wen they say SHARK ATTACK!!! lol its got a lot of emotion in it... n-e-wayz, the brewdogs are sumtimez the smartest ppl on the planet... but some songs are just fun or sumthing... i want a lto of htems tha= run too far... as long as their still rhe blew dogs, ill still luv them of coure!
lol fanny runn i cant stop lovin them |
submissions
| Brew Dogs – Lonely Boy (Catman) Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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omg when i here this song i get gooseybumpz lol
when aaron says its our resurection i always just picture the lonly boi just not bein so lonly n-e-more... i dont know it is just too good a song i guesss
i love the brew dogs |
submissions
| Circa Survive – Holding Someone's Hair Back Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Yeah... when my friend heard the name and some of the lyrics, he said right of the bat it was about drinking. Of course the 'holding someone's hair back' part, and "she's got the photos, but no recollection" part too. |
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