| Imogen Heap – The Walk Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Love this song! For me, it's about the singer falling in love with someone when she's not "supposed" to. Maybe one or both of them are in relationships already. They meet, not planning to have feelings for each other. But she starts developing feelings for him. He flirts with her (maybe harmlessly), but to her, this is dangerous because it just makes her want to cave in and get into a relationship with him. She just wants to give in to her infatuation and not think about the consequences. That giddy, exhilarating feeling you get when you first fall in love or become infatuated with someone is captured very well in this song. The singer has JUST fallen head over heels for this person, things have not really progressed yet, and everything is still at that stage of "what-if." Maybe it's called "The Walk" because these two developed feelings for each other during a walk. Or maybe the singer is reminiscing about her feelings during a solitary walk. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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To me, this is about a breakup (the singer gets dumped), and the singer's still upset/bewildered about how and why it happened. She looks around her at the physical world and it just seems alien and sad to her without the other person. "Oily marks" on the walls where "pleasured moments" hung -- they're pictures of the two together in happier times, now taken down. The person who broke up with her is probably telling her that it's for the best, that the breakup was for her own good, etc, etc. To the singer, it just feels so condescending, so wordy with no emotion. She realizes that the other person just doesn't care anymore about her, that all these words are probably for his own benefit. |
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| Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Revenge Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think this is pretty straightforward. Hurting someone you love for revenge is like hurting yourself. Here's my interpretation. First verse: the singer's lover cheated on him then dumped him for another guy. He's miserable and resentful, and in his mind, he fantasizes about hurting his ex. But then he realizes it hurts him that he's thinking about these terrible things because he still cares for her. Second verse: he can't bear to actually go out and cause harm to his ex and the guy she cheated on him with, because he still loves her. Thus, evil (the cheating) wins. Chorus: all this resentment is just bubbling up and consuming him. What a sad song. I'm used to Wayne Coyne singing uplifting songs about pink robots and stuff, and this is just really depressing. |
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| The Flaming Lips – Waitin' for a Superman Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Listening to this song in 2009 -- it really reminds me of Obama. When he got elected, he was heralded as the end-all to all problems -- practically the USS's Superman. But right now the economy is still horrible and the general national sentiment is still "heavy." Some people are providing a violent backlash -- why can't you fix everything, Obama? You don't care about us! You're abandoning us! But maybe the problems are just too big for "Superman" to take care of. It doesn't mean people should give up. People should still hold on, but realize that not one person is going to solve everything. | |
| The Flaming Lips – Fight Test Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think this song is about looking back in regret for not taking a stand and fighting for something the singer should have fought for. Before, the singer thought it was "right" to back down. Maybe he was too intimidated to fight, or he thought it was taking the upper ground to step aside. But at the same time, while he regrets his decision because he lost whatever it was he wanted, he still doesn't know what would have been the correct thing to do under the circumstances. For any major decision in our lives -- how do we ever know what is the "correct" thing to do? Should we back down (and risk losing) or should we fight (and risk getting hurt)? |
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| The Flaming Lips – Can't Get You Out of My Head (Kylie Minogue cover) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| It's about Wayne Coyne being in love with a boy who is all he ever thinks about. ;) | |
| The Flaming Lips – Spongebob and Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I LOVE this song! I think it's incredibly profound, but of course it doesn't seem that way because it's a Spongebob song. My interpretation -- "Patrick, you see I'm growing a mustache And though I know I must ask you Does it really make me look like a man?" Spongebob wants to know if growing a mustache (LOOKING like a grown-up) will really make him BE a grown-up. "Spongebob, being a manager's a tough job I hope you're picked You'll be the best sponge boss they've had Working like a dog at the Krusty Krab" Patrick answers that being a man(ager) -- being a real adult with responsibilities -- is tough. It's so much more than just looking the part. In the TV show, Spongebob LOVES working at the Krusty Krab. He does his job because he loves it, not because he wants money or power. Interesting side note -- Wayne Coyne worked at a fast food joint for 12 years before the Lips. I interpret this line to mean that you have to love what you're doing with your life and work with zeal at it (no matter what your personal "Krusty Krab" might be). That kind of living is what it means to be a real adult. "Now wait a minute I think we hit a wall I think we hit a psychic wall" Psychic wall -- mental block. "Maybe we're just young And we won't know until we're old Too young to free ourselves from this lonely fishbowl" I take these lines