| Ben Folds – Belinda Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Of course, the storyline here is very specific and is fictional, but when I hear this song I always think of Fold's "The Luckiest". He wrote that song while married to his third wife and mother of his children. After breaking up with her he stopped playing the song live. Recently he's started playing it again due to popular demand. I imagine it must be pretty tough to perform it, or at least it was for some time. | |
| Arcade Fire – The Suburbs Lyrics | 14 years ago |
|
Line by line interpretaion: In the suburbs I --wonderful opening line to the album. Of all Arcade Fire's albums this is the most concept. I learned to drive --literal. This song isn't just about living in the suburbs, but about growing up in the suburbs, about becoming an adult in the suburbs. About absorbing all the meaning and morals and aesthetic that a suburban life embodies. And you told me we'd never survive --The suburban life has been heavily criticized. The suburbs exist because of white flight. The isolation and lack of freedom is poignant for teenagers. Grab your mother's keys we're leavin' --But kids find ways to rebel. Whether shooting up their school or doing drugs or just driving off in their parent's car. You always seemed so sure That one day we'd fight in In a suburban war --These lines introduce the character across from the narrator. From the lyrics on the other songs, he is a childhood best-friend of the narrator, to whom the narrator was very close. He grew out his hair, so so did the narrator, but the two grew apart, he cut his hair, and the narrator never connected with him again. They grew up, they grew apart. Your part of town against mine --The lyrics in other songs expand upon this theme of "suburban war". There is isolation in the suburbs among youth, but people also know each other. The lack of purpose in the suburbs and isolation leads to conflicting personal experiences. People join "cliques", grow their hair out or cut their hair, listen to particular music to separate themselves and create their own identities. I saw you standin' on the opposite shore But by the time the first bombs fell We were already bored We were already, already bored --The identities that they've created are still not real. By the time the war starts they are already bored with the identities they've created to fight the war with. Sometimes I can't believe it I'm movin' past the feeling Sometimes I can't believe it I'm movin' past the feeling again --I love the "again" at the end of this. The kids wanna be so hard --Again: creating their own identities to bring meaning to their lives. But in my dreams we're still screamin' and runnin' through the yard --In reality though, they are just wasting their time, trying to entertain themselves. And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall --The suburban environment was largely created in the 50's, 60's, and 70's during white-flight and middle-class expansion. And all of the houses they build in the seventies finally fall Meant nothin' at all Meant nothin' at all It meant nothin --The narrator understands that living in the suburbs is not like living in some city: the suburbs exist as a purely capitalist creation: you go there, you live in your little isolated family unit, you work, you die, they bulldoze the house and create more or move in a new street. The suburbs are completely transient, this brings a feeling of emptiness and unimportance. Cookie-cutter houses and cookie-cutter lives. Sometimes I can't believe it I'm movin' past the feeling Sometimes I can't believe it I'm movin' past the feeling and into the night --He's trying to move away from these feelings of emptiness, but he has to move into the dark: the night. It's not clear how to deal with his past or his life, but he's venturing out into the dark blindly to try and find something. So can you understand? Why I want a daughter while I'm still young I wanna hold her hand And show her some beauty Before this damage is done --When you're still young you are not jaded, you can run and scream and enjoy life and beauty. But if it's too much to ask, it's too much to ask Then send me a son Under the overpass In the parking lot we're still waiting It's already passed So move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass Cause it's already passed It's already, already passed! Sometimes I can't believe it I'm movin' past the feeling Sometimes I can't believe it I'm movin' past the feeling again I'm movin' past the feeling I'm movin' past the feeling In my dreams we're still screamin' We're still screamin' We're still screamin' --What the narrator remembers most from his suburban childhood is running and playing and screaming with his friends. Not the identities they created to put them apart or to impart meaning to a life that is largely cookie-cutter and disenfranchised, but just the hedonistic pleasure of being young and together with other young people. In the end the narrator realizes that the unity of youth in the suburbs redeems them. The opportunity to waste time with other youth enjoying beauty even in a place like the suburbs that has really no beauty or permanence, is an opportunity he would take again and again and again. All the lyrics are pretty easy to understand given the other songs on this album. There are a few other themes they cover but in general it is a very focused album and communicates very directly some emotions that kids who grew up in the suburbs have in common. |
|
| Neutral Milk Hotel – Little Birds Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
Being pushed into the water does not refer to being literally drowned, it refers to being baptized. They are baptizing the child in an attempt to "save" him from what he loves (i.e. the birds). The child looks up from under the water while being baptized, and the distortion of the light in the water is analogized to the way religion distorts what is beautiful (e.g. the birds, and the love the child's brother had for another boy) and calls it evil. I think the last lines are referring to the child deciding he would like to commit suicide by drowning himself to escape his situation and "start again." |
|
