| Tricky – Aftermath (Hip Hop Blues) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This is about a couple lying in bed post-coitus. He's thinking about the girl next to him, wondering if she's "the one," and he's going back and forth on the subject. On the one hand, he's telling her beautiful things about how she sees him like nobody else sees him, but on the other hand he keeps wondering, "how can I be sure?" The Blade Runner sample reveals that he's unsure if he's attracted to her for her or because he's subconsciously working out some kind of Freudian issue. | |
| Blink-182 – Asthenia Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Despite what Tom says in the liner notes, I think it's definitely open to interpretation nonetheless. My thought was that this is about someone who has been off of drugs for awhile, been in recovery, gotten himself into a stable relationship, etc. and then relapses. He's sitting in a cheap hotel room, high (which is why the "where are you Houston?" space metaphor works), wondering if he can ever go back to being sober again, arguing with himself about whether or not to go back home to the people who he's disappointed. | |
| R.E.M. – Catapult Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think this song is about him watching and being obsessed with TV shows as a kid--specifically the Andy Griffith Show (hence the Opie reference). The kids are being punished for staying up late to watch TV but do it anyway. | |
| Everclear – Volvo Driving Soccer Mom Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I feel like the point he's trying to make is that in order to fit in in suburbia you have to give up everything that's important to you--you have to be bland and boring. In a sense, you have to sell yourself--it's another form of prostitution (mental and spiritual rather than physical). | |
| Everclear – How to Win Friends and Influence People Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"People love to hurt you when you close your eyes"=most people close their eyes when they kiss, and if you kiss with your eyes open it supposedly means you're untrustworthy. Great song that shows how getting your heart broken affects your entire worldview. |
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| Everclear – Ataraxia (Media Intro) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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There's an ad for Ambien being shown on this page as I type this. I think my irony meter just broke. |
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| R.E.M. – Moral Kiosk Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I always heard this as the teaching in Christianity that a woman is more desirable and attractive if she is a virgin (inside the moral kiosk). This inevitably leads to scandal and ostracism when a woman turns out not to be, hence "scratch the scandals in the twilight." Along the same lines, possibly about accusations of witchcraft w/ "magic pillow under head" (esp. since witches were considered to be the embodiment of promiscuity). |
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| R.E.M. – Welcome To The Occupation Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I always heard this was about El Salvador--supposedly Stipe is on record saying so. -"hang your collar up inside"=possibly refers to the clerical collars worn by priests. The Liberation Theology movement within the Catholic Church claimed that the Church should support the Sandinistas and other resistance fighters in Central America (The Vatican officially disavowed this). -"primitive and wild"=the official insult of colonialism. Stipe is linking the current exploitation to the atrocities perpetrated by Cortes and the conquistadores. -"held and dyed and skinned alive"=the death squads' weapons of choice were machetes. -"Fire on the hemisphere below"=always reminded me of Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS in which the navy fires cannon shells into the forest for no particular reason. |
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| R.E.M. – Exhuming McCarthy Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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While most of what has been said above is accurate, I think there's another theme here: the deification of corporate America. Stipe is pointing out that one of the elements of fascism (besides suppressing dissent as McCarthy did) is rule by corporations. -"Bank of America"=the savings & loan scandals during this time (the Enrons of the 80's)--most of the perpetrators weren't prosecuted due to their political connections. -"walking on coals"=refers to a corporate training fad where employees would walk on hot coals in order to build team unity or some such bullcrap. -"landed gentry"=the aristocracy created by the presence of inherited wealth. The Founding Fathers were unanimously against this concept, but the supply-side concepts of the Reagan administration were pushed in order to create such a system. -"by jingo"=jingoism is hyper-nationalism. The word was coined in the buildup to WWI. -"enemy sighted, enemy met"=euphemistic military jargon. Likely has to do with the Iran/Iraq war going on at the time and the US involvement for financial purposes (oil). -"I always thought of you as quick"=probably a direct jab at Reagan who famously testified at the Iran-Contra hearings that he didn't remember the decisions he'd made. |
