Linus

17

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The Smiths – Rubber Ring Lyrics 15 years ago
What? Why would you disagree with everyone for saying that? There are already many comments above who suggest that it's a life saver device (which is what a swimming aid kind of is). Don't get hung up on technicality. The beautiful thing here is the imagery: it's vague enough you can assume the rubber ring is also a vinyl record.

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Leonard Cohen – Chelsea Hotel #2 Lyrics 16 years ago
Don't know if anyone noticed, but in the last verse of Don McLean's American Pie he sings, "I met a girl who sang the blues / And I asked her for some happy news / But she just smiled and turned away". That girl who sings the blues is rumoured to be Janis Joplin. So when Cohen says, "You just turned your back on the crowd" he maybe knowingly/unknowingly makes a reference to that song? I think that's a possibility.

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The Divine Comedy – Sweden Lyrics 16 years ago
Personally, I think this is one of the most hilarious songs ever. It can easily be mistaken for a Swedish anthem with its Ode to Joy-like string section, the dramatic choir and the eruditely expressed admiration; while it is in fact a tongue-in-cheek parody of Sweden, her rumoured idyllic life, her 'blonde and strong' and civilised Nordic people. The overblown mock-grandness of the song thus hides the biting sarcasm. And mentioning Nina Persson after Ibsen and Bergman is just the gravy.

We are not worthy, Sweden!

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The Organ – Don't Be Angry Lyrics 17 years ago
I think of this song as the doppelgänger of "I Won't Share You". By putting this similarly sad, largely acoustic song at the end of their last EP, the Organ in my opinion was saluting the Smiths, whose last record Strangeways, Here We Come ended with "I Won't Share You". The song is eloquently dismal and leaves that same hollow feeling inside, especially when you know the likes of the Smiths and the Organ come really rare.

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The Organ – Even In The Night Lyrics 17 years ago
Katie's vocals here are nothing short of amazing. The song itself has such a beautiful and poignant ending. The songs in The Thieves EP are all touching eulogies to the half life of this great band.

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The Beatles – Paperback Writer Lyrics 17 years ago
Douglas Adams had this song played at his funeral. I always think of him and Kurt Vonnegut when I hear this song. They were the true kings of paperback fiction.

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Beirut – The Gulag Orkestar Lyrics 17 years ago
Gulag is the government agency that ran the penal labour camps in Soviet Union. In a vain attempt to purify the socialist ideology, Stalin thought of correcting the so-called imperfections by starving people in the outskirts of Soviet Union to death (among other war crimes committed that were not exclusive to Communism at that time, despite what many people may believe). Many concentration camps were filled with those people snatched from their homeland of Eastern Europe, better known as the Eastern or the Soviet Bloc. It was a tormented region that didn't share the feigned glamour of Soviet Russia. "Orkestar" is of course a "band" in Eastern European folk culture. If you listen to the song, you put them all together and find that it's perhaps a Balkan dirge to those who perished in the Gulags at that time.

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Joy Division – Transmission Lyrics 18 years ago
Let's not forget that in the time this song was written, Joy Division was mainly a performance band and not heard from the radio or records all that much. The handful of people associated with the Manchester scene knew them; and according to what people say or write about their performances, they established some contact with the audience. They were infuriating, an incentive to those people. That's why I think the song, given Ian's personality, is almost Brechtesque, it captures the zeitgeist of the downcast industrial town Manchester really was and still is. It puts a barrier between the audience and the band, alienating the musicians from the crowd. Leaving them to "touch from a distance". It explains Joy Division better than any of their songs, in my opinion.

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Pink Floyd – The Fletcher Memorial Home Lyrics 19 years ago
Oh, come on. Of course Hitler is not mentioned in the song, but not because Waters is so fond of him. Hitler killed himself and he was burned in a ditch covered with petrol - there is a difference, see. None of the "overgrown infants" in this song were tried for their crimes. Simply, they got away with it. That's the difference.

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New York Dolls – Subway Train Lyrics 19 years ago
In his "Who Put The 'M' In Manchester?" concert, Morrissey made a powerful rendition of this song's first verse before Everyday Is Like Sunday. Also in his Live At Earl's Court CD he sings the same part before the song transitions into Munich Air Disaster 1958.

In his youth, Morrissey was the head of a New York Dolls Fan Club.

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Morrissey – Jack The Ripper Lyrics 19 years ago
When Morrissey says, "I love/The romance of crime" he is telling the truth. He told of Kray Brothers (The Last of the Famous International Playboys) Hector (First of the Gang to Die) and others both in his past and his present work.

The first verse is clearly alluded to Jack the Ripper, a despicable man in appearance.

