| Colin Hay – Overkill Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think Overkill is about the after math of a break up or divorce. Alone between the sheets Only brings exasperation It's time to walk the streets Smell the desperation At least there's pretty lights And though there's little variation It nullifies the night from overkill If you've never gone for a walk in the middle of the night because you are too busy thinking to sleep, you've never had your heart broken. Ghosts appear and fade away The Ghosts might be the thoughts and plans, things you'd like to say if you ever get the chance, but I think the ghosts of Overkill are memories. Day after day it reappears Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear Fear of being alone I suspect, though exactly what reappears isn't clear (ghosts?, fear?, thoughts) I have no idea why the song is called overkill though... trying to hard maybe. |
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| Greg Laswell – Comes and Goes (In Waves) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2007/04/mandy-moores-new-man-greg-laswell/ | |
| Greg Laswell – Comes and Goes (In Waves) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| He said the same thing when I saw him at the Stubb's Underground in Austin. | |
| Greg Laswell – Do What I Can Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It is a shame Greg's music has been relegated to the TV soundtrack sub-genera as his first record shows he has the potential to be so much more. Do What I Can hits home hard and often ends up on repeat because of the way it makes me feel. I don't see anything mysterious here: The "lady" is his mom and "Jim" is his dad. The first verse comforts her and the second comforts him. The bridge puts them all in the same boat. I adore this song and any other budding adult male who has come to terms with his parents and his own screwed up past feels the same way I am sure. I met Greg when he played in Austin last year - very humble man. |
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| Saves the Day – This Is Not An Exit Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Tonight will be the night that we begin to ease the plugs out of the dam. - The dam is resistance to past actions, specifically the shameful ones. To ease the plugs out is to stop pretending like the past has no consequence. And we will stand knee deep in the flow, the undertow will grab our heels and won't let go. - The reality of the past takes hold And while we hold, our legs quivering, the water rises now to our teeth when we just let go - The past overwhelms and submission becomes a must. and sail belly up to the clouds, the rocks scraping our backs. - So let the past carry forward despite the fact that it hurts. To breath in the air will be the only thing that we have - Breathing is the constant of life in this song and all the wasted nights and empty moments in our lives - nights spent playing video games, watching porn, getting high, bored and lonely, ect... flushed away as we sway with the rhythm of the waves bobbing us up. Crests fall to troughs we feel our gills open up. - learn to live with the past, find meaning in it, and the emptiness disappears. And sail belly up to the clouds, the rocks scraping our backs. To breath in the air will be the only thing that we have - if you can't count on the fact that you are breathing you can't count on anything and if the hook sets in the bottom of our lungs, - if something disrupts you're breath... we'll rip it out and lick the blood off with our tongues. - own it! The despair can ravage you if you turn your head around to look down the path that's led you here, cause what can you change? - don't worry about the past because it can't be changed. You're a vessel now floating down the waterways. - Instead, let the past carry you forward. You can take your rudder and aim your ship, just don't bother with the things left in your wake. - Make better choices in the hear and now rather than letting the details of the past consume you. Just sail belly up to the clouds, the rocks scraping your back. - Submit, let go, endure. To breathe in the air will be the only thing that you have - no kidding, your going to die sooner or later and your love will be warm nights with pockets of moonlight spotlighting you as you drift, the actor in this play. - until then, you've got to find a way to enjoy your life. And you walk across the stage, take a bow, hear the applause, and as the curtain falls, just know you did it all the best that you knew how and you can hear them cheering now. - Despite how messed up you were, you did the best you could so move on and let the past go. Your friends, family, and everyone else want the best for you So let a smile out and show your teeth cause you know you lived it well. - fin |
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| Mumford & Sons – The Cave Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think the freedom fighter or Indian Independence theory is a good one. While I initially read the song as a post break up anthem lines like "I can see widows and orphans through my tears" and "You can understand dependence when you know the maker's land" don't really make sense in that context. |
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| Okkervil River – Another Radio Song Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Seems as though you are either black, or you love a girl who loves a stone. | |
| Iron & Wine – Boy with a Coin Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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EmersonienEra & sarahkate310 have got a much better understanding of the second verse than those holding the to "rape theory". The Boy and the Girl are metaphors for males and females generally. All people are born into a world turned on its head and full of suffering. The boy (men generally) finds a bit of value or hope in the midst of life (the coin) while the girl (women generally) realizes that her lot in life is enduring child birth and the desires of men. In the third verse, the coin (again, value or hope) has become a burden and the boy (again, men generally) sells out by wishing things were different, but throwing out the coin and going on as those before him did - he continues the cycle. The notion of God is rather impersonal and not at all Christian. God set the world in motion and then got out of the way to watch the Divine Drama play out - not at all Christian as Christians believe in a God who continues to intervene in Human affairs in a meaningful and beneficial way. In holding to the "rape theory" you are missing the song's broader meaning. Birds are generally a symbol for hope, life, the "spirit of God", peace, and wisdom. Snow is a symbol of virginity and purity, two things all women loose whether they are raped or not. Realizing the loss of innocence is a cause for tears all women are destined for. Selling ourselves out to the ways of the world (guns and trade amidst a wreck) is something all men do. The hope (coin) found in the weeds is eventually forfeited for the realities of life. We all wish the world was different, but what are we to do? God may be watching, but he has left us to our fates. The realization's men and women go through as they mature are the real focus of the song. |
