| The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| It's about children. I have a 2 year old daughter and I heard this song for this first time in 6-7 years and I'm wrecked. It's so clearly about her I can't believe no one has mentioned it. They live life out loud with no shame and it's perfect. The absolute precious innocence and sweetness of a little child, the crazy roller coaster of her little life, this song captures it perfectly. | |
| Lord Huron – Meet Me in the Woods Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| After reading the lyrics this song sounds like a distressing near death experience. A few researchers/authors have compiled thousands of first hand accounts of people who have had near death experiences, who were dead on the table, but came back to life. A considerable percentage of them had what they call "distressing" experiences, or what most of us would plainly call, they went to and saw hell. There are startling similarities across continents, languages, cultures, and religions to all of these experiences. Almost all report that despite being dead for mere minutes, their time away felt like years. Almost all report a kind of consuming darkness, and most come back completely changed, convinced that what they saw was more real than the reality we live in. Many have trouble describing what they saw because there is not language for it. | |
| Bush – Machinehead Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I like the darth vader reference but it's obviously about frustration playing the guitar, which may seem petty but when it's your livelyhood it's a bit more severe. a machinehead is the tuning knob on the headstock of a guitar. almost all digital tuners turn green/red when the guitar goes in and out of tune. so, with fingers bleeding, faking a smile through tar stained british teeth, and the damn thing goes out of tune, he puts it down and walks away. breath in breath out, like count to 10 so you don't smash the guitar in frustration. read the lyrics again with this in mind and the whole song makes perfect sense. |
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| Radical Face – Welcome Home Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I just discovered this song and I think I get it. The narrator goes home for a funeral of a family member that left prematurely when he was young, for whatever reason. The "home" is of course his family's house, probably where he grew up, which is in a sunny place, since the band is from FL, we'll assume there. As an adult he doesn't feel comfortable there. The entire song takes place during the early afternoon while he's sitting on the back porch by himself after waking up way later than usual for him. He couldn't sleep but most folks that get insomnia when they visit home I think wind up sleeping late, like 3 am to noon sort of thing. I imagine a bleak suburban lower middle class neighborhood void of trees but with old clotheslines and plenty of sun. The narrator spends that time condensing his life up to that point, where he has complete persepective, and finds that all the dreams and hopes he had when he was a boy are mostly unfulfilled (the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done). He prays to whoever, or simply hopes outloud (ships launching from my chest) the same hopes he had as a boy; some are specific, with names, others more general, without. He asks for relief from the pain and hopelessness of his situation, but almost sarcastically, as if the universe is collecting his scars in mason jars. Then he begins to dwell on his nightmares, things he maybe hadn't considered as a boy but had come true anyway, like failure, rejection, and loss. He turns around to the back door and says, "bar the door, don't let them in," then he addresses the object of his visit, whoever left prematurely, and I think in part blames them for a lot of his pain (you were never supposed to leave). Then he digs down deep and in a bittersweet memory remembers being picked up, which a lot of other people here figured out, usually involves thumbs under the ribs. This is truly a heartbreaking song. |
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| The Shins – New Slang Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This song came up on my ipod and I had to do a re-take. here is what I came up with. a lot of folks in the past 5 years have had some good insights but I still think they're too one dimensional, too simple. I'm going to dive a bit in to the psychology of the author. the writer has lived in an emotionally dependent relationship for some time, maybe years, and what we learn from co-dependency is your emotional well-being rests on someone else, which is bound to fail. At some point, probably in the recent past, the author ends the relationship, either by severing ties, moving away, lone rangering, or some combination of those. The song takes place on an early morning walk, or possibly during an entire day, when he is either revisiting this place, and/or about to leave it for good. As a note, some of the lyrics are said in abstract, and some are conversational, ie. actual words that were exchanged. at the opening, he is either talking directly with the girl, thinking about talking with her, or having a flashback/replaying an actual conversation he recently had with her after breaking up with her. For whatever reason, probably finding that even a co-dependent relationship with a person that makes him feel lonely is still better than outright solitude, he regrets his decision and addresses her about it. at first he's apologetic; he muses about the beginnings of their relationship, when his role was her "pet." Think of a dog; you feed it, pet it, take it for walks, and it in turn is wholly dependent on you for everything. The author was riding shotgun for the honeymoon phase of this relationship and the girl obviously grew tired of it and ultimately resented him for it, but stuck around for whatever reason, either she didn't have options or had co-dependency issues of her own, which is often the case. too much emphasis has been put on "gold teeth." When you get a cavity, you get a gold filling. He's not talking about ice in his grill, it's just a literary device he uses. When he dumped her he must have gone on a rant about hating everything, cursing everything, not just their relationship, but his entire environment, including the town. Now it gets interesting. He still resents her for the way he feels, and holds her partially if not entirely responsible: co-dependents rely on one another for their emotional wellbeing, and when they hurt the other in any way, it becomes their fault. He accuses her, if she had only been the way he had wanted her to be, completely supporting all of his emotional needs and continually making him feel good, then he would have been freed from his deepest insecurities and responded in kind. He says this beautifully, "I