| R.E.M. – Hope Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I have to agree with the people that said it's about illness. I had cancer when I was a boy and the minute I heard this song I instantly identified with it. The allusions to alligators and spaceships also fit me, I was obsessed with dinosaurs and snakes and the like when I was a kid. I think these are brought up because when you're stuck in a bed for a year, you end up thinking a lot of stuff, about the past and the future. also, the bit about crossing DNA with something reptile could well be a reference to healing powers reptiles have, able to grow limbs back and in some cases, like alligators, seemingly indestructible, powerful creatures. (which is perhaps why the line about killing alligators appears earlier) |
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| Alexander – Truth Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I think it sounds like "I'll tell you 'bout a secret I've been undermining Every little lie in this world come from the bible" |
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| Elvis Costello – Beyond Belief Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I particularly like "do you have to be so cruel to be callous?" brilliant line about someone over-doing their insults. also good is "dogfight like rose and thistle." great reference to the history of bloodshed between the english and scottish. |
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| Glasvegas – Geraldine Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I think it's meant to subvert the standard 'lovers promise' style of song. don't think it's sarcastic, I just think it's meant to mislead you into believing this is some beautiful set of promises and intents on commitment then at the end it pulls the romance from under your feet and the whole thing becomes much sadder as the suicide references and things were literal, not metaphorical and the singer isn't really doing this out of love, it's just her job. | |
| The Birthday Party – King Ink Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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that could be true chamberlain. I've heard Nick Cave name check Lorca's essay on duende. Duende is sometimes described as the demon of tragic art. Well, it's a bit more complex than that but that's the basic idea. It's also what he admits he tries to embody his songs with. my only wonder is would nick have read it before this song was written? he was quite young. |
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| Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I don't think is at all an attack on the left. for one, when he gets out he doesn't actually punish anyone for their mistake of letting him go, rather more complexity is added to his nature by digging up a long time victim of his and building a cage for himself. I think it's a criticism of simple, typical "family values", the and turning away from problems pretending they're not there. the character in the song is clearly deranged by nature, the fact that the only reproach he gets for attacking people or being mad in his youth is they sort of roll their eyes and say "he's just an excitable boy" implies that his bad behaviour and subsequent violence are not a product of abuse or any explanation. The examples of bad behaviour also come at very traditional wholesome small town events. going to see a movie, eating sunday roast, taking someone to the prom. Which the character tears up in his own way, rejecting to fall into line. The fact that it's "they ALL said" gives me the impression it's not just his family, but also perhaps a small community. again adding to the small town value attack. Of course when he does go to far he's put in a home, and when he gets out he shows incredible devotion to "little suzi" by digging up her grave, and building a cage from her bones. As if he wants to live in her or perhaps punish himself, or maybe both, suggesting he hasn't stopped thinking about her. Obviously is macabre as hell, but I think it's meant to be interpreted as a misguided act of total love and obsession. So in a way the character is also the hero as he is the passionate one, breaking out of the shackles of small town, boring life. it's a really effective story, considering it's little more than 8 lines long with a chorus refrain. |
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| Bob Dylan – Desolation Row Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think the song is about divide between the establishment and the new youth scenes at the time. Desolation Row is not a paradise, it's like a sealed off street, but where stuff goes on, where all the miscreants live, who also include the poets and artists. The outside world peers in voyeuristically, reporting on it with fake moral outrage, but secretly jealous of the freedom of what goes on there. |
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| Pixies – Havalina Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I adore the build up in guitars before he says "among the trees" it's just so gorgeous. really as lyrics this song dosn't have much but when put to the music they are just so carefree and dreamlike. it's basically just about an ideal life. |
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| Pixies – The Holiday Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I don't think painted her on the sheets just means he's imagining her on the sheets. I think it's a double entendre there. i.e. there has been some fluid applied to the sheets aswell. incidently while we're talking about nirvana/pixies stuff. I think the pixies do get the props they deserve now (certainly here in the UK when I saw them it was in a massive stadium with about 10000 people, not a festival, just them doing a tour) one thing that hacked me off was Charles Cross' assertion that frank black couldn't write a line as brutal as "i'll eat your cancer when you turn black" as to me frank black is the better lyricist. |
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| Pixies – Alec Eiffel Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I love this song and the lyrics. Yeah it's about alexandre eiffel designer of the eiffel tower. but he also was playing with the phrase "smart alec" a very intelligent person that uses their intelligence in a nasty way. It's a character portrait of someone who was so smart they just did what they wanted and didn't care. "they didn't want it but he built it anyway" it's no so much about the french not wanting, it's mentioned because he wanted to do it and didn't care what anyone else though. "keeping low dosn't make no sense" being humble about your talents is pointless in alec's view. again, he designed a monstrous building and and decided to flaunt his ability building it. and the phallic references are like it's the equivalent of a rich mans fancy car. Not only referencing the shape of the tower but also it grandeur and size being a physical manifestation of alec's self-inflated opinion of himself as a man. |
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| The Smiths – That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I would wager there is definitely some sort of car crash scenario involved here. Morrisey seems obsessed with the idea of two lovers being killed in a car crash. | |
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Curse of Millhaven Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I love this line. "Like my eyes ain't green and my hair ain't yellow It's more like the other way around." that's great writing to be honest. using the imagery from earlier to twist her into the vision of medusa or some snake like monster. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Death is Not the End (Bob Dylan cover) (feat. PJ Harvey, Shane MacGowan& Kylie Minogue) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think the song was orignally intended to be hopeful which is why this cover is so brilliant. there is a real talent to covering a song redefining its meaning. I think here the depressive element is definitely what the song is striving for. I don't think it's even meant to be depressive though, it's almost though all your demons are laughing at the inability to escape your problems. | |
| The Birthday Party – King Ink Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| i don't think it's intentional but it makes me think of metamorphisis. like he's a bug but hates himself for it. and the fats domino bit at the end then reminds me of the claustrophobic horror of Eraserhead. | |
| Arcade Fire – (Antichrist Television Blues) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| in fact, I'd go as far to say it's a modern day interpretation of the story of abraham. | |
| Arcade Fire – (Antichrist Television Blues) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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whilst I do think this is about spiritual crisis and living through your children I don't think it's a criticism. The arcade fire are too good a band to stoop to simple criticism. I think it's more about feeling god is lost in you, there is bitterness and fear in the lyrics, and yearning for something better for your child. He wants to give everything he has, even his child, to prove his faith but he also believes his child needs god and is terrified she like will not be absent to him. I think the second last line does say "throw me a knife" and I think it's a reference to the story of Abraham in the bible. |
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