| The Low Anthem – Boeing 737 Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| So... Philippe Petit is famous for doing a tightrope walk between the Twin Towers in the 70's. Prophets = believers of Muhammed I guess. And Boeing 737 is a plane. I won't bother spelling it out. But I think he does a lot of interesting things with the line about the bird and the Gatling gun. If that bird is a hawk, it's a war thing. But thinking about the Low Anthem in general, I'm guess it's a peace bird and if it's nesting underneath a big gun, it either means the gun is non-operational, or if you use it the bird nest would be disturbed. So, if you're a warmonger and your means of destruction is subverted by a bird, you'd have to find a new line of work, a new way to live. Maybe build yourself a new home. It's funny because on the day I submitted these lyrics, my class had a lecture on Baudrillard's essay about 9/11, the hegemon, and the Other. It seems oddly synchronic and fitting to still be thinking of all this. | |
| The National – Keep It Upstairs Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This is my absolute favourite National song. It's also their absolute weirdest (slow? falsetto? lo-fi? yep, yep and yep). It cuts through me more than anything else. I love the proto-lyrics that end up in Slow Show, Blank Slate and Gospel (and actually started out in the song No Professionals, which is a super obscure demo but worth tracking down). "These are the kind of things we should worry about." Fucking Christ. Keeping the dark thoughts upstairs is what leads to wanting to kidnap famous people, right? Also, theoretically. this song sounds a lot like some parts of High Violet (Terrible Love has that demo-quality guitar at the very beginning, the slow pace could be from Little Faith, the paranoia from Afraid of Everyone, the odd song structure and guitar sounds could be similar to Lemonworld). Anyway, I listen to the National an unhealthy amount, but they keep giving me back my sanity so what can you do? |
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| The National – Terrible Love Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher avec araignées. Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher avec araignées. Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher dans la compagnie calme. Et je pouvais ne tomber pas dormir sans un peu aidé; Il prendre beaucoup à se calmer mon os de frissonnement Tant que la panique est dehors. Il prend un océan à de ne pas rompre! Il prend un océan à de ne pas rompre! Mais je ne vous suivai pas tu, Dedans le trou de lapin. J'ai dit je voudrais mais puis je scie Votre os frissonnement Leur ne veulent pas moi à . |
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| The National – Terrible Love Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| All I can say in my defense is that I was transcribing from an mp3 of the Jimmy Fallon show performance. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Blues in Dallas Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is the very best Mountain Goats song of all time. The interesting thing is that it's a ballad on a Casiotone and it just completely stands outside of anything on All Hail West Texas. It's a kind of Greek chorus song, or a giant apostrophe or footnote for the album. Listen to this song, read Libra by DeLillo, and try to keep yourself together. Peace. |
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| The National – Terrible Love Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It's a terrible love and I'm walking with spiders It's a terrible love and I'm walkin' in its quiet company (etc with minor variations) And I can't fall asleep without a little help It takes a lot to settle down I sailed a boat into the past except It takes an ocean not to break But I won't follow you into the rabbit hole And I said I would but then I saw your skin and bones they didn't want me to Like So Far Around The Bend, it's about watching people you love lost in self destruction. Spiders catch prey in webs. So, whatever he's taking to sleep, it's bringing him close to the edge and whoever he's singing about is already too far around the bend. He's always talking about the edge of temptation, the tipping point of personal wholeness. Actually, it's a lot like Achtung Baby era Bono. |
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| The National – Terrible Love Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It's a terrible love and I'm walking with spiders It's a terrible love and I'm walkin' in its quiet company (etc with minor variations) And I can't fall asleep without a little help It takes a lot to settle down I sailed a boat into the past except It takes an ocean not to break But I won't follow you into the rabbit hole And I said I would but then I saw your skin and bones they didn't want me to Like So Far Around The Bend, it's about watching people you love lost in self destruction. Spiders catch prey in webs. So, whatever he's taking to sleep, it's bringing him close to the edge and whoever he's singing about is already too far around the bend. He's always talking about the edge of temptation, the tipping point of personal wholeness. Actually, it's a lot like Achtung Baby era Bono. |
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| Big Star – Stroke It Noel Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Today is the day Alex Chilton passed away. I don't think too much needs to be said about his greatness, but I would nominate this song as the evidence. Thank you, sir. | |
