| Pink Floyd – One of My Turns Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| This is what a panic attack is like. | |
| Pink Floyd – Hey You Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Not going to add into the argument, just going to put in a personal perspective: This? The feeling of desolation created by the lyrics, not to mention the beat and atmosphere of the song itself? Pink is inside a wall, no matter what it's created out of -- drugs, personal problems, emotional/personality disorders, what have you -- and he's screaming for help, but nobody can hear him. It reminds me of a scene in Requiem for a Dream, in which one of the characters sticks her head underwater, looks perfectly calm for a few moments, and then screams violently -- but we're unable to hear her. This song describes the frustration of depression perfectly. |
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| Grateful Dead – Operator Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I love this song, but I never thought it was about a hooker. I always pictured the narrator as a desperate, possibly drunk man trying to track down the woman who left him. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This is the song that got me listening to Sufjan. I agree with all that's been said, especially concerning the fatherless concept. It makes me so happy to know that there are people who can write songs with religious tones that not only accept but embrace people who have no religion. |
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| Spring Awakening – Left Behind Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song strikes a nerve when it comes to suicide. I can't speak for other people, but in the past when I've had suicidal thoughts or idealizations, I've always imagined everything ending once I'm dead, and it does. I thought that the portion of my life that I lived would live on as if I were alive. "All things he never did are left behind"... hearing this song for the first time made me realize that I really didn't want to die. Somehow I'd missed that my brain, my secrets, my potential, everything, really, would be gone. I can't really describe it in words, but this song sums it up perfectly. |
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| Dory Previn – Esther's First Communion Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I'm rather amazed that none of Dory's songs have been commented on; hers are fun lyrics to dissect. This is the first song I heard by Previn, through my father, who first learned it from an inmate at a mental hospital he was admitted to. On the very surface, the song appears to be sexual -- Jesus "sitting on her bed" added to her parents' reaction, and the brilliant "so instead of seeing Jesus, she began to see a lot of other men". The song has nothing to do with sex, but I believe Dory most likely made the song appear to be; the song is bouncy and there's a humorous tone to her voice. The fact of the matter is that when Esther sees Jesus and all of these other men, she's not seeing them as in dating them, but actually seeing them. This is a song about schizophrenia. It's also interesting to note the antagonistic position of the parents (namely the mother, though the father's displeasure is implied). Instead of facing their daughter's disease (a scary thing, especially in the 1970's), they not only avoid it but scare Esther's brain into avoiding part of it (She never sees Jesus again). The theme of parents who misunderstand their daughters is prominent in Previn's work, largely due to her own experiences with a mentally-ill father. |
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