| Clutch – Gullah Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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There's a lot of references to the legend of the Great Flood. The blackbird and dove were sent out from Noah's Ark to find dry land as the floodwaters receded. Babel is the biblical name for Babylonia, a region in Mesopotamia, which is the modern country of Iraq, and the origin of the oldest written epic poem known today, the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Epic includes a description of a great flood which probably inspired the account of the flood of Noah. When this song was being recorded, the US was occupying Iraq. The war was justified partly due to allegations that Iraq was importing yellowcake uranium as a source for nuclear weapons. However, the yellowcake that Iraq did have in its possession needed a lot of refining before it could be used in nukes. And in any case, the Iraqi military abandoned warehouses full of barrels of yellowcake during the invasion. Iraqi civilians found the yellowcake and only knowing that it was something important enough to be guarded by the Army, took it from the warehouses. Several people were poisoned by it. Lighting Roman Candles on the Yellowcake is a metaphor for the triumphalism of the Bush Administration following the invasion, as the poison was unknowingly spread among innocent people. And while they were doing this, they were shaking the American public on down for money and power. The Serengeti verse is a reference to what is called the "Serengeti Strategy" by interests allied to the Bush administration, where they would publicly attack scientists working in Climate research, to make examples of them and discredit them. The flood is all of the woes that come from this disregard for human health and welfare. |
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| Soundgarden – No Attention Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Socrates was at the Port of Piraeus to see some festivities. He soon turned and began to walk home to Athens. However, Polemarchus, son of Cephalus, and seen him and sent his slave running to tug on the old man's tunic and bid him to stay. So Socrates waited. Polemarchus soon caught up, and asked Socrates to stay. Socrates tried to leave but Polemarchus threatened him- "Do you see how many I have brought with me? We will overpower you and force you to stay, at least until the after the horse-race and a nice light supper." Socrates was considered the most persuasive, rational man in the world. "Isn't there any way I can convince you to let an old man go home?" "No, because whatever you're saying, we're not going to listen to it." Not, by far, the only Socrates reference buried in a Soundgarden song. |
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| Clutch – Promoter (of Earthbound Causes) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with SlightlyShinobi, but think that the song is also about how we use drugs to both cause and cure insanity. Funny creatures, us humans. |
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| Clutch – Burning Beard Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Posted this in response to PraetorianGuardsman's excellent interpretation, but I think I'll put it where more people might see it: The "pink rays from the ancient satellites" is a reference to the Philip K. Dick quasi-autobiographical novel VALIS (short for Vast Active Living Intelligence System). The protagonist "Horselover Fat" (translation of Philip Dick from Greek and German respectively) has an episode where he imagines himself struck by a pink laser beam, which imparts information to him which he couldn't possibly know, such as that it has been fired from a ancient satellite constructed by aliens from the star Albemuth. It is strange to mention, but scientists have recently been able to perform some rudimentary mind control on mice by exciting areas of their brain with lasers. The report didn't mention if they were pink though. |
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| Clutch – Burning Beard Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The "pink rays from the ancient satellites" is a reference to the Philip K. Dick quasi-autobiographical novel VALIS (short for Vast Active Living Intelligence System). The protagonist "Horselover Fat" (translation of Philip Dick from Greek and German respectively) has an episode where he imagines himself struck by a pink laser beam, which imparts information to him which he couldn't possibly know, such as that it has been fired from a ancient satellite constructed by aliens from the star Albemuth. It is strange to mention, but scientists have recently been able to perform some rudimentary mind control on mice by exciting areas of their brain with lasers. The report didn't mention if they were pink though. |
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| Andrew Bird – The Supine Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I love this short piece- some might think that it's filler. But listen carefully to the interweaving of the two melodies. The dreary strings contrast so well with the bright, plucky part. When I listen to this I feel like I'm drifting through a fog, and through breaks in the mist I can see some magical kingdom. | |
| Alice in Chains – Down In A Hole Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song always reminds me of a novel I read that was set in England in the Middle Ages, during a Viking invasion. In one chapter the hero is digging up the buried treasure of a Saxon pirate king (like Vikings, they invaded Britain, but then settled down and became British, only to be attacked by Vikings centuries later). The buried treasure turns out to be in the tomb of the pirate king, where he had himself buried alive with his pirate ship when his health became too poor and interfered with the raping and pillaging he enjoyed so much. :) Anyway, there is a flashback to when the king is being sealed in his tomb by his followers, and he's full of bitterness and anger, but also proud of what a depraved life he had lived. It is intensely parallel to this song. I just looked up the book and its title is The Hammer and the Cross, by Harry Harrison. Wikipedia says it was published in 1993 so the book couldn't have inspired the song. |
