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Ingrid Michaelson – Masochist Lyrics 11 years ago
I like this interpretation -- it makes the most sense. I love this song but couldn't get around the concept of the "she".

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Ingrid Michaelson – Masochist Lyrics 11 years ago
"Roll up your sleeves" is a common English saying, meaning "Get ready for hard work" or "get ready to get dirty". It came from people who worked farms and had to roll up their sleeves when they had to do a particularly dirty or difficult task. It doesn't have anything to do with cutting your arms?? Yikes! Haha :)

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Matt Duke – Rabbit Lyrics 12 years ago
God, the acoustic version of this song is beautiful. I was hoping others would have posted interpretations of this gem. I seemed to identify with it from the standpoint of being someone who loves the idea of love but gets scared and can't seem to commit. I feel like the "little rabbit" is actually a girl he is singing to. I feel like he's telling her to run away from him. He tells her:

"I find I keep falling for love
But I can’t seem to follow it through"

Then he says:
"I leave one good hand on the wheel
Been counting mile markers for days
Everything falls further behind
I can disappear in several ways"

As if to say he always keeps one foot in the relationship and one foot out, ready to "disappear" from the romance at a moment's notice. He can't fully commit.

I interpret the "One little man, one mighty sun" lyric almost as if he's saying he's a small person compared to the bright/burning love she may feel for him; he doesn't want to "awaken" to it, he wants to stay ignorant in his own emotional neutrality.

He then tells Little Rabbit to listen to her gut and break away from him. She's likely heart broken that he can't give her what she wants/needs but isn't willing to walk away from him, and he's asking her to listen to her intuition and break free from him. Just count the hard fight she's waged to make the relationship work as a sunk cost, throw the towel in and walk away.

Just my thoughts :)

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Youngblood Hawke – We Come Running Lyrics 13 years ago
The band explains that this song was written during a time when the they hadn't "made it" yet, and everyone was working odd jobs, struggling to make ends meet, and going through the toilsome process of writing songs and establishing themselves as a group with their own identity and vision. They said that the song was written as a sort of "motivational reminder" that even though it's tough now, there are endless possibilities for them on the horizon.

You can check this explanation out on Spotify by searching the band's listing, "We Come Running - Commentary".

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Josh Ritter – Idaho [DVD][Live] Lyrics 13 years ago
I'm sure there's a great metaphorical reasoning behind this song, but I like to view it more literally. I've met a lot of people who grew up in small towns in middle America dreaming of the fast-paced glamour of city life. They are so anxious to get out of there and move somewhere more exciting, and when they do, they live it up and have a great time until 5-10 years pass and they get it out of their system and realize that they weren't meant for the city. They realize their values and all the things important to them are back in that small town setting where they grew up and it's where they want to raise their children and such.

Every time I hear this song, this is the sentiment I feel I hear Josh singing about. He "gave up his life of crime" and passed it on to the next wave of people seeking the fast life. He is "haunted" by the desire to be back at home where he feels belongs.

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Leona Lewis – Better In Time Lyrics 16 years ago
Will someone please explain to me what the folloing verse means?

Going coming thought I heard a knock
Who's there no one
Thinking that I deserve it
Now I realise that I really didn't know
If you didn't notice you mean everything
Quickly I'm learning to love again
All I know is I'm gon' be ok

What does she think she deserves? What does she realize that she didn't really know? I am going through the most difficult time of my life right now and this song is one of the only crutches I have to help me define my attitude toward the situation. But I really want to be able to identify with and understand the whole song and I'm just wondering what it was that she thought she deserved? Being broken up with? Or being happy? And what did she not know?

The "Going Coming / Thought I heard a knock / who's there? No one" part is a great part of this song, it's like 10 times each day I think I hear my phone vibrate with a text and I scramble to find it, thinking it's him, and it was really nothing but a figment of my imagination. Brutal.

