submissions
| Elvis Costello – King Horse Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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The noun phrase 'King Horse' would ordinarily be taken to mean 'King of the Horses', much as in 'The Lion King'. In context — 'between tenderness and brute force' — and the liner notes already quoted here, it seems as though Costello is suggesting that the men he's observing have some of the pathos of adolescent love (‘never seen’); the male in the last verse doesn’t use brute force, but asks (pleadingly?) ‘Will you please?’
So in context, it sounds to me as though this reflects a crowd of late adolescent boy-men at a cheap strip club (‘Teased up by a strip cartoon’, in the kind of punning word order reversal Costello loves), who are self-representing as stallions, but who in fact are just colts. |
submissions
| Indigo Girls – Able to Sing Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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Just an observation to note that I'd think it must be 'BLUNT force trauma', not 'blind force trauma' (unless they're up to something subtle that I missed). |
submissions
| Rilo Kiley – Portions for Foxes Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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@[BlackCorduroy:47703] Someone above cited Psalm 63:10, which in the KJV, in contest, reads,
Those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
They shall fall by the sword: They shall be a portion for foxes….
Since it's an unusual phrase, it seems likely that JL is referring to it specifically; and if that's the case, it would seem to suggest something along the lines of ‘As we both are behaving destructively toward one another, we both will surely be destroyed by our own selfishness’…. |
submissions
| The Clash – The Sound of Sinners Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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Frustrating that these lyrics don't include all the lines between 'time will sweep /
Us sinners by' and the end; does anyone have them? One line sounds like a prayer for 'sixes, sevens, and elevens'…. |
submissions
| The Libertines – Up The Bracket Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Are these lyrics verified against a band source? I looked here because I was trying to determine whether the song mentioned "the Calais Road" or "the Cowley Road" — if there's a "Cally" road, I'd be interested to hear where it is. |
submissions
| The Libertines – Up The Bracket Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Are these lyrics verified against a band source? I looked here because I was trying to determine whether the song mentioned "the Calais Road" or "the Cowley Road" — if there's a "Cally" road, I'd be interested to hear where it is. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Sign of the Crow (Part 2) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"This picture, somewhat mysterious in its origin, was discovered at the time of the 1918 armistice in the cellar of the boarding school where Berthe Petit, a humble Franciscan Tertiary, had been educated. After the troops had departed one of the Bernardine nuns in putting things in order found a piece of cardboard on which was pasted a pornographic picture and she tore it off to consign it to flames. To her astonishment she found that it covered this beautiful representation of the Blessed Virgin! It seems to combine the art of both the Eastern and the Western Rites. The facial features resemble those of the well known Pieta. Prayers before this picture have brought signal favors.
Confided by Our Lord to Berthe Petit: "Teach souls to love the Heart of My Mother pierced by the very sorrow which pierced Mine." [Dec. 25, 1909]"
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submissions
| The Mountain Goats – 1 John 4:16 Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I wonder whether the song makes more sense if we hear it in connection with 1 John 4:18 (rather than just 4:16): "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love," or in the Young's Literal Translation that Darnielle professedly likes, "Fear is not in the love, but the perfect love doth cast out the fear, because the fear hath punishment, and he who is fearing hath not been made perfect in the love."
In this case, "the beast" can be a figure for practically any threatening prospect, which the narrator no longer fears because of his (/her) confidence in love for the unstated addressee (could be another person, could be God, no necessity to pin it down). This then ties it back to 4:16.... |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Romans 10:9 Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I'm pretty confident that the second line is indeed "waiting for the ship to list" -- that is, for the boat to lean precipitously to one side or the other. "Shift list" was going around the net early, but "shift list" makes less sense and doesn't match the sounds of what he sings. I hear a distinct unaccented sound after the "t"; if he sings "shift list," it's more like “shift-a list." But why would he be waiting for a "shift list" (whatever that might be) while showering? On the other hand, when you're showering in a boat, a sudden change in the boat's level can throw you; you want to be alert for a ship listing when you're standing in a slippery space.
I'm just listening to the demo from "The Life of the World in Flux," though, and he uses a different line in the demo from that recording.
"And in the shower the little soaps and shampoos seem like ancient bottled ambergris" -- so evidently he was working on that line through the recording process. |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Linda Blair Was Born Innocent Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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"any chance that tate is a reference to the manson murders?"
"It possible, the more definite reference is to Born Innocent, starring (you guessed it) Linda Blair (of Exorcist fame.)"
Yes, but Born Innocent doesn't have a character named Tate; the question about that character remains. No obvious instance of a girl named Tate, who has questionable "methods" but is recognisably "a real nice kid," comes to mind. |
submissions
| The Extra Glenns – terminal grain Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I second Mr Delirious's correction ("breathing" for "leaning") and have a couple of others:
First, "Sioux" is spelled with the vowels in "iou" order.
On the album it sounds as (to me) though he's singing "I saw familiar passengers" rather than "I saw the blue passengers"; the forces he called up were the "cavalry," not the mount on which Jesus was crucified; and the theologian/philosopher's name is spelled "Kierkegaard." |
submissions
| The Mountain Goats – Matthew 11:14-19 Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Let anyone with ears listen!
But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,
“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.”
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’ |
submissions
| Creedence Clearwater Revival – Travelin' Band Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"Here we come again on a Saturday night
With your fussin' and your fightin' won't you get me to the rhyme"
This couplet doesn't sound right to me, either for the context (what woud it mean for Fogerty to want someone to "get him to the rhyme," and how would fussin' and fightin' interfere with getting to a rhyme?) or for the rhyme scheme itse;f (ironically).
Wouldn't "get me to the ride" fit better? He's eager to get to a cab or limo or bus? Plus, although "night"/"ride" is a slant rhyme, it's a lot closer than "night"/"rhyme." |
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