| Sum 41 – The Bitter End Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Have to say, big shout out to the review above this one, made me laugh, thanks. I thought Metallica rip off at first, but it became quickly apparent this is far more of a tribute/piss take than straight theft, along similar lines to Gamma Ray with old Metal bands. The most obvious one is Battery, but the main riff is also very very close to that of Through The Never, and the solo is almost identical to that in One, because Dave Baksh is a legend! And I'm a die-hard Metal-head, and have been for many years... and this song is way better than Battery. |
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| W.A.S.P. – The Neutron Bomber Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I thought it was a fun take on a Lockheed B-2 Spirit, giving it a personality. | |
| W.A.S.P. – For Whom the Bell Tolls Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Anyone noticed that the prechorus of this song is almost identical, in terms of chords and melody, to 'The Gypsy Meets The Boy' from The Crimson Idol? This came first, so I'm guessing he wrote it, found it was a bit rubbish and made it a B-side, and then decided he could do better and rewrote it. | |
| Bowling for Soup – Bipolar Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Sorry, 2 points: Firstly, this song rocks. It isn't their greatest, but it's a very BFS thing to say, why can't you be bisexual instead of bipolar? Think it's about time someone made that complaint, glad it was them. Secondly, "For that reason I dont like the idea of it, in affect its taking the mick, and people wouldnt do that to someone who self harms, is schizophrenic or bulimic, this shouldnt really be any different." Erm, yeah you would! What's the line in High School Never Ends about throwing up before digesting? And how did Mary Kate lose all that weight? If someone chooses to throw up their own food deliberately, that's fairly counter-productive, are we so wrong to take the piss? Likewise, those who feel anger, depression and frustration with the rest of the world but take it out on themselves? People who intentionally hurt themselves to feel better? That sounds pretty damn stupid... Wouldn't you write a funny song about it? Schizophrenia I can appreciate should have some stigma attached to it, as sufferers have no choice in the matter. That's not to say it can't be used as an excellent source of comedy - Me, Myself and Irene, for example - but one should probably exercise a little more tact. Take it all with a pinch of salt guys. All of it. Especially this post. Hell, that might need a whole pot of salt. Meh, you'll live. |
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| Iron Maiden – Sign of the Cross Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Hi there. I’m going to commit serious blasphemy and suggest that my hero, Steve Harris, isn’t so perfect. First, just thought I’d mention my own preferences on the versions of the song – I love them both. I first heard the Rio recording, wasn’t too keen on it, but it grew on me a lot. Then I bought The X Factor, hated the Blaze version for a bit, and then completely fell in love with it. I think they’re both perfectly suited for the different atmospheres they aim to create. By this I mean that the Blaze version is slow and repressed, and his voice carries the tremendous weight of the emotional content of the song terrifically, making it the centrepiece of The X Factor. The live version, on the other hand, is faster, louder, and a lot more fun – fitting perfectly with the set at Rock In Rio. Though Bruce’s voice has never quite held the emotion of Blaze’s, he does have a much larger range. And seeing Dave playing that tapping solo really does it for me! Anyway, onto the aforementioned blasphemy. For those that have read my other reviews on here, for 2AM and Ghost Love Score (that’s it at the time of writing), may I assure you that I’m not one to read hugely into everything and assume there are hidden messages – I’ve only really done that with these three songs, hence they are the ones I consider interesting enough to write about, and no one else has mentioned my ideas yet, so I thought I’d point them out. I think Steve Harris cheated on his first wife, Lorraine, and this song is about his guilt over it. If not cheated, then fell in love with someone else. Ok, that’s quite an accusation, I know, but hear me out. What do we know? Well, according to Run To The Hills, the official biography, Steve and Lorraine were childhood sweethearts, they were married for 15 years, and they have 4 children together. So far, so good. We also know that they divorced during the early 90s, which was going through at the time of The X Factor, hence a lot of its dark tone. We know that Lorraine is thanked in the Fear Of The Dark sleeve notes, yet not mentioned in those on The X Factor, replaced with ‘Emily Harris.’ I can only assume that’s Steve’s new wife, since she’s not a new child. Now, is it really that much of a leap to suggest that the ‘pretty serious sin’ several other reviewers have mentioned was cheating on his wife? The line I think that really gives it away is ‘Lost the love of Heaven above, chose the lust of the Earth below.’ That suggests to me that he tried to stop himself falling for someone else, but didn’t manage it. So we get the guilty bits: ‘Why then is God still protecting me, even when I don’t deserve it?’ (Which is remarkably close to ‘There are times when I’ve wondered, and times when I’ve cried, when my prayers, they were answered at times when I’ve lied’ from No Prayer For The Dying), the lonely bits: ‘Standing alone in the wind and rain,’ ‘Why am I meant to face this alone?’ and the acceptance: ‘Eleven saintly, shrouded men came to wash my sins away.’ There are a couple of other rather telling moments on the album, primarily: ‘If you could live your life again Would you change a thing or leave it all the same If you had the chance again Would you change a thing at all When you look back at your past Can you say that you are proud of what you've done Are there times when you believe That the right you thought was wrong’ from Judgement Of Heaven, and the whole of The Unbeliever is along similar lines, strongly suggesting that the writer is not proud of decisions they have made in the past (‘Do you feel you've lost your self esteem and your self respect, what can you expect?’). Personally, I think cheating on one’s wife, or falling in love with someone else while still married, sounds like something to regret. I mean no disrespect to Steve Harris by any of this, whatever happened, his life, his call, not my place to pass judgement either way. If I’m wrong, then I’m sorry, ‘cause that’s gotta sound pretty harsh. Meh, what do you lot think? |
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| Nightwish – Ghost Love Score Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think someone got it right a couple of pages back with "My theory is that this song is about how Tuomas loved Tarja. I think, although I may be totally wrong, that it is called GHOST Love Score because it is a romantic relationship that never happened." Well, along the right lines, anyway. Firstly, Ghost Love Score is quite good. Secondly, in terms of an emotional journey, this is as close to perfect as any song will come (comparable to Beethoven's Fifth, perhaps?). It would have my vote for best song ever written. As many have stated, it probably refers to a betrayal between lovers. I'm not buying the Christian thing, not for one second, I don't think it's about that at all. However, I think it refers specifically to Tuomas and Tarja. How much love existed between them, I won't claim to know. It could have been pretty literal, it could have been greatly exaggerated for storytelling purposes within the song, it could have been meant in an entirely platonic way, etc... But, since we've now heard Dark Passion Play, we not only know how deeply Tuomas was affected by all that transpired with Tarja's departure, but also that he wasn't above writing a few songs about it. Namely, Bye Bye Beautiful seems to be looking back at her, almost fondly at times, despairing that she 'chose the long road' and didn't heed earlier warnings. Master Passion Greed is an all-out attack on Tarja's husband, who the band saw as having a very bad influence on her and turning her against them (could Tuomas have been jealous? Maybe, but I personally don't think that was it). And then there's The Poet And The Pendulum, discussing Tuomas' devastation after firing her, his thoughts of ending it, and finally him dealing with it. So given all that, we know he was quite keen on her. Again, not necessarily in a sexual way, could quite easily have been a love of her as a friend (being in a band is often likened to being married - such as in Spinal Tap - it is quite possible he loved her out of 'them being in it together'). Bye Bye Beautiful is particularly important to our understanding of this theory, especially the line 'did you ever read what I wrote you?' This seems to strongly imply that there were messages within Tuomas' lyrics about Tarja not straying too far, lest she should fall. Specifically, these warnings would have to have been located *before* Tarja's departure, and since pressure had been slowly building to that point, it seems that the strongest and most obvious messages would be contained within Once. And indeed, closer inspection reveals several interesting lyrics that could be relevant; 'These lines the last endeavour to find the missing lifeline' seems to be a final plea for them to get back to the glory days when all the band got on well together. I doubt 'old loves, they die hard, old lies, they die harder' or 'you challenged the Gods and lost' actually refer to her, though I think they're quite interesting. As is the opening of Creek Mary's Blood: 'Soon I will be here no more!' Another very important sign was the choice of cover song for the Once tour, Pink Floyd’s 1994 track from The Division Bell, High Hopes. The most prominent line of the entire song is Marco’s wonderful call of ‘The grass was greener…’ This relates to a time of happiness now passed and unlikely to return. Anyway, this got me wondering, are there any messages within the great Ghost Love Score itself? Well, though I’d loved the song for years, I never really studied the lyrics in depth. As soon as I opened up the lyrics page, it hit me, and I couldn’t believe I’d not spotted it before. ‘We used to swim the same moonlight waters. Oceans away from the wakeful day.’ Anyone remember the cover of an album from 1998 called Oceanborn? Sure, it’s partly metaphorical, saying they used to want the same thing with the band, be on the same page in mindsets and all that, but the imagery is strikingly similar, swimming in a moonlit ocean, a deep blue in colour (‘blue’ being a word that crops up several times during this song). The chorus seems to be begging her to turn back on the path heading away from him, warning her that if she leaves he will never fully recover. As with everything Tuomas has done with Nightwish, it’s all about *her* - ‘my fall will be for you.’ Ok, so why am I so sure it’s about those two? The answer lies in the quiet bridge in the middle, with the line ‘still I write my songs, about that dream of mine.’ Sounds awfully like Tuomas to me. We know he sees himself as the poet, the dead boy, the ocean soul, who else would he be talking about? It sounds very much like the same tone of phrase with which he describes his own songwriting concerns – ‘every thought, the music I write, everything a wish for the night,’ ‘every single verse can only be composed of the greatest of pain,’ and ‘one last perfect verse is still the same old song.’ Bearing that in mind, I think it’s about Tuomas. And that leads me straight on to think it’s about Tuomas thinking about Tarja. The final bridge, about redeeming into childhood, seems to be twofold, firstly about his mind finding shelter in childhood memories in times of hardship (as previously mentioned in Away – ‘away, away, to a home away from care, every dream’s just a journey away,’ and later in The Poet And The Pendulum and the song named within – ‘my home was there and then, those meadows of Heaven, adventure-filled days, one with every smiling face’). Secondly, it might refer to a clean slate, to starting afresh and ridding them of all the ‘baggage’ the two of them carry (as in the Buffy episode ‘Tabula Rasa,’ if anyone else remembers that). And then comes the final acceptance, she’s gone, not coming back, and however high I may yet climb, to quote the song, now I’ll bleed forever. And this ending, particularly on the End Of An Era DVD which doesn’t fade out, is probably Nightwish at their loudest ever – driving guitars, steadily rolling double bass drums, fairly continuous open hi hats (again, on End Of An Era, this evolves into the closest I’ve ever seen to Jukka playing a drum solo), massive orchestral textures and fanfares, and a massive chanting choir, hurling those memorable four lines out at full blast. And in spite of that, soaring above it all comes Tarja, with one line: ‘My fall will be for you,’ because, as ever, in Tuomas’ world, it’s still all about her. I'd love to discuss this topic further with people - if you'd like to, drop me an email at Heavilyeverafter@hotmail.co.uk |
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| Iron Maiden – Afraid To Shoot Strangers Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I have yet to hear a better explanation of why we go to war. The final four lines seem to offer it most clearly, pointing out that no, we don't want to, but what's the alternative? We know, deep down, there's no other way. No trust, no reasoning, no more to say. And then the four greatest riffs ever written kick in. |
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| Iron Maiden – 2 A.M. Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Ugh, morons. This is without a doubt the most depressing song Maiden have ever recorded, and arguably the most moving (the other being Como Estais Amigos). The reason for its tremendous emotional impact is simple, it's a pretty damn true story. Not of a fictional character like Charlotte or Benjamin, but of a real person. It refers to a total loss of innocence and naivety, the realisation that 'yep, this really is *it.*' It also takes in the mood of the early hours of morning, when everyone else is sound asleep, it's a whole new dimension of loneliness. Unlike the aforementioned Como Estais Amigos, Wasting Love or No Prayer For The Dying, there is nothing metaphorical or spiritual about 2AM, like The Trooper it's one-dimensional and needs no explanation, and is all the stronger as a result. Also, unlike most Maiden songs, or indeed most Metal songs generally (particularly Manowar), 2AM seems to offer no happy ending, indeed, its quiet, downbeat fading out of 'here I am again, on my own,' is one of the chief reasons for it being Maiden's most depressing song. DON'T listen to this if you're in one of those moods, it makes it much worse! But this is something I love about the song, it doesn't claim to have the answers, won't offer false hope, it is simply the reflections of a man with nothing to live for. Look a little deeper though, and this song has the greatest light at the end of the tunnel of all. Look who wrote the lyrics. Read p.306 of Run To The Hills (The Authorised Biography, 3rd edition, by Mick Wall, MPG Books, Bodmin, 2004), particularly the line 'my life is going nowhere at all, absolutely nowhere.' This is me reading between the lines a little, but I really don't think it's much of a leap to suggest that this man wondering if 'these walls' were all there was in his life went on to find something much more... he became the lead singer of Iron Maiden. |
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