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| Everclear – Father Of Mine Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Interesting to read these posts that it makes most people think of their own childhood and relationship with their fathers rather than fathers thinking of their children. My dad left when I was a teenager and he was always cheap when it came to supporting me and my mom, but he always tried to stay a part of my life.
But I don't think it is that which makes me cry more when I hear this song than any other. For me, it is remembering listening to this song right before my son was born and I promised myself there and forever of just how crucial and important it was that I be there for my son, all the time and every time so that he does not have that empty feeling that Art (and so many people that have posted here) feel when it comes to their fathers.
Every new dad to be should listen to this song carefully before their babies are born. Not to mention that the song really rocks musically. |
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| The Grass Roots – Sooner Or Later Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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At this point in my life, whenever some one utters the phrase "sooner or later" I start humming this song to myself and thinking "love is gonna get you" |
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| The Grass Roots – Let's Live For Today Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Agreed. Perfect 60s love and ideals. It sounds so innocent nowadays with the triumph of cynicism over such ideals. The music harks back to that era and even though I did not live through it, the song makes me nostalgic for the era that never maybe was. |
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| Rush – The Spirit Of Radio Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Rush's best song. Not so much the pretentious prog rock they are famous for, but a straight forward rocker.
A song about the joy of hearing music you like on the radio despite having to sift through corporate programming. |
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| Van Halen – Jamie's Cryin' Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Actually, look at the lyrics, Jamie WOULDN'T say alright. And now he's gone forever. She refused his advances, he decided she wasn't worth it as a result, and now she regrets that she lost him. |
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| Van Halen – Happy Trails Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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It's a fun song for the end of the show. They used to play this at bars during closing time fairly frequently. Once the "Closing Time" song came out, that was about it for this one. |
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| Pink Floyd – Free Four Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song almost has the quality of the happy song sung at the end of Monty Python's Life of Brian where the singers are being crucified.
The lyrics are amazingly bleak, but the music is so upbeat. Delicious. |
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| Pink Floyd – Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The song was written in 1982 and states the current world scene. The Soviets had moved into Afghanistan, but were never able to quell the Taliban (sound familiar?). Israel, under Menachim Begin, took control of all of Lebanon (a widely criticized move, even Reagan told them to pull out) and Galtieri invaded the Falklands (took the Union Jack).
The whole album gives Waters a chance to denounce the militarism of the Thatcher/Reagan/Breznev era. No wonder Waters has such little tolerance for W now. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Johnny 99 Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Qbsean10, I don't see it that way with the car crash. The idea of a "part of town where when you hit a red light you don't stop" is a reference to driving through any real scary neighborhood in America. Bruce wasn't saying this was something Ralph/Johnny did literally.
Instead, he talks about him waiving his gun around. So I see Ralph/Johnny having shot the night clerk, drunk and belligerent in the worst part of town, looking for a fight where it is easy to find one. (Underlying suggestion, Ralph/Johnny is white working class guy, he's waiving his gun in the black neighborhood). The cops arrest him before he gets himself killed (perhaps his hidden desire at this point). |
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| Atmosphere – Say Shhh Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I never thought a song, much less a rap song, would mention both Boulder, Colorado (where I grew up) and Milwaukee, Wisconsin (where I live now).
Glad to see he appreciates the Midwest for what it's worth. Hate the cold, but love the life. |
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| The Kinks – Attitude Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Advice to stop moping and being surly. Yeah, people out there are flawed, but you will have a much better time if you try and get along.
Not very counter-cultural but good advice. And the song rocks. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Fire Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Very cool song.
Intense singing over music that's slow but still rocks hard.
The Michael Pare movie "Streets of Fire" was originally made with the idea of casting Springsteen in the lead role. Bruce had (has) no interest in movie acting and immediately declined. My guess is this song would have been used if he accepted. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Reason To Believe Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Beautiful song. Even though there is not much to interpretation, his imagery of how people can hope when they are hopeless is a pricless slice of Americana. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Stand On It Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Another song from Tracks that Bruce should have released on a new album when he recorded it and made it a single. Fantastic rocker!
Based on the rockabilly sound and the lyrics, seems to be about people taking risks and everyone encouraging them to risk even more. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Cadillac Ranch Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song was written when gas first went over a dolllar a gallon and people were trading in their big American cars for smaller Japanese ones.
