| The World/Inferno Friendship Society – All The World Is A Stage (dive) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." -Thoreau | |
| The World/Inferno Friendship Society – Brother of the Mayor of Bridgewater Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think the opening line of the chorus may be a variant on Ecclesiasticus ("let us now praise famous men") but there's probably some other cultural reference there I don't get. | |
| The Beautiful South – Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Sounds like it would scan better as "good as gold, but thick as fuck." ^^ | |
| Bob Dylan – Sara Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| What's the Snow White reference? | |
| Nightwish – Come Cover Me Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Heh, "cover" sees actual use as a euphemism for sex in animal husbandry, as in "the ram covers the ewe." ^^ | |
| Kate Bush – Them Heavy People Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
^^ What strange ideas people have! Gurdjieff was a mystic - "work on my mind" is a reference to his "Fourth Way." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Way |
|
| Dire Straits – Tunnel Of Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Anyone know what a torture tattoo would be? Sounds painful. ^^ I had the impression that, given the general context of the song, "hand upon the lever" and "one-armed bandit fever" are a double entendre, but I could just be dirty-minded. :) |
|
| The World/Inferno Friendship Society – Addicted to Bad Ideas Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Given the spelling mistakes, I reckon they're imaginary lawyers... :) | |
| The Dresden Dolls – Dirty Business Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Who *was* hers in '99, anyone know? ^^ Just bugs me... | |
| Garbage – Hammering In My Head Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Easily my favourite Garbage song. The arrangement and her delivery of the lyrics / speechsong are brilliant. "You should be sleeping, my love / tell me what you're dreaming of", seems a bit of a contradiction. |
|
| Snake River Conspiracy – Vulcan Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Anyone know who "Vern" is? | |
| Skunk Anansie – Twisted Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I only just realised (ten years late, or however long it is :) ), "everyday hurts" - everyday written as one word - is a play on words, it's both "every day", literal, angsty, and "everyday", meaning ordinary, uninteresting, unimportant. Heh. | |
| Toad the Wet Sprocket – Butterflies Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
There's a couple of extra lines in the version I have: "and did not notice all the moths he'd massacred spread across the open road" The recording I have continues (spoken): "His skin flashed open and all of a sudden there it was and I still couldn't tell you know how when you get so close to something that big you can't see anything at all" I like it, but I have very little idea what the song is about. One of the parts is God, perhaps. |
|
| Kirsty MacColl – Dancing In Limbo Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| "Sleeps like a woman / when he wakes like a man" is a Kinks reference, I think. | |
| Kate Bush – James and the Cold Gun Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Bond? James Bond? ...at least, that's what I always thought. | |
| The Sisters of Mercy – Under The Gun Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Yah, I think it's definitely a 2001 reference. | |
| Blur – Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
It's been a while since I heard Blur's version, but as far as I can remember it uses the proper words, which are, more or less (I can't remember the last verse): "There is a flower within my heart, Daisy, Daisy, Planted one day by a glancing dart, Planted by Daisy Bell. Whether she loves me or loves me not, Sometimes it's hard to tell, But I am longing to share the lot, Of beautiful Daisy Bell, oh, Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer do, I'm half crazy, all for the love of you, It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage, But you'd look sweet, upon the seat, Of a bicycle made for two. We will go tandem as man and wife, Daisy, Daisy, Peddling away down the road of life, Me and my Daisy Bell, When the road's dark we can both despise, Policemen and lamps as well, There are bright lights in the dazzling eyes, Of beautiful Daisy Bell, oh, Daisy, Daisy, Give my your answer do, I'm half crazy, all for the love of you, It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage, But you'd look sweet, upon the seat, Of a bicycle made for two." |
|
| Bert Jansch – A Woman Like You Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