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| R.E.M. – Ignoreland Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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-"victims of the us v. them years"=the "Reagan Democrats" who were supposedly turned off by the activism of the 60's and 70's. -I always felt like the "defense" repetitions were reminiscent of a crowd chant at a sporting event. Stipe is saying that we now treat politics as a game or a sport rather than take it as seriously as we should. -"throw up on your shoes"=GHW Bush throwing up on the Japanese prime minister. |
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| R.E.M. – Drive Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think this at least in part about the emptiness of the drug culture of the early nineties esp. among the Seattle bands that got big around this time. "tie another one to your back"="monkey on your back" (addiction). This is esp. haunting b/c Stipe would later lose one of his good friends (Kurt Cobain) to addiction and suicide. | |
| The Guess Who – Undun Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I read somewhere that this was about a bad acid trip | |
| Sonic Youth – Bull In The Heather Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think the last 2 posts are on to something--it's about a need for attention and constant reinforcement that leads people to sell out (either sexually or artistically). | |
| Pavement – Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17 Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| "tricks are everything to me until it's free"=definitely about prostitutes or the idea of having to trick a girl into liking you | |
| Liz Phair – Explain It To Me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Along the lines of gerbileater's post, it's about how contrived and strange all the macho patriarchal systems of the world are and how people get pushed into them for one reason or another. She specifically mentions sports and religion in particular ("kiss the gravel"=every time the pope visits a different country he will kiss the ground to bless it) | |
| Sonic Youth – Hey Joni Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| A guy meets up with an old girlfriend who's been through the ringer emotionally since they broke up...he wants to get back with her but even more than that he wants her to be young and vibrant like she once was. | |
| Sonic Youth – Total Trash Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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trash is slang for heroin I think. The cow thing is referring to how in Hinduism cows are sacred and the epitome of enlightenment. "Not no cow"=the drug doesn't lead to enlightenment. |
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| Sonic Youth – 'Cross the Breeze Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| A girl is trying to seduce a guy and is unsure whether or not she's welcome at his place, even during the act she keeps asking whether she should just go home. | |
| Blur – Trouble in the Message Centre Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think the message centre=the brain. This is about being screwed up from being on ecstasy and paying the price with your brain not working like it's supposed to. Makes sense since this was written during the rave era in England. |
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| Blur – London Loves Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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London=pop culture/mass media It's about empty materialism and empty sex and a guy who's blissfully engrossed in both. |
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| Fugazi – Sieve-Fisted Find Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This is about heroin addiction "strapped on"=strap used to tie the arm "please let me get my hands on it"=the drug "as ugly as the last one and twice as far from unwound"=the junkie's tolerance for drugs builds up and he needs twice as much of it to get the same high "pushing past the red"=shooting up into an artery b/c all the veins are bad |
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| Rage Against the Machine – Born as Ghosts Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| The LA idea is a definite possibility, but I see it as more about the child soldiers in Africa who are trained as bounty hunters or mercenaries | |
| R.E.M. – Talk About The Passion Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I'm reasonably sure this is about the Eucharist and Stipe's rejection of Catholicism. | |
| Stone Temple Pilots – Pretty Penny Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| To me this is about a mother who OD's and dies. The "pearl of great price" in the Bible requires the buyer to sell everything to obtain it--addicts do that for their drugs. The chorus is the daughter waking up and not finding her at home--either dead or crashed out at somebody else's place. | |
| Toadies – I Come from the Water Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| The evolution metaphor is particularly telling b/c so many born-agains in the Bible Belt (prob. incl. Todd's family) are so violently opposed to Darwin. I think the above posts nailed it. | |
| The White Stripes – Expecting Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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The Toledo reference... Toledo, Spain was the site of prison during the Inquisition. The protagonist in Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" was imprisoned there. I think that's got at least something to do with it. |
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