And even though I really love you
I'm gonna smile cause I deserve to

Powerful. God bless whoever was the true writer of this song, partly because they must have gone through a terrible break-up to be able to write a song so acurate as this, but also that this song is literally keeping me from jumping off of the cliff of sanity into the dark empty abyss of abandonment.

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Jason Mraz – A Beautiful Mess Lyrics 17 years ago
"It's like we're picking up trash in dresses..."

This is one of those songs that makes me feel like I'm turing inside out when I listen to it because it is so freaking beautiful that I can't even stand it. Literally, I love this song so much that I can't even listen to it. Jason's music is so personal....he gets the music right, he gets the lyrics right, and he captures the most complex things about life and wraps them up into simple truths. "A beautiful mess" -- that is exactly what our lives are. This song, "Love for a Child", and "Life Is Beautiful" are songs I listen to when I need help grasping the big picture and all of these feelings and emotions I can't quite describe....his music actually brings quality of life to me.

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Matthew Perryman Jones – Beneath the Silver Moon Lyrics 17 years ago
This song is terribly beautiful. The image it brings to mind of a young boy who is a dreamer, full of life and wonder, adventure and curiosity, is quite refreshing. It's the way youth used to be, the way youth never can be as the world continues to get more and more corrupt.

It seems to me that this song is from the perspective of a man as he reflects on his own boyhood, and refers to his "younger" self as an entity separate from his "current" self.

The best part of this song is when Matthew says,

"I see you in this height so sad and sweet
Your spirit burning bright
I know he whispers still in places deep
With flaming words of light"

It seems as if, from his older perspective (height) and looking back on (or down at) his boyhood, it is both sad and sweet to him how innocent and lively he used to be. His "spirit burned bright". The latter two lines appear to elude to the "child within" this grown man, who still whispers quietly with the lively words, dreams and wonders he once used to have and that used to fill his life and being completely.

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Sara Bareilles – Gravity Lyrics 17 years ago
How.....like, how is it even possible to comment on this song? I don't think there are powerful enough words to express how magnificently, gut-wrenchingly, captivating this song is. Not only the lyrics but her vocal variety; she could be singing about styrofoam and it would still be a gorgeous song.

What talent. I am speechless.

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Marie Digby – Spell Lyrics 17 years ago
This song is ridiculous. It is so beautiful I can't even comprehend it. I was up until 1am this morning perfecting it on guitar. It left me speechless the first time I heard it.

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Antony and the Johnsons – Bird Gerhl Lyrics 17 years ago
OK, this song was played for me on Pandora, and I was like wtf.....and then I listened to it again, and listened to the lyrics, and I have to say it is a weird song but hauntingly beautiful. It is sad, melancholy....I kind of like it. What was the context of this song in the movie? I've never seen V...

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Blind Pilot – Go On, Say It Lyrics 17 years ago
The lyrics here are butchered (in "rockerbabe99's" defense, the track isn't that clear so it makes it difficult to decipher lyrics). The correct lyrics are below:
****
Picking up sound on the interstate,
I am my breath, letting in waves.
There will be time when the sleep
I’m in covers me whole, covers me thin.
I know I’ll wake up old,
forgetting which box this is in.
How I will keep you just how I left you.
Our daughter once told me I know a lot.
Now I’m strutting off with more than I’ve got.
A hitchhiker told me I don’t talk a lot.
It made me feel fine, made me quiet.
If you’d of said it right
instead of painting words white…
How I will keep you just how I left you.
Come on, say it right.
*****

As for interpretation, I am at a loss as of now. It is almost as if he is singing about aging, and wanting to keep his memories intact as he gets old. I don't know. Great song though. I hate the Shins, and while this song reminds of something The Shins might play, Blind Pilot does a great job at making a sweet-sounding melancholy song.

