| Sia – Burn the Pages Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I actually think this may be about relapsing into drug addiction. Its cleverly framed as hopeful song about beating depression and letting go of the past, but look at the language - tshot injections, 'cook', swallow me peacefully, black smoke. Its ironic I think, pointing out the euphoria of giving in to destructive addiction can feel like hope for the future. | |
| Queens of the Stone Age – If I Had A Tail Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Its a double entendre - we have a reference to the song Da Doo Ron Ron by The Crystals, simply because it sounds cool and the refrain is rock staple and of course it sounds like do run run which ties into 'you won't get far'. | |
| The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The thing about Morrisey's lyrics is that his outsider/gay perspective has a striking ability to bring universal truths about relationships, longing and frustration into sharp relief. Most people have felt like this at some point regardless of sexuality. | |
| The Smiths – I Want the One I Can't Have Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| nm | |
| The Smiths – I Want the One I Can't Have Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Nah..if he killed a policeman 'when' (past tense) he was 13 and is out and around to talk about then he's quite a bit older than that, and remember Mozz would have been only in his early twenties himself writing it. The mentality and biology line is about having the maturity to come out the closet or at least accept and act on those urges. | |
| Dead Kennedys – Nazi Punks Fuck Off Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The idea that DKs were "politically correct libtarded hip white kids" is pretty damn funny. Have you heard California Uber Alles or Holiday in Cambodia? | |
| Morrissey – Everyday Is Like Sunday Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| According to google its about my home town of Southport at least partially. It was written whilst here too. As I speak its wet grey and pretty damn miserable so appropriate all round. | |
| David Bowie – Life on Mars? Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"It's a god-awful small affair To the girl with the mousy hair But her mummy is yelling, "No!" And her daddy has told her to go But her friend is nowhere to be seen" We start with a little character bit. The girl with the mousy hair is disappointed at the restricted horizons she sees for her life (god awful small affair). Her lifestyle choices are upsetting her parents you (think 'oh you pretty things'). And she feels alone. "Now she walks through her sunken dream To the seat with the clearest view And she's hooked to the silver screen But the film is a saddening bore For she's lived it ten times or more She could spit in the eyes of fools As they ask her to focus on" Here it gets a bit more complicated. What we are dealing with with the girls trip to the cinema is postmodernism. Art intimating life to the point where the line between the artificial and real life blur, and the blandness of industrial repetition (think Warhol's soup cans) and modern life. She's had enough of it all. "Sailors fighting in the dance hall Oh man! Look at those cavemen go It's the freakiest show Take a look at the lawman Beating up the wrong guy Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know He's in the best selling show Is there life on Mars?" Now we have a description of the film, however its really a little picture of life on earth from an outsider perspective (typical alien/uberman Bowie stuff). People are cavemen beating each other up surrounded by superficial glitz, whilst the establishment messes things up, framed by a whithering, sarcastic enjoyment of watching it all. In despair he asks 'is there life on mars' - in other words is there anything better out there than this? "It's on America's tortured brow That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow" Nobody believes in the American dream anymore, capitalism is wearing itself out. "Now the workers have struck for fame Because Lennon's on sale again" The 'working class hero' is selling empty fame rather than revolution to the workers. "See the mice in their million hordes From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads" A mass of mindless people? "Rule Britannia is out of bounds To my mother, my dog, and clowns" Britain has lost its empire and the mere mention has become almost taboo (post colonial guilt?) "But the film is a saddening bore Because I wrote it ten times or more It's about to be writ again As I ask you to focus on" Back to post-modernism and dissatisfaction with modern life. |
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| David Bowie – Life on Mars? Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I'm not sure - it works either way. Lennon with the 'working class hero' shtick, it could be a line about the working class being encouraged to strike for the superficiality of fame over integrity. Lenin - could be a dig at the repeated selling of ideals until they become meaningless, but 'fame' doesn't make much sense in this context. Who knows? |
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| David Bowie – Space Oddity Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| That's actually good. Never thought of it as a positive 'breaking the bonds of the material world' type thing. I think you are right - it ties in very well with the era too. | |
| David Bowie – Space Oddity Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I'm surprised at the arguments, I always thought it was pretty straightforward. Its about an astronaut who drifts off into space BUT its also about an apprehension towards fame (superficiality of celebrity culture with the 'papers....wear' bit) and drugs (this was the late 60s after all). It shows how drugs can take you outside yourself and can even engender empathy/creativty, but we end with a classic 'in moderation' refrain as our protagonist drifts off into druggy oblivion. RE: Ashes to Ashes, it is very bitter - there is casting off of the metaphor with the 'we all know Major Tom's a junkie' line, its almost as if Bowie is mocking his own mystique - it may feel dangerous and cool but in the end there's just a sad junkie at the end of it. Or it may be simply about loss of innocence/disillusionment. It sounds to me like it was written at a low moment, but there's a ray of hope in the 'I'm happy, hope your happy too' which may indicate he has learnt to deal with the fame Oddity seemed to hold in contempt, just about anyway there's still 'sordid details following'. This is my rambling take anyway. |
