| Neil Young – Old Man Lyrics | 2 years ago |
| People are reading so much into it about parent/child relationships but it seems really simple to me. Neil Young is responding to the ranch caretaker's surprise at him being able to afford to buy the place at age 24. He's basically saying the money is insignificant. In his heart he is the same as the old man who puts so much emphasis on the money (maybe because he lacked it his whole life). His need to be loved is the same. Buying the ranch was maybe an attempt to have something permanent that 'won't get lost' but even the place makes him think of the love that is missing. Young or old, rich or poor, the yearning is still there. | |
| The Wailin' Jennys – You Are Here Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| This song is so deeply empowering. The lyrics express that the suffering of life, the darkness, loneliness and trauma must be faced with bravery and faith in a 'reason' for it all. When you realise that this is your life, you can't have someone else's, you have no choice but to own your troubles and try your best, it stops you adding on to your torment by thinking 'why me?'....the answer is a mystery, like so many things. All we can do is surrender to it. The song speaks to me on so many levels, accepting suffering is just one, being in the moment is another. As a person prone to perpetual longing, for the past, for an imagined future, for a could-have-been....there is so much wisdom in letting go and focusing hard on what is in front of me right at this moment, seeing the gift in that, and trusting that I'm on the path I'm supposed to be on. | |
| Vashti Bunyan – Against the Sky Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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I read an interview with Vashti Bunyan where she talks about moving from the countryside to the Edinburgh after things ended with the father of her children, about the end of that era of 'diamond days', and starting a new phase of life in the city. I think this song is about that- she sees trees against the sky and the memory of a storm near the 'old house' in the country comes flooding back. The storm brought a tree down which they used as firewood. 'One of five against the sky' could just mean one of five trees but I think the number is significant as there were 5 in her family- one was brought down...maybe she's referring to herself, or to her ex, being 'surrendered' to the wind...which I think symbolises the way fate moves us this way or that. Later, she observes a storm in the city and remembers that night. Rows of chimney pots don't wave like trees against the sky- there is a nostalgia and a sadness when she thinks of the past and how different her life is now. 'Another life's remembered' on first listen gave me that eerie feeling someone else mentioned, but I think it's about her remembering 'another life' meaning just another stage in her life that has now passed. The song has a surreal feel to it which reflects the way memories sometimes feel like dreams... yet the way she describes the hill behind the old house, the memory of that is so concrete in her mind, she can trace and draw it on paper. 'You were the main contender' I think refers to her new relationship- the man who she went to live with in the city. I am not sure what the last two lines mean, but I think of the blurring of yellow and blue with green between, is like the blurring of time....she feels 'in between' worlds, times...where does the present end and the past begin? It's about the way that memories are more than just that- they are like imprints on our souls, and continue to live on in our minds even when our lives and circumstances have transformed. |
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| Katie Melua – I Cried for You Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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this song to me is about a miscarriage. a pregnancy even in its early stages strikes a woman violently with love. the song describes how an unborn baby is beautiful silently, and no one else may ever feel that magical feeling of loving a being that has not come into the world yet, and may not understand what the mother feels when the object of her love is taken away. she can never forget this short 'meeting' though others may. 'it lies beneath a shade of blue' and 'to feel that magic in your hand' refer to a pregnancy test with its blue line indicating positive. 'this life was not for you' this is the line that shows, to me, that the person katie sings about had not lived and died, but had not even lived yet. life was just not meant for every human being who puts their foot in the door. 'i learned from you that beauty need only be a whisper' this is the most beautiful line, i think. it expresses how little someone has to give to you in order for you to love them. so it is with an unborn child- you love them deeply and unconditionally, though you know nothing of who this tiny being will become, and they have nothing to give you. 'without you now i see how fragile the world can be'- a loss through miscarriage shows you how fragile life is, how easily it can be taken away at any time. |
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| Jackson Browne – Looking Into You Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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this is my personal analysis of the song which i completely relate to, though i think it can mean many things... the song starts out with the scene of his old family house which has now been sold or let out to another family. he travels a long way there looking for his roots, for something concrete in his life... he's sick of roaming around aimlessly, the distance is done, the possibilities are too many and he just needs to find something firm to build his future upon. the family invites him in and gives him a taste of what stable home life is...children, predictable future, warmth and love, togetherness....it leaves him high and hopeful, yet when he steps outside this warm familial environment he is again immediately confronted with his need to be free...and his need for something bigger, more meaningful... he looks at the faces passing by..."it's an ocean that will never be filled" to me is about