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Rosie Thomas – Since You've Been Around Lyrics 17 years ago
It's strange...it sounds at first as though this person who has shown up is dragging her down, is hurting her in some way or distressing her. But then at the end she says that her heart was so beaten down BEFORE this person came around. So, did he (assuming this is a love song...could be a song about a parent who left and then resurfaced, etc.) cause her pain, or was she in pain and now he's uplifting her?

It reminds me of that one person all of us "falls in love with" when we are so young in high school, and everytime that person shows up in class or wherever, it's like it reminds us of how desperate we are in wanting to be with them and it hurts, but yet it makes us excited and happy at the same time when they show up. That mixture of excitement and anxiety...or as Ethan Hawke says in the movie Gattaca, "I never realized how far away I was from my dream than when I was standing right beside it."

Great song.

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Shout Out Louds – Normandie Lyrics 17 years ago
I just discovered this song. It's beautiful. I love the part where he says, "Your neck smells just like hers did."

Totally a morning-after song. I think his singing is an interior dialogue with himself, which explains why he is able to sing to the one night stand girl, but then close the song by singing to his ex. I picture him dragging himself out of bed and doing the walk of shame on his way home, and these are the thoughts going through his head as the normal comings and goings of weekend life are all around him -- people walking their dogs, city buses going by, kids laughing at the park...

I think the "adding 5 colours" verse may be metaphorical for his shame (blushing, anger, sorrow, etc.) the next morning when he wakes up next to a strange girl and realizes what he has done. But his hang over is so strong that it is requires much effort to continue any moral assessment of his actions.

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OneRepublic – Come Home Lyrics 17 years ago
"The fight for you is all I’ve ever known..."

I heard this song on "So You think You Can Dance" and thought it sounded pretty, so I looked it up on YouTube. By the end of listening to it, I was on the floor crying tears. I have never heard a song so full of pain and want before. Absolutely brilliant. God bless our soldiers, and those left alone at home while they are away. Two different wars, same kind of pain.

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Coldplay – The Hardest Part Lyrics 17 years ago
Thank you for your kind email, chokkson.

And I'm wondering why there are people who think this is the worst song on X&Y?? Chris could not have written a more beautiful, appropriately-versed song. I just love it, it is brill :)

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Terra Naomi – Say It's Possible Lyrics 17 years ago
Wow, no jokes. After I read the Global Warming comment, I was like wtf?? And I was waiting for someone to slam that comment down. But after the subsequent comments I re-read teh lyrics and what would you know? It is completely an environmental song!

You're def right about reading too deep into songs, LiveLife. People always relate anything they hear to love, which is fine, but we miss so many messages being relayed through music if we keep such a narrow focus. The line that sealed the deal for me was:

"And the pull of what we can't give up takes hold "

It's so true...we could make beautiful changes in the world, but none of us are willing to let go of what we need to to make a difference. Thanks for your comments, guys and gals!

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Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life Lyrics 17 years ago
Have any of you experienced the feeling of compeltely fucking up the best thing in your life, and it's like a nightmare and with each tick of the clock, you are newly reminded that it is reality? That's how I am feeling, and yesterday, while busy wallowing in my own self-pity, I came across this song as sung by a girl on youtube by the profile name "mynameismeghan" She does an A-MAZE-ING job at singing it, and I sat there and just cried. And cried. And cried.

I wonder when the pain will go away? The lines that made me just lose it were:

"That these things take forever, I especially am slow
But I realized how I need you
And I wondered if I could come home"

Relationships are such an investment. I don't think I have anything left to give for the rest of my life, I am just exhausted. And I'm only 24.... These lines made me cry my eyes out. It was beautiful.

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The Weepies – World Spins Madly On Lyrics 17 years ago
Here's the thing about this song. Those of us with the lucky pleasure of knowing what it feels like to be desperately hurt, also know what it's like to wake up in the morning and realize that the nightmare of breaking up, or losing a loved one, is actually true. And the pain is sureal at times, so bad that we can barely breathe let alone comprehend that the world still requires us to function, and move on, and go about our daily lives. And yet The Weepies sing about this to such a calm, sweet melody...it is quite cathartic, and I believe it emphasizes the understatement of what it feels like to actually be in so much distress that you wish you weren't alive.

