| Leonard Cohen – A Thousand Kisses Deep Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Whenever I hear this song, the phrase "Boogie Street" takes precedence over the titular phrase "A Thousand Kisses Deep." Boogie Street is a place where Dionysus would be at home, as the god who breaks formal limits, and revels in the intoxication of... well, reveling, and the risk-taking that such reveling produces. The word boogie itself connotes a dance without limits, usually expressing a desire to "let it all loose" to exhilarating party music at the expense of any formality. Cohen paints boogie street with metaphors of youth- "the ponies (not older horses) run, the girls are young, the odds are there to beat." Youth, Cohen implies, is a time to beat the odds, a time to take risks in order to survive (the betting on ponies), and in order to make love (the girls are young) and thereby ease one's solitude, which is nearly always present in differing degrees in Cohen's songs. Whereas boogie street is the place where one's limits dissolve in reveling and risk-taking, returning to a place "A Thousand Kisses Deep," implies the rational reflection and an intentional numbering of experience. To reflect on just how many kisses one has had means soberly reflecting on the past, numbering one's experiences. The word "deep" also implies that this act of numbering is more profound than the shallower joys found on boogie street. However, the place of a thousand kissses deep, the place of rational reflection combined with nostalgia for the past, lacks some of the advantages of "boogie street:" The benefits of boogie street are the focus on the present (when dancing, you are simply following the present beat), expanding one's limits through the reveling and risk-taking of the moment , and of a joyful wandering without intention. "A thousand kisses deep," though, is the place of sober reflection we all return to, after the exhilaration of a night or two on boogie street fades, and allows us to make sense of and number the experiences that we've had so far on boogie street. |
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| Bob Dylan – Changing of the Guards Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| This song has the religious imagery that some have talked about- Shir Hashirim (the Song of Songs) and Ezekiel's vision of the chariot are the two books most drawn on for the imagery and meaning of this song. It is Dylan's masterpiece, a song that has to be lived to be understood. | |
| The Police – Wrapped Around Your Finger Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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some good interpretations, i agree with the one that looks at this song's time reference, which is the future. the seeing of the ring of gold, the wrapping around the finger, and the discovery that "the servant is the true master" all refer to the future. the singer himself is the ring of gold (i'll be wrapped around your finger) that will eventually be wrapped around her finger (and she around his), in other words they will marry as the ring represents that and both of them will wrap the other's finger. the reference to the woman as not being mephistopheles means she is not the devil, though still immersed in the lies that the devil spins (i know what you're up to just the same). the best line of the song is "when you find out that your servant is your master..." which means that she will find out that the one who is serving her, listening to her in"tuition" to find what's best, is also the one who has become her saving grace. But for the meantime, he "will vanish" until she will make this discovery. the line of the servant becoming the master is very true- those who serve others and ideals higher than themselves are the true kings and queens of this world. |
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| Foreigner – I Want To Know What Love Is Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| For everybody who believes that this song is about divine love, I agree with you; for everybody who believes that this song is about romantic love, I also agree with you. In the Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim in Hebrew), divine love mirrors the romantic love between a man and woman. Foreigner's song has great imagery to highlight the love on both planes- on the "spiritual plane" we must fight to overcome our own loneliness and darkness that we must confront and banish with our own light. We must "climb the mountain" of our burdens, scale the ladder of our possibilities to find that the world is a good place, full of love and knowledge symbolized by light in the song. On the "romantic plane", we also must fight to overcome our own individual loneliness, darkness, and temptations to find the single source we were meant to find. Watch the youtube video of Foreigner singing this song: the very first thing the singer does as the song begins is to show the camera the wedding ring on his hand- this says it all- the song is about finding true, constant and real love which in the romantic plane can only be achieved through marriage, and on the spiritual plane by finding the single source above that illumines everything. | |
| F. R. David – Words Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I love this simple song.... he is just a music man. | |