to mean that life can be tough. We might hate our jobs, have troubles with loved ones, get into conflicts with friends. Life can be lonely and when we suffer, we suffer alone. But maybe, the song is saying, we're still too young to know all the answers as to why life can be so unfair. It's only when we're "old" (but then again when do we ever consider ourselves "old"?) that we can find the answers. I take this line to mean that maybe we'll ALWAYS be too young to know the exact answers to life and why life can be crappy and lonely sometimes. "Some kind of wall Some kind of psychic wall Some kind of wall Some kind of psychic wall we can't get above" We don't know everything. We will never know everything. We will never have everything we want. I take the "psychic wall" to mean the inability to enjoy life for what it is. "Come on, let's find a way to be happy Not like Plankton He'll never be satisfied Always complaining about his life To his computer wife You'd think he would have found by now To be thought of as a king You don't need a crown" Now the song's saying, screw it. Instead of dwelling needlessly on life's miseries and demanding answers, we should just try to be happy. You'll never be happy complaining all the time and being dissatisfied with what you're missing. To be a king, you don't need loads of money or recognition, you just need to be like Spongebob who loves his "lowly" job as a fry cook, works hard, has fun, stays positive, and savors every moment of his life. :) |
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| The Roots – Baby Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I can't stop listening to this song. It's so melancholy... | |
| Morrissey – You Know I Couldn't Last Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| "You know I couldn't last." One of the phrases in the death note left by Candy Darling for Andy Warhol. | |
| Antony and the Johnsons – The Lake Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I must like this song VERY much, seeing that I'm back. LoL. My interpretation of the poem: When the narrator was young and naive, he would go looking for very inspirational and beautiful places. He finda a secluded lake. And in his poetic frenzy he declares it to be absolutely fucking beautiful. He glorifies its loneliness and the beauty of loneliness. But then night falls and suddenly, being there alone, the darkness and loneliness is no longer so "cool" anymore, and he gets freaked out by REAL loneliness and terror and depression. He thinks about beauty, and he thinks about death. He looks into the black water and thinks that if he jumped in and drowned, it would put a silence to all of the terrible thoughts in his head. Death here, he thinks, would be a great place for that naive man who actually foolishly thought that this place was an Eden. I think it's from the perspective of an older and wiser man, looking back on his younger self. Obviously, my interpretation sucks away ever drop beauty from this poem. | |
| David Bowie – She'll Drive the Big Car Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| GASP so she DID drive into the river! My gut instinct was in tune with Bowie's, oh yay! | |
| David Bowie – I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"I shot my spacegun And boy, I really felt blue" He jacked off and he still felt sad because he missed her. :-( Or maybe I'm just dirrty. |
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| David Bowie – Algeria Touchshriek Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I love his name. Touchshriek. Like, you touch him and he'll shriek. So sad. "Watching the young advance all electric." What a beautiful description of youth, from the viewpoint of a tired old man who was left behind. | |
| Darren Hayes – Maybe Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think this song is about suicide. Someone (the speaker's friend?) has committed suicide, a wonderful person who never truly fit in with the world. The speaker is wishing him/her a much better time in the hereafter. Anyway, it's such a beautiful song, and it's helped me through some rough times when several people I knew took their own lives. | |
| Massive Attack – Protection Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Yup, it's Tracey Thorn. At first I thought this song was about romantic love, but after reading some of the comments here, y'all are right, this song is about all sorts of love. Romantic, parent-child, friendship. About sticking up for someone, protecting them and making them stronger, but also accepting them for who they are, flaws and all. |
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| Massive Attack – Butterfly Caught Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Well, I see this song in the context of the video. (Mostly because I can't really understand 3D's mumbling. But oh what sexy mumbling it is... moving on...) I think the song's about depression and self-loathing, and how it could eat away at your being. 3D's in this stark urban room with a moth, and his skin is gradually taking on the moth's patterns, while the moth slowly becomes more and more debilitated. I think this means he's drawing out the negative energy from the moth and taking on the negative energy. He's making a small problem (the moth) very big, by letting it take over. He is consumed by his inner fears, depression, doubts, ugliness, until it completely covers him. | |
| Massive Attack – Hymn Of The Big Wheel Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I love the positivity of this song. (Yeah, I know right? Positivity? Massive Attack? LoL.) But to me, it basically means: the world sucks and is totally unfair. But fuck it -- let's enjoy our lives and look at what beauty there is, because life is going to go on. | |