I like how CherryTunes (3 comments above mine) sums it up. I think it could either mean what Cherrytunes is talking about, or simply may discuss the pain of waking up to a sad, painful reality.

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Coldplay – The Hardest Part Lyrics 17 years ago
I am basically obsessed with this song, I have it on replay in my car.

It perfectly coincides with a situation I am in. For me, he is singing about one of the hardest things in life one must do, which is to let go of someone you love...perhaps a failed relationship? A process of letting go, of course, is not being able to hang out, or go out with this person, or enjoy any of the things you once used to, hence, "not taking part".

To me, the "bell" signifies like the ending bell of a sports match; it was like he was just waiting for the end of the relationship to come, and was reminicising on how strange of a thing that is to do.

The chorus is what gets to me the most; I recently experienced the most amazing adventure of a relationship with someone I met 3,000 miles away while on a trip. But when I left, clearly it wasn't going to work out between us and I could literally feel our "relationship" go down. And when Chris says "You left the sweetest taste in my mouth", it was beautiful to me because this guy I met left me with so many amazing memories, that even in the midst of it not working out in the end for us, I still had the sweetest memories.

BTW, for the first chorus, it sounds to me like he is saying, "Bittersweet I could taste in my mouth", not "It is sweet....", but that's just me. And instead of, "It was the strangest start...', it sounds more like, "It was the strangest thought"??? Again, just me.

I

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Coldplay – Fix You Lyrics 17 years ago
WhenWillThisEnd - what an interesting interpretation!

To me, my now ex-boyfriend's best friend burned me a CD with this song on it. When my BF and I broke up, this song was so cathartic to me.

I tried so hard to make my relationship work; I didn't love him persay, but all my feelings went to waste; we were just too incompatible. But when i lost him, I lost everything - all of the friends I had made, all of the great fun amazing adventurous times; I lost it all. Nothing can replace the friends I lost. It is too awkward hanging out with them now that my BF and I aren't together. When the Coldplay guy started to sing
"Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I..."
I just started sobbing. It explained how I was feeling competely. I needed so badly someone to come fix me, to champion me. I did everything in my power to please my bf but at the end of the day, he just didn't want to have a gf....

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Rilo Kiley – Always Lyrics 17 years ago
Honestly, is Rilo Kiley capable of making a bad song? No seriously.

A friend of mine burned me this random CD a month ago and I never bothered to listen to the whole thing, particularly the 26 Rilo Kiley songs he had on there. But I'm plowing away on some financial reports at work and threw on my iPod, and I swear I've replayed a handful of songs like 12 times. Throughout the history of my song-loving life, I've never encountered a band that is capable of such unique tunes, lyrics, and messages.

Unbelievable. The best part of this song is def the last two lines.

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NOFX – Happy Guy Lyrics 17 years ago
Before I became Christian I was a pretty big fan of NOFX, and I still like them though I do hold some reservations now. I agree wiith Heimlich. They personally are non-beleivers, and may think people are fools for following religion, but in the end they are accepting and in today's society, that is a beautiful thing.

There's a typo I think - instead of "his theologian ideas", I think it's "his theological ideals". One of their best songs, I love this one.

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Ericson – Hesitations Lyrics 17 years ago
obviously a pro-life song. I loved this song, I actually downloaded it off of myspace way back when (I think...either that or iTunes). Anyways, it wasn't until a couple months after listening to it that I was working out at the gym and started listening to the lyrics. I was happy to hear a young group of guys signing a song with a pro-life message. Good for them!

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Run Kid Run – The Call Out Lyrics 17 years ago
Yay! First one to comment! I love Run Kid Run...one of my many iTunes discoveries.

