submissions

David Bowie – Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family Lyrics

19 years ago

I remember during one of the last scenes in the Ministry of Love O'Brien takes Winston before a mirror and says 'If you are really a man then you are the last man on Eearth; what you see before you is all that remains of humanity' and the narration describes it as a world of skeletons. It is the moment at which most of his resolve was destroyed (the rest of it went during his visit to Room 101) and I think, along with the two-minute hate reference (which makes a lot of sense) I think this song is also a reference to Winston seeing himself in the mirrors.

submissions

Marilyn Manson – Vodevil Lyrics

19 years ago

Vaudeville was a form of comedic theatre in the thirties and forties that was structured around exaggerating differences to make them look funny. Race was often poked fun at (minstrel shows with blackface came from this) as was religion, people with disabilities, and even personality qwerks. Things that were thought to be ugly or make people stand out were exaggerated and turned into a centerpiece rather then something you politely try to ignore. It was about showcasing and glamorizing ugliness, sort of saying 'this is me and I'm proud and fuck you if you think differently'. This relates to the song in that Manson is saying 'Yeah, I'm a womanizer and a drug addict, I'm decadent and it's a part of me and if you think that's bad then whatever' ('this isn't a show; this is my fucking life \ I'm not ashamed, you're entertained \ but I'm not a puppet; I am a grenade')

submissions

Syd Barrett – Dark Globe Lyrics

19 years ago

Syd is one of those very unique musicians whose lyrics are mostly unintelligable but you still know exactly what they are singing about. I think it has to do with using words that carry certain moods whether their literal meanings fit in or not. I know it's more complicated then that but that's the best I can do. The only other artist I've seen who could do that was The Mars Volta (not that I'm comparing Syd to the Mars Volta; I'm just saying their writing styles are similar).

submissions

Leonard Cohen – The Future Lyrics

19 years ago

To me this song is about how societal behavior is just a cycle that keeps repeating itself and on some level everyone knows this and is used to it. Elleged "tragedy" is a neccessary part in a global psychodrama that we all need to keep ourselves occupied with because its all we know. The psychological outlook of the world is rooted in a struggle of good versus evil and its necessary for our kind of 'sanity' that the struggle never ends. The later parts seem to say that nothing lasts forever and the cycle will inevitably be disrupted and once it does there will be a kind of poetic justice in the mental trauma suffered by every one in the world; we've been dreaming of tragedy for so long and someday we will finally get it.

submissions

Marilyn Manson – Better Of Two Evils Lyrics

19 years ago

The 'Golden Age of Grotesque' is pretty unique when compared to most of Manson's albums. On every other album he relies heavily on abstract metaphors and he does that on this one here and there but there are other songs like this one that are unusually straight foreward. I think this was done in the same spirit as the overal feel of the album. This is as close to conventional heavy metal as Manson has ever come and one of the primary themes on this album is how hackneyed and kicked to death mainstream media is. I think he mimicked conventional heavy metal and nu metal in an effort to parody mainstream music, he probably wrote this song the way he did for the same reason. Another piece of evidence in favor of this is that on 'Golden Age' he relies a lot of made up words (poparazzinazi, death-crush diamond jaguar limousines, doll-daga buzz-buzz ziggety-zag), a potential parody of stupid slogans being coined in pop music, more specifically, stupid wigger slang.

submissions

Marilyn Manson – Negative 3 Lyrics	19 years ago
I remember two distinct moments in my life when this song epitomized my outlook; midway through my relationships with the only two girls I've been involved with so far (I'm only 18 so that's not too depressing). It seems to be about having a deep emotional relationship with someone who is a lot less intellegent then yourself who cannot empathize with anything you think or feel.

submissions

David Bowie – Alternative Candidate Lyrics

19 years ago

Okay it probably seems kind of arrogant to be the firs to comment on lyrics you yourself suggested but I don't care. This song was one of the first recorded for the '1984' musical that was shot down by Orwell's widow, as she held the rights and disaproved of the idea. I think this song is about how Oceana's goal is to make a society in which the only love that exists is love for Big Brother and Julia, by becoming Winston's lover is becoming an 'alternative candidate'.

submissions

David Bowie – Candidate Lyrics

19 years ago

This is one of the key pieces of the first half of the album, which describes a gang of hedonistic nomads wandering around and living however they want and generally enjoying the lack of government (the first song, Future Legend, describes the destruction of society, presumably because of some nuclear holocaust). Eventually, when the narrative starts describing a brutal dictatorship which was inspired by the world of Orwell's '1984' one is left to assume that the wanderers, The Diamond Dogs, led some kind of assault against said government and were defeated. This is evidenced by the fact that Bowie cited the Burroughs novel 'Wild Boys' as a source of inspiration and the narrative is also very reminescent of 'Cities of the Red Night'. In both 'Wild Boys' and 'Cities of the Red Night' a semi-organized gang of rebels forming in the wake of the apocalypse attack a surviving all-powerful police state in the name of individual freedom. In both novels the gangs indulge freely and excessively in drugs and free love and in the first half of 'Diamond Dogs' this is also described (I suppose this is a rather dark take on 'free love' but I guess it still qualifies). The pace, mood and lyrics of 'Candidate' suggest the nihilistic behavior and the soul-deep boredom and jadedness that begets nihilism reaches an all-time high (or low) and after the brutal climax the narrator is pushed beyound the point of caring and mellows out. Afterword, in 'Rebel Rebel', one may suspect that a naive young person encounters the main character, sees what he is and falls in love with him for it (i.e mistaking his jadedness for worldliness?) or maybe the other way around (the burnt out tread falls in love with a young person's vigor and energy)...but I should save that for the 'Rebel Rebel' section.

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