| Massive Attack – Home Of The Whale Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Massive Attack and Caroline Lavelle! I ADORE this song. The meaning is pretty straightforward, I think. Sung from the perspective of a wife whose husband is a whaler who is hunting a sperm whale. (The elusive white whale!) He's away for months on end. She's depressed about it. He never returns, presumably because he dies at sea (thus, sleeping without a headstone). I believe the correct 3rd stanza is: All ye ladies that smell of wild rose Think you for your perfume of where a man goes Think you of the wives and the babies that yearn For the man ne'er returns sleeping without a stone (Or that might be from another version of the song.) |
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| Massive Attack – Aftersun Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| It's terrible this beautiful song wasn't ever officially released... but Dot Allison and MA have put it (legally) up on Dot's official site for download! http://www.dotallison.com/media/index.html Horray! | |
| Massive Attack – Inertia Creeps Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I know I'm in the minority, but I never really liked this song on the album. But I LOVE the more urgent and organic live version that they did for MTV Club Chill (back when MTV still played music). One good thing about this song: at least she comes!! Nice to see 3D's paying attention to his partner... even though they're in a destructive relationship. ^__^ | |
| Massive Attack – Mezzanine Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think 3D wanted a pun on "flaws" and "floors." Or if he didn't, then I DO, so THERE. ;-) The correct lyrics should be "all these other floors / will lead to mine." But I like to think of it as saying all these other FLAWS will lead to mine, because it's more sinister that way. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song resonates with me greatly. (I guess I can say I identify with him.) That constant spring of hope and imagination in it is what makes this song so beautiful and sad. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Grendel's Mother Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Every time I encounter Beowulf I think about this song. It pretty much defines the poem for me. I love this simple, beautiful, and tragic interpretation of Grendel's mother. | |
| Antony and the Johnsons – The Lake Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I agree with Precipitate. Possibly one of the most beautiful songs I've heard. It's such an effective juxtoposition of the old and the new. A perfect combination of lyric, voice, and music. Simply sublime! (And Poe pretty much defines the sublime right in the middle of his poem, lol.) | |
| Antony and the Johnsons – Fistful of Love Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I like the domestic abuse interpretations. To me, I always thought of a gay relationship. One of them is in the closet and cannot tell the other that he loves him. So he takes expresses his frustration and aggression through violence. Wow, I just love this song so much. | |
| Shudder to Think – The Ballad Of Maxwell Demon Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| it really is. but it makes no sense to my feeble mind! haha. | |
| David Bowie – Teenage Wildlife Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| this is a really metaphorical song, and thanks guys for clearing up some of it. for me, the chorus is just so defiant. he's not just some regular teenage trash caught in the machinery, dammit! i think about this song whenever the world gets me down, haha. | |
| David Bowie – Within You Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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i feel that jareth represents sarah's fantasy life. but at this moment he sings this song sarah is growing up and not just living in her fantasy world anymore, so she's "starving and exhausting" him. he says that everything he's done it's for her, because he is her fantasy and her imagination, and he'll work for no one else but her. but because he's only in her mind, he can "move the stars for no one" -- he can't actually make things happen. at last he realises that sarah has grown up and that he, the fantasy, can't live inside of her. sad. he can live inside of me! haha. |
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| David Bowie – Fall Dog Bombs the Moon Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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on bowie.com he called bush an "poor shrunked ill prepared sourpuss." hee hee. i love how creatively he insults people. before this song never meant much to me because i didn't understand it and thought it was something weird about a dog, but thanks, guys, for adding meaning! |
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| David Bowie – Never Get Old Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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your interps all make a lot of sense and will change the way i listen to this song! i just always thought that he didn't wanna get old, lol. just now it occurred to me: does bowie mean that his status as a rock icon, as bowie the icon and not as david jones the man, will never get old? like, it'll always be hip and in style to listen to bowie. unlike, i don't know, legwarmers and big hair, the essense bowieness will never die and get old. |
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| David Bowie – Looking for Water Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| i think bowie once said that this song was actually about looking for oil. | |
| David Bowie – She'll Drive the Big Car Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| for some reason, i always thought that the woman drowned herself by driving into the river. but now that i actually read the lyrics... maybe not. maybe she just drove off with her kids to escape her hubby. | |