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| Counting Crows – Omaha Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think the chorus may be more about the soldiers signing up for war than a metaphor for the invasion. "Somewhere in middle america" may refer to the soldiers who came from the Heart Land. |
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| Counting Crows – Omaha Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Wow! This song is layered with meaning but I suspect you just nailed what Adam was thinking about when he wrote the it. | |
| Okkervil River – Last Love Song For Now Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I do not hear either victory or defeat in his voice or this song. I see a statement of fact. | |
| Okkervil River – A Stone Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I am not convinced the central metaphor in the song, "a stone" is meant to mean a grave stone though I am sure the fact that a grave stone comes to mind is no accident. An emotionless unavailable person you want a relationship with is a lot like wanting to be with someone or something that is dead an gone. The central metaphor is complex and not one-to-one as another poster pointed out. I am surprised to see no one has thought of the stone as an unpolished, unintended, and accidental thing. The frustrated guy (Black Sheep Boy) is going out of his way to woo the girl he wants and getting nowhere while "a stone" who does nothing for her on purpose manages to catch her affection. The general theme of the song, i think, has been nailed down as unrequited affection. The contrast between the stone and the lover, however, has yet to become clear. The lover (Black Sheep Boy, the character I see as the protagonist present in each song and who the album is all about) knows what the girl likes: "Hot breath, rough skin, warm laughs, and smiling, the lovliest words, whispered and meant" but does not give her what she loves: "white veins, [...] hard grey, the heaviest weight, the clumsiest shape, the earthiest smell, the hollowest tone, [...] a stone." The girl "likes" being loved and cared for, but "loves" wanting the things she cannot have. The shift in word choice is no accident. An inescapable irony emerges as you see the girl the narrator loves is a stone to him just as the guy the girl loves is a stone to her. The stone probably loves someone else not mentioned in the song. The real contrast in the song is varying attitudes lover, or potential lovers, take toward one another. We all want what we cannot have, don't understand, and drives us crazy. The human psyche is a messy place. Black Sheep Boy is "found too fast [and] called too fond of flames" meaning he falls for girls too easily, gets burned again and again, and in a way seems to like it. Why else would he keep repeating the same mistake? He loves getting burned, not the girl. The girl loves a stone "because it's dark and it's old," "because it's smooth and it's cold," or in other words because it is mysterious, damaged, worn down by experience, detached and indifferent to her beauty. The notion "that it's all ...[her] own" is what she really wants. If her stone "could start being alive" she'd "stop living alone." She is not any different than the Black Sheep Boy in her unrequited affection, and neither of them is very different from any of us who hear the song. The last section of the song is a projection of the results of unrequited love. "And I think I believe that, if stones could dream, they'd dream of being laid side-by-side, piece-by-piece, and turned into a castle for some towering queen they're unable to know." If the stone could love anyone he would wind up just like Black Sheep Boy, one of thousands of protectors of a girl that wants someone else. Black Sheep Boy wants to think that if the stone could show the girl some real feeling she would not want him anymore. And the cycle will continue on through the generations "when the queens daughter c[o]me[s] of age." Many will want her, but the one she wants will be nothing special, doesn't try to win her, and completely unavailable. |
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| Okkervil River – Another Radio Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Another Radio Song is about the possibility of Redemption from a life of negligence, vain pleasure seeking, and sin. To accept my interpretation you need to consider the record as a whole. Another Radio Song is the results of the preceding tracks culminating in a single night of grief, regret, and guilt. Lets take the song on piece at a time. "Sit back, no song is written, it's nothing you thought of yourself. It's just a ghost that came unbidden to this house." The first passage introduces a dark night of the soul for Black Sheep Boy. The "ghost that came unbidden" is his conscience pressing its way to the surface of his mind and is clear not something he intended. "This infection gets stronger every year. This seed in the water of your tear. There is no escaping it." The "infection [that] gets stronger every year" is the guilty conscience he can no longer ignore and the "seed in the water of ...