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Morrissey – Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice Lyrics 19 years ago
Why should it be sick? Homosexuals references are regularly made in Morrissey's lyrics, just like allusions to criminals, romantics and perverts (hey!)

I watched "Who Put the 'M' in Manchester?" and I automatically thought he was referring to oral sex/lisp. His gestures even seems to rather support that idea.

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Simon and Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair/Canticle Lyrics 19 years ago
the first verse strikes me as a christianity reference. Jesus himself supposedly wore a shirt with no seams or needlework. Maybe the underlying meaning is that what she wants from the woman is actually her faith?

But then, the song seems to be about the impossibility of the tasks, so there.

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Simon and Garfunkel – America Lyrics 19 years ago
This song ends with one of the most touching melodies I've ever heard. It means so much to me because I think the song says very much with lyrics (not exclusively about America, I find) and when it ends, it's like you're staring at something beautiful and it's mute and silent until the visage fades out completely. How beautiful.

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Morrissey – In The Future When All's Well Lyrics 19 years ago
Living longer than I had intended,
Something must have gone right.

I believe only Morrissey can write such songs. You go on and associate it with some sort of memory or feeling and everytime you listen to it, it invokes this song and vice versa. Today's pessimistic individual needs Morrissey to vocalise him.

I find the restlessness a strong feature of our generation, hence the ending is very symbolic to me:

"The future is ended by the long, long sleep."

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The Decemberists – July, July! Lyrics 19 years ago
I think this song has kind of a Velvet Underground feeling, that rambling drift their songs have (especially Sweet Jane). Colin Meloy's challenging vocabulary is here of course, but I can just picture Lou Reed singing this. It's very vibrant yet not too '60s.

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The Decemberists – Constantinople Lyrics 19 years ago
Actually it's not so self-explanatory. I know, as someone living in Istanbul, that I was quite struck the first time I'd heard this song. Colin Meloy has a profound knowledge of some legends that I'd always thought only people really interested in Istanbul would know. The story is actually a Hero and Leander story, a tale told in many versions and times, this time adapted into Ottoman Empire setting.

Meloy uses heavy and rather accurate imagery to cast the vision of a Renaissance Constantinople in your mind, with its "dirty streets" and "minarets". Hero, the daughter of the emperor in the original story, nevertheless an upper-class figure, is betrothed to an appropriate royal person; but she in truth loves Leander.

Now a brief intermission. Leander may be listening to the "melodies" coming from his lover's wedding, and may have committed suicide. But here is what I think happens, according to the poem.

Each night Leander swims across the Bosporus (the strait that separates Asia and Europe) to reach his lover. Hero, for reasons not relevant, is kept in a tower amidst the Bosporus. They spend the night there and before dawn, Leander checks out. Hero holds out a guiding light for Leander to find the tower without getting lost. But one night Hero falls asleep and Leander loses his direction in the water and eventually drowns. A deranged Hero, finding out about her lover "painted by the Bosporus in blue" throws herself from the tower and dies as well. Sad story.

But I think in this version Hero doesn't fall asleep but is taken away by her father for the match by the magistrate, that's why Leander is drowned. At least that's what I think when I hear it.

One last thing: Maiden Tower had been used as a lighthouse until some decades ago.

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Morrissey – America Is Not The World Lyrics 19 years ago
The idea that anyone should fully belong to a country just because he is a citizen/resident of that particular country or of that country's origin is beyond me. Morrissey is what I'd like to categorise as an international person. He's not a hypocrite nor a biased person, for he doesn't judge things according from the view of a particular race, creed or religion (That's why so many people are pissed off) and his language is truly biting, and not politically correct, like Bono is when it comes to starvation and anti-war and human rights he always seems to be carrying the flag and he personally denies concerts all over the world because those countries are violating human rights, but when it comes to the United States he's not only giving concert all over the States he is also meeting the President (you-know-who), who is responsible for half the chaos in the world right now. That's the definition of hypocrite. Morrissey is not one. And anyone who defines him a 'commie', well, that's very McCarthy of you, you partial and biased sad sod.

Morrissey is not the avatar of justice, but he is telling the truth and those who can't handle it are everywhere (here, there). The only precaution would be avoiding those people but that doesn't seem to work exactly either. So until they know what justice in the world is, somebody's got to talk, and it could be anyone from anywhere in the world, and that includes Morrissey, I'm afraid. You might still conceive the world as different countries, religions and races, but it's a modern world, if you have the right to invade Iraq, the least I can do for humanity is talk. And what's more is, you should be thankful for that. That's a moral predicament for you to solve, anyone who still has a doubt you've just been addressed, Cold War victors.

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