| The Tallest Man on Earth – The Gardener Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I see this as the narrator is close to death and he is building a legacy for his lover, i.e. the garden. He want to remain "the tallest man" in her eye will he admits that he has lied to her and done things that he is not proud of. He is telling her that people will say bad things about him (spy up in the chimney, leak inside my phone) and imploring her to stay true to him. There are the obvious references to death like "And soon to ashes I'll return". There is the idea of renewal and rebirth via the gardern which he is tending to. This is common to many religions and belief systems. |
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| Okkervil River – For Real Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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From an internview with Will Sheff here: http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/okkervil-river-050427.shtml "I was playing with the notion of reality on that song, and really on most of this record. We've become so insulated now from real life that I think we're convinced that what we see on TV is real life. We're alienated from our basic selves. I mean violence has to be this ultra-realistic thing to be real to us. It's like it's truer in movies or video games than it is in real life. What's real experience? We're real obsessed. Are her breasts real? What's the best reality TV Show? So I just wanted to see how many times I could squeeze the word real into the song," I love the imagery in this song, it is outstanding. The saying goes that reality is perception. What it “really real”. Our reality is so clouded by the way out perceptions are so influenced by the media that we are bombarded with every day The line : 'Cause there’s nothing quite like the blinding light / That curtains cast aside’ , that moment of truth when you realise that you have been sold a lie perhaps. The Protagonist that thirsts for real blood and ‘And then the flash of steel from real guns’. These things seem easy as they are portrayed ad nauseum in our society, in movies, TV and video games …. but in reality are they? There is a real feeling the protagonist is trapped: ‘And I don't want to hear you say it shouldn’t really be this way,/ ‘Cause I like this way just fine’ Fantastical, thought provoking song. |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think this is a lament at being trapped in the house. In Anne frank's diary they live fairly well, the major hardship they endure is their lack of freedom and the fear of being caught. The simple act of sitting outside and counting beautiful things is unatainable. |
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| Neko Case – Star Witness Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Neko Case spoke about this song in an interview on pitch fork media here: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/c/case_neko-06/ Pitchfork: From Fox Confessor, on a song like "Star Witness", I'm guessing there's a car accident involved but the details are sketchy. Case: I spent a while on that song. It's about an actual event that occurred in front of me. It wasn't actually a car accident but someone being shot to death. That was a real event that happened in Chicago. Pitchfork: What happened? Case: It was one of those things where there's gang violence and somebody gets shot right in front of you, and you live it and it's horrible. And, of course, it doesn't make the news because the kid is black. Nobody gives a shit except for his family, and you see how much nobody gives a shit and it's fucking heartbreaking. He wasn't even the kid they were looking to shoot. He was just some kid who they mistook for somebody else and they shot him. I saw it happen. I didn't make the song about me either. The song is pieces of different people but the event is in there. |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think that he is sing form Anne Frank's point of view and that is song about her relationship with Peter van Pels. The two headed boy is because she initially dismissed him but then became infatuated with him, it is also the conflicts in his character. Jeff magnum is filling in the gaps not in Anne’s diary. It is about that awkwardness of teenage love. The "notches in your spine" line is literally two people exploring each others bodies. I think it has little to do with the holocaust and more to do with the people. I think that Jeff Magium is affected by Anne Frank so partly because of the tragedy of her life but more so because her diary is a candid snapshot of a teenage girl. He captures perfectly the awkwardness but beauty of two people becoming sexual aware. I think we can all relate with the feelings and imagery in this song via our own experiences. When it is this innocents and beauty is juxtaposed against the tragedy of world war II and holocaust it is a powerfully bitter sweet master piece. I would also like to point out that there are different versions of the diary of Anne Frank. There is a sanitized version a lot of which was edited by Anne Frank after hearing on a radio broadcast that the Dutch government would collect records of the peoples oppression under German occupation. Anne Frank intended to submit her diary and hence edit some of the more personal aspects and created pseudonyms for the people involved. There are other versions that have more about her growing sexuality etc. If you read the diary in high school it is likely that you have read the edited version. There was a complete version released in the mid 1980s. |
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