He's not exactly the clearest of singers, but still: "I don't believe I've seen, A woman like you, anywhere, And I must admit that I can't see, My making you into a dream. But if I had a magic wand to wave, I'd send a dove to catch your love, And I'd send a blackbird to steal you heart A broken heart won't cure, My endless search, little girl, I'm gonna fix a magic spell, To weave on you, little girl. 'L' for the Long grass to catch you in, 'O' for the Orange to sweeten sin, 'V' for this Very moment, 'E' for thEe. I'd rather wait and die, A thousand times, little girl, Than take a woman into the heart of my soul, But if I caught you sleeping all unawares, I'd carry you off to my secret lair, There I'd bind your heart to my very soul. I don't believe I have seen, A woman like you, anywhere, And I must admit I can't see, My making you into a dream. And if I had a magic wand to wave, I'd send a dove to catch your love, And I'd send a blackbird to steal your heart." I'd not heard that interpretation of the second verse until recently, but it makes more sense than I'd thought. It is a *spell*, after all. I'd heard it as; "Call for the long grass (to catch you in), Call for the orange (to sweeten sin), Before this very moment, evilly." It's difficult to make out whether the narrator is a right demented psycho, or just teetering on the brink of romantic obsession. |
|
| Bert Jansch – Soho Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
"And coloured bright the corners of low repute." As in, "Soho is dodgy, folks." "Through gardens where you're resting." "All within the gardens / is either sleeping or is dead." I've no idea what the hapless oris may be, or why they could have come to grief, or why the singer should be concerned for them. :) I can't make out the last line myself. I think it's something like "silted life" or "silty life". Maybe. ^^ |
|
| Gordon Lightfoot – Don Quixote Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| If the internet is to be believed, the "stemming gold" line (which never made sense to me) is a reference to gold smelters (or whatever the name is for someone who extracts gold) "liberating" tiny quantities of gold from their workplace in their pipe-stems. | |
| Garbage – Bleed Like Me Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Someone mentioned earlier about "JT" being J ("Terminator", as per the Cherry Lips sleeve dedication) LeRoy; "Speedie" is a reference to one of (his) friends. I'm not sure how much Garbage knew or guessed about the hoax ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jt_leroy#Controversy ) when the song was written, afaik it (and Cherry Lips before it) predates the public revelation by a long time. |
|
| Billy Bragg – Richard Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I heard he sings "helium" nowadays. :) | |
| Billy Bragg – The World Turned Upside Down Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The song is by Leon Rosselson and is (broadly speaking) an adaptation of the original Diggers song attributed to Gerard Winstanley ("stand up now" is the original refrain, and the verses in this song loosely follow the verses of the original in theme). As a general purpose socialist anthem this has been recorded by all and sundry, BB's delivery is pretty fiery. | |
| Skunk Anansie – Charlie Big Potato Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| So what's with the muezzin at the start? | |
| Billy Bragg – A New England Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| There's at least one other song, "1969" by the Stooges (itself covered at least once) which mocks the "last year I was 21" lyric from "Leaves that are Green". I'm guessing BB was familiar with both songs. | |
| The Sisters of Mercy – More Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| If memory serves me right, fake zlotys were produced by some arm of the British government during the second world war. Probably some kind of attempt to destabilise the Nazi occupation in Poland. Goes with the "counterfeit dollar" part, certainly. | |
| Amanda Palmer – Ampersand Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| "Even if I went with you, I'm not the girl you think I am." Heh. | |
| The Stone Roses – Waterfall Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
As littleidiot points out, the song was written (somewhere between 1984 and 1989) and released (1989)long before the first Gulf War happened (1990-1991). It's pretty much what it says. She gets fed up and goes for a drive. Possibly she's leaving for good. She thinks about her situation and the situation of Britain in general. She ends up on the beach at the other end of the country. The lyrics are literal; they're a literal story with definite metaphoric overtones, not the other way round. |
|
| The Beautiful South – 36D Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
The missing verse is something like: "Your name is always mentioned in the jokes he cracks, Your 'Coach and Horses' and your "Woolpacks', Your poses turn the passive into maniacs, But you want more." And I've never understood the "Coach and Horses" bit. "Woolpacks", yeah, fair enough, but the first bit? Answers on a postcard please. :) The line "your body's thought of fondly in the rugby mauls" is sheer subversive genius. |
