submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Plastic Soldier Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I'll leave this as a stand-alone comment rather than as a reply to a previous comment:
"I don't really get a flippant "deal with it" vibe from this song. It feels kind of like he was in a relationship but has come to the realization that there's no future in it, a summer romance that has run its course, but she's not letting go. He doesn't want it to be that way but he kind find any sort of deeper connection with this girl (he'd "like to get deeper in" but can't even find the water in the first place)."
The reason I came back to it is that I hadn't said anything about the connection to this (the first song on the album) and Smile (the last song), which links back here and sort of comes full circle. Not just the "plastic soldiers slowly growing older" line but also the seasonal theme. In Plastic Soldiers the summer has ended, but in Smile it's just beginning. ("It seems like the spring has come and gone / It felt like forever / Wait 'til the summer comes / Then you'll find me there." It's like he's been waiting through the long fall, winter, and spring so that he can reconnect with this girl and get lost in the summer all over again. |
submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Plastic Soldier Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I dunno, I don't really get a flippant "deal with it" vibe from this song. It feels kind of like he was in a relationship but has come to the realization that there's no future in it, a summer romance that has run its course, but she's not letting go. He doesn't want it to be that way but he can't find any sort of deeper connection with this girl (he'd "like to get deeper in" but can't even find the water in the first place). |
submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Plastic Soldier Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I dunno, I don't really get a flippant "deal with it" vibe from this song. It feels kind of like he was in a relationship but has come to the realization that there's no future in it, a summer romance that has run its course, but she's not letting go. He doesn't want it to be that way but he kind find any sort of deeper connection with this girl (he'd "like to get deeper in" but can't even find the water in the first place). |
submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Waves Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Yeah, the more I hear it, the more I think it's probably aimed at politicians specifically than the isolationist feelings in the population as a whole, especially given the clear anti-war sentiments. Lines about military budgets and money support that since the politicians are the ones in charge of that sort of thing.
The government "at the bottom of the ocean" doesn't feel the waves that are at the surface (the war occurring on the other side of the world). Intellectually they know the "waves" are there but they don't really care because it's all distant to them, just numbers on a page, just statistics. It's not something they truly *feel*; the "Someone's gotta die and you don't have to love him" line references the many anonymous soldiers the leaders in Washington will never meet.
They forget that those numbers represent real human lives and that sending folks off to war rips people from their families. "All the pretty girls out there livin' with heartache / crying 'cause they're never gonna see their baby" makes me think of mothers, wives, girlfriends who say goodbye to their soldiers, some never to return. |
submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Waves Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Haha, I was just coming to post the same thing, although it could be a reference to the U.S. as a whole rather than politicians only. We still have some leftover isolationism from years past and it's easy not to feel too deeply about things going on half the world away when we're off in the western hemisphere living in our own little bubble. |
submissions
| Portugal. The Man – Creep in a T-Shirt Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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He has a girlfriend and a baby daughter, last I heard. He does sing something about "my daughter" in a song or two but that could easily be metaphorical. They're directly mentioned in this article from last year, though: http://www.adn.com/2012/01/21/2276590/portugal-the-man-singer-tends.html |
submissions
| fun. – The Gambler Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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If it were "dark," the "never feed them what is ours" line wouldn't make sense. He's chiding her for feeding the dogs some people food ;). |
submissions
| Under The Influence Of Giants – In the Clouds Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think cocteau30 is pretty spot-on in their assessment of this song, although I'm thinking that the line about being "in the clouds" is more about the great feeling, the ecstasy, you get from doing it that way. Almost thinking of it as a kind of high, or in the same sense as the old "being on Cloud Nine" expression. |
submissions
| Ratatat – Seventeen Years Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I always kinda assumed it was "take" because I didn't listen too closely, but now that I do, I think it *does* sound more like "kick." |
submissions
| Green Day – Give Me Novacaine Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Probably about two years late on noting this, but "Novacaine" isn't a misspelling; Novocain, Novocaine and Novacaine are all acceptable and correct spellings of the same drug. |
submissions
| The Format – I'm Ready, I Am Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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""I'm trying to find truth in words in rhymes and notes in all the things I wish I wrote." Yearbooks, etc., before you leave and head in separate directions."
Eh, I think he's pretty clearly referring to writing songs, as indicated by including "rhymes and notes." You could maybe apply it to a yearbook but I think this part is also too much of a stretch. |
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