| Okkervil River – The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is about confusion and depression. The overall tone of it is high pitched, hurry, stressed, and anxious. It has nothing to do with love for god, it's about apprehension. Beautifully, I'll add. He is depressed that someone could accept the cold heartless ways of Christianity. It's why its the forced that caused Saul to convert. It's why the "audience" has had enough human connection, "fire," and is ready for the cold one sided love of god, "ice." It's why "And I, feeling older, pull off to the shoulder And wonder, with my head in my hands, should I call my wife?" to tell her it's over is a question. It's why "Enough 'you and I'Enough of 'the fight'Enough of 'prevail' or 'walk in the light?'" is a question. I think Will Sheff has some beef with god beyond the normal unnecessary questions like "does he exist?, why isn't he helping me, and is there a fucking heaven!?" I think he refuses to accept any god or religion because it detracts from human compassion and empathy. Favorite part of the song. And when the spacecraft came down I was left on the ground Will you keep me around Will you help me survive After my time? The spacecraft is obviously Jesus coming to claim those who will be allowed to be angels in his kingdom, but Will disassociates himself with Jesus, calling him a spacecraft (superstition held up by vague accounts by lunatics). After the disassociation, the questions are clearly not to Jesus. They're to another human being. After all, after the second coming, Jesus isn't coming again. Finally, he's allowed to hold on to the fire, the warm of human compassion. :) People are often confused about modern music about God. I mean they've been confused about religion for thousands of years, refusing to look at it through their perspective and constantly looking through the lens of who, ironically, praises them the most. |
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| Elliott Smith – King's Crossing Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Guys Guys Guys... this song is obviously about a soldier. Yea it means he's thinking about death. But from a soldiers point of view. I'm not sure what King's crossing is. But pretty much from "every wave is tidal" on, its all about a war. My favorite part is when he starts to talk about himself and other soldiers being in the hospital. "It don't matter 'cos I have no sex life" is pretty humorous to me. Think about a wounded soldier, he can't do anything lying in a bed all day. The next line is definitely about heroine. He probably quit heroin for a short while, then picked it up again when he reached new levels of pain. "Open your parachute and grab your gun Falling down like an omen, a setting sun Read the part and return at five It's a hell of a role if you can keep it alive But I don't care if I fuck up I'm going on a date with a rich white lady Ain't life great?" Remember earlier when he said he ripped his guts out. Here he clarifies that he wants to get hurt in the war because he always has heroin to fall back on if he does. And that's so much easier than holding the responsiblity of not dying and having to fight. Basically he's saying that when he's all healed up fromt he last hospital visit, he finds a way to hurt himself without dying. "Give me one good reason not to do it" Taken with what I just said, this has much less to do with death than it has with getting hurt and getting heroin in return. "This is the place where time reverses Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses Instruments shine on a silver tray Don't let me get carried away" Dead men talk to all the pretty nurses = severly wounded soldiers going nowhere with the nurses probably. The last line is where I base most of what I wrote on. He doesn't want to die, I think he's looking for a peace that is only found close to death. He's basically walking a tightrope of peace and death and asking for help. |
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