submissions
| Tom Waits – Jersey Girl Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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References to marriage always depress me. I knew tons of couples in high school that were absolutely inseparable and seemed perfect for each other and were always on about getting married as soon as they were eighteen. Then when I met them later after graduation I'd ask, "How's (name of significant other)?" and I'd invariably get, "He/she moved away" or "It just didn't work out" and even just "Who?"
I love the song though. To paraphrase, "I Can't Believe It's Not Springsteen!" References to Jersey, "boys", streets and "corners", "angels", the "let's run away together" angle, it's even got the glockenspiel going on. It seems tailor-made for Bruce. The only thing missing is the laid-off blue collar workers. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Saving All My Love for You Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Songs like this where he sings with a little bit of a slur or drawl I always imagine as being from the point of view of someone who's really drunk. Here, the narrator's trying desperately to apologize, but due to the inebriation he doesn't really understand that what he's done can't exactly be made up so easily, so the song comes off as "Oh, yeah, that... but I still really love ya, babe, okay?" And to be fair, it is a REALLY corny and schmaltzy and sentimental song, but hey, maybe that's just the alcohol talking.
The song's no masterpiece or anything but it's not entirely accurate to call it sexist. It's more like sexist by proxy. |
submissions
| The Moody Blues – Legend Of A Mind Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Leary had the right idea: RESPONSIBLE recreational use of drugs like LSD. A bit much to hope for, especially at that time, but good on him for questioning the motives of people who would ban drugs just for the sake of banning them, as if that ever stopped anyone. |
submissions
| The Moody Blues – Departure Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It's not so much about trying to find something as it is about trying to define what that intangible missing thing is. I think it's different for everyone; it could be something you don't have or something you should get rid of, something you're not doing or something you need to stop doing. That's really what the whole album's about, each song describing something new or different that a person might need to achieve enlightenment, represented by the last song, "Om". |
submissions
| The Moody Blues – Nights In White Satin Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I love the orchestral arrangements on this album. The end sounds like something out of a big 1950s or 60s-era Hollywood epic. It's really too bad that type of sound has fallen out of fashion in favor of more abstract approaches to scoring; it would be interesting to hear this type of music recreated with modern recording equipment. |
submissions
| Beck – Sexx Laws Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I don't care what the booklet says, it's very, VERY clearly "midnight SNACKS in the mausoleum". Not "hags". |
submissions
| David Bowie – This Is Not America Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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In the film The Falcon and the Snowman that this was made for, the main character is captured and beaten by the police in Mexico(?) or maybe somewhere else, it's been awhile since I've seen it. He protests, saying "I am an American citizen!" which gets the reply, "This is not America". To me, the song's about one's rights and privileges that get taken for granted until they're gone. Really paranoid song, but that's the 1980s in a nutshell. |
submissions
| Rush – Territories Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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"We get the drunken and passionate pride of the citizens along for the ride"
Ah yes, nationalism. That which allows people from all walks of life to come together and forget that whatever vague cause they're cheering has absolutely fuckall to do with the borders of their homeland. I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US you can see these misguided flag-wavers on both the right and the left. They plaster their Hummers/hybrids with shallow slogans about what they think of "America" but don't realize that their notion of "America" has been dead for decades. The American Way is causing all our problems and the American Dream is taken for granted, so what's America but lines in the sand? |
submissions
| Rush – Double Agent Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Someone waiting for judgment, and the nightmares that haunt his sleep as a result. |
submissions
| Bruce Springsteen – I'm on Fire Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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To the person who above asked if this was the shortest song to crack the Top 40: it's not. A lot of early rock 'n' roll/pop songs didn't even run two minutes. For example, "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis is 1:53.
"Little girl" is not necessarily literal, lots of guys call their girls that, or used to. "Daddy" just extends the metaphor, used as the phrase "sugar daddy" might be. I think this is obvious in the line "Can he do to you the things that I do": if I recall correctly, fathers don't usually lust after their daughters, and I doubt Bruce would put TWO pedophiles in the same song. The music's not creepy to me. Maybe it would be if they took out the drums. It's more sad or introspective than creepy. I think of the narrator talking to himself, sorting out his thoughts, rather than to the girl; no one would tell the object of his infatuation about a knife through his skull/soul/whatever. Speaking of which, how can a knife be "edgy and dull"? That's really the only mystery this song holds for me. |
submissions
| Stone Temple Pilots – My Second Album Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Oh god, this song is the fucking bomb. I assumed it was Scott Weiland singing too, but just really hamming it up. I'll have to find more songs by Richard Petersen, I guess. Putting it at the end of the album here is great. I guess STP just wanted to make fun of all the weird shit other bands were putting on their CDs as hidden tracks. |
submissions
| They Might Be Giants – Violin Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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My parents listened to classical music all the time but I never thought of making up lyrics. I guess my friends and I were too enamored with "Joy to the World, Barney's Dead" and "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells". |
submissions
| The Shins – Your Algebra Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Seeing the big picture and not getting hung up on the details. How ironic that you're all picking it apart line by line! |
submissions
| The Cure – Lovesong Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is quite the paradox. It's definitely one of the less depressing Cure songs, but the delivery is so dark and despairing that it creates an odd mixture of feelings. |
submissions
| Tool – Rosetta Stoned Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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He forgot what the aliens said to him. Drag, man. I can only imagine what that would be like. |
submissions
| The Mars Volta – Conjugal Burns Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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"I've got a second chance to inhabit the living" is probably my favorite line in the whole album. It's one of the few lyrics that's not hidden under a zillion layers of metaphor and innuendo, and it hits you like a bullet when you hear it. |
submissions
| Devo – Working In The Coal Mine Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Actually, this is a cover of an old R&B song written by Allen Toussaint and originally recorded by Lee Dorsey. Devo may have chosen it for its blunt honesty and simplicity about blue-collar America but there's definitely not any sexual innuendo. |
submissions
| Bloodhound Gang – Yummy Down On This Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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"If you were a Hindu I could aim for the dot" has to be one of the most fantastically offensive things I've ever heard, and this is coming from someone who won't flinch at Anal Cunt lyrics. The difference is that this is forces a horrible image into your head. Brilliant. |
submissions
| Paul Simon – 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This is a superior break-up song. It's a song of anxiety and relief, not the typical boo-hoo overwrought cheesy stuff that break-up songs usually are.
And hey, does this have a great drum hook or what? Steve Gadd is the best. |
submissions
| Tom Lehrer – I Got It From Agnes Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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This could either be a light-hearted innocent song about the flu, or it could be a delightfully twisted song about sexually transmitted diseases. |
submissions
| Kamelot – March Of Mephisto Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Note that the keyboard solo in this song uses a very violin-like sound. The violin was once considered the devil's instrument. But that was back when people banned certain aspects of music for religious reasons.
Hey, wait a minute... |
submissions
| David Bowie – Subterraneans Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The lyrics here are incorrect. "Shelly" should be replaced with "Shirley" as it is in the CD booklet.
Interestingly enough, "Care-line" might be interpreted as the name "Caroline", whereas "Shirley" might be heard as "surely" a la Airplane!. |
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