| A.C. Newman – The Cloud Prayer Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Carl tried explaining this song live in San Fran once... I don't have any clue, though, either. | |
| Jenny Lewis – Born Secular Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Wow. I always liked this album, but I don't think I'd ever really fully listened to it fully through. Now I think it is beyond amazing. | |
| Peter Tosh – Ketchy Shuby Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
So we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight Your mama don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight Your papa don't like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight Long time I'm waiting, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight Get you right where your ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight All night long we a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight Me and you a go ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight Tell me if you like it, ketchy-ketchy, shuby-shuby tonight All night long, all night long, shuby-shuby tonight Shuby-shuby tonight... If you don't realize this song is about sex, you are quite frankly an idiot. It's not only about sex, but about a guy getting a presumably young virgin girl to go to bed with him Oh, and @ Plato: while CRICKET may be the national Jamaican sport, Catchy Shubby is a faster version played by kids who can't stand the slow-moving nature of regular cricket, so it would actually make sense that the older folk wouldn't like the game. "Ketchy Shuby" is obviously being used as a euphemism for sex, but he didn't just get the words out of his head, he instead modified the name of a popular game. I'm still not sure what "if it drop it will pop" exactly means, but the best explanation is the "popped" hymen - losing your virginity. I'm not sure how the "easily bend" fits in. |
|
| Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
The first two verses are a story. Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine - Johnny's brewing booze. This is probably during the prohibition, but it also parallels cooking LSD or acid in the basement in later generations. It's same as it ever was, so the images here are transcendent of ongoing societal phenomena. I'm on the pavement thinking about the government - Literal, but also just painting a picture of Dylan trying to make sense of things. the man in the trench coat, badge out, laid off, says he's got a bad cough, wants to get it paid off. - He wants some cough medicine, aka he's looking for some booze. Look out kid, it's something you did, God knows when, but you're doing it again. - The kid is presumed guilty. Even if he hasn't done anything wrong before, he's doing it "again", and he's destined to do it again because society assumes he's the kind who would do it. Amazing line. You better duck down the alley way, looking for a new friend, - Run away from the cops, try again. the man in the coon-skip cap in the big pen wants eleven dollar bills, you only got ten. - The man in the coon-skin cap is a bounty hunter, or a cop, the big pen is jail, to get out he wants eleven dollar bills, just one more than you've got, and that's the way it's always going to be: why not ten bills? Because it's better to torture you with not making it by just THAT much. So so far we've had an image of the lower class: brewing booze in the basement, assumed criminals who are destined to end up in jail, and the people with the keys set bail a dollar higher than you could pay. It's just a basic critique of society. Maggie comes fleet foot, face full of black soot, - Black soot could be some sort of drug, but basically this is just a metaphor that Maggie's running into the apartment, the underground, in quite a haste. talking that the heat put, plants in the bed but the phone's tapped anyway, Maggie says that many say they must bust in early May, orders from the DA. - Maggie warns everyone that "the heat" (the cops, the fbi, cia, whatever) put mics in their house. But her warnings don't matter, because the phone is tapped anyways. She says word on the street is that they'll be a drug bust in early may, ordered by the District Attorney's office. Look out kid, don't matter what you did. Walk on your tiptoes, don't try 'No Doz.' - Be careful, don't get caught, NoDoz is a caffeine pill. Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose, - Watch out for the riot police. keep a clean nose, watch the plain clothes, - The "plain clothes" are undercover cops. "Keeping a clean nose" is not looking suspicious. you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows. - The Weathermen (Chicago terrorists) took their name from this line. "The way wind blows" is what's going on, what's coming down, what's happening on the street. You don't need a weatherman to figure it out, it's just street smarts. The next to verses are starkly contrasted one with the other: Get sick, get well, hang around an ink well. Ring bell, hard to tell if anything is going to sell, try hard, get barred, get back, write Braille, get jailed, jump bail, join the army if you failed. Look out kid, you're gonna get hit, but users, cheaters, six-time losers hang around the theaters. Girl by the whirlpool looking for a new fool, don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters. That verse is about someone living in the underground. Using drugs, getting arrested, going in and out of jail, out with the whores and the drug dealers, just getting by. The next verse is meant to contrast the preceding verse: Ah get born, keep warm, short pants, romance, learn to dance, get dressed, get blessed, try to be a success, please her, please him, buy gifts, don't steal, don't lift, twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift. Look out kid, they keep it all hid. Better jump down a manhole, light yourself a candle. Don't wear sandals, try to avoid the scandals. Don't wanna be a bum, you better chew gum. The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles. Basically this verse just shows that trying to live successfully, clean, is really no different. It's just as crazy and back-and-forth and pointless and full of despair. |
|
