| Angelspit – Let Them Eat Distortion Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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St Anthony's Fire is another name for Ergotism, the sickness caused by ingesting the chemicals produced by the fungus ergot. One theory behind the Salem witch mania is that the bread and grains were tainted with this fungus and led to hallucinations and convulsions that were interpreted as signs of witchcraft and enchantment. Angelspit also reference ergot at the start of "Making Money" on the same album, Hideous and Perfect. |
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| CocoRosie – South 2nd Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The delivery of the line "somebody's baby boy ain't coming home tonight" is really eerie to me. I imagine something like a modern day beansidhe/banshee who followed an irish family when they settled in New York, and she's washing clothes on her apartment's balcony, and singing sadly about who it is is going to die. | |
| Le Tigre – On Guard Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I was walking down the street a few days ago and there were these two guys who were clicking their tongues (like you'd do to call a dog back to you) and making comments at a woman, and I swear it took me a few moments to realise what was happening - they were literally the first people I've ever seen doing this kind of thing, so it just did not compute in my brain. My whole reaction was "Who even does this any more?! Assholes!!" One of my female friends had a similar experience that she summed up as thinking "Oh, hang on, I know what's happening - you're a sexist dickhead! Wow! I didn't realise people like you still existed!!" I think it's pretty awesome that this kind of assholery is dying out and feel really lucky my friends and I have never experienced this kind of abuse. |
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| Angelspit – Wreak Havoc Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| 8 arms - the Hindu goddess Kali possibly? The "seven severed heads" always make me think of Kali's necklace of severed heads. | |
| Otep – Ur A Wmn Now (Your A Woman Now) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I was finally going to get around to posting here again, with the intention of saying that I'd taken your comments on board and agree that the middle verse wasn't about circumcision, when I discover an interview with Otep where she confirms the verse is about genital mutilation. I'm not posting this in some petty "I'm right - see?" way, I'm posting it because it's a insight into the song. http://www.examiner.com/x-17556-Baltimore-Music-Events-Examiner~y2009m11d5-Interview-Otep-Shamaya-smashes-the-control-machine Very final question she says: " "UR A WMN NOW," I wanted that to be deceptively beautiful. I wanted it to be this song where, I don't know, a father is going to dance with his daughter at her wedding, not knowing the chorus. Really not knowing that what they're singing about is the archaic rituals and philosophies that decide when a girl becomes a woman. Is it when she loses her virginity? Well, what if she gets date raped? Is it through these barbaric mutilation rituals that still occur in Africa, where they mutilate young girls' bodies so that they will never enjoy intercourse with their husbands? Or is it, as in the third verse which is based on my mother, is it becoming your own person? Is it taking responsibility for your own life and living that life to the fullest and doing whatever you can to make sure that you achieve the destiny that you deserve?" |
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| VNV Nation – Kingdom Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This quote comes to mind when I hear this song; “The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” ~John Milton, Paradise Lost |
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| Otep – Rise, Rebel, Resist Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I was listening to this song again today, and comparing it to Confrontation from the last album, and there's a lot of similarity, both in the content and message, and even down to the alliterative chant chorus; "Rise / Rebel / Resist" vs "Stand Up / Speak Out / Strike Back". They're both excellent songs, though they do tread on each other's toes a little. | |
| Otep – Rise, Rebel, Resist Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Being queer is part of it certainly, but I wouldn't limit it to just that. After freaks and faggots she does go on to talk about artists, infidels, rebels and dissidents. There are a whole lot of different types of people who are ostracised by the mainstream. | |
