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Vampire Weekend – Diplomat's Son Lyrics 15 years ago
The song is most definitely from the gay perspective. The lines "To offer it to you would be cruel
When all I want to do is use, use you" are really reminiscent of Morrissey in rhythm and the vocal style in which they're sung. This "story" of this song kind of reminds me of Morrissey's song "Suedehead" (which begs, 'Why do you come here?/When you know it makes things hard for me?... When you know...'). This is my favorite song on Contra, because I think it shows how diverse Vampire Weekend can be. It's not just another Peter Gabriel homage. It's more complex than that. It also shows that they're "self-aware" with that line about Paul Simon. I didn't know about the connection to Joe Strummer, but it seems to fit in with all the other people VW is paying respects to.

submissions
Vampire Weekend – Diplomat's Son Lyrics 15 years ago
The song is most definitely from the gay perspective. The lines "To offer it to you would be cruel
When all I want to do is use, use you" are really reminiscent of Morrissey in rhythm and the vocal style in which they're sung. This "story" of this song kind of reminds me of Morrissey's song "Suedehead" (which begs, 'Why do you come here?/When you know it makes things hard for me?... When you know...'). This is my favorite song on Contra, because I think it shows how diverse Vampire Weekend can be. It's not just another Peter Gabriel homage. It's more complex than that. It also shows that they're "self-aware" with that line about Paul Simon. I didn't know about the connection to Joe Strummer, but it seems to fit in with all the other people VW is paying respects to.

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The Killers – Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll Lyrics 17 years ago
"No sex, no drugs, no like no love" is also a line from "Air" by the Owls.

I think a few of the other lines might be quotes from other songs.

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Kate Bush – Brazil Lyrics 17 years ago
I've never heard kate's version, but I have a Arcade Fire version of it and I love their rendition of it it's a beautiful song.

According to wikipedia it's the english translation of a Brazilian folk song, "Aquarela do Brasil."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarela_do_Brasil
Strangely enough, the Arcade Fire cover is listed, the Kate Bush one is not.

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Kate Bush – Them Heavy People Lyrics 17 years ago
materbation? wtf? where do you people come up with this stuff.

It's definitely about what trinity tragedy said its about. Meeting people, who offer up different ideas about the world, making the world seems shiney and new, getting the protagonist out of her teenage blues.

So not cults either, I don't think.

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Sufjan Stevens – Holland Lyrics 17 years ago
When I first actually listened to this song I could almost perfectly picture Holland, even though I've never personally been there.
That's pretty freaking cool. I'm pretty sure only Sufjan could do that.

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The Shins – Young Pilgrims Lyrics 18 years ago
The title reminds me of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown."

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Owen – In the Morning, Before Work Lyrics 18 years ago
"I listen to my same old cds
New Order & Morrissey"

Wow, that's so me... It feels weird to think about, but I've like all of my favorite bands for like 4 or 5 years now. Morrissey is definitely one of those bands.

This song is soooo good.

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Calexico – Alone Again Or Lyrics 18 years ago
I love the latin feel with the clapping and the trumpet and the guitars. Uhhh so lush.

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Ugly Casanova – Things I Don't Remember Lyrics 18 years ago
this song is so freaky and dirty and trippy and awesome. Cum on the piano? how fucking fucked up and yet poetic!

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Okkervil River – Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe Lyrics 18 years ago
I think the parade line is definitely a reference to Ferris Buller. (Love that movie).

This song sounds like it could be like the anti-theme to some super low budget indie film about sad suburban teenagers... like me. It's like the epiphany song. Plus it'd just be ironic if you put a song in your movie that said, "It’s just a life story, so there’s no climax."

I love this song.

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Kate Bush – Strange Phenomena Lyrics 18 years ago
It's definitely about having your period.

I get serious Deja Vu around mine, and I always thought I was crazy, but I mean if Kate Bush wrote a song about it, it can't be too weird.

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Bat for Lashes – Horse and I Lyrics 18 years ago
This song reminds me of the third(? it is in my collection) Narnia book, the Horse and his Boy. It's definitely the best one.

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Sufjan Stevens – Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?) Lyrics 18 years ago
I listened to this song the other night, the night I found out my French teacher died (see Casimir Pulaski Day) and I had a dream that someone was sitting on my bed and hugging me, while I grieved. In the morning I asked my mom if she came in and hugged me and she said she hadn't... I'm beginning to think it was an angel.

