| Elvis Costello – Senior Service Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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Are these merely the lyrics Costello submitted for the lyric sheet? I want your neck I want the seat that you sit at I want your check Because they told me I would get on If so, he was particularly clever getting past Standards and Practices (or whatever the censor at a major record label is called). ‘Cause it sounds more as if he’s singing: I want your dick [...] I want your chick Not as if it isn’t clear enough, either way: all this is about more than wanting to get it up higher on the company ladder. |
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| Unrest – I Do Believe That You Are Blushing Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Hey, it's an Internet forum: where the illusion of anonymity encourages increasing depths of personal ridicule. So much more fulfilling than discussing, uh, I dunno...song meanings? |
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| The Smiths – Suffer Little Children Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| i tHINK mIRTHLESS, wITLESS aTTEMPTS aT hUMOR aRE mUCH mORE eNTERTAINING iN aLL cAPS. yA mORANS | |
| Yo La Tengo – Barnaby, Hardly Working Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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actually that story is "bartleby the scrivener", not barnaby. although i can understand the association: given the similar-sounding names, and the "not working" theme. melville wrote about the guy who refuses to do anything at his job, and always says "i prefer not to." (and very little else) a very funny story, in its grim way. a role crispin glover was born to play. i have a feeling the title is a jerry lewis reference. i may be totally offbase on that--not being into his films, i really have no idea--but one of them was called "hardly working" |
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| Yo La Tengo – Drug Test Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| a downer? i don't see it that way. on the surface, it would seem to be a bummer, this accurate evocation of the feeling we've all had: "everything sucks today...might as well get myself fucked up." but all this is redeemed by its hilarity (especially the title) | |
| The Magnetic Fields – The Desperate Things You Made Me Do Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| yeah judah...i never quite got it before. "i will be the chair you kick away" has so many layers of meaning, it's astounding. i won't elaborate...that would somehow spoil it | |
| The Smiths – Rusholme Ruffians Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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A rather straightforward, slice-of-life narrative from Morrissey here. One line sums it up: "Someone falls in love/and someone's beaten up/and the senses being dulled are mine" Which incidentally must be the most delayed rhyme I can think of in any pop song, "mine" going all the way back to "dulling wine" In a way, this feels--to me--all of a piece with "How Soon is Now?" Steven--when he still called himself that--is watching other people fall in love, but it's not happening for him. Going to funfairs (or clubs) hoping to meet someone. At this age he hasn't yet given up on love, but given time he looks at the world and decides the balance leans toward cruelty instead, all too often. No, there is not "something horribly wrong with" you, Morrissey...it's merely that your eyes are too keen. |
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| Guided by Voices – Hot Freaks Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| oops, "liquor in the front" i mean | |
| Guided by Voices – Hot Freaks Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"liquor" appears on the lyric sheet but the ambiguity is almost certainly intentional there's an old joke, often in the form of a sign on the wall of a tavern: "liquor in the back, poker in the rear" |
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| Mission of Burma – That's When I Reach For My Revolver Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"mother/father" stanza illuminates the process of socialization--that tug of opposing forces--in a concise way. "the spirit fights to find its way," as animus & anima struggle within oneself. roger miller knows his jung, or has at least absorbed elements of that worldview. also bergman? (cries and whispers) an cunning master learns how to enslave without resorting to (overt) brute force. in a more insidious form of bondage, the slaves unwittingly collaborate in subjugating themselves. so long as they believe they are free, they have no reason to resist or escape. not even william blake could entirely slip free from the "mind-forged manacles". I always thought the friend wanted to "sign his name" inside the giant castle, but maybe I heard it wrong. |
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| The Cure – Killing an Arab Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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if camus hadn't been born in algeria, then the character mersault probably would have killed someone else. the fact that the murdered man is an arab is completely irrelevant to the story (and song) he is referred to only as "the arab" because an extreme lack of emotion and personality is in keeping with this work of fiction and its themes. my general impression anyway. i haven't read l'etranger for about 25 years. |
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| Elliott Smith – Waltz #2 Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"You're No Good" as sung by Ronstadt is the only version I've heard. It was written by Clint Ballard Jr. and originally performed by Betty Everett and Dee Dee Warwick. I don't know much about Elliott's life. This is not going to be my opinion of what he intended to say. It's my personal reaction: how Waltz #2 makes me feel, when I hear it. Dad can't deal with feelings; if you try to talk about something important, he shuts you down or goes away (or hangs up the phone). He supported Mom by being very strong and stable, clear-headed in a crisis, a good provider. But they never could talk with each other. My mother and I have always been close. I've been her confidant since I was a little boy. It felt good, that she didn't treat me like a stupid kid... Sometimes it was a burden. She depended on me too much. People tell me this, and they use words like "emotional incest". OK, I know it was too much for a kid to handle. I didn't need someone crying on my shoulder; I needed a mother. But Mom was my refuge: the best thing I had. I was bullied by my father and my big brother. They terrified me, and I never felt safe. I used to walk outside, alone for hours...just to get some peace. Not that I realized