| Otep – Ur A Wmn Now (Your A Woman Now) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I kind of had to rush my post when I first commented, but I have more time now so I can elaborate on things. Well my interpretation of the second verse kind of hit me out of the blue; I'm an autistic, and my personal experience of the world is that when I think about something I get a rush of different pictures and ideas that I associate with it - sometimes they're ideas that relate and overlap with it, sometimes they're contrasting or outrightly opposite ideas, often they're only related to the original concept by a tangent, but it's from this wide range of comparisons that I synthesise my feelings and interpretations. The line about the pearl made me think of Fiona Apple's song Sullen Girl, which isn't about circumcision but about rape (whereas to Fiona the pearl represents the girl's liveliness and spark of joy, the image I have here is of the pearl representing the clitoris). I was also thinking about Otep's song Menocide, which she wrote after reading about circumcision. The british poet Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Oppenheim's Cup And Saucer" also swirled about in there (though this was pretty tangental; the poem is about a lesbian affair and refers to a piece by a swiss surrealist artist). As well as this, I brought to mind the various articles and reports I've read about circumcision, about both female genital mutilation in africa and male circumcision in the western world. I'm not sure I've ever come across any information about a marriage being sealed with a crown, Miss Lucy. Is there a specific society or time-period you have in mind? As I was posting from the library and my time was running out, so I missed putting that in a lot of places that practice female circumcision (I'm thinking specifically about clitoridectomy, which I know a number of places in Africa practice) it's a prerequisite for marriage. If it hasn't been done, the girl gets overlooked when finding a husband. I'll admit I'm basing a lot of my interpretations on what associations I have for the language used in the song, so it doesn't carry over to other people who haven't read or seen the same things I have. But I'm not claiming to have a definitive answer, just what this means to me. PS I'm really enjoying reading everyone else's responses, so please keep replying! XX |
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| Ani DiFranco – Two Little Girls Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song brings me to tears. So sad and tragic. Listening to some of Ani's songs can be really cathartic. | |
| Otep – Ur A Wmn Now (Your A Woman Now) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The song sounds beautiful, but when I listen to it, I'm getting some really horrible images from the lyrics, about what different societies consider marks the difference between a girl and a woman. The first verse is a girl being led into the dark by a boy who forces himself on her, taking her "virginity". ("She's been ensnared" and "He shoves her to the ground"). The second is a young girl being taken by her mother to be circumcised, being held down while this happens. ("Don't be scared, just relax and breathe / good girls hold real still / surrender your free will", while the imagery of "they cracked the crown / to pluck the pearl" and "the jagged edge of the world" suggest the mutilation itself). Finally, the third is a young mother in a welfare line, wanting a better future for her daughter. |
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| Otep – Rise, Rebel, Resist Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Glorious! as Otep says it so well in Sacrilege - "fuck those hypocrits / together we'll fight / the tyranny of squares / squiggles unite!" | |
| PJ Harvey – 50ft Queenie Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I love that with every verse the claims get wilder and more extreme - "I'm twenty inches long... no, make that thirty... forty and still rising!!!" etc. | |
| PJ Harvey – Sheela-Na-Gig Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The Sheela-Na-Gig was more of a universal symbol of fertility, rather than any one specific goddess. | |
| Hedwig and the Angry Inch – Hedwig's Lament Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Absolutely perfect. It's kind of the climax of the movie, when all the songs come together (Tear Me Down and Angry Inch especially) and the whole story/Hedwig's search comes down to this. And then it tails off into Exquisite Corpse and everything really breaks down. | |
| Peaches – Fuck Or Kill Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The military/marching beat makes me think of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" sexuality policy in the army, which I thought had been done away with but am shocked to discover is still in place. There's also a quotation I remember someone saying during protests against the homophobic policies in place in the armed forces - "they gave me a medal for killing two men, and a discharge for loving one". |
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| Regina Spektor – I Want to Sing Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The line "this too shall pass" is a reference to a Jewish folktale about King Solomon asking one of his ministers to find him a magical ring which has the power to make sad men happy but happy men sad. Eventually the minister finds a craftsman who carves three hebrew words onto a ring for him; the words are a message that everything is fleeting and will not last forever. Which is nice to know if, like the singer's love, you're feeling blue, but at the same time it's a pretty bleak thought when you're in the arms of the one you love. (a pretty good account of the folktale can be found on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass ) |
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| Peaches – Boys Wanna Be Her Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| "She bop" in the second verse is a reference to the Cyndi Lauper song of the same name ( http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/16864/ ). It's about masturbating. | |
