| Alanis Morissette – Mary Jane Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Why do I have a feeling you're just replying to any song that fits with an anti-abortion message? Seriously, take your soapbox elsewhere, nobody cares. |
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| They Might Be Giants – A Self Called Nowhere Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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http://tmbw.net/wiki/Lyrics:A_Self_Called_Nowhere A link to the lyrics according to TMBG wiki. Notice, it's definitely "a thing named ID" as agreed by the enormous network of fans who keep that wiki accurate. Also, I have to say for somebody calling others "pseudo-intellectual posers" amoebius sure does sound like a pretentious ass. I mean, "It is one of those unnerving things against which a slide-rule avails naught." Really? REALLY? Just sayin'. |
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| They Might Be Giants – Twisting Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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See, I always saw this song as a metaphor for those relationships that never seem to end. We've all met this couple: they're together, they're broken up, they're together, they're broken up, repeat ad nauseum. The couple keeps having this huge blowout breakup that involves the giving back or destroyal of property, and the guy gives up on her, only to discover she wants to see him again, they get back together, and the cycle continues. This girl doesn't really like this guy (she destroys his stuff, is trying to kill him ("blew out your pilot light and made a wish" like DavidGrimmer said) and has even said so "she's not your satellite, she doesn't miss you" but for some reason, she keeps going back to him. The guy, on the other hand, is really an idiot for taking her back just so she can screw him over some more. But he likes her, to the point of glorifying her (the "smoke machine and Marshall's stack" reference implies he's making songs about her) so he takes her back, and she breaks his heart over and over. "Twisting in the wind" indeed. Worst part is, through all of it they're learning NOTHING. "There's not a lot of things that she'll take back" indicates she's said and done things she's never going to apologize for, so each time they start the relationship again, the problems from the last relationship bleed into the next. |
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| They Might Be Giants – S-e-x-x-y Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This song is hilarious. Definitely about a transvestite, or maybe just a secret agent in disguise, but one with an extra x chromosome. (oh, it happens) "Around the clock, with nobody else" just seems to clarify that this xxy thing is constant and individual: the xxy refers to a single person, not a merging of two people. See, the funniest part about the problem is the "you" in the song doesn't know "she" isn't a woman. And the saddest part? "Unnoticed by few VERY VERY FEW And that includes you" It's pretty OBVIOUS she has male characteristics, but for some reason, "you" haven't caught on. Seems like you even get as far as fingernails on your back and still don't know. Absolutely hilarious. |
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| They Might Be Giants – Ant Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This seems like a metaphor for the insidious way governments take Fascist control of a country with the citizens' consent. See, the ant is the Fascist state. And slowly, it's gaining control of not only your body, but your mind. But you don't notice, because you're "asleep", you're not paying attention to the inner workings of your government, you're apathetic to it, one little ant can't create chaos, right? Except that while you were busy "sleeping" the ant has become the President. It calls the shots, and now it's calling your name. Of course, a Fascist state follows, including men ransacking your house for whatever reason (Facist governments don't need a reason to terrorize their citizens; they're in complete control). This could apply to the United States, actually. Except we're right between the second to last verse and the last verse. Just wait, Martial Law will follow soon enough. |
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| They Might Be Giants – A Self Called Nowhere Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Um, it's definitely "a thing named id" not "it" and by "id" (one syllable, say it like "it" but with a "D") they are obviously referring to what we would think of as the subconscious mind. If you didn't already know what id is, I question the legitimacy of your TMBG fan status...most of us are pretty informed on things like that. ;) Also, there should be another line after "where they tore down the garage". It should be "to make room for the torn down garage". No idea what this song's about, but I get the feeling like a lot of other TMBG songs, it's about the innner workings of the mind. |
