submissions
| Hermans Hermits – I'm Henry The VIII, I Am Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I have always found this song deeply disturbing. The key word to unlock the meaning of this song is "widow". She's been married seven times, and widowed. Is that not suspicious?
And she refuses to marry anyone but a Henry - why? She's clearly obsessive, but when that lines up with "widow"...
My interpretation is that this woman is psychopathic and sociopathic. She sees Henry VIII as an oppressor of women (due to his 6 wives, 2 of whom were beheaded) and is taking her own revenge by killing 8 Henrys.
And frighteningly, the narrator has no concept of the ghastly fate that awaits him. Brrrrr. |
submissions
| Robbie Williams – I Tried Love Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Gary Barlow, for those who don't know, being an ex-bandmate of Robbie's (in Take That) who had a bit of a falling out with Robbie and went for a solo career. Some classic lines - "Which one's which in the Corrs" and "Who came third in WWII" are favourites. |
submissions
| Robbie Williams – Feel Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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"Come on hold my hand / I wanna contact the living" - a clever seance reference (where you hold hands and contact the dead). The whole song has death imagery/references through it, although I agree it is more likely to have a plain meaning about Robbie's feelings and disconnectedness. |
submissions
| Robbie Williams – Come Undone Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The whole album ("Escapology") has a lot to say about celebrity, fame and putting on an act (see "Monsoon", "Handsome Man", the two songs about LA) and this is another perfect example. And I would have thought that razor blades and mirrors is a clear cocaine reference (as also made by Oasis in "Morning Glory"). |
submissions
| Regurgitator – I love Tommy Mottola Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Turns out he was in charge of Sony Music internationally, and his wife was Mariah Carey - it's a wonderfully caustic indictment of their relationship, both professional and personal. |
submissions
| Regurgitator – Everyday Formula Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I love the way they express the idea that modern technology distances us from the consequences of our actions - the way we "shit into the sea" but don't care, because all we see is the toilet. "Porcelain dream", indeed.
Also, nice opposition between the shit in the first line and the shite in the last line. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – The Last Time I Saw Richard Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Coming at the end of "Blue", which tells an up-and-down story of love and loss, I think this song, which doesn't seem to fit into that same story, but clearly reflects the themes of the album perfectly - love is cyclical, and romantics will always find and lose it. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Roses Blue Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Some magnificent lyrics - the obvious pattern being that the final line of each verse provides the first words of the next, leading in a circle back to the first verse. And of course that's reflected in the first/last verse itself, which similarly moves in a "free association" way. Very clever, but not for its own sake - it feels natural and doesn't impede the story of the song. |
submissions
| Joni Mitchell – Songs To Aging Children Come Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Appropriate that, writing about how being creative means finding inspiration, and how finding inspiration means being open to it (innocent/naive - an aging child), Joni writes some of the most beautiful and complex harmonies of her career. |
submissions
| Ben Folds – Rockin' The Suburbs Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Far from it being a bad song, I think musically this is further evidence of Ben Folds' genius. As well as satirising the style of music (heavy, guitar driven) and lyrics (white-boy angst, cussing), he also makes fun of the poor musical quality of the songs.
Unlike Ben Folds' usual writing (see the rest of the album for evidence), the entire song is written using just three chords (C, D, F). By changing the order and speed of them, he creates so much variety - probably more than most of the songs he imitates. Someone who has learned the guitar tabs, back me up?
And if you've ever tried singing this to yourself, you may also have realised that for most of the song, there are only three notes used in the melody: mi, re and do, if you're so inclined (again, very un-Folds like). The only exceptions are in the chorus: "just" in "just like Quiet Riot did" (and similar lines) gets its own note, and "all" from "all my shitty tracks" gets a new note.
Three chords, five notes - satirical gold. |
submissions
| Rage Against the Machine – No Shelter Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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To nitpick - Roland Emmerich directed Godzilla, not Spielberg. But I love the way that a song that lays into the entire entertainment industry makes it on to a film soundtrack - particularly with that throw-away line damning the very movie it is tied to.
I also like the pun in "Spielberg, the nightmare works, so push it far [hard?]" - Spielberg's production company being "Dreamworks". This track has some of the best lyric writing ever. |
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