any of this until later. All my life, this was how things were; how could I know anything was wrong? At age 11 I began to think about suicide. I still do. But now I know what depression is. I didn't seek treatment until 20 years after it started. Whatever you might say, Mom helped me too. She listened to me, and understood. (Though most of the worse things, I hid them from her. I was sure it was my fault.) She wanted to be more affectionate with me. I would have liked that. But my father made her hold back...I think it started when I was three. He thought if she touched me, I'd be weak. I don't think it was right. It doesn't matter, I'm weak anyway. A few years ago my mother had a stroke. She seemed OK. Later, dementia set in. She understands you, and (I think) she often knows what she wants to say. But she can't form a sentence. Her speech is empty. Because of the bond we'd had, I could understand her. She came close enough to what she wanted to say, and I filled in the rest. For awhile, I was her translator... She's much worse now. We can't talk anymore. I still phone her because she wants to hear my voice. I never act as if there's a problem. Before it got this bad, she whispered I was the only one left who doesn't think she's crazy. So I don't say anything about the brain damage. It would be cruel. We can still be close, when we can touch each other. At first she was surprised, but I can tell she wanted this for a long time. (But I can't go where she lives now; I get more sick when I travel. She must wonder why I'm almost always gone.) Dad says I help her feel better. But then he gets angry when she and I touch. He taught me to be afraid of being touched, and (most of all) afraid to touch anyone. Finally, a friend helped me overcome the fear. Dad was satisfied when he could see he still had power over me, as if I was still a child. Now that I'm growing out of his control, he doesn't like it. Even though he says it's pathetic I'm not an independent adult. Make up your mind, what the fuck do you want?? Last week I had that old song going through my head for two days: "You're no good, you're no good..." Nothing would make it go away; I was feeling desperate XO Mom. I'm never going to know you now but I'm going to love you anyhow |
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| Elliott Smith – Sweet Adeline Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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everyone has come up with many thoughtful (and divergent) interpretations of the first verse. when people want to forget a traumatic period of their life, burning photos--or cutting certain faces/people out of the photos--are common images for trying to rewrite one's memories, one's "history". i think elliot is trying to decontruct that imagery. "cut this picture into you and me" is paradoxical. with this sort of image, cutting usually means to remove. but what does he mean, by following this with "into you and me"? typically you cut "apart", not "into" (a photo, anyway) he suggests that by cutting, he wants is to reintegrate something (not separate it). similarly: if burning is destructive, what would it mean to "burn it backwards"? perhaps he wants to reverse the process of memories being lost or revised. if he fails in this effort, the past will be viewed through the lens of hate, not love. sometimes we cling to memories even if they're painful, because losing them would be worse. just the other day i was thinking about how we forget things, but it's a process beyond conscious control. you can never choose which memories you might want to forget. "spare some sunshine" could be a reference to heroin, given the context. "old man winter's in the air": opiates tend make you feel warm, which would be important to someone who may wind up living on the street. also, if you're already addicted--and you're sick, because you can't get your fix--you feel so intensely cold inside that nothing seems to help. probably not about alcohol. elliot refers to these words being spoken by a "kid". late-stage alcoholics tend to be older. heroin addicts are often younger (because it takes less time to hit bottom, and because many junkies don't live very long). OTOH the phrase "brother can you spare" is deliberately old-fashioned, and elliot may have intended to evoke images of depression-era hoboes. i don't mean to be judgemental; i'm an addict. though i have a lot of health problems & therefore get my drugs from the medical system...a blessing, because it's the junkie lifestyle that kills you, not the drugs i never thought of "fully loaded" referring to a gun; i assumed it meant drunk or high. but the ambiguity may be intentional. |
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| Matthew Sweet – Knowing People Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Ironic that Matthew Sweet--known primarily for writing sweet, pretty love songs--let loose this bilious tirade. Perhaps it's because it runs counter to Sweet's image that this song seems especially misanthropic and self-hating. (I assume "Sweet" is a pen name; if not, it's an odd coincidence). Much of Altered Beast has this dichotomy between catchy melodies and dark lyrics (the very-explicit suicide note "I Need Someone to Pull the Trigger" for example), but "Knowing People" stands out as one of the most bitter sentiments I've heard, from anyone. My impression is that--when Sweet vents his disgust, with lines such as, "Your desperate dreams are pathetic"--it's deliberately ambiguous whether he's referring to someone else, or to himself. Themes of self-hatred and self-disgust are prominent, also, in "The Devil With The Green Eyes". A contemporary Sweet song, "Superdeformed", was left off the album--perhaps because these two songs are so similar, it seemed redundant. ("Superdeformed" appears only on the No Alternative compilation, probably best known for its uncredited Nirvana track) I have severe problems with anxiety, depression and agoraphobia -- so the chorus hits uncomfortably close to home. |
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| Peter Gabriel – Digging In The Dirt Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It reminded me of talking to a shrink, also! I think the song gains more meaning if you assume that the verses beginning "This time you've gone too far" and ending "Don't turn around/This is for real" are being said not by the protagonist to someone else, but to himself. In particular, "Just drive the car" and "I know what you are" seem self-accusatory. "The places I got hurt" refers to painful memories, probably from childhood. "I feel it in my sex" is an intriguing line. "Sex" in this context is usually a euphemism for the male organ. The lyric suggests that powerful emotions cause the protagonist to have an erection. |
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