|
| Indigo Girls – Chickenman Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I wonder if any connection was intended (not saying this is the "meaning", just that they might have had it in mind) with the Bruce Springsteen song "Atlantic City", which is about a man being paid to assassinate someone, and references the killing of a gangster known as the "Chicken Man"; there's certainly a similarity of theme, death and travelling. Er, and chicken. Men. :) | |
| Indigo Girls – Romeo and Juliet Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I heard Knopfler wrote the song after a former girlfriend of his, Holly Vincent, was dismissive about their relationship ("used to have a scene with him") in an interview. So there's an element of that in the song, using Romeo and Juliet (and West Side Story, which is loosely based on the play - the "movie song" in question, "Somewhere", includes the line "there's a place for us") as a frame ("come up on different streets", "underneath the window") for the story. "My Boyfriend's Back" is a song by The Angels, and if memory serves me right goes something along the lines of "stop pestering me or he'll clobber ya" which makes perfect sense in the context of the song. So, ah, Romeo (I'll say "he" for simplicity) and Juliet are going out together, she doesn't think he's good enough - he "can't do the talk" and she's distracted by those "pretty strangers" anyway (although it's not clear if they're pre- or post- breakup); they break up. Now he still loves her, and if he can't sing it "the way it's meant to be", well, he can certainly sing it good. I find the "whatcha gonna do about it" line very ambiguous. She could be asking him up or she could be telling him to get lost, it's hard to tell (and no clearer in either of the D.S. versions I've heard). It's a great song. |
|
| Kirsty MacColl – Caroline Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| It's her answer to "Jolene". | |
| The Stone Roses – This Is The One Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I agree that it's biblical imagery (there's early versions of it with more obviously biblical lyrics if I remember right) but the lyrics are also very suggestive of Samuel Delany's novel Dhalgren, which is set in a town called Bellona (which is out of "the country") and features among other things a literal "month of Sundays" and a heckuva lot of fire. I reckon one of them had just read it and thought it'd make good lyrics. (And they were right, 'cause "Bellona, Belladonna" sung like that is one of the best lines ever!) | |
| Ralph McTell – Michael In The Garden Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I've read somewhere that it was written about a relative of Ralph's, his brother-in-law I think. It's a great song. | |
| Iron Maiden – The Trooper Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
This is clearly about the Charge of the Light Brigade. As opposed to New Model Army's "The Charge", which uses the poem for lyrics but *isn't* about the charge. :) Both great songs though! "Haffely gaffely gaffely gonward..." |
|
| Aerosmith – Crash Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
The line about "Captain Billy" always struck me as a reference to Beamish museum in the North East of England - lord knows why they'd want to reference it, but the "thanks for coming, Billy" sounds a bit like an (atrocious) attempt at a North East accent. There was also a computer game called "Willy Beamish", maybe they just decided to randomly associate the two? |
|
| The Dresden Dolls – Delilah Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
When I first heard this song, I heard it as a love song from Amanda to Delilah; it was the "if you take him back / I'm gonna lose my nerve" line that grabbed me, as if she was trying to say "this guy is no good for you, come with me instead". I'm much less convinced of that now, the Amanda = Delilah angle is probably the "right" one. It's possible though. Regardless, the build-up at the end of the song is superb. Love it. |
|
| The Charlatans (UK) – Sproston Green Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Sproston Green is a tiny hamlet in Cheshire, just a pub and a handful of houses. I'm guessing whoever wrote the song had a relationship with someone there, who knows? | |
| The Charlatans (UK) – Then Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I love this song, but I've got an odd suspicion about it. It may be a total coincidence, but the line "I wanna bomb your submarines"? There were RN aircraft carriers called "Furious" and "Glorious". I realise it's just a metaphor for being angry at someone but, I dunno. Maybe they'd been reading a magazine article or something. :) | |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.