[his] tear" is the possibility of redemption. "This seed in the water of your tear. The way an unborn baby's ear unfolds in your belly." The unfolding of "an unborn baby's ear" is the awakening of new understanding and the infancy of Black Sheep Boy's awareness of the harm he has caused himself and others. "This infection gets stronger every year, this direction of a tear going down your cheek. And there is no escaping it. There is no escaping the thing that is making it's home in your radio." The radio is Black Sheep Boy's thoughts and "the thing that is making it's home" in his mind is the new found awareness he can no longer escape. "Bless this tiny alley" The "tiny alley" is the trail of the tear on Black Sheep Boy's cheek which he chooses to "bless" so he can experience the feelings he has been repressing for so long. "we have fallen from tall buildings we have fallen through the air" Falling is a metaphorical representation of Black Sheep Boy's life illustrating his lack of refuge, lack of solid ground to stand on, and lack of control. Surely the lines are also meant to convey a sense of terror. "into a garden sweetly smelling of the softest sleeping flowers" You cannot help but notice the alliteration in these lines, especially when you see them written out. These two line represent Black Sheep Boy's sense of refuge and a coming to grips with terror he experiences when he reflects on the course of his life. "now they sit under the sidewalk now they're waiting for the shining of some future sun to show us all that is your beauty" Of course, the Black Sheep Boy has not earned his refuge yet. The seeds of his salvation are "waiting for the shining of some future sun" that can reveal his true potential. "oh, and all that brings you pleasure I could sigh into your hide and say I hope I'm here forever" In this song it is important to notice the way the words "I", "you", and "us" are used so interchangeably. Best I can tell the various subject nouns are used to represent different forces at work within the Black Sheep Boy's mind. He'd very much like to stay with his escapist pleasure but he knows he cannot. "but black sheep boy with your lovers with your list of favorite pillows with your list of missing children" The song is slowly but steadily building momentum effectively illustrating the increasing intensity of Black Sheep Boy's memories and experience. "Favorite pillows" is a metaphor for sources of comfort. "Missing children" is, I suspect, a metaphor for excuses, though I am not entirely certain. "with the wall where you drew windows overlooking hidden gardens" These lines are a metaphor for the life of drug use, infidelity, and self-indulgence he imagined would lead to something real and worthy, but ultimately did not. "cut apart by jagged mountains climbing up into the air and crumbling down into a fountain where the water waits forever like a quiet distant treasure" The mountains in the garden he imagines are a representation of the difficulty and sorrow he created for himself. The Fountain and the water are symbolic of his tears, the "quiet distant treasure" he is seeking to over come his pain. "when you rise up to recover when you leave this tiny alley" Sooner or later Black Sheep Boy's period of reflection will come to an end and he will have to get back to his life. "when you meet me in the garden with your horns all hung with cedar every spirit brushing past me brushing past them in the ether" Notice again the skillful exchange of subject nouns. "When you [Black Sheep Boy] meet me [your honest and redeemed self] in the garden with you horns all hung with cedar [unnecessary decoration indicating pride and vanity]" The exchange of subject nouns in the last two lines is exceptional in its quality. "Brushing past me brushing past them." The effect created is a sense that one part of Black Sheep Boy's mind, the part that is experiencing the events in the songs, becomes another, the part narrating and leading the events in the song. The transition marks the end of a period of self-observation and is an extraordinary use of the written word. "scream all this is window dressing all you are is flimsy curtains" These lines form the crux of Black Sheep Boy's realization as he sees his entire life thus far has been a meaningless waste of time. His life is nothing but a worthless decoration around an imaginary world. "watch you flame up with a word from us and won't know that you're burning" The "us", I suspect, are those parts of himself that see the truth now and can have some compassion for the parts of himself that do not and continue to unknowingly burn away in a meaningless existence. "burning burning" Drives the point home. "No escaping the thing that is making its home on your radio No escaping the thing that is making its home on your radio" Reinforces the main theme of not only the song but the album itself: the waking up to the pointlessness of self-indulgence. Indeed, Black Sheep Boy is so self referential and replete with recurring themes and metaphors it is difficult to conduct an exposition of any one song without considering the rest of the album. I am quite certain a devoted writer could find enough relevant material to dedicate an entire chapter of a book to the content of this album. I am very interested in reading what others think about the song, especially those who either think I am incorrect in part, on the whole, or simply take something completely different from the song than I do. |
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| Okkervil River – A Girl In Port Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Sailing from port to port is definitely a metaphor for sleeping around, though I had yet to consider the possibility of it being one for touring, a proposition I find quite interesting, before coming here. I do not think the song is autobiographical though Sheff's is the only one who can speak to that point. The seventh line in the ninth stanza is without a doubt "Just a guest." Contextually, "aghast" makes not sense. He is a guest in the lives of the girls he has been sleeping with, he does not play a major part like a husband, family member, or long term boy friend. Considering all the lyrics together, the narrator is attempting to make sense of several years of "commitment free" sex after getting burned by a girl doing the same thing he is. The sentiments are remarkably similar to Getchoo on Weezer's Pinkerton, though the emotional response captured by each song is very different. Rivers' narrator (who definitely is an autobiographical portrayal of Rivers himself) is angrily seeking revenge, while Sheff's is sad, lost, and in want of something more. "A Girl in Port" provokes more feeling in me than any other on the album and remains a personal favorite. |
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| Okkervil River – (Shannon Wilsey on the) Starry Stairs Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I'd never made a connection between Savannah Smiles, a song I enjoy more, and this one. I never thought it was about a porn star either. I thought Sheff was singing about an ordinary girl turned reality TV star before going back to being a nobody. I can see the songs as the tale of a porn star who looses herself completely pretty easily on closer inspection of the lyrics though. "Oh and the stripes and stars how they stripped off the siding" I am not at all certain how these lines relate to the rest of the song. "Stripes and stars" calls to mind an image of the American flag, but "stripped of the siding" doesn't mean anything to me. |
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