This song feels like it’s about people who let modern society dictate their every move, like sardines in a bait ball. People do tend to jump on a mind-numbing bandwagon thinking, “ooh, everyone does such and such, so I can do it too and not get caught/hurt/etc.” You think you have it all but in actuality, you have no freedom; you’re doing what “everyone else is doing”, you’re under submission to the dictates of the masses.

Eventually when people call for change or try to shed light on the reality of the situation, many become blind (or in this case, numb – “You’re breaking up and I can’t even FEEL the difference”) to their call out. Motionless Intentions – the fact of the matter is that while we feel we have the freedom to step up and do all the good in the world, or to provoke change, we don’t act on our intentions, especially if we're following society since what matters most is what others think of us. The more we follow, the more we depart from our individuality
(Honestly you're on a one track mind
You parade a modern march
That's falling far behind from who you are)

Anyways, that’s how I see this song; it’s about someone who is different and is “calling you out”, trying to awaken you from your hypnotic need to follow the masses. Cool song, love the band.

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Thrice – The Artist in the Ambulance Lyrics 17 years ago
I haven't taken the time to read everyone's comments (which I normally do), but this is one of my favorite songs for this reason: There have been several times where it has dawned on me how much we take people for granted; School teachers, support staff, secretaries....people that aren't the giant big wigs (like ER docs, Politicians, etc.) but without them, we would be utterly lost. This song does such a beautiful job at getting neck deep into how incredible EMTs are - they are the first to respond, they keep us alive before that highly praised doctor gets a chance to take the scalpel to us. They give us a second chance at life for sure.

This whole song seems to depict that "life flashing before your eyes" moment when the reality of your situation and how dependant you are on someone you may never have given much thought to before all strikes you at once. Poetically, this song amazes me every time I listen to it.

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Secondhand Serenade – Fall For You Lyrics 17 years ago
"you always thought that i was stronger
i may have failed,
but i have loved you from the start"

Absolutely beautiful.

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Air – Surfing on a Rocket Lyrics 17 years ago
This is the coolest song ever. I did the 2008 Los Angeles Urban Iditarod last month (it's a SoCal thing, I guess!) and someone posted a video of it on YouTube with this song in the background and I had to buy it. So to me, this song embodies mass amounts of people dressed in costumes and breaking the law by pulling grocery carts full of alcohol all over Venice, CA. But that's just my interp... :) Check it out on YouTube, just search 2008 LA Urban Iditarod...

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Chris Rice – Welcome To Our World Lyrics 17 years ago
obviously, a ridiculously beautiful song.

Hope that you don't mind our manger

Understatement for all eternity...

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Joshua James – Today Lyrics 17 years ago
reminds me of a middle school kid during the lazy days of summer - he has a crush on some girl who doesn't seem to notice him or something. The chorus makes it seem like no matter what he does, he registers the same response from her (give it up, give it out...same old song, same old tune). At night he goes to sleep, it's another day gone by and the next day he'll just do it all over again to try to get her attention. Cute song. Found it on iTunes.

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Seabear – I Sing I Swim Lyrics 17 years ago
I just discovered this band on iTunes and I'm liking them a lot. What a unique song. I've listened to it a couple times and I get a notion that the song is somehow about abortion, or at least it has a pro-life twinge to it. In the first paragraph, it sounds like they had sex or whatevs, then in the second paragraph it says "Your Son, Your Daughter, Swimming in the Water" like she has conceived. Later it says
"Human skin, can be hard to live in
You'll feel better in the morning
Wash your hands in the lake
You've got a heart, some way"
as if to say she has morning sickness, or perhaps it's hard to have a teenage pregnancy or soemthing, but that the baby is human nonetheless (You've got a heart some way").

At the end it says "Wash your face in the lake
You've got a diamond under your skin". It's like telling her to refresh herself, be happy, snap out of it, because children are precious. I could be wrong, it's just my interpretation. Beautiful song.

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