The Cadillac Ranch is a metaphor for death, not an old folks home. The little girlie in the blue jeans so tight is the singer's last chance at love but she dies before the singer does, crashing somewhere, alone, in the Wisconsin night. |
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| The Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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After the Kent State massacre in 1970, the students at the University took to protesting and squared off with the national guard there as well. After a few tense hours, the dean of college pleaded with the governor to withdraw the guard and he did so. Immediately afterward, the students agreed that anyone with a copy of this song needed to play it at full volume and blast it out the speakers.
A protest song for the protestors celebration of their few victories, even though Jagger admits "what can a poor boy do, except sing for a rock and roll band." |
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| Violent Femmes – Add It Up Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Best song ever about sexual frustration. Even if you don't get the lyrics, the music alone spells the frustration. |
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| Fastball – The Way Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Exit to eternal summer slacking and never getting cold, old or gray. It sounds like some sort of modern paradise where people don't have to worry about jobs or mortgages and can just kick back and relax.
The song sounds like a celebration of what could be even though you know it never is. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Jersey Girl Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Yes, it's a Tom Waits song, but it's one that Springsteen absolutely had to record at some point.
Glad he included it on the Live album, in front of a New Jersey audience of course.
Hearing this song made me want to drive across New Jersey and fall in love with a Jersey girl right then and there. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Hungry Heart Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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One of the songs that made me the Bruce freak that I am today. This song was a big hit when released in 1980, but was still something of a regional hit. The rock stations in Denver where I grew up hardly ever played this. Albiet, the song was a hit in every region of the country, but the Mountain West, but still, I wish I heard it more back then.
Great sing a long song with the Danny Federici keyboard playing at its best.
I've always wondered where Kingstown is in relationship to Baltimore. I heard somewhere that it's on Maryland's Eastern Shore, near Ocean City. Not sure if it's a spot with a lot of bars where one goes to drive and never turn back to their wife and kids in Baltimore though. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – The River Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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One of the most amazing songs, by rock's most amazing songwriter.
It's not just the words he sings here, but the way he sings them. The line about pulling Mary close just to feel each breathe she takes brings in such powerful feelings of young and new exciting love, but then Bruce wails "these memories come back to haunt me" and then spits "they haunt me like a curse." Wow.
The line about "no wedding day smiles, no walks down the aisles, no flowers, no wedding dress." Is one of the saddest I have ever heard.
Bruce did say this song was dedicated to the man that married his sister, but it could be anyone (and everyone out there knows someone) who married young as a result of an unplanned pregnancy and had the dreams of a different life destroyed in the process.
Powerful, powerful stuff. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Brothers Under the Bridge ('83) Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Another song from the Tracks album that should have been released as a single when first recorded (part of the Born in the USA album) and should have been a huge hit.
It seems like another reference to Miami Steve Van Zandt's departure from the E Street Band, along with Bobby Jean and No Surrender. I like this one the best of the three. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Meeting Across the River Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The song emotes pure desparation. Bruce puts aside the rock and roll and uses a bluesy jazz soundtrack to tell the story of losers at the end of their rope, that will do anything they can, no matter how dangerous or criminal, to turn their luck around. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Youngstown Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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When played with the E Street Band electric, this song rocks and really hits home.
Classic Springsteen story of the demise of blue collar America. The protagonist worked jobs that most would equate to toiling in hell in Youngstown's steel mills, but that hell was heaven compared to the real hell of dealing with life once those jobs have disappeared. |
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| Led Zeppelin – Hot Dog Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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People always criticize this song for not being a novelty and a knock-off, but just take it as what it is: a fun song with a rollicking beat.
It's a good song and shows just how talented the band was in that they could successfully explore other genres of music. |
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| Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The movie matches the lyrics and there's not much to interpret.
Leader of a rock band is screwed up on alcohol, drugs and his own personal demons and depression. Band's manager finds him strung out on whatever. Manager brings in "doctor" of questionable ethics who knows just the right medicine to make singer able to perform.
However, despite the "medicine", the demons and depression remain with the singer.
This song has been used in the last season of the Sopranos as kind of symbol of how Tony has become numb to everything crashing down around him. It also describes modern Western society as we numb ourselves to the harsh realities of the world with whatever "medicine" helps us make it through the day. |
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| Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Lord Decay gets it right. The music tells as much as the lyrics, the tranquil notes replaced by the haunting ones. Yes, certainly about the Battle of Britain in WWII and about Water's/Pink's loss of his father in combat. Once the Battle of Britain was over, he survived, but his pain lingered on. Still lingers on today.