| David Bowie – Soul Love Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| so much loneliness in this song! i love the first verse. the son probably went to war for a politician's cause ("slogan" or maybe a pun on slow gun?) and now this "slogan" cause is the gun that's separating a mother and her son. | |
| David Bowie – As the World Falls Down Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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what does this song mean to me? everything, haha. seriously, one of my fave songs ever, belonging to one of my favourite movies ever. the interpretations of this song and the movie on here are excellent. i'm just gonna throw in my own two cents. anyway, i feel that the labyrinth is an allegory (a metaphor? allegory? don't know the word) for fantasy and the imagination. and jareth is the ultimate representation of that. sarah is so consumed in her fantasy life that she's beginning to miss out on her real life and that she's placing fantasy over real life (as represented when the baby gets taken away). thankfully, she realises that this is not okay, so she goes to confront her fantasy and to put it in its place, so to speak. the existence of imagination and fantasy tries to tempt her with this song. jareth sings that the real world has disillusioned her ("sad love," "fooled heart") but he can literally give her the moon and sky and paint her mornings of gold and so forth, because he is her imagination and her fantasy so he can make anything happen. even when the real world "falls down" around her, her fantasy world will always "be there" for her. but finally, sarah realises she can't be ruled by her fantasy life, so she goes to confront it. jareth (fantasy) tells her that she can have anything she wants... as long as she neglects her real world and gets consumed into her imagination so fully that she can imagine anything, and it will be hers (in her mind, of course). and jareth will be the slave to her desires. but then sarah realises that fantasies will not actually make anything real happen, and cannot dictate her life, so she says that he has no power over her. then the fantasy bubble bursts. but at the end she says she needs some aspect of her fantasy and imagination now and again to pull her through... but just the happy helpful aspects like hoggle. so they partay. if i were her, i'd still have chosen jareth, haha. |
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| David Bowie – Loving the Alien Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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i totally agree with what bonehead said. i first heard this song a while after 9/11, when the wars were starting, and it was like this song hit the sentiments spot on. here's my interpretation. it deals with the problems in the middle east involving christians and muslims ("templars and sacacens"), but as bonehead said, can extend to all religions. people think that prayers will take away all sins. but blind devotion (not just faith, but blind, unthinking devotion) will hide the real problems ("hide the saddest view"), and it will clash and cause wars ("break the sky in two"). but ultimately, do you really know what you're worshipping and believing in ("loving the alien") or are you just excessively worshipping ("until the break of dawn") without question and without thought? |
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| David Bowie – Days Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| where lesser musicians would write something along the lines of "oh my god, i'm crying so much for you and i have to come to see you!" bowie write "in red-eyed pain i'm knocking on your door again..." i absolutely love that line! so subtle, yet so powerful. | |
| David Bowie – Everyone Says 'Hi' Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| i love how bowie takes topics like death and couches them in unconventional settings (like a pop tune). but it works, because there's this wistful well-wishing for the departed person in the song. it's one of the most bittersweet songs i've heard. one question: is the "guy upstairs" god? haha. | |
| David Bowie – Strangers When We Meet Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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this is one of my favorite bowie songs. it has so much yearning, sadness, love, hope... anyway, a couple of years ago i read some alternative interpretations of this song on a bowie board, and they just stuck with me, because they fit very well. one interp was that the lover that bowie is singing to has aids or alzheimer's or some other kind of terminal illness. the illness makes her drastically different physically and mentally ("thin and frail," "strangers when we meet"). she's dying, but she's not dead yet, so of course he "can't move on." her mind is getting weaker by the disease, and she "forgets his name." he's feeling conflicted by this disease, at once angry ("all my violence"), "bewildered," and "resentful." sometimes he just wishes to forget her and be "over her," and her "embrace was all that he feared" because he is afraid of becoming ill just like her. but at last he reconciles his love for her, and continues to love her, despite the bruises he has sustained emotionally, and he's ultimately thankful that she's still alive. i just thought this was a fascinating interpretation that really, really works. |
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| Antony and the Johnsons – You Are My Sister Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| i agree w/ all of you. a near perfect song to describe the love toward a friend or a sibling. but when i heard it i also interpreted that maybe the sister could be the feminine aspect of antony that he both loves and struggles with? i don't think it was written with this in mind, but the song, for me, works with this interpretation as well as the real sister/friend one. | |
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