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| Kate Bush – Get Out of My House Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The mule at the end appears to be a reference to the folklore of the 'headless mule'. In this myth a woman is cursed to be transformed into a fire spewing headless mule for punishment for sexual transgressions - the mule is said to neigh loudly and sound like a crying woman. From wikipedia: "The Headless Mule may be a personification of the latent paganism of some popular practices echoing in the collective conscience of a people massively indoctrinated with a simplistic view of Catholicism. It showcases the wild instincts and repressed behaviours that are unacceptable in a Judeo-Christian society. There may be some connection between the Brazilian Headless Mules and the witches which the Church burnt wholesale in Western Europe. Being personified as an animal implies a negative view of the character, which embodies the deepest forces that are part of the human consciousness, namely the libido, whose sexual aspect is traditionally associated with the horse, a symbol of sexual potency and brutal feats." In this song Bush is slamming the mental and physical doors of her metaphorical house as act of strength against an emotionally and sexually dominating male threat - in a more general sense patriarchy - the image of the mule is turned on its head, not as an image of sexual oppression against women as is traditional, but as a show of power that will free these 'wild instincts and oppressed behaviors' from mans grip. Interesting. |
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| Destroyer – Blue Eyes Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| ^^ I still think this is the intended meaning and Pitchfork have got it completely wrong. Your interpretation is a lot less ambiguous so is probably the correct one. | |
| Arcade Fire – In the Backseat Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Its about losing a family member and having to cope with it, I presume its a mother since 'in the backseat' seems to imply a relationship in which there is dependency. Through the death of this family member she realises how hard life can be she loses that naivete. It reminds me of the that quote from...er..somebody ... lol can't remember who... that the purest definition of youth is a life not yet touched by tragedy. In this case she realises that her past problems where simply 'learning to drive' in the face this loss, there is a a sense of losing youth and innocence and life really begining. | |
| Nick Drake – Northern Sky Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Love this song. Just something nobody has mentioned, he paraphrases William Blake's Auguries of Innocence in this: To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. Just like that fact, and it is very Romantic lyrically in the literary sense of the word. |
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| Tool – Eulogy Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The song is more than likely a eulogy to the late comedian Bill Hicks hence the picture of him in the album cover...why the their is a shade of bitterness their towards him I'm not sure. It seems Maynard doesn't see much value in being uncompromising to the point where it effects their career as was the case with Hicks (a similar attitude is expressed in the song Hooker with a Penis). | |
| Radiohead – I Will. (No Man's Land.) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| My god, thats horrid. | |
| Iron & Wine – Fever Dream Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I think whoever hes singing about is dead. Her fever dream is death. That's why he sings about her in such indistinct terms, "shape in the doorway" or "hears" not sees her sleeping. He seems to feel her presence in a birds wing on the window or rain on the doorstep. The line "Or maybe as sure as tomorrow will come" is the give away because the irony of the line points to death (like the album title). Babies don't need God's love because they don't yet know death exists and have no need for faith. I think the flowers are on her grave - the narrator is dealing with the futility of the gesture in the face of his loss. Extremely sad. | |
| The Flaming Lips – Fight Test Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This is not just about a girl - its far more general than that. Its just about realizing that standing down is not always the right thing to despite what you may have been believed and the subsequent moral grey area that results from said realization. Its about moral uncertainty first and foremost hence "I don't know where the sunbeams end and the starlight begins". It's about how your cherished beliefs can start to ring hollow through experience and how ultimately noone knows the right way to live life. | |
| The Flaming Lips – Fight Test Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| In regards to the Cat Stevens song, I never made the connection before, but the tune is the same. The lyrics actually seem like an ironic response to the fatherly advice in that song - its got the polar opposite meaning. Instead of calm down get married and settle you'll be happy, it's I don't know what to do with my life and I'm scared (i actually think this version is more true of most peoples life experience). | |
| Radiohead – Videotape Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| ^^ I take it back, it is a criticism. You are right about the word 'seen'. lol | |
| Radiohead – Videotape Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Meddler I dont think its a critiscism just an observation. Its putting technology in its proper context. This is why we record these moments, says Thom, as something of ourselves to leave behind to prove we here, meant something to other people and were happy even if for just one day. | |
| Radiohead – Go Slowly Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| One of the most moving love songs ive ever heard. It reminds me of 'Dont talk (put your head on my shoulder)' from the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds it is probably a better song than that to. Love as a way out is not original but this song makes you feel it. Just brilliant | |
| Radiohead – Down Is the New Up Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Definately what Hudsucker said meaning wise. I like the lines 'Your services are not required Your future's bleak, you're so last week' Musically I think its sounds like a weird James Bond theme, anyone else hear that? Except at the end when it turns into 'Funky Town'. Love it |
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