people's desperate search for happiness, stability, etc. but the impossibility of ever achieving it in this world. the house that grows older finally crumbles - the life and love he witnessed within his old house is temporary, as is everything in this world, it is constantly changing. i also think of the house as a metaphor for the body, which inevitably grows older and dies, something we have no power over. we are in this world as guests, mortal, and all we can do is try to feel at home while we are here. ...his search for a home then becomes a deeper search, for truth and meaning in existence, the same thing the "millions" of people search for. but it is impossible to be certain of it, so it's always an illusion to some degree...he loses hope in finding a universal truth, which even a prophet couldn't give him, as it's his task to search for his own truth. he finds his truth in the beauty of music.. but mostly in his beloved... her soul so to speak, the significance of looking "into" rather than "at". he's come to a point where the only thing that's certain for him is love...and that seems to give him enough meaning in life, he doesn't need to have anything more concrete, or any absolute philosophy or religion...love in its simplicity is better and greater than anything. |
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| Lisa Hannigan – Teeth Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with Sno that it's about being in a relationship with a complicated person... someone very emotional, maybe unbalanced, overbearing and powerful, and feeling like they're just sucking all the spirit and strength out of you until you can no longer remember who you are. the bends in your brain and your elaborate pain makes me tired- the person seems to indulge in his depression, making life so needlessly complicated and tiring her out... as an old balloon i hold my breath- she's keeping in all her own emotions and thoughts trying to deal with this overbearing person, like a balloon which, if it lets go of the air, will just fly away. like a penance paid too soon and with too much eagerness- she is with the person out of love, eager to please, but it feels like a punishment... to know what is true when air is changed by you makes it hard- he is so moody, keeps changing the air, may be pleasant one day and too much to handle the next... making it hard to just leave... the rain....overwhelming emotions... the last verse...she wants to escape and be herself again, be free from this person and his problems... salt may refer to her tears- they used to be her own, but this person demanded all her strength so she couldn't show her emotions... she'd had her teeth bared for battle, she had been strong and determined with her own plans, but love lost made her lose sight of all that and made her forget herself. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Philadelphia Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| this song is about a slow and hopeless death, whether due to giving up on life or because of AIDS, it doesn't matter. mostly it's about the social aspect of death and how approaching the end not only makes you feel alienated from society (so many references to being alone, voices of friends vanished...) but also from yourself (clothes don't fit, he hears his own blood in his veins as if he's already removed from his own body). I think the end, calling out to his brother to receive him with a 'fateless kiss' ...is a death wish; he just wants to end his suffering and loneliness and is ready to die. | |
| Guster – Ramona Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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thats an interesting idea wimpy_shrimpy, now that i listen to the song agan i think it could be about a father-daughter relationship... the way i've been thinking about it is that ramona is his childhood friend turned sweetheart. she is lovable and he adores her, but becomes protective of her...so much that he can't get to sleep till she comes in. she has changed from the little girl he loved, but he can't stop loving her...his nostalgia about days past is what keeps him going ("come and sing that song for me")..he's become like her little puppy, "anything for you, love"......it's such an adorable song :) |
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| Guster – Ramona Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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thats an interesting idea wimpy_shrimpy, now that i listen to the song agan i think it could be about a father-daughter relationship... the way i've been thinking about it is that ramona is his childhood friend turned sweetheart. she is lovable and he adores her, but becomes protective of her...so much that he can't get to sleep till she comes in. she has changed from the little girl he loved, but he can't stop loving her...his nostalgia about days past is what keeps him going ("come and sing that song for me")..he's become like her little puppy, "anything for you, love"......it's such an adorable song :) |
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| Tori Amos – A Sorta Fairytale Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| it's about how two people can just grow back... until the honey spreads itself so thin that you can't remember why you're together in the first place; it's just a fairytale, not real. | |
| Heather Nova – London Rain Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| it's about how nothing else matters when you're with the one you love... the rain outside, the mess your life is in, your worries... seem irrelevant | |
| Porcupine Tree – Trains Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I agree that it's about reluctance to leave behind childhood and innocence on the journey of life symbolised by trains and railroads. But I wonder why no one else thought of the Freudian interpretation of trains... "I've heard the sound from my cousin's bed" sounds like it could be about his cousin's loss of innocence which makes him realise that he too has to cross the boundary into adulthood. "you're tying me up" could refer to feeling constrained by adult responsibility but could also be sexual... or maybe I just have a dirty mind :P | |
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