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Sufjan Stevens – Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair Lyrics 18 years ago
"And if my wife took a bicycle ride
With a knife in her hand"

SecondDegreeFlesh was right. It's a way of comitting suicide.

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Sufjan Stevens – All the King's Horns Lyrics 18 years ago
is this about revelations in the bible?
the lyrics seems odd for a christmas song...

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Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics 18 years ago
I found out yesterday that my teacher has 2 weeks to live. The cancer spread to her nervous system.

And the cardnial hits the window?

Yeah that was a little unexpected. I hadn't heard anything, so I expected everything was okay. But I guess it wasn't.

I cried a lot yesterday. But I know she wouldn't want that. She's almost done suffering. We all learned a lot from her. Like how to have grace under pressure.

For now I'll just keep praying for a miracle.

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Steely Dan – With A Gun Lyrics 18 years ago
*founders... (that's what 3 years of french does to you).

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Steely Dan – With A Gun Lyrics 18 years ago
I can't believe no one's commented on this. I love this song.

First a correction. I think the line is "you were the foundres of the clinic in the hills."

I think over all it's pretty much about a guy who's addicted to drugs and owes his dealers a lot of money, so he decides to get a gun and just kill anyone who stands in his way. But that doesn't really some any of his problems.

I love the twangy, western guitars. I can definitely Steely Dan's influence on Midlake in this song.

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Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche Lyrics 18 years ago
I took a train from Virginia
To Illinois, my home

I'm pretty sure those lines are about Abraham Lincoln. After he died (his funeral was in Virginia/Washington DC), his body went on tour... of sorts, cause when put that way it sound quite sadistic... but anyways, his body was eventually delievered to Springfield, via train. And basically every town it went through, lots of people would line up by the tracks to give the assassinated president a final send off.

The first verse seems like it's someone asking his friends to take care of his family and memory when he's dead.

I don't really get what the chorus is about, but I don't think it's about loosing his virginity in the Avalanche.

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Sufjan Stevens – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel Lyrics 18 years ago
my favorite chirstmas song ever.

for some werid reason. it makes me ball (esp Sufjans version) alot of religious christmas songs do.

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Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water Lyrics 18 years ago
we're singing this song in my choir.
I just know I'm going to cry at the concert.
It's so beautiful (the song mainly, not really our version of it).

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Eisley – Lullaby Lyrics 18 years ago
Ah! I found it!
I love imdb.com!

It was called The Christmas Toy. It's from '86... a little bit before my time. I think maybe I watched the TV show though (The Secret Life of Toys).

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Eisley – Lullaby Lyrics 18 years ago
this song had always reminded me of this Christmas (?) movie I watched when I was really little (early 90s, before Toy Story came out). It was about toys that had like their own world when ever their owner when away (like toy story). I'm pretty sure it was Jim Henson and I'm pretty sure they aired it on Nichelodeon. I also remebered it freaked me out... kinda, even though it wasn't scary. So if anyone remembers PLEASE let me know the name of it.

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Eisley – Like the Actors Lyrics 18 years ago
I think this song, like Ten Cent Blues, is Stacy's statement on young Hollywood. (which is probably why TCB made the album and this one didn't as well, since they both kind of cover the same topic).

I don't think that Stacy (or the speaker in the song, if they be different people) is against "Truth" like mockingsmile says, but rather FOR privacy. Which is seriously lacking among young Hollywood... especially the people who show up in the tabloids alot. You can't have a private life if every time you walk the dog it ends up on the front page.
I think Stacy has a fear of her life becoming like that.

"You love me not the actors view of me."
Is like her saying "you love me for me, not because other more famous people (Evangeline Lily, perhaps?) like/dislike me."

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Eisley – Ten Cent Blues Lyrics 18 years ago
two girls wanting the same guy? Stacy wanting CHAD?
I'm pretty sure you're all a little off base.

Stacy did write it.
But I think she's more commenting on the Lindsay Lohans and the Hillary Duffs of the world. (Not Sherri, who's pretty witty herself...) And how she's not like them, doesn't want to be like them, even though the music exec's might want her to be.

