| The Tragically Hip – It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The first five lines strike me as a song for performing musicians, particularly while choking onstage. Sometimes, all the practice you put into something simply puffs away the moment you're in the spotlight before a "forest of whispering speakers". I especially like this phrase for the double entendre it presents: it can mean both audio speakers and critics in the audience. When you're screwing up on stage all your past mistakes come flooding back--all the way to hockey practice as a kid. All you have left are your "improvisational skills". | |
| The Tragically Hip – Yer Not the Ocean Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Looks like we have some pretty unacquainted listeners here, which is awesome. "The lyrics are ambiguous, and the music video is just as bad" -Welcome to Gord Downie's writing style... this one is a easy analysis in comparison to a lot of them. It seems to be literally decipherable (it actually is just about a lake) but metaphorically is much more interesting. "You're not coming in" refers to the tides etc. Also, the Great Lakes all look like oceans and you've got to regularly remind yourself that the are in fact lakes. Metaphorically it does seem to be about a friendship/relationship, but I think the most telling line is "you're up to my chin" near the end. It contrasts with "you're up to my toes." This suggests he's underestimated the impact of this person. It turns the entire song into a possible denial of this person's effect on the narrator. Perhaps he/she isn't the ocean, but their effect is suddenly close to smothering. And yeah he can sound obnoxious sometimes, but I call it dynamic. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Fully Completely Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Looks like no one will read this for 2 years, but here goes nothing: What I find stands out in this song lyrics is the prominent stress of the contradictory schism between logic and emotion that is so tightly associated with many facets of life. First off, he says "Bring me back in shackles,/Hang me long out in the sun/Exonerate me/Forget about me." So, free me from guilt but punish me to death anyways? That doesn't make sense, but it's something that happens in relationships all the time. You outwardly take no blame, but you still pay dearly. The logical/emotional split is in the following line as well: "I recommend measures for ending it" is a pragmatic, thought out approach for breaking it off, which is met by an enraged emotional response with threat of dire emotional repercussions. Had emotion been removed from the mix, everything would have gone smoothly. The following lines can fall in place as well adhering to the same theme (though I feel a little shakier here as I don't know specifics about Downie's father, and you can never be sure if he's singing as himself or as a character). He strays from romantic relationships, but sticks to the split. I think he's talking about death, and the logical denial of an afterlife ("ignoring said same [endlessness] of my father"). Endlessness of stars--if not technically true--is a lot easier to grasp than that of a philosophical afterlife. Also, especially younger in life, the death of a parent is impossible to imagine. I think the dilemma is summed up in the last two lines: "Either it'll move me": emotion. "Or it'll move right through me": logic. |
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| Modest Mouse – Black Cadillacs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned the whole death factor. The majority of this album (Black Cadillacs, Dig Your Grave, the Devil's Work Day, Satin in a Coffin, Bury Me With It... catching a trend here?) is about the death of someone close to Isaac, though not necessarily loved. There are interviews specifiying this. This is not about a romantic breakup. This is a death; didn't anyone nostice all the funeral imagery? It's in the title. Isaac flat-out states that "I didn't die and I ain't complaining, I ain't blaming you," as in: one of us died, and it wasn't me; it was you. The identity of whose death inspired so much of the (brilliant) lyricism within this album hasn't been made public, but I suspect it's his mother (though I haven't found the proof yet.... just go with me here). Isaac's mom dragged him all over the country in fanatical religious sects as a child and forced him to live in 1) an abandoned, flooded house (until he was evicted) and 2) a shed. You're supposed to love your mom, but it sure would be hard under these circumstances, and the bitterness shines through in this song/album. I don't think the "we named our children after towns we'd never been to" line actually applies to Isaac naming his own children, as he has none, but more of a reflection on ignorant parenting (also reflecting the numerous different towns Isaac grew up in) which his mother seems to have been a pro at. This would exemplify the line "I didn't know that the words you said to me meant more to me than they ever did you," which is a pretty standard flaw in fanatical Christian hypocrisy. Isaac's a fantastic lyricist, and you've got to dig deeper than love/breakup songs. He rarely sings about that stuff, it's too cliche. What makes this album so fantastic is the honest complexity in which he is dealing with the death of someone, mother or not, who he did not know if he loved or hated. It's neither straight-up grief nor relief, and that's much more real than anything most people ever write about. |
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