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Yes – Yours Is No Disgrace Lyrics 9 years ago
It's about a (British/Canadian) Naval exercise.

Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
(found his target, later we find this is a lost helicopter)

Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human race,
(Caesar's palace is the radar/tracking air-threat centre of the ship, probably an Aircraft Carrier, but possibly a fleet-defence cruiser/destroyer)

On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place,
(out in the Pacific, out on a training cruise/patrol mission. It could have been to any series of ports)

If the summer change to winter, yours is no disgrace
(Cross the Equator: summer turns into winter. Yours is no disgrace is a common phrase for 'you've conducted yourself with honor')

Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are,
(Normal radar threat assessment. Show yourselves on 1970's radar)

Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are,
(Where is our missing helicopter?)

Lost in summer, morning, winter, travel very far,
(well, all summer cruise from somewhere Northern to someplace Southern)

Lost in musing circumstances, that's just where you are
(Where is our missing helicopter, in the middle of some large naval exercise? I almost think it should be 'Amusing Circumstance' but this may be a play on words)

Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
(Aha! a hit on Radar)

Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human, silly human race,
(how silly is this exercise - aircraft carrier/destroyer radar threat centers afloat thousands of miles from home/land?)

On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place,
(again... in the middle of the - probably South Pacific - ocean. Doesn't matter the cruise destination or departure)

If the summer change to winter, yours is no,
(Found the helo near the Equator)

Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace

Death defying, mutilated armies scatter the earth,
Crawling out of dirty holes, their morals,
Their morals disappear
(Yeah. This part makes me wonder a little about whether or not this is the present-day - was 1979 or so when song was written)


Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face
Caesar's palace, morning glory, silly human, silly human, silly human race,
On a sailing ship to nowhere, leaving any place,
If the summer change to winter, yours is no,
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace
Yours is no disgrace

Battleships confide in me and tell me where you are,
Shining, flying, purple wolfhound, show me where you are,
Lost in summer, morning, winter, travel very far,
Lost in musing circumstances, that's just where you are


So, if a Wolfhound is a helicopter, and looks purple in the morning twilight (with shining landing lights), and Yours Is No Disgrace is a term of (military) commendation, does this song NOT sound like 'we found our missing helo'?


submissions
Boz Scaggs – Lido Shuffle Lyrics 9 years ago
Lido missed the boat that day
He left the shack
But that was all he missed
And he ain't comin' back

Others got this right: he missed his chance to live a clean life; but he was more than smart enough to embark on his tour de force...

The shack was in Los Angeles (actually, Inland Empire). He's driving out Highway 66.

At a tombstone bar
In a juke joint car
He made a stop

In a ratty jalopy/beaten-up car, he made a detour to Las Vegas. Boz was equating anything southwest with Tombstone, AZ

Just long enough
To grab a handle off the top

One-armed bandit/slot machine. Anyway, the inference is he won, and left.

Next stop Chi town
Lido put the money down
Let 'em roll

Gambling's illegal in Chicago. It's the other end of Hwy 66, btw, from LA to Chicago, mostly gone now

He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One for the road

Very 70's attitude. The word 'job' here implies he's a burglar, as does 'hit' below

Lido
Whoah oh oh oh
He's for the money
He's for the show
Lido's waitin for the go

Lido
Whoah oh oh oh oh oh
He said one more job ought to get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One more for the road

Lido will be runnin'
Havin' great big funnin'
Till he got the note
Sayin' tow the line or blow it
And that was all he wrote

Okay, I actually think this is transcribed wrong. I think it's "Lido B. run, having great big fun..." but it doesn't mess with the meaning. He was making too much noise (law enforcement/FBI) for the local mob to want to deal, so they sent him a message... and he chose to leave rather than fight (he didn't miss that boat)

He'll be makin' like a bee line
Headin' for the border line
Goin' for broke
Sayin' one more hit ought to do it
This joint ain't nothin' to it
One more for the road

Mexico... and he'll start a new life after the last hit (robbery). This joint has nothing for security, it's easily knocked-over.

Lido
Woah oh oh oh
He's for the money
He's for the show
Lido's waitin' for the go

"One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go". Show here means both third-place (first is 'win', the money; second is 'place', for less money, and third place is 'show', as in 'show in the standings'). It probably also means that he likes being flashy and a showoff.

Lido
Woah oh oh oh oh oh oh
One more job ought to get it
One last shot then we quit it
One more for the road

Lido
Woah oh oh oh
He's for the money
He's for the show
Lido's a waitin' for the go
Lido
Woah oh oh oh oh oh
One more job ought to get it

Fun song, and I like singing it on roadtrips in the southwest.

submissions
The Beatles – Penny Lane Lyrics 18 years ago
Oh, Jeez, people, this is about the most sarcastic song I've ever heard, right up with "Sultans of Swing".

Look, it's not straightforward at all. Let me break it down for you:

"In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of ev’ry head he’s had the pleasure to know."

He keeps a set of photos of everyone famous he's met, like an autograph book. Not too out there, but still strange behavior.

"And all the people that come and go
Stop and say ‘Hello’."

The ordinary people of Penny Lane/Liverpool want to be near greatness, so they participate in the oddity, and stop in to look at the photos of people they'll never be.

On the corner is a banker with a motorcar,
The little children laugh at him behind his back."

A rich banker (the motorcar shows he's rich) has lots of illegitimate children, their presence is mocking him (probably because he has to pay off their mothers)

"And the banker never wears a mac
In the pouring rain - very strange."

Mack = raincoat = rubber = condom. Even though it's likely to get him ANOTHER illegitimate child (bastard), he continues to have sex without rubbers (because he's arrogant or likes the feeling better, whichever)

"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes,
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sitt, and meanwhile back"

He's (Paul) sitting observing and listening and ferreting out what is driving the people he sees - what's beneath the surface of their daily lives

"In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen.
He likes to keep his fire engine clean,
It’s a clean machine."

A man who keeps punctuality as a goal. Very indicative of the British Condition, subverting all of one's desires to an admiration and striving for a goal that one can keep, instead. He keeps a portrait of the Queen, another person he'll never reach or touch, but his perversion is that the Queen - a 'handsome' woman - is his masturbatory fantasy, and, like clockwork - punctually - he masturbates (keeps the fire engine clean) often - it is, after all, a clean machine, worthy of the Queen.

"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes,
A four of fish and finger pies
In summer meanwhile back"

In the summer, when things are warm and free-er, boys finger women in the streets after dark...

"Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray."

She's selling medical morphine and other narcotics to supplement her income. Nothing to do with war remembrance; it's a juxtaposition of the pretty nurse trafficking in stolen narcotics.

"And though she feels as if she’s in a play
She is anyway."

Her actions are surreal to her, feeling justified because it's all unreal; but all the world's a stage, and she's a player doing it for Paul's benefit (his observation).

"In Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer,
We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim"

The Banker is waiting to see a mistress, and using the barber as a reason for being out of the office.

"And then the fireman rushes in
From the pouring rain - very strange."

The fireman is afraid of women - the pouring rain symbolizes (as above) the potential for fathering children - and he rushes indoors (would rather masturbate because women terrify him).

Now, children, THAT's what the song is about.

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