| Greene Larry – Through The Fire Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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When our brothers and sisters have been consumed, drawn up to the sky in smoke, how can we decide to ignore the flames? No, we do not let them burn alone, we plunge into the fires just as they were forced into them. We face the scalding burns, the pain of being burnt to ashes, because we hate this world that could allow the children to be destroyed. We plunge into the fire not knowing why we must do so and not choosing to do so- we ask why we must be tortured until our life is almost extinguished, until all faith has been ground to dust. But slowly, the sacrifice becomes clear. We could not ignore the flames, we had to leap into them to become human again. We threw it all away to become men, to know the feeling of the burning flame and the leap of faith needed to take us out. "The flames were burning hot and took us higher," above the dust that we were and above the serpents that had trampled upon our ground. |
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| Manowar – Heart Of Steel Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| follow your heart. don't be a nihilist. don't give in to the crowds. fight for something deep in your heart. a great metal song that is fierce, true and compassionate all at once. | |
| Röyksopp – Poor Leno Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| First, this song and this video are unbelievably amazing. Leno, a boy trapped in animal skin at a zoo, looks for freedom through love. He is chased down, and placed behind bars, but there is a bittersweet redemptive quality to the song's ending, as he does reunite with another leno, which could even be Leno finding himself, his own reflection and realizing that no matter where he is, he must rely on his own friendship with himself before all else. Only then can he escape the bars that lock him in at the zoo, keeping him half-boy, half-animal. | |
| Björk – Pagan Poetry Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Without the same moral codes of judeo-christian tradition, pagan tradition is often freer not only to experiment in the erotic undercurrents of life, but also to glorify it as an aesthetic experience. This is what Bjork does in Pagan Poetry, sung with such deep feeling that, if God did exist, I'm sure that He would still approve of her pagan ways. The "secret code carved" is not a moral code, but rather the code of pulsating life: sexual lust and love intertwined together in her "darkest pit," the one she may not be able to always acknowledge but nevertheless lies at the very center of soul. | |
| Louis Armstrong – Do You Know What It Means (To Miss New Orleans?) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This is one of the most classic songs of nostalgia. At first, we think it is just about yearning for the city of New Orleans, but then Armstrong reveals that he misses "the one I care for" more than New Orleans itself. This is ironic, since the one he cares for also is bound to New Orleans, and his memories of both of them are intertwined. I wonder how Armstrong would sing this after Katrina hit New Orleans in '05? Perhaps with a bit more heaviness and sadness and less of a comic trombone sound in the background? | |
| David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| bowie's drug trip turned sour, as can be heard through this song. like major tom floating high above earth and viewing the heavens from new perspectives, bowie was metaphorically able to do the same through his drug use. but soon major tom begins to feel groundless, and in "ashes to ashes" he wishes to return to earth. this mirrors bowie's own experience, feeling so high as to be beyond the force of gravity and spread across the heavens but then wishing he was back below on everyday earth. the line "ashes to ashes" to me does not signify rebirth in a positive sense but rather a recycling of death, as we turn into ash when we decompose. so to me this song is largely about the negative feelings of a bad drug trip. in general many songs on this site are misinterpreted by an overemphasis on drugs, but this song is, in Bowie's words, the best testament to his autobiography. | |
| Leonard Cohen – Ain't No Cure for Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song brings a new interpretation on what it means to be love-sick, as Cohen and his choir confirm that the ache of love can never be "cured.". The ache for an old love is beautifully written in this song, an ache so deep that he needs to see her naked in "body and thought;" love is not lust in this song by any means, but both a bodily and spiritual connection. Religious themes are included in this song, as the holy books even confirm that there "ain't no cure" for the aching of a lost love, or even love that has been found. The last 2 stanzas have an interesting take on the wisdom of certain parts of scripture, which seem to aver the timeless aching of love rather than the "doctors" who seem to be trying to find its cures. Cohen doesn't take the term "doctors" literally, but rather uses it to represent that optimistic scientific spirit that pretends it can find cures for all our aches, even the very one that by its nature is timeless for humans: the unquenchable longing for love. | |