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| Alice in Chains – Whale & Wasp Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| It's hard to believe that Jar of Files came out nearly seventeen years ago. I was a young marine on my way to my first duty station in Japan when I bought the CD. I listened to it probably a dozen times on the flight from LAX to Fukuoka. One of the most beautiful moments of my life came as I listened to this song, and looked out the window to see Crater Lake Oregon in all its awesome beauty directly below me. | |
| Clutch – The Mob Goes Wild Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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"Bum rush the border guard before he and his dog ever knew it." Haha, I thought this was "bum rush the fort of God before he and his dog ever knew it. Talk about aiming high! |
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| Clutch – Willie Nelson Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| It's pretty obvious that this song is about a person who uses medical marijuana getting busted. | |
| Wellwater Conspiracy – Felicity's Surprise Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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1st verse, 3rd line should be "loose change falling through the roof"; 6th line should be "and the fear's a flood and it's rising again" There's some good wordplay in this song: "When heads are turning, tails go first" But it doesn't seem to have any particular meaning |
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| Corrosion Of Conformity – Albatross Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Read the poem "rime of the ancient mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge if you want to know more about the significance of albatrosses. It's an old poem about a sailor who shoots an albatross, and is cursed because of it. | |
| Soundgarden – Birth Ritual Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"I took the drug To make me stay And now everything Dies in shyness" I always thought this verse said: "I took the drug, to make me see, now everything is doubt and shadow" I kind of like that better |
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| Clutch – A Shogun Named Marcus Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| It's about being a redneck... with pretensions. Helps relieve the boredom. | |
| Mad Season – All Alone Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I used to get wasted drunk in the marines and just lay down with this song on repeat, as the world spun around me... | |
| Dead Kennedys – Kill The Poor Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Skullcowboy- Miss Lily White is the typical upper class "Lily White" girl who's turned on by money and fast cars and plans to screw the poor out of what little they have; kind of the reverse of Maid Marian from the Robin Hood legend | |
| Soundgarden – Circle of Power Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| hilariously bad vocals | |
| Clutch – Careful With That Mic Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Wrong Way, Cray computers are the fastest, biggest, baddest supercomputers in the world today. Probably named after Seymour Cray, maybe a company he founded. | |
| Tom Waits – Hoist That Rag Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think this song is an accusation of imperialism directed toward the people who sold America the invasion of Iraq. "Hoist that rag"= raise the flag over the conquered territory. "Rag" is sometimes used as a derogatory term for flag, but I don't think Tom is calling the American flag a rag, as much as implying that it's been stained and abused by the use it's been put to lately. "Well I learned the trade From Piggy Knowles Sing Sing Tommy Shay Boys" Great names for shady characters. Piggy Knowles = Karl Rove? It's a name that describes him well. "god used me as hammer boys To beat his weary drum today" George Bush used a religious imagery, such as crusades, in his public speeches before the invasion of Iraq. He even told Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper, that God had told him to go to war! "The sun is up the world is flat" As good a description of Iraq as any. It's a country of flat plains and desert. "Damn good address for a rat" Saddam was certainly vermin. "The smell of blood The Drone of flies" Dead bodies all around, check. Fits Iraq. Here's the payoff: "Well we stick our fingers in The ground, heave and Turn the world around" Remember the grandiose promises before the invasion? It was supposed to be effortless, and it would change the world (turn the world around). But the plan was really as crazy as thinking you could do what the lyrics say. "Smoke is blacking out the sun At night I pray and clean my gun" Remember 1991, when the Iraqis set fire to all the oil wells in Kuwait as they retreated? Smoke did indeed black out the sun. Praying and cleaning a gun in the disastrous night = the paranoia and delusion that enabled the Gulf War's repeat. "The cracked bell rings as The ghost bird sings and the gods Go beggin here" Postwar Iraq, the promised beacon of freedom (the liberty bell and bald eagles) is in reality a land where all of the virtues (gods) are oppressed by evil, and can be sustained only by losing all semblance of their former pride. "So just open fire As you hit the shore All is fair in love And war" As a former US Marine, this verse echoes in my head. Take no prisoners, and take that beach! |
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