| Muse – Thoughts of a Dying Atheist Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
By the way, I complete disagree with what Bellamy said about "you only live through the influence that you spread, whether that means having a kid or making music". That's one of the first things most atheists will come up with to salvage their need of continuance. As human beings, all of us are hardwired with the need and want to live on, to survive. Survival instinct is the strongest instinct in nature. As an atheist, you have to see the world beyond your instincts. You have to realize survival isn't the chief goal. You can realize that there is more to life than living. And you have to make that for yourself. Trying to "influence the world" to "live on in your influence" is really no better than imagining a heaven for yourself. It's just a coping mechanism, and it's never going to work, because you know that you will eventually die, and your influence will eventually die as well. The both hardest and simplest thing about being an atheist is realizing the Eternal is no better than the temporal. A minute well spent is better than a year wasted. |
|
| Muse – Thoughts of a Dying Atheist Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
This is written from the perspective of Matthew Bellamy, lead singer of MUSE, who used to be an atheist. As Bellamy put it: "Being an atheist means you have to realise that when you die, that really is it. You've got to make the most of what you've got here and spread as much influence as you can. I believe that you only live through the influence that you spread, whether that means having a kid or making music." Bellamy is talking in this song about his life, and how it is going to end, and it's all going away. He remembers someone he loved, he can feel her with him, he wants so bad for it to go on, but he's come to embrace atheism, and believes he will inevitably die, and everything he is will become nothing. He's so scared at the prospect of death he can't sleep at night, he can't take the idea that he won't live forever. Michael Bellamy later expressed belief in God and in Jesus. I expect he lost his atheism because he couldn't bear the idea of death. As an atheist, I can relate to a lot of what's said in the song. Especially when I had just losing whatever faith I had. Being raised as a Christian, people tell you Jesus is what it's all about. That there's eternity waiting, and that you'll be let into heaven if you only believe in Jesus. As a teenager, I spent many times lying in my bed, unable to sleep, tossing over my conflicting beliefs about my faith, sometimes praying fervently that God would help me understand it all. Since I have realized that one must let go of religious faith to find any meaning in their life. You must make meaning for yourself as an atheist. You are God, you have the power to make whatever you want of your life. It's hard, especially after being constantly trained to believe life without eternity is worthless, but in the end it's rewarding to realize yourself and stop pretending you believe in something you don't, and accepting what you really believe. |
|
| Arcade Fire – Neon Bible Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
"The Neon Bible" and "The Poison of your age" are the exact same things. It's the corrupted vial of pain, it's the only light in the city ("in the city it's the only light"), and it obscures everything, it blinds us all so we can't tell the difference between hope and pain ("hope and pain, in the light they both look the same"). This verse is very key: "Oh God! Well look at you now! Oh! You lost it, but you don't know how! In the light of a golden calf Oh God! I had to laugh!" The singer is looking on at his culture, the world around him. This is a reference to Exodus 32. In Exodus 32 the Israelite's religious leader Aaron made a statue of a calf out of the gold given by the people. He built an alter before it, and had the people bow down and worship to it. It was a corruption of the Israelite's true worship to God. In the light of the golden calf, the Israelites couldn't tell the difference between this calf of pain and the Lord of Hope. Aaron says of the calf "this is your God, that brought you out of the land of egypt". The people have confused this worthless calf with the true God. And so have the people of America. They have elated their own version of God, their own creation, they lift it up before them and worship it. It is the most highly elated, visible part of their culture, a bright glowing calf, as bright as a neon sign. And yet the people are so blinded by its false light, they cannot see how they "lost it", they cannot see what is the source of their problems: the calf itself. The Neon Bible they have created. There are a couple other lines: "It was wrong but you said it was right In the future I will read at night" The first part is just a reiteration of what is already very clear. They take the Neon Bible as truth. But in reality it is wrong. The "in the future..." part is the singer's commitment to not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:12), he chooses to read (to educate himself, to learn the truth) while the rest of the culture is asleep and in bed. Because that is the only time that the lies and confusion of the culture around him are silenced enough to think clearly. |
|
| Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Wow, just listened to this song again for the first time in years. Talk about a nostalgia trip. I'll just say one interesting thing: the original chorus opened with "I want nothing else" |
|
| Andrew Bird – Measuring Cups Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I adore this song. when you talk about the hand of glory a tale that's rather grim and gory is it just another children's story that's been de-clawed? when the tales of brothers Grimm and Gorey have been outlawed As has been mentioned before, "Hand of Glory" is the pickled severed hand of a man. Litteraly a "declawed" man. But Andrew Bird is using it to reffer to God, and the Gospel. He's asking if people treat the Gospel, Christianity, Religion, as just another children's story, declawed? Like Cinderella and the other Brother's Grimm stories that have been turned from horrific monstrosities of dark humour in the original into gentle and sweet Disney tales with little meaning. |
