| Coldplay – Atlas Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
Perhaps it's possible to interpret the lyrics here as alluding to the age of terrorism we're in right now. "I'm about to explode" immediately brings to mind the suicide bomber. If we look at the song through these lens, then the song becomes one that remind us that people fight for different reasons, but it's always one in which they the "I' carries the weight of the world upon himself/herself, so that the "we" doesn't have to explode. What the song is saying then, perhaps, is that there is little difference between whether these matyrs "heard the gun" or "bent the bow". "Sometimes, the wire MUST tense for the note", and the those who sacrifice themselves for others can only hope that heaven awaits them "just up the road". Maybe the age of terrorism facing us now is a symptom that tells us that something flawed the way our world is arranged right now. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
Each person's interpretation or rejection of interpretations of a song tells you more about them then it does about the song/songwriter. Sufjan has chosen to not tell us what the lyric means to him (no, his story about being terrorized with a wasp doesn't even come close to to an _interpretation_ of the song), so people who think they are can interpret the song objectively are wrong. Case in point: Why are some people so desperate to deny the _possibility_ that the narrator could be male? What can we say about them? What about other people? In any case, I offer one hypothesis/interpretation of the song which I know is farfetched but yet I believe to be still possible. My interpretation purposely combines the many points made by different people, and my intention is to remind everyone that we are doing song interpretation, not philosophy. ---------------------------- Sufjan is a folk singer, so as a folk singer typically does, he is singing the song from another person's perspective. That person, in this particular song, was his best friend - a boy whom he went to on a summer camp with. They're no longer best friends anymore. Why? Because that boy kissed him, and Sufjan ran away because well... he was Christian, and he knew what boys kissing boys was about. So he ran as if he was ambushed by a giant wasp (which is where his anecdote comes in, so fit it in as you will). In this song, which is essentially an ode to their friendship, he puts himself in his best friend's shoes and retells the story from his perspective. The decision highlights his own uncertainty of himself. Was his decision to run right or a mistake mistake? Was what they had love; what IS love? In a concert in Vermont(?), he tells the audience that that's why everyone is wearing wings: they're to help him overcome his fear of wasps. Perhaps that's why his songwriting is so often infused with what people have tended to read as homosexual undertones. ---------------------------- |
|
| The Byrds – My Back Pages Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This song was featured on Cold Case Season 4 Episode 10 "Forever Blue". | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| P.S. Either genders can wear leg warmers. And either genders can spar, wrestle and rage with a boy. And love is as universal as that. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
This must be my favorite track on the album, not just because it is so feel-good, but it is also the purest and the most honest song in the entire album. Before I continue, here's a link to the article I think does Sufjan Stevens most justice. http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0511/bertsch Whatever seems obvious to the rest, I feel that the song makes most sense if we imagine it to be about a boy being unabashful about his love for another boy. If Sufjan can write in the perspective of a girl, then he can just as well write in the perspective of a boy loving another boy. If you like the song and understand what makes it so beautiful, then you should have no reason to insist that the persona is a girl just because you think Sufjan Stevens wouldn't write about a boy loving a boy because he's Christian. I really like the paradox that the song creates. But either way, it doesn't prove anything about anyone's sexuality. Another thing I really like about this track is how it precedes the Zombies song and it uses the same technique for the voices not belonging to Sufjan Stevens. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.