| Bob Dylan – Mr. Tambourine Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I do think this song is about drugs, Mr. Tambourine Man could very well be a metaphor for drugs or a certain drug. Songwriters always have their own metaphors and symbols we can't figure out no matter how much we try, and here I really believe it's Dylan's personal name for some drug. Like corky said, Dylan himself has said that none of his songs is about drugs, but we know already that he pretty often lies in everything he can in interviews, so... But the song is definitely not a praise for drugs (the Byrds version really makes it sound like it, they only sing the 2nd verse!), I also think it's about escapism, drugs being one way of escaping the agonizing reality, maybe also a way trying to find inspiration. The 1st verse really sounds to me like the pain of reality, and the times before going to sleep are always usually the hardest for people suffering of escapism. All the thoughts swirling in head, no ways to escape from them. "Too dead for dreaming." Also in the chorus: "I'm not sleepy and there's no place I'm going to." So, sometimes the only chance to escape is to get high. ...if this really is a song about Dylan's relationship to Bruce Langhorne, their relationship is damn twisted. The next verses really sound a lot like describing drug effects in every way to me. Weird feeling of numbness, feeling of exploring inner self and surreal dimensions and all that. But Dylan feels so hard how it's only a temporary, fake feeling, all of it. It's just a drug. "Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun, it's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run." "With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves, let me forget about today until tomorrow." Drugs are an unreal trip to him, he's somehow ashamed of being such a coward and escaping to druggy smokes - but he just needs so bad to forget all about now and reality. "Let me forget about today until tomorrow." I find "mr. tambourine man" a perfect metaphor for a drug. Like someone here already said, you can't really play a song with a tambourine. Drugs are a lame excuse for feeling anything. |
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| Leonard Cohen – A Singer Must Die Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I more likely see this song as ironic; he's saying "and I thank you, I thank you for doing your duty", but in truth he's not grateful at all. He's facing problems because of a song he has done, or simply an opinion he has stated, for public, or more likely only for one woman - something he has said, his opinion has "smudged the air". He still thinks that what he thinks is right, but because of the reaction all he can now do is to give up and surrender. "I was wrong, you all are right, whatever, I surrender in front of the public vision". The defences behind his song are now "hid in the clothes of a woman", so I believe this song is about his feelings for a woman. Maybe he simply confessed his love (I've understood that Leonard Cohen often links words "singer" and "lover") to a woman, got a very wrong reaction, something like "You never should have said that!" and their relationship got very complicated. "In the hinge of her thighs, where I have to go begging in beauty's disguise" - maybe their relationship was purely sexual, and that's the way the lady wanted to keep it. And now the poor man has to feel sorry for his pure feelings. But any ideas what he's meaning with the word "night" here, he repeats it quite a lot? |
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