submissions
| David Bowie – Young Americans Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I think it's 'pulled in behind the fridge' not 'bridge' - that can clearly be heard on the excellent live version he did on the Dick Cavett show at the time - avail on YouTube.
They're newly married - he has just carried her over the threshold into their dream home. He puts her down, looks around and wonders 'Am I too young?'
She wants the young american - she doesn't want him to grow old, to face up to reality. In return she'll take his ring, name, babies. They're both buying a dream.
They'll wake up. |
submissions
| Gilbert O'Sullivan – We Will Lyrics
| 8 years ago
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Gilbert was on the Danny Baker Show yesterday (13-2-16) and spoke about his lyrics including this one. He said it was based on things he's hear his mum say when he was a child - 'The both of yous' is very Irish and refers to Ray/Gilbert and his sister. His mum was a single parent at a time when that was not so common, especially amongst Irish Catholics so my earlier interpretation is only half right - the songs is sung from the child's perspective and the central figure is a lone mother - not a dad. |
submissions
| Gilbert O'Sullivan – We Will Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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A lovely but deeply melancholy song. The narrator would seem to be a Dad with no Mum evident in the song. She has left him or died, not clear, and he gets through the days cajoling his 2 kids, visiting relatives, having breakfast, playing football, all the time wondering how to start again without her. In most stories the moral if there is one is at the end, in this story the moral is there is no end, just beginnning, again and again.
I find the line "Turn the landing light off, no wait, leave it on
It might make the night that much easier to be gone" very poignant, seeing him sitting alone when the kids are in bed, thinking. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – Texas Girl At The Funeral Of Her Father Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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One of my favourite Randy Newman songs, though Linda Ronstadt's version is also good. Was the father a naval officer? Where in Texas is 1000 miles from the sea? None of thse questions really matter - just a very poignant song. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – Dixie Flyer Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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An autobiographical song about RN's childhood when he was taken back to live in NO while his dad was in the WW2 army. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – Birmingham Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The whole of the 'Good old boys' album is looking at the South from different angles and this song is a sympathetic account of one typical Southerner - I find the line about the dog, Dan, being 'the meanest dog in Alabam' very poignant |
submissions
| Seals & Crofts – We May Never Pass this Way(Again) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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A beautiful song, probably inspired by the Ba'hai faith shared by S&C. We don't know what comes next in life, what's over the horizona and particulrly what comes after death, so carpe diem. Enjoy life, live it, be glad. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Downtown Train Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Isn't this song just a bit stalkerish? He has seen this girl and follows her - knows her stairs and her doorway - and is dressed up -shining like a new dime- to try to get her attention but she doesn't even see him as he waits outside her house for her to get off her regular train - his dreams fall like rain. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Fire In The Hole Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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'Fire in the Hole' was a phrase used by US soldiers in Vietnam when they tossed grenades into VC bunkers - meaning stand clear, there's going to be an explosion. May not be relevant. |
submissions
| Donald Fagen – Ruby Baby Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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When either Leiber or Stoller (I forget which) was on Desert Island Discs (popular UK radio show in which celebs pick 8 records to take to a desert island) this was the only L&S tune he picked among his 8, which is quite a complement. |
submissions
| Love – Alone again or Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Is it a comment on 'free love' ? He wants to be alone with his girl but she's out loving anyone. |
submissions
| 10,000 Maniacs – Hey Jack Kerouac Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I read an interview with Alan Ginsberg in which he said he had approached Natalie about the lyric as he found it insulting and she had admitted using his name only cause it rhymed and scanned well. |
submissions
| 10,000 Maniacs – Gold Rush Brides Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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On the live unplugged version of this song Natalie reads from the book 'Women's diaries of the Westward Journey' a section about childbirth, as intro to the song. |
submissions
| The Who – 5:15 Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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The 5.15 train from London to Brighton would be full of commuting city office workers going home - Jimmy is 'out of his brain' amongst them, thinking of his mod lifestyle and looking forward to some action in Brighton, making his eventual disillusionment even more acute. |
submissions
| Jackson Browne – The Pretender Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think most of the interpretations above are accurate; it's about the struggle betwen wanting to be different and wanting to conform. I used to think the 'happy idiot' line was insulting to ordinary Joes until I found out that the original (Greek) meaning of idiot is 'private citizen/common man'. ie someone not involved in civic or political life. |
submissions
| Jackson Browne – Doctor My Eyes Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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there is also an ambiguity in the word 'doctor' which can be a verb ie treat/cure my eyes, as well as being used to address a medical person. I think he is saying 'please help me not to see these things.' |
submissions
| Paula Cole – I Don't Want To Wait Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This is a great song about how anger and violence works its way through families and puts their lives on hold. The singer is the grandaughter of a WW2 vet who is saying no, I am not going to participate in this, like previous generations. I want to 'be here now' - an old hippy phrase meaning live for the present - later used as an album title by Oasis.
I don't know much about Paula Cole but I'd guess she is the right age to have a grandfather of that generation, so maybe it's autobiographical. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – A Wedding In Cherokee County Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I read an interview with Randy in which he said this was intended as a love song set amongst people of whom he knew little. It started out being about Albania and then got shifted to rural Georgia, hillbilly country. I imagine the couple living in rough shacks up in the woods, probably being cousins. It kinda makes me think about the film 'Deliverance' and its milieu. |
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