submissions
| Vampire Weekend – Cousins Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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It's the song about Ezra himself -- his grandfather was a cobbler (show maker), he wrote about that in one of his early blogs. He is the list maker -- Vampire Weekend have been on many "best of" lists, but yes, he's downplaying his success. He was born to write music and he heeded the call -- and guess what, he made it. Some, less successful and well-off, will be looking up to him (and toasting his health), but if you're born rich, you can own all the art you want (implying, I think, art created by people like Ezra -- or any other artists). Why cousins? It's about the 7 degrees of separation. We're all related -- rich and poor, across generations and oceans (that's where you're getting old/new world). The line connecting all of us is fine, but always running. He can feel all the connections (to his father, and grandfather, a poor immigrant from the old world). |
submissions
| Vampire Weekend – Campus Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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it was very far-fetched. I completely agree, and have changed my mind almost entirely about this song since then :) |
submissions
| Vampire Weekend – M79 Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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it's the "factory mill" of diplomas, which Columbia University (this band's alma mater) is often accused of being.... The narrator chooses to do his learning outside the classroom, like in a museum (Metropolitan Museum is the setting of this song), while his classmate/love interest stays "waiting like a factory line" to "receive" education in school. |
submissions
| Vampire Weekend – Campus Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It's a song about having a secret relationship with a Middle-Eastern girl, and I think it goes along with their other song "M79", which focuses on the failure of this relationship. In "Campus" the narrator mentions spilling kefir on the girl's "kaffiyah" which is an Arab headdress, and that makes me think the girl is Middle-Eastern. He then talks about having to pretend not to be with someone he is sleeping (or in love) with -- "How am I supposed to pretend/ that I never want to see you again?" "I have to leave here before I go" I believe refers to secretly sleeping over at a girl's place, and having to get out early without being noticed. This makes me think that the narrator is forced by this girl to keep their relationship a secret for some reason, perhaps because the girl is Middle Eastern (I get this even more from the other song, M79). "Cruel professor studying romances" doesn't refer to an actual professor. Instead, the narrator is bitterly calling her, as someone already mentioned, a "professor of love" who's cruel because after getting him to fall in love with her, she doesn't want to have a relationship. The last stanza doesn't refer to being stoned. If you've ever been to Columbia U. campus, it's all "stone and grass", so here the song's just talking about avoiding public encounters with the girl, who's out and about campus, and that's why the narrator is "sleeping on the balcony after class." Maybe he's making up for the sleep lost to their secret encounters (they're both so tired they're dragging their "feet along the floor" :) or just avoiding crossing campus and seeing the girl again, and then having to pretend he doesn't know or like her. |
submissions
| Vampire Weekend – M79 Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It's a song about a failed relationship with a Middle-Eastern girl, and I think it goes along with their other song "Campus". In "Campus" the narrator mentions "kaffiyah" which is an Arab headdress, which is what makes me think the girl is Middle-Eastern, and then talks about having to pretend not to be with someone he is sleeping (or in love) with -- "How am I supposed to pretend/ that I never want to see you again?"("I have to leave here before I go" I believe refers to secretly sleeping over at a girl's place, and having to get out without being noticed), which makes me think that the narrator is having a secret relationship with a girl who can't have a real relationship with him. M79 (which stands for a NY bus by that number that the narrator probably takes to either visit her or go home) gives a hint as to why the relationship failed: her "racist" dreams make me think she didn't want a real relationship with the narrator who wasn't Middle Eastern (thus the secret relationship or simply hooking up that he writes about in "Campus"), and when he tells her to "Dress yourself in bleeding madras" ("madras" being a kerchief often worn as a turban) and to "Charm your way across the Khyber pass", he's essentially telling her that if she is so Middle Eastern that she can't date him, she should go be with her people, being sarcastic of course because Khyber Pass, as a physical location, is very violent, so it's like saying "if you don't want to be with me, go charm the terrorists, if you think any Middle Eastern guy is better for you than I am." In the next stanza "Jackson Crowther" refers to a Minor League baseball player, underlining the irony -- this girl is so Americanized, she sings praises to an unknown baseball player, yet won't consider a serious relationship with the narrator because he's not Middle Eastern. And when he finally tells her to "Watch yourself along the arch of glass" he's bitterly referring to how thin the line is that she draws between what's acceptable to her, as a Middle Eastern girl, and what's not. |
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