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Simon and Garfunkel – Baby Driver Lyrics 18 years ago
I wonder how your engine feel and a few other lines are defintely not-so-subtle

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Simon and Garfunkel – My Little Town Lyrics 18 years ago
it's about the love-hate feeling most people have for the town they grew up in.

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Elvis Costello – Lipstick Vogue Lyrics 18 years ago
"Sometimes I almost feel just like a human being."

Probably one of my favorite lyrics. Ever.

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Elvis Costello – Watching the Detectives Lyrics 18 years ago
I love this song. It kinda sorta reminds me of the movie Klute (granted, I've never seen it so I can't say for sure, but the themes are similar).

I about had a cow when I saw this commercial on TCM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P4NiTI7GHA
They cut a few lines, esp. my favorite "Close up on the sign that says 'we never close.'"
And I can see how this song is definitely about sex, but that's the beauty of Elvis. He writes songs with enough meaning that you get it, but ambigous enough that it's not like reading his diary.

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Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Lyrics 18 years ago
I remember the first time I actually listened to this song. I mean, ACTUALLY listened.
I was at the breakfast table, early one dark late fall morning, eating a bagel and trying to get ready for school. And listening to my ipod for a little company.
This song came on and I listened, really listened.
And I was balling by the third line, "When I found out you had cancer of the bone."
I had just found out that my beloved french teacher had been diagnosed with the worst kind of leiukemia and wasn't going to return to school. I had been dealing with (I am still dealing with) grief, which seemed quiet strange to me, since she is not dead.
Casimir, like all Sufjan songs, gives amazing perspective, which I really needed. This song helped me to begin tp accept what had happened.

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Radiohead – The Bends Lyrics 18 years ago
I love the lines "I wish it was the 60s, I wish I could be happy."
I saw a VH1 (very credible source, I know) Doc about the Monterry Pop Festival and was reminded of these lyrics.
I guess as a kid of "hippie" parents, I have a desire to go back to the 60s, especially the Montterry Pop festival/Summer of Love, when people could be honestly optimistic/idealistic about peace and love and drugs all that crap... before casual pot smoking & acid dropping escalated into full on herion and cocain addictions, before Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr were assassinated. Before Nixon and Reagan and the awful 80's in which our "hippie" parents became "yuppies"... I think I could be happy there...

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Feist – Mushaboom Lyrics 18 years ago
I think it's about meeting someone so wonderful that you automatically fall in "love" and plan your whole life with them... (the town (Mushaboom? That's so fun to say!), the house, the kids, the garden, growing old by the fire) ... before even really getting to know them very well...

and I can't say I'm not guilty of that.
Probably why I adore this song. :p

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Camera Obscura – Country Mile Lyrics 18 years ago
unfortunatly I can relate right now.

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Midlake – Roscoe Lyrics 18 years ago
This song has always reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

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Midlake – The Jungler Lyrics 18 years ago
this is where I got my username.
I love love love this song.
Probably the first Midlake song I fell in love with.
Good times.

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Oasis – Champagne Supernova Lyrics 18 years ago
wow. This is one of those songs you read a lot into, but I guess has no real meaning. I'm determined not to be disappointed by this. I think ambiguity is a good thing, especially when it comes to this song.

This song, a long with "Wonderwall", as well as "Jumper" and "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, represent summer to me.
A year ago my friend had a party/bon fire the first day we go out of school. We burned all of our notebooks and papers (even a few of the school's textbooks). Then after we were done and the fire was huge, we all just sat around the fire, mesmerized. The boys got out my friend's accoustic and they played those songs. And we all sang a long. It's was pretty awesome. & this summer is going to be even better, and the fire is going to even bigger.

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My Brightest Diamond – Dragonfly Lyrics 18 years ago
I agree with AdiuvaMe that this song could very likely be a methaphor for love.
But seeing as how I've never really been in love, I never really looked at it that way...

Dragonfly kind of reminds me of Eisley's 'Tree Tops'. So to me it has a similar meaning. Like not being afraid to "fly" or be who you are, being yourself.
The 'black' could be depression (I know, EVER song is about depression on this website), but maybe the speaker is afraid to fly because the higher you fly the harder, you fall... which could apply to relationships or just life in general... like I said.

Like a lot of songs of the album it's about leaving... or being left. I love it!

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