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| Barenaked Ladies – Never Do Anything Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I'd agree with the other interpretations, but I'd go one step further. I dated the type of guy this song describes, and I've seen this kind of behavior firsthand (hell, I've even participated in it, sadly). This song is about a guy who is so incredibly insecure and underconfident that he will go to great extremes to prove otherwise to himself and other people. Unfortunately, because he lacks confidence he's never going to actually be able to prove anything. This guy has talent ("I'll bet you there's a song in there") but he's not confident enough to actually use it. He spends an extraordinary amount of time looking at the sucess of others ("That guy should be me") and probably even putting it down, claiming that if he were in their shoes he'd do their job better. But his claims are all for the benefit of others: he knows full well he either doesn't have as much potential as he claims, or won't ever live up to the potential he has, because he lacks the confidence to do anything but complain. On to the second verse, we discover this guy is a little manipulative (The X in tic-tac-toe goes first, so they always have a better chance of winning) and his ideas of sucess are often flawed and underachieving (how many internet get-rich schemes actually work? Answer: none), probably because he secretly believes he can't do any better than that, dispite his bravado. All of this lying to himself and others has pegged him as "an angry man" with a chip on his shoulder, angry at himself for not living up to his potential, and angry at the world for not being easier to live in. "Life passed me by, but it's not my fault." This is the key line in the song. The reason, the ONLY reason, this guy will never amount to anything is because he is unwilling to take responsibility for his lack of sucess. In his mind, he hasn't failed because he's a lazy, manipulative slacker; he's failed because life isn't fair, or he wasn't given enough chances, or the cards were stacked against him. So instead of changing his actions and modes of thinking, he just sits back and bitches about how much God must hate him, further aggrivating his belief that he will never amount to anything. ("I'll lick my wounds, could you pass the salt?") The rest of the song just reiterates everything already said, in classic BNL style. Fantastic song, if only the type of person it describes were able to understand that it describes them, eh? |
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| David Bowie – Quicksand Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This song is both existetialist and Thelemic. I also agree with Stairwaytoheaven's idea of the songwriter's cyclical thought process. This song describes Bowie's wrestling with new Thelemic ideas and reconciling them with his past beliefs. The entire first stanza referrs blantantly to Crowley and the horror of the final goal of Thelemic teaching: to remove all shred of one's ego and reduce the psyche to first hyperawareness, then unawareness, then re-awareness, through a process referred to only as "crossing the Abyss". This is a process not unlike descent into schitzophrenia (and indeed, some Thelemites have been reported as having attempted the final goal and gone insane instead) and it's completely understandable why he would be frightened by it. The idea of "a mortal with potential of a superman" is totally Thelemic. Thelemites believe every man and woman can become a god, if they are able to properly discipline their minds and cross the Abyss. The chorus (or refrain, I suppose) seems to be a sort of counterpoint to this thinking. He is telling himself not to worry about it so much, that things will work out after death. But he continues to contemplate, and worry about the state and potential of his soul, and the cycle continues. Thus he's sinking in the quicksand of his thought, piling the concepts onto his mind, churning them until he can barely hold his head above the surface. |
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| David Bowie – Fill Your Heart Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I must disagree with both of you, though I do agree this song is ironic to a certain extent. During this period of his life, Bowie was experimenting with Thelema and the teachings of Alistair Crowley. It's all over this album, especially "Quicksand", the song right before this one (which isn't actually depressing at all if you read it right, but I'll mention that over on that song). He even has several Thelemically inspired pictures within the album liner (Egyptian stuff EVERYWHERE, sitting in metitative poses, etc). This song is esentially a quick version of the first part of Book of the Law. There is only one rule in Thelema: "Do what thou Wilt shall be the Whole of the Law. Love is the Law, Love under Will." The "Love" he speaks of is the same Crowley described, which isn't love as we think of it. By Love, he means the awareness of the self and all others as complete individual entities with the potential to become gods, and the awareness that as such, individuals are free to do whatever they must in order to further their Will (goal in life, to oversimplify), so long as it doesn't affect anyone else's Will. The whole idea of the past being only in your mind is a Thelemic concept rooted in the idea that all physical reality, and all time, is simply a construct by our minds to process our environment. Were we able to see our environment without our filtering systems, we would be able to see that all physical reality and time is simply an illusion covering the truth of the astral realm. Of course, the only way to reach the astral realm, and the ultimate goal of Thelema itself (which I won't go into here), is to eliminate the Ego, thus "Forget your Mind." It's interesting that "Free" is always capitalized, and I think it illustrates my point. Crowley always referred to people who have accepted the concepts of Thelema as "Free" people, no longer slaves to the chains of physical reality and organized religion. (Thelema is not a religion, it is a philosophy. To have religion, one must have worship, and Thelemites bow to no one.) That he takes it to an extreme, verbally and vocally, does imply irony. It is obvious during this album he was studying the philosophies of Thelema, but never completely subscribed to them. By the time his next album came out, he had turned back to Christianity. Perhaps this song is almost a parody of the tenants of the Book of the Law, as if the idea is far too easy to be true. |
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