| Leonard Cohen – If It Be Your Will Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Cohen sings of his nearly complete subjection towards the will of another. If the will tells him to be silent, he will be silent, if the will tells him he can sing, he will sing. He has great admiration for the will of whoever he is singing about (be it Zen master or a woman or God), as, if allowed to express his true voice ("if a voice be true"), he will sing in praise of him/her from the imperfect landscape, "the broken hill". The person whose will Cohen obliquely praises also has great power, as his/her mercy can redeem the burning hearts in hell, under the condition of course that it is willed. Cohen's great hope in this will, which is presumably a human one, almost borders on praying to a supernatural being, one who can "make us well" if we devote ourselves to it and pray and sing to it. I say his subjection is "nearly" complete because he still urges the will to act on behalf of the suffering, cajoling it in song. The will has the power to "end this night" of the darkness of the human condition, in which people are dressed in only dirty "rags of light" which are fragmented and not fully whole and illuminated. The will at once is something to be a subject of, and something to pray to for spiritual sustenance that it may be capable of bestowing. | |
| Sting – Desert Rose Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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A Jungian analysis: The desert rose represents the mystery of the feminine, whose nature was once open and fully given to Man before "The Fall" mentioned at the end of the song. Exiled from the Garden which had once provided the fulfillment of all of his needs and desires, Man is now condemned to living in constant search to satisfy his many thirsts in a desert-like environment. Ultimately, all his desires are not able to be quenched in this strange world of hostile forces, yet Man still has the ability to give voice to his dreams, whether through art, literature or, in this case, music, thereby lifting the confusion and suffering of existence to a higher plane of appreciation. The feminine presence encapsulated in the desert rose is the muse for the creation of this song, and many brilliant artists, writers and mathematicians throughout time have also claimed that the feminine presence has been their muse to create their works. The rose's veils cover the true nature of the feminine presence, but her appearance is still beautiful, promising happiness to Man in a world ultimately barren of ultimate meaning, purpose and lasting satisfactions. Almost all the dreams mentioned in the songs are of unfulfilled wishes, whether of rain, gardens, or love, yet this very lack of contentment urges man to create art and music in order to give shape to his deepest sufferings and visions thereby helping him to confront life in a more joyful spirit. If the Arabic translation of Cheb's lyrics is correct by a previous poster, it makes perfect sense. "I search for myself and my love," describes the alienation from both self and love that occurred after the Fall. "Nothing is no longer as it seems," we are, in Kantian terminology, creatures of the world of mere appearances forever unable to see the true reality behind the appearances, which is the noumenon or the spiritual inner core of things. "Nothing is as it seems," "veils" and "shadows" all conjure this inability to see the spiritual truth that exists behind those things present to our senses. Finally, it is the human gift to imagine, dream and search for love in the midst of the terrible desert harshness of this world, which can create a beautiful song like this one. |
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| Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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people are uptight, "drilling holes in themselves" or damaging themselves. Instead of living in a healthy, open society, people live for their secrets, which is their inability to share and communicate their thoughts for whatever reason. the Imagined aliens serve as a wish-fulfillment by Yorke, as the aliens will show him meaning and beauty in life that he now lacks (he's forgotten the smell of the warm summer air). the aliens seem to provide Yorke with the objective view necessary to criticize and reform a society that has forgotten how to live an open, non-uptight, unegoistic, and poetic existence. |
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| Paul Simon – The Cool, Cool River Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| this song might be saying that there is alot of anger and rage in the world, but we, like the courageous "mother's restless son" in the song, must be brave to face all the worlds problems, the stresses, the misunderstandings that arise through the "crusher of language." The cool, cool river, the healing powers of the cool cool river were vital and magically, the river sweeps everything to the ocean. In the song, the river can be seen as the source of prayer, the spiritiual sustenance we need to sweep our angers away, and our hopes and dreams to the future towards heaven. | |
| Coldplay – Don't Panic Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I agree with a previous poster that the best adjective to describe this song is "haunting." The title Don't Panic seems to be addressed towards someone who is freaking out over something. The rest of the song is then an acknowledgement of the bad things in the world, but overall attempts to convince the one in a panic that the world is beautiful in the end. The music itself is haunting because somehow the song conveys simultaneously a pessimistic and optimistic ring to it. |
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