| Modest Mouse – Custom Concern Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I actually kind of like this song, simply because of the line "Gotta go to work, gotta go to work, gotta have a job." But it's so funny coming from a guy whose entire life is music. Since this was written in 1996 or before, I can only assume that poor Isaac's life was bleak and lacked meaning, because he sure is a downer. The reality is, he's a musician making decent money being an artist. Forget his angst with life and him expressing his ideas about how bleak life is! He sounds like a cry-baby throughout the song. Now, for most poor schlups in the world, yes, this song rings true on a couple of levels. You do need a job. You don't necessarily need to like it, in fact, most people despise their jobs. But as a necessary event in life, you have to wake up, put on your shoes, get up and go. Isaac Brock whining about how bleak life is is comical, and makes the song all the more listenable. |
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| Aqualung – Easier to Lie Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| By the way....what a great song. | |
| Aqualung – Easier to Lie Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I don't necessarily see this as a song to someone who he doesn't love, but rather a song to someone he DOES love, but doesn't love him back, or doesn't want him. "To bear the weight" tells me that the weight of the relationship is all on his shoulders; he struggles to keep her despite her lack of interest in and love for him. She's done something that makes his love difficult and give her the "upper hand" in the relationship. She's cold hearted, selfish, and a disgusting human being creating an uneccessary weight in his life. He "Could be the one (she) need(s) If (she)'d only show (him) how to live and to bear the weight" but it's easier to lie and tell himself that he's already that person, even though he knows he is most certainly not. It's "easier to run, it's easier, To never have, To look (her) in the eye", but the truth is, in the end it's much easier to lie, holding onto a fragile relationship. |
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| Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I apologize as I haven't read all of the posts for Fake Plastic Trees before posting, so if I sound like an already broken record, I apologize. I really enjoy this song despite its dreary message: Life is full of falsities. Things like fake plants look pretty at first glance, but their missing the other beautiful characteristics of a flower (aromatic, soft to the touch, feed the earth oxygen, etc). Faces and bodies altered to look more like how society measures beauty are pleasing to the eye, but upon further examination, the people masked by these aesthetically pleasing faces and bodies are ugly and fragile. And in all cases, relationships predicated on the physical rather than emotional, spiritual or something deeper than outward appearances, are as fake and fragile. The last line fits this song so perfectly: "If I could be who you wanted all the time." In the pursuit of meaning in the world, too often people focus on what others what them to be rather than who they already are. Nobody is satisfied with who they are, and in turn, they're never satisfied with who anybody else is either. I think what Yorke is conveying is his own frustration in the masks people wear (and that he himself likely wears) to please others. "It wears him out..." "It wears me out...." and so on. Being something that someone else wants you to be is draining mentally AND physically, and is not worth it. Yorke's frustration over this is beautifully conveyed with those four words "It wears her/him/me out..." But I don't see the entire song as an anthem for the disgruntled outcasts of society. I think by singing about the recognization of the falseness in this world, Yorke actually conveys a message of understanding that people will be one way, and if he's not that way (or we're not that way), that life will be okay. It'll drag on a person, either one faking their way through life or cast aside for being who they are, but understanding goes both ways. Just my two cents. |
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| Metallica – Low Man's Lyric Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Whoever the person from Cal State San Bernandino is, thanks...I will remember to not take music philosophy classes there in the future. Anyhow, what I think needs to be remembered about James' writing style is that a lot of what he has written about has come from his own personal experiences/demons. Especially Low Man's Lyric (not Lyrics) and Mama Said. I think it has a much deeper meaning than what has been mentioned here. Also, a lot of what James has written has been put on paper merely because it sounds good with the song. Watch the documentary "Some Kind Of Monster," and you'll see what I mean. But I definitely agree that it is about someone seeking forgiveness from someone. Who? Who knows. Why? Who knows. Ignoring much of the benign first paragraph resembling lyrics from a hobo, the lyrics "And I can't bare to see, What I've let me be" define the rest of the song. Whoever he wrote about, a definite "something" is missing from a life they would envision as being better. I will be perfectly honest, much of the song remains a mystery to me. I think a lot of what he wrote into this song was written purely because it conveyed a sense of unhappiness and darkness to define the song. Otherwise, it sounds like a homeless person who keeps reverting back to their wayward ways despite help from others. |
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