| Iron & Wine – Such Great Heights (Postal Service cover) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I'm sure Iron and Wine wrote this song. The Postal Service one is way to poppy and hyperactive, it doesn't suit the lyrics at all. | |
| Augie March – Owen's Lament Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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lol notethetrees i've been doing the same. I fucking love this song. The short bit at the end is the perfect way to end the album. I think the name might have come from traditional Irish songs by Turlough (O')Carolan called "Lament for Owen O’Rourke", or "Lament for Owen Roe O’Neill". Both are really nice. There is a sample at the end of this song of a reading (I don't know who by) of a diary kept by someone called Rowland Feilding in which he talks about his relationship with the Irish soldiers under his command in World War One. It says: "...Freezing, or snowing, or drenching rain; always smothered with mud; you may ask any one of them, any moment of the day or night, 'Are you cold?' or ' Are you wet?' and you will get but one answer. The Irishman will reply - always with a smile - 'Not too cold, sir,' or 'Not too wet, sir.' " The sample in Owen's Lament leaves some words out, and I think at the end he says "It makes me... fell sick." |
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| Radiohead – Weird Fishes/Arpeggi Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I did an english assignment on this song, where we had to relate it to As You Like It, the Shakespeare play, and analyse the techniques etc. It's pretty farfetched and long-winded, but i learnt alot about what i think the song means. Description: A song’s lyrics without the music become poetry. The piece is relatively short, with 5 short verses, a bridge section and an outro section. Thom Yorke, the author, uses rich imagery and metaphors to explore themes such as escape in death, suicide, exile and loneliness, and belonging to a higher force. Yorke uses aquatic and ocean references to describe, feelings of hopelessness and the choices we must make in life. Relation to the Area of Study “Belonging”: Escapism: There are obvious escapist themes present in these lyrics, which represent a feeling of not belonging, and so desiring to be elsewhere. This describes an unimaginably different place, so far away mentally that it may as well be over the “edge of the earth”. The author imagines a utopia; a nagging feeling that there must be something better than the rut of life. This concept is similar to the typical plight of a refugee, who seeks a better life somewhere far away from home. Their home is where they should belong, but they have been deprived in some way of the right to feel that they belong. Death and Suicide: If taken literally, the lyrics could portray suicidal elements, as these kinds of escapist thought processes are very often associated with those who consider committing suicide. They typically feel that they belong to a physical life that is pointless and unimportant in comparison to what may lie beyond. Parallels between these ideas and Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi are easy to find. The imagery of being underwater (In the deepest ocean/ At the bottom of the sea), questioning one’s self and whether to go or stay (Why should I stay here… Everybody leaves/ If they get the chance), being lead away by a larger force (Your eyes/ They turn me… I follow to the edge/ Of the Earth), decaying and being absorbed back into the earth (I get eaten by the worms… Picked over by the worms/ And weird fishes), the mention of ghosts (Your eyes… Turn me on to phantoms), all are symbols that lead back to the idea of escape in death. This encompasses the broadest use of the concept of belonging: the ideas of belonging to a higher being, one’s self, and to existence as we know it on the physical earth and it’s peoples. Relation to As You Like It Through “Belonging”: “As You Like It” could be a direct influence on the words of “Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi”, and through the concept of belonging we can explore several themes that link these two works. The connection can be interpreted through the themes of escapism or suicide, present in the utopia seen beyond death by Yorke, or in the unexpected paradise of Ardenne in which Orlando and Rosalind finally begin their lives together. Another connection is the idea of dying for love, and the surprisingly identical imagery used by both Yorke and Shakespeare (as Rosalind, as Ganymede), in lines from both texts. Both Yorke and the melancholy old gentleman Jaques share attributes of contempt and criticism to the folly of human life, but each finds a different solution. Exile and Escape: The play contains similar escapist themes to the lyrics, although the French city and the forest of Ardenne each represent both the concept of “escape” and of “home”, on par with the pastoral tradition, whereas in “Weird Fishes” the author demonstrates that he believes has no reason to stay in his current world: “Why should I stay here? … Everybody leaves/ If they get the chance/ and this is my chance”. The same line can be used to support the idea that both Yorke and Orlando can be seen to share; that there is one chance to find true love and happiness, and if that there is no point living if that chance is denied. Duke Senior, Orlando, and Rosalind, and their companions, are all threatened or forced into banishment, yet eventually find happiness in the forest of Ardenne. Among these references to belonging in relation to the concept of “home” that are used with the displacement of all these characters, there are also bonds between characters that are tested and questioned by their removal from where they resided. Romance and Rejection: There is a strong similarity between Orlando’s clichés and overly romantic views on unrequited love, and Yorke’s imagery of his one chance for love. As Orlando is tutored by Rosalind how to be a better husband, he claims that