submissions
| Wye Oak – Civilian Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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It's definitely "nothing without a man." Fits in with "I don't need another friend ... Perfectly able to hold my own hand but I still can't kiss my own neck." |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Going to Queens Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Here's a quote JD gave before playing this song live:
“This is the song about how when time gets a little rough, you can always fall back on round-the-clock boning. You can just, if things get hard in your relationship, you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. Man! Maybe you got nothing to say. Just have sex until it gets better. Write me if it doesn’t work after five or six years.” |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – The Young Thousands Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I think you're right, generally speaking, but I don't think the chain is a metaphor. A heavy chain is a pretty effective improvised weapon of the sort a drug dealer might carry. |
submissions
| Neko Case – This Tornado Loves You Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The "souls dangling inside-out from their mouths" bit is particularly vivid. I've heard (though I think it's an urban legend) that being in the vaccuum inside a tornado can cause your lungs to be sucked out through your mouth and turned inside out. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph of Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I never thought about the whole possession/possession angle -- I love it!
I generally assumed that the narrator was being taken from court to prison after being found guilty. I interpreted "Big bus headed southeast from the courthouse/But I'm not headed southeast from the courthouse" to mean, essentially, in the narrator's mind, "no, this isn't supposed to be happening, I'm not suposed to go to jail." He's been convicted and all that jazz, but he had other plans for himself. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Elijah Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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RedLeaf, it's also about the Passover seder as celebrated by Jews: Elijah supposedly visits each seder magically, and you are supposed to leave an extra plate and glass of wine for him.
Elijah is also supposed to return to announce the coming of the Messiah, and many Christians connect him to John the Baptist. I can't remember off the top of my head but I think there's something in the New Testament about John the Baptist kicking in his mother's womb. The empty tomb is also a kind of obvious allusion to the risen Christ.
Didn't know about the Hindu ritual elements though. It's an interesting mashup of different religious traditions. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Deianara Crush Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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To be more specific: Hercules mortally wounded a centaur, who as was dying advised Deianara to take some of his (the centaur's) blood because it could be used as a love potion to make Hercules true to her (like all Greek heroes, Hercules was notorious for sleeping around).
She put some of the blood on the inside of one of Hercules' shirts. In fact, it was deadly poison and burned him to death, which was the centaur's plan all along |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Cubs in Five Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Phillips is an enormous electronic manufacturer (Dutch, I think). Like any multinational conglomerate, they have made any number of mistakes but are reluctant to admit them. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – International Small Arms Traffic Blues Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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dash-m, in 1997 or thereabouts the Albanian government briefly imploded and a lot of small arms were "liberated" from weapons depots after much of the army left its posts. Much of those guns were then smuggled out of the country via Greece and on to the global arms market. I think that's what's being referred to here rather than some Greek-Albanian tension at a governmental level. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Standard Bitter Love Song #8 Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song nicely adds an epic, over-the-top feel ("god will give him blood to drink") to a very, very high school scenario (uh oh, he saw a girl he likes holding hands with another guy at the ice rink!). Because high school is when you're most prone to see your dramas as epic and over-the-top, honestly. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Against Agamemnon Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Heh, shewouldnt, funny.
For anyone wondering, this song is based on the ancient Greek tragedy "Ajax". Ajax was one of the Greek heroes during the legendary Trojan War. Most of the real action happens before the play (the Greek audience would have been familiar with the background): Ajax is angry with Agamemnon, the Greek leader, because he favored Odysseus over Ajax in a contest. Ajax plans to kill Odysseus and Agamemnon, but the goddess Athena, who has a special affection for Odysseus, drives Ajax temporarily mad; Ajax thinks that a herd of pigs are Ajax and Odysseus and their man, and drives them into his tent to kill them.
As the play opens, Ajax is inside his tent, killing the pigs ("red red, red everywhere/ bright red all along the thin canvas wall"). Odysseus is outside; Athena makes fun of Ajax in his madness ("saw the purple sky/ making jokes about my condition") and invites Odysseus to do the same; he demurs, noting that the same could happen to him.
When Ajax comes to his senses, he is humiliated by what has happened to him, has a little talk with his wife, and wanders off to kill himself. |
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