However, it also describes the pain that every experiences when the joyful innocence of childhood is shattered by the cruel realities of the world.
Brilliant song. |
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| Elvis Costello – Radio Radio Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Pretty simply, this song is about corporate control of the airwaves and radio stations only playing what is acceptable to their corporate sponsors.
That's why Lorne Michaels was upset. SNL has corporate sponsors too. |
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| The Clash – Rudie Can't Fail Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is played at the end of the movie in one of the most powerful political statements of any movie.
The entire movie focuses on a disaffected young British youth Clash fan that, despite being exposed to their leftist politics, aligns himself with the far-right, anti-immigrant National Front.
The Clash's Hyde Park concert against racism is highlighted late in the movie, playing "Safe European Home" in what appears to be a triumph over the National Front movement. However, as the movie ends and Rudie Can't Fail begins playing in the background, you see the results of the 1979 elections and Margaret Thatcher, and her more palatable form of right-wing extremism as the ultimate victor. After the high of the Hyde Park concert, the footage of Thatcher and this song comes as an unwelcome kick in the gut.
And the brew for breakfast line is definitely about beer. |
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| The Killers – Sam's Town Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Sam's Town is an actual casino and it is away from the Strip and in a more residential neighborhood of Vegas.
The casino is mostly frequented by Vegas locals, and Brandon Flowers said that this was his favorite casino because it was all Vegas families every Friday night, kids at the giant multiplex theater or bowling alley, mom and dad up hitting the tables and the slots.
I'm not from Vegas, but I loved this casino just for this real Americana atmosphere you don't get on the Strip. |
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| The Clash – Washington Bullets Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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One of my favorite songs lyrically of all time. And a great tune as well. I remember picking up the Sandanista album in the used bin and seeing the title "Washington Bullets" it made me think of the Washington DC NBA basketball franchise (now the Wizards).
Incredibly powerful song, makes me wish the Bullets never changed their name so that future generations would have stumbled upon this song accidently wondering what the Clash was doing singing about the NBA, only to uncover the scary truths of American foreign policy that I learned that day. |
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| The Clash – I'm So Bored with the U.S.A. Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I saw their final tour in 1984, with Mick Jones having already left the band. They played this as an encore and everyone in the not very radical Denver audience was singing the chorus at the top of their lungs.
Even though it's about the bombardment of American culture overseas, it hits home with disaffected American youths over their own lives as well. |
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| Van Halen – Little Dreamer Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song has passed the test of time better than most. If someone is playing Van Halen at a party, and this song comes on, everyone wants it cranked. |
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| Jimmy Buffett – Boat Drinks Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song hits home real hard for anyone suffering through a northern winter. Twenty degrees and the hockey game's on. Saint somewhere sounds much better indeed. |
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| Jimmy Buffett – A Mile High In Denver Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This is a really old Buffett song, back when he was just getting started. As I grew up in Denver, hearing the man who sings about the tropics bring up a song about mountains and timberline was a real twist. |
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| Jimmy Buffett – Banana Republics Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Great song. Jimmy tells the story pretty well without having to make your own interpretation. Americans thinking they can go to Latin America and be a big queso gringo, but the locals are not impressed. |
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| The Kinks – David Watts Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I always took this song to be a dig on the popular kids in school. There's always one David Watts in every school, that all the other kids wish they could be like. |
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| The Kinks – Add It Up Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Obviously a kiss-off to a social-clawing, materialistic, gold digger. The song came out around the same time Ray's marriage with Chrissie Hynde was failing, but I doubt it's about her.
Cool song. |
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| The Who – 5:15 Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I was the world's biggest Who freak when I was in high school. While many of their songs lose their adolescent appeal as you get older, this song remains ageless.
Any time I am ready to move on to a new job, the "why should I care?" chorus puts it all in perspective.
American songwriters have written of cars and the open road so much. Singing about commuting on a train is a very urban British image. |
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| Elton John – Daniel Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I always interpreted this song to have been about Bernie Taupin's brother who died at an early age. I don't know if Bernie had a brother though, but the sentiment can be about losing any friend or family member too early. I think the blindness and Spain are meant to be metaphors for death and heaven. |
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