if Rosalind would not have him, then he should die. She lampoons his claim, telling him of famous lovers who have died, but not for love. “But these are all lies: men have died from time to time — and worms have eaten them — but not for love.” (IV.i.84-85). Orlando and Yorke both express a desperate need to be complete as people, which can only be achieved by following an outside force to their object of desire. “Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi” seems to describe similar fears to Orlando, with Yorke singing about what seems to be the journey of a deteriorating relationship, one where he realises his love is not returned. He imagines himself at “The bottom of the sea” when he falls in love, and asks “Why should I stay here?” and, “I’d be crazy not to follow… where you lead”. It is possible Yorke has been seduced by death personified itself, and has been promised an escape. Once he takes his “chance”, his opportunity, and seems resolved and calm about his goal, he follows his love into either a terrible heartbreak or a literal death. It is then that his fears are realised as he is picked over by the scavenging and strange creatures of his mind as he suffers alone. Yorke seems to understand that it is not love itself that kills him but his own actions, whereas Orlando believes that it is love itself, or lack thereof, that must be his end. “Rosalind (Ganymede): … in her person, I say I will not have you. Orlando: Then, in mine own person, I die.” Melancholia: Thom Yorke’s lack of fight and a complacent acceptance of death in “Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi” show a melancholy similar in character to Shakespeare’s Jaques in As You Like It. He makes no protest against his decision to follow death, and so regards death as being preferable over life, where he clearly feels he doesn’t belong, as shown in the first stanza: “Why should I stay here?” In the last stanzas he has given himself to the ocean, and repeats: “I’ll hit the bottom/ And escape”. Jaques, in contrast, wishes to follow the career of Touchstone, and use the powers of his melancholy to act as Duke Senior’s fool. Such a position, he claims, will “Give [him] leave/ To speak [his] mind,” and the criticism that results from this power will “Cleanse the foul body of th’infected world” (II.vii. 58-60). He wishes to use his extraordinary knack for delight in depression to make the world a better place. Rather than feeling a need to escape it, he feels that he is an indispensable source of criticism; How “Meaning” is Made: Repetition: The author uses repetition of ideas, themes, and lines, sometimes with a slight variation, to add emphasis to particular points, and to create poetical rhythm, using the same word in different context to create different meanings of belonging. The author uses the word “follow”, or words that evoke the same meaning, in several places in order to create different imagery of being lead away by a higher force, as if he were merely a possession of someone or something. He repeats the themes of descending, death, and darkness. He repeats in several lines “escape”, whether because of feeling he doesn’t belong, and the idea of being alone in an unknown place, he describes being picked over by fish and worms, the symbols of scavenging and death. The semi-repetitous line “Why should I stay here/ Why should I stay?”, breaks free of the rhyme and rhythm already established in the first stanza, and so stands out to the audience, who continue to relate to this question as the rest of the ideas in the poem are presented. Rhetoric: The question he asks himself, “Why should I stay here?” causes the reader to ask himself the same. There is only one question asked, emphasized by repetition, but the reader continues to deliberate as he reads on through the rest of the poem whether he identifies with the sentiment Yorke puts forward. The reader can, depending on his interpretation, imagine himself as either belonging or not belonging to Yorke’s state of mind and beliefs. |
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| Portishead – The Rip Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| i hear 'centered' as well. i love how this song is so easy to play. | |
| Stevie Wonder – Do I Do Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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at least someone typed in accurate lyrics including the ad libs. It's stevie wondering if they experience sex and being together in the same way. |
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| Radiohead – 15 Step Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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if anyone so much as mentions the twilight movie i'll eat their face haha and yeah it's in 5/4. the handclap part (ed does it live) is ridiculously catchy. |
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| Radiohead – Creep Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| and Skitz24 you're a fool. | |
| Radiohead – Creep Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| its pretty sad that creep has so many comments. It's a great song. It's fantastic. It's just mainstream and they have countless better songs lol. | |
| The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I've always wondered why he uses the "thousand rainy days" lyric in 2 other songs. It's a quandry. | |
| Kubb – Chemical Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| APOSTROPHES PEOPLE | |
| Radiohead – True Love Waits Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| i love the chords. and its actually "you're crazy kitten smile". | |
| George Strait – Haven't You Heard Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| i was looking for jeff buckley... | |
| Beck – Readymade Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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the trumpets are playing the first line from a jazz standard: Desafinado. Go trumpets! go me! ...sorry... |
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