submissions

Le Tigre – Viz Lyrics

14 years ago

I don't think this song is discrediting "lipstick" lesbians at all. I always thought it was about the complexities of butch and femme visibility and invisibility. In the first verse, it seems like the speaker is mistaken for a man. That renders her identity invisible because our culture doesn't value or recognize female masculinity; however, it does seem like male privilege might have contributed to her getting into the club. In the second verse, the speaker assumes the girl dancing on her is straight because she's femme. However, the girl responding with the chorus suggests that she is gay. I think this song is about how femme lesbians are often assumed to be straight even among other lesbians or somehow not "really" gay because they don't look dykey enough, whatever that means. That rarely happens to butch lesbians, and butches receive a certain amount of male privilege if they are mistaken for men; however, the straight world doesn't really understand butch identity or value it ("Do you want to be a man?" "If you want to date someone masculine, why don't you just date a man?"), and thus butches often feel invisible as well.

submissions

The Velvet Underground – Sweet Jane Lyrics

16 years ago

I'm not sure if this is right because the album was released in the same year as this event, and I'm not sure of the chrongoly, but I'm guessing he's talking about the Kent State shooting when he mentions wooden soldiers. See Neil Young's song Ohio. "Tin soldiers" in that song refers to this as well. Wooden, tin... the point is they weren't "real soldiers"; they were national guard members who shot four students at Kent State college in Ohio. It seems especially likely that he is referencing that event becuase he mentions "protest kids" directly afterward. The students shot were part of a protest triggered by the American invasion of Cambodia. If this album was released before that, that's some amazing foreshadowing.

submissions

Patti Smith – Gloria Lyrics

17 years ago

Just teenage girls interested in rock'n'roll need to get this record? I think it's a mind blowing album for people of either gender. She didn't confine herself to the ridiculous gender roles and stereotypes we have created for ourselves, so please don't do that to her. And even if she did confine herself to such things, that's sexist. Why are male artists for everyone while female artists who happen not to think so little of themselves that they resort to gaining acclaim through sex appeal rather than artistic talent are made into petty self-esteem boosters for teenage girls?

submissions

Crass – You're Already Dead Lyrics	17 years ago
I wouldn't say they are abandoning pacifism with this song. The line "You don't have to be PASSIVE just because you're a PACIFIST" says it all. There are ways of fighting back that aren't physically violent. But it does show a shift from a kind of "we'll do our thing, they'll do theirs and eventually we'll win" thinking to a more proactive approach.

submissions

Crass – Smother Love Lyrics	17 years ago
I can't believe no one has commented on this song. They seem to be saying traditional monogamous relationships are oppressive. I think that depends on personal preference. What does everyone else think?

submissions

Jeffrey Lewis – Amanda Is a Scalape Lyrics	17 years ago
If anyone has any idea what that line in the second to last verse is, do speak up. The only very remotely reasonable thing I could come up with was "pissin' in his pores" but that makes significantly less sense than the rest of the song, so I'm guessing it's wrong.

submissions

Jeffrey Lewis – Another Girl Lyrics	17 years ago
I think the second line is, "I can't understand why you can't let me be." The second verse sounds more like "Slapped you around, And you hit the floor, And now I can't remember your name anymore." to me, and I'm pretty sure the third line in the chorus says, "I decided there was nothing better to do," but it's pretty garbled as is the whole song. Nice job with this; it's a tough one.

submissions

Crass – Shaved Women Lyrics

17 years ago

I think the line "in all our decadence people die" is pointing out that we use our time and money to look more sexually appealing (for instance, by shaving our legs and armpits) when there are other people who are starving in the street. With labor conditions the way they are in third world countries, people's deaths could even be the direct result of our decadence if we buy cosmetics from companies who have outsourced labor and not bothered to not treat their employees like shit.

submissions

Patti Smith – Birdland Lyrics

17 years ago

I really like the way she keeps coming back to the line about the ship sliding open. You really feel the son's sadness, like the song is him talking and crying to himself, obsessed with this idea of being reunited with his dad, and he's just repeating the same things over and over to himself the way people do when they're crying. Well that was an unnecessarily long sentence. Note that I don't mean to disagree with GarryNovikoff's post about the song being about "A Book of Dreams". I've never heard of this book, but anything that so closely aligns with the lyrics is almost certainly the inspiration for the song. But of course, songs can have multiple meanings.

submissions

Crass – Where Next Columbus Lyrics

17 years ago

What do people think about the message of this song versus that of Reality Asylum? This seems to be presenting Jesus in a positive light, as a character with good ideas that were turned back on themselves, corrupted into something they were never meant to be. Reality Asylum exposes Jesus as a sexist, self-righteous bastard who got what he deserved. Personally, I have to assume that Reality Asylum was, apparently, not an attack on Jesus per se but on Christians and their interpretations of his teachings.

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