| Spoon – I Could Be Underground Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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(Well, I went and got messed up again.) The fact that you need to's enough (And I went and took it all out on somebody.) Where does it get you out of? And I could be underground, I could be back upstairs with you Well that could be me Up there standing around I could be fakin it all But you would never because I need you I loved you I'm down (And that's a wet piece of wood for the fire tonight) Yeah I need you I loved you I'm down I'm underground |
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| The National – Wake Up Your Saints Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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PS - I should have added, this connects to another National song where the persona exhibits metatextual awareness of the song (and career) and questions either its futility or worth, given the difficulty of life as a musician and the pressures of trying to properly express big ideas. You know, given the interpretation that Mr. November is about the anxiety of delivering a good album to a British record label. (which is a fair interpretation, given the process of how the National write their songs). |
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| The National – Wake Up Your Saints Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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" I can't sing another version of the same color blue" It's about modes of expression, salvation, reformation, agnosticism, etc. Example: proper punctuation and transcription of the third stanza: I didn't have to explain to her That I wasn't dead. She sat me down and lit some colored candles over my head She said "you're right it's a livin' But you're wrong for the life." Honey, maybe you never should've listened to my mother's advice |
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| Rainer Maria – The Contents Of Lincoln's Pockets Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Walt Whitman wrote a lot about Lincoln. They were contemporaries, and Lincoln was in New York a lot. They were both photographed by Mathew Brady. When Lincoln was inaugurated, and when he was assassinated, Whitman wrote long pieces about both (I think for the NYT) because he was a journalist as well. As for what this song is about... What makes a man? Could you tell who he was, or what he did, by what he had in his pockets when he died? Why is it relevant that Whitman was fascinated by train engines? Pay attention to the radiating heat, haloes, etc. Oh, and curtains. And theatres. This song is a lot more meaningful if you know a bit about Lincoln and Whitman and the subtext that they represent as mythic signs (symbols that refer to texts outside the texts, ala Frye). |
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| Arthur Russell – Arm around you Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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With songs this good, I'm glad Arthur Russell was a bad Buddhist. This is so the opposite of detachment and Zen. The hardest thing with dating is the ambivalence that some people have. That's what this song is about. |
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| The National – So Far Around the Bend Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| It's more of a lament of self destruction than anything. If you've ever had that one friend that takes hard living too far, and there's nothing you can do about it. That's why the music is such a contrast to the subject, because there's no point in despairing over something you can't change. There's no leaving because that person is going anywhere. Praying for Pavement to get back together is not getting over the past. | |
| Handsome Furs – The Radio's Hot Sun Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It's kind of generally Biblical. Feeling distant from your home, giant floods, not know anything about the other side. Our bodies remember when we were only animals... Fall from grace? Human nature being lost to animal nature in throes of passion? |
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| Handsome Furs – Cannot Get It Started Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"I KNOW THE NERVOUS WALKING i know the dirty beard hangs out by the box car waiting take me away to nowhere plains" Here Comes Your Man, The Pixies I think I liked this song better when I had the words wrong... "you kill some track to zero" I thought was "you can subtract to zero" and a few other things. C'est la vie. |
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| Laurie Anderson – Let X=X Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I once made a sticker with the lyrics from the postcard part of the song. I put it on the back of a Keith Harring postcard and sent it to a friend of mine. | |
| The Silver Jews – Random Rules Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| David Berman has a book of poems called Actual Air that is really good. | |
| Pavement – Major Leagues Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I think the first line is "Lip balm on watery clay" because it's about an inattentive lover.... Also, The Magic Christian is a novel by Terry Southern. | |
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