|
| John Lennon – God Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I adore this song. Not much to say about it, it's meaning is in it's listening. I'll just say one thing: Zimmerman is Bob Dylan. Litterally the first time I read Bob Dylan's birth name was Robert Allen Zimmerman, I was like "OMG THAT WAS WHO LENNON WAS TALKING ABOUT IN GOD???" xD |
|
| My Morning Jacket – Gideon Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Gideon, what have you told us at all? -- The Israelites pleaded with Gideon to be their King, but he responded "only God is your ruler". Make a sound, come down off the wall. -- He's speaking about religion being cold and stale, that it's just a picture on the wall. I think of it as a crucifix, he's asking it to "come down off the wall", to stop being lifeless, irrelevant and unimportant. |
|
| Arcade Fire – My Body Is a Cage Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I always feel this song is so out of place on the album, and then they come in with the organs and the "I'm living in an age" lines repeat. I still don't like this song as much as the others, I don't understand the "my mind holds the key" stuff, but it's a good ending. |
|
| Arcade Fire – Windowsill Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I don't know much about this song, but I'm pretty certain "I don't want to live in my father's house no more" is some sort of refference to the praise song "This Is My Father's House". I think this song has alot to do with the next song "No Cars Go". He wants to escape from all this. A place where no cars go, where no ships go, where no spaceships go, where no subs go. He wants to escape from all the shit and pain he spends so much time talking about throughout this album. |
|
| Frank Zappa – Don't Eat The Yellow Snow Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
The best version is on You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 1, which goes through the Nanook Rubs It storyline as well. Someone should transcribe that. It also has the "really exciting part of the show", with purported audience participation. |
|
| Eels – Cancer For The Cure Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
poisonXedge is full of shit. Ole' Blue Eyes is Frank Sinatra's nickname, "Courtney need love" is an obvious refference to Kurt Cobain's wife Courtney Love. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
"The cardinal hits the window" is a phrase often asked about this song. I can come to only one conclusion, and it's the most obvious one, and the one I think everyone feels immediately when listening. A beautiful cardinal, a harmless bird simply flying along suddenly strikes the window, and dies. For no reason a beautiful bird dies right in front of you. For someone who has faith in god, it's like god has caused this bird to fly into your life only to die immediately in front of you, and for no reason. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
A comment on "christian" lyrics. Yes, Sufjan most certainly writes Christian lyrics, and sings songs inseperable from his faith. But this isn't some Roman Catholic or holier-than-thou christianity. The essence of Christianity is this that the symbol of our saviour hanging upon the cross is a symbol both of sorrow and joy. Of loss and gain. I am not defending Christianity, but unmolested it is certainly beautiful. |
|
| Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This song is absolutely beautiful. It's sung so mournfully, and with such sorrow, and yet calling it a sad song would be a terrible mistruth. The song rejoices, celebrates, remembers, memorializes, mourns, and cries out in a brilliant representation of the simple beauty of life. Sufjan simply tells a story in a simple, straightforward manner, and in this way offers up one of the most poignant summaries of human life. The sorrow is inseperable from the joy. There is hope and sadness as the song fades out in a chorus of angelic voices. |
|
| The Beatles – Hey Jude Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I don't think the song has anything to do with drugs or heroin.. but I think it appears there sort of as a subverted metaphor for being optimistic. The song is so fantastically genuine. Though I do agree the "movement" line is kind of cheesy, I think Lennon only liked it because... well... I'm sure you can surmise why. Which makes it ironic because the line doesn't feel as genuine, and yet that's what he was always after Paul to be. More genuine. A lot of Pauls "cheesy" ballads sound far more genuine than John's rock. |
|
| Aerosmith – I Don't Want To Miss A Thing Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| It's amazing people can bash this song. It's like they only hate it because it was popular. Being nominated for a Razzie is fucking riddiculous. This song is fantastic. | |
| The Beatles – Helter Skelter Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
Helter Skelter was written by McCartney, (not Lennon, suprisingly), in response to critics who said he "only wrote ballads". McCartney was inspired to write the song after reading an interview of the Who's Pete Townsend where he described their latest single, "I Can See for Miles," as the loudest, rawest, dirtiest song the Who had ever recorded. McCartney then "wrote 'Helter Skelter' to be the most raucous vocal, the loudest drums, etcetera" and said he was "using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom—the rise and fall of the Roman Empire—and this was the fall, the demise." A "helter skelter" is not a particular ride in England, but rather the name of a popular type of ride with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower. Users climb the tower and usually slide down on a mat. It is thus similar to a waterless hydroslide. The term is primarily (but not exclusively) found in British English. Charles Manson saw the song as prophetic of a race war between blacks and whites. LADA Vincent Bugliosi, who led the prosecution of Manson and family, named his book on the murders "Helter Skelter", the book was the basis of two movies on the subject. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.