| Modest Mouse – Black Cadillacs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Excuse me - Not "A Different City - I meant "The World at Large." I was listening to "A Different City" when I wrote that... | |
| Nick Drake – Cello Song Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Perhaps I am being too obvious, but I always thought this song was about someone who died young. | |
| Modest Mouse – Black Cadillacs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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To me, the background of this song is a serious argument between two people and an analysis of one of the primary sources of the conflict: restlessness caused by their mutual small-mindedness. The people in the argument think highly of themselves but have never done anything or been anywhere. They named their children after towns they have never been to and laughed at the stars while their feet clung tight to the ground. The death imagery suggests that they are not really living life even while they are alive. They are standing around waiting to die like hovering hearses. “A Different City” also touches on this suffocating sense of suburban myopia. “You were so all over town but still Crayola brown” may refer to the phrase “to paint the town red.” Although the person is thinks he/she is doing exciting things (painting the town red), he/she is in fact doing nothing and going nowhere. Still, I think twougly people also has an interesting interpretation about the double meaning of stars. |
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| Modest Mouse – Bukowski Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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You all have made some interesting insights, but I think it is interesting that no one has commented directly on the line “Well, I want a better place/Or just a better way to fall.” To me, “a better place” may refer to an afterlife and “a better way to fall” refers to a better way to die. Brock may be suggesting that he wishes an afterlife existed but does not believe that it does. The stuff about God being an “Indian –giver” is evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, or else life wouldn’t be so difficult. Connect this with two lines from “Ocean Breathes Salty.” “Maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll both live again/ Well I don’t know/ I don’t know/ I don’t know. Don’t think so. “ and “The earth folded in on itself/ and said "Good luck, for your sake I hope Heaven and Hell/ Are really there, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.” To me the song, as well as the sentiment expressed in the rest of “Good News…” is more agnostic than atheistic. I agree with the person who suggested “Bukowski” might be a dialogue. In fact, I think the whole album can be viewed as a meditation about religion and what kind of life man should live. Charles Bukowski represents one way of living: for the now, for yourself, etc. A religious life (or at the very least, a more selfless one) is the other alternative. Brock is leaning toward the Bukowski way of life, but he still isn’t quite sure – after all, “who would want to be such an asshole?” In addition, you may look at “The World at Large” to find Brock contemplating about what kind of life to lead. It is connected to “Bukowski” closely by the line “I like songs about drifters-books about the same/ They both seem to make me feel a little less insane.” Brock isn’t sure which direction to go – that is why he is “floating on.” |
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