| Robyn – Jack U Off (Prince cover) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| God I love this cover, it's like the most innapropriate family sing-along beside the piano ever! | |
| Lily Allen – Fag Hag Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This is a cute song. I saw an advert for Lily's new album that had something like "Lily's back!!" for its tagline, and while I was skeptical at first I've realised I really did miss the girl. Good on her! | |
| Evanescence – Lithium Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I've not got the "new" (it's been out a while now hasn't it) album yet, and I don't think I was going to, except I heard this song today and it's made a big impression on me. I'm another one of the "I can relate to this" crowd. There isn't much else I can say *shrugs*. |
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| Cradle of Filth – Born In A Burial Gown Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I love CoF. My vocabulary must have been non-existant before I first heard them :P Basically, it's about not knowing where you come from, or how you fit into the world, and then suddenly everything clicking and it making sense. The girl was found in the forest, orphaned and wrapped in a grave shroud. She is taken in by the villagers (by a church or nunnery?) and is given a Christian upbringing. She grows up, and one year a travelling carnival comes to town. She sneaks out, dressed in "ungodly" clothing, and goes to the fair. In the morning, when the circus wagons roll out, there is one more person there than the night before. Perhaps the circus was the family she was seperated from, and she finds her way home, or perhaps she is seduced away for some other reason, but either way she's found a new home. |
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| Garbage – Cup Of Coffee Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"I'm walking empty streets hoping we might meet" I do this every time I'm home for Xmas, Easter etc. I just walk around town at night, hoping to bump into a guy I used to know. I'm so lame. |
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| Jack Off Jill – Angels Fuck Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"I flinch when you are nice You kill me with a single word" I first got into JOJ back around 2001/2, and these two lines always make me think of a guy I knew in High School. I used to sit next to him in Chemistry, and every time he said something nice to me I felt my heart jump. He dropped out before I could get up the courage to say something as simple as "hey, I like you", and now when I'm back home for Xmas, New Years, Easter etc I spend hours every day just walking through the town, hoping to bump into him and say "hi". Sad but true. |
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| Scarling – Broken Record Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think it's less about the relationship being broken than it is about the relationship being boring. They're stuck in a rut, going over the same things again and again, which is where the broken record comes in. They can't move on, they're stuck in one spot. And it's not that either one of them has done something for things to get this way; "the record broke on its own". |
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| Rasputina – The Donner Party Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It starts off like she's reading an essay/report on Cannibalism/The Donner Party, but by the end it sounds like she's urging people to practice cannibalism as some sort of tribute to the original pilgrim settlers of the US. I love how she stays so calm and rational throughout. |
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| Bitch Alert – god doesn't like me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Fantastic song. Angry, bitter and pissed off. There's not much interpretation needed - it's about being unclean/undesirable in the eyes of religion, and looked down on/kicked out. |
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| Bitch Alert – Sandy Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This song is me in so many ways. X |
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| Skunk Anansie – Secretly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Shit, clicked the button by mistake X_X Anyway - guy and girl are a couple, and the second guy is in love with the first, but can't be with him. Then at the end of the video, the three of them are sleeping in a motel bed and the second guy is awake, lying next to the couple. The girl gets up and starts to sneak out, and there's a moment where it seems like she knows the other guy is awake. She leaves, and her boyfriend rolls over in his sleep and puts his arm around the other guy. Yeah, that was a terrible synopsis, but it's a good video. Anyway, the thing is - all through the song, it's very hard to tell who's point of view it's coming from. Is it from the guy looking in on the couple, and wanting to be part of it? Or is it from the girl, who leaves the boys behind, together? I realise that the lyrics, written down, make it clear that it's someone on the outside of the relationship, but... I don't know. There's an ambiguity that seems to come through the song that makes it hard to be sure. Unless it's just cuz this is being written at 4am. Anyway, gorgeous, ambiguous song that sums up where my life is at right now. |