would have come down from my tree, and danced like the king of the eyesores." Dancing, especially for a white guy, is an expression of complete freedom, one that looks utterly ridiculous. He knows he would look foolish, but it wouldn't matter, that's why he was dancing, because he was free and it didn't matter. the next stanza is in abstract. He's essentially saying to everyone, in general, outside of time, it's a bitch when you become so detached and introspective that nothing can escape your notice or scrutiny. "new slang when you notice the dirt in your fries." "Stripes" is still up for interpretation. Anyway this guy is pretty miserable. Then, like holden caulfield from catcher in the rye, wishes the reader never experience this mode of life, but rather a much simpler, carefree life, "I hope it's right when you die, at an old age." the next line is by far my favorite, and why I believe the song takes place in an early morning. "Dawn breaks like a bull through the hall." I could write a book about this line. For someone acutely aware of their solitude, for whatever reason early morning, sunrise, is the most horrible part of any 24 hour period. If you are living life as a curse, somehow dawn break is like the official sentencing of that curse. It is for some representative of new life, new beginnings, hope, a "new day," but for our author it is like an act of violence committed against him that he is forced to experience. The bull through the hall is an amazing metaphor. watch the running of the bulls in spain; when confined to a corridor a wild bull goes berzerck-completely out of control. Our author feels like he's tied up in the middle of the street with the bulls charging him, every morning. Someone made a reference to the shawshank redemption earlier; ask anyone in prison, the worst time of day is early morning. it's when you wake up and have to accept 100% your sad reality. morning is also the worst time for introspection and regret. He thinks back to this recent conversation he had with this girl, after he dumped her and then backpeddled, and realized it was foolish and futile to contact her, only to accuse her again of not living up to his dreams. But, he confesses, he's so lonely that even the failed exchange was still better than utter solitude. Then he repeats the chorus, I think this time to himself, imagining saying it to the girl but just replaying it in his head, re-affirming his belief that if she had only been what he imagined, he would be happy. I'll talk about the line, "like a gull takes to the wind" here. Think about a gull in the wind, on the beach. the wind acts, the gull reacts. The wind blows where it may and the gull adjusts accordingly to stay aloft. The author loved this girl so long as she was good to go with his plan, but, unfortunately as most co-dependent people find out the hard way, she is a human being with her own thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs, and ideas, and any of those that contrast or conflict his own become an attack on his emotional wellbeing. Still, he believes if she could have been completely subservient they would be happy together. The next line is still early morning, maybe passing through, maybe on his way out of town. Again, I believe he's on a morning walk. he sends up a general "whatever, to hell with this place" by saying "godspeed to all the bakers at dawn, may they all cut their thumbs, bleed, and fade away." it's a very nihilistic thing to say. I imagine him walking by a bakery and looking in and seeing a nice bakery. from someone experiencing life as a curse this is just adding to the torment. what if there was a nice couple enjoying coffee, pastries, the paper, and eachother, sitting inside? or it could be simply metaphorical; anyone experiencing loneliness and rejection feels as if they are "outside looking in," they are not "part of", actually saying they have no emotional connection to what and who they desire. Then he blames himself for his state/situation. he says, maybe I am too poor and too dumb to change, my unhappiness is all my fault. A side note, to refine is to "remove impurities". This is a stretch but in some respects I think he feels that the trials in life he's experiencing should be making him a better person, you know the old adage, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, learning from mistakes, etc. But he is keenly aware that this is not happening, he's getting worse! why? Also, the part about the flaming fields I just can't get. I've heard it used as a war reference, eg. battle field, but don't see how it fits. "trust" would be a legal trust, as in: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/trust. Lastly, I can't see why he uses "queen". Maybe he's imagining her having the same thoughts and repeating them back to him? would love to know everyone's thoughts! If you read this all this, you must really like this song like I do! |
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| Foo Fighters – Best Of You Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think the song is about a girl who's been with other men in her life and it's affecting the relationship between the writer and the girl. There's a loss of trust because the writer for some reason can't be sure if she instigated it or was taken advantage of. If she instigated it, there's the concern that she's using him as well. Either way there's anger over the inability to change the past and having no control over someone else's past decisions. The writer is frustrated because he's apparently started over with this person and found her other relationships, concurrent or not, to be a deal breaker, but it will be just as frustrating to have to start over again with someone new, only to find their imperfection and humanity all over again. It's like a round about way of accepting life and someone else for who they are. Purity even in our society is a tragic thing; you want to be the only one but even if you love someone truly who's been with other people before you, there's this block to real intimacy because you're always wondering if someone else from their past is occupying their thoughts, dreams, and fantasies, getting the best of them, which in turn controls you. You're not their only; they've already been joined with someone else on an ultimate level and you're getting what's left over. It feels like something that was rightfully yours was stolen from you. I think the writer is at a point where he's having to decide if her past decisions are a deal breaker or if he's so in love with her he's willing to forgive her and commit. forgiveness requires some level of repentance and I think it's why he keeps saying, "you must confess." Really tragic if you think about the finality of the decisions the girl made that the writer had no control over and are now breaking his heart. Hopefully love always wins. |
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