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| Skunk Anansie – Secretly Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I've just been watching the video for the song, and it fits into the lyrics (unlike some videos, which are pretty and little else). It's kind of like The Doom Generation; a girl and two guys driving around, going to motels and breaking into a swimming pool. All through the video, it's clear that the girl and one guy are together, and the other guy |
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| Otep – Sacrilege Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"fuck those hypocrites - together we'll fight the tyranny of squares - SQUIGGLES UNITE" The best lines in the whole song. The entire message summed up into one couplet. |
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| Patrick Wolf – The Childcatcher Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I love the complete sonic chaos that it descends into at several points, especially at the "I even saw you come" point. His vocal range is rather startling. I've seen him live twice (once was at the Samhein Spooktacular in London *melts*) and he's not played this song (iirc) at either show, but I'm sure it's simply awe-inspiring. |
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| Regina Spektor – Oedipus Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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The second line of the first verse should be "a thirty-second time", not thirty seconds time. Fourth line is something like "with my hair still on" (I'm still a little unsure of this one). And the first line of the second verse should be "My mom had been a rather crazy queen", or some variant thereof. I get the feeling that the queen has seperated herself from the speaker because of this (supposed) Oedipal complex that's going on. Like (as in the play) there has been a prophecy made that the kid will marry his mother, and she's hiding him away behind the wall/the royal gates so it won't come to pass. Instead of throwing him out, they lock him up, but he can still look over the wall and see his mother, which just makes him desire her (in whatever fashion - familial love or romantical) more. The song isn't entirely focussed on this one point though. It's also about the 32nd son trying to have a purpose, even though there are already 31 others and there are 31 more to come who will be his exact copy. The song is about this character, rather than what he does/will do. The focus isn't on what will happen with him and his parents, but just on him. |
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| Peaches – Operate Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It's about finding a body washed up on the side of a river and performing CPR on it. I forget where I read/heard this, but Peaches said she watches a lot of gory medical tv shows, and thinks if she found someone who needed serious first aid, she'd have a pretty damn good chance of bringing them back. |
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| White Town – Your Woman Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I love how everyone is divided over the gender of the speaker of the song - It's wonderful. The song is one big gender-fuck. The singer is male, but the song is (apparently) from a female perspective, which leads to the straight man-lesbian/gay man-straight man/Dear John debates. Personally, my response changes all the time. All of these different ideas work, it just depends on which of them I'm favouring at any one time. Gorgeous song, whatever it's about. (Ich Lecke Koffer - I first heard this song on a slash video too, go slash!) |
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| Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| The cornflakes/anti-masturbation/genital-mutilation connection comes from John Harvey Kellogg, one of the brothers who invented cornflakes. J.H. was completely against sex and masturbation, and wrote books and pamphlets about it. In one of them ("Treatment for Self-Abuse and its Effects") he recommended circumcising boys and applying carbolic acid to the clitoris as "an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement" in girls. | |
| Bloc Party – Banquet Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| It's definitely about a girl being corrupted, but using sex as a metaphor. It's about losing innocence, not just virginity. | |
| Patti Smith – Boy Cried Wolf Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| St Sebastian was an officer in the Roman army. The Emperor ordered his execution, and he was stripped naked, tied to a tree, and shot full of arrows. He survived, and a second order had him beaten to death and thrown into a sewer. | |
| The Smiths – Still Ill Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Cynothoglys - I read Doom Patrol #35 this afternoon actually. Small world. But yeah, D.P. #35 is bookended by "Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?" and "I dunno". The reference is made about Robotman, a human brain in a robot body, and what happens when his robot body rebels against being controlled by the brain and tries to kill it and exist on its own. Which is neither here nor there, but it's still good. I completely understand the dilemma in this song, if you look at it in terms of depression/other mental illness - are you "still ill" because of something chemical in your body/brain, or something in your mind? Or it's a damn good philisophical question to pose when you're with a group of people, before posing and looking intellectual. |
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