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| Tracy Chapman – Fast Car Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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The deeper meaning behind this song for me is the heartache that comes from having to rely on other people who are inherently flawed and don't necessarily love you like they should (parents, husband) to satisfy the need for human connection in order to be whole ("the feeling that I belonged," "the feeling that I could be someone"). It's a tragedy that I can relate to, the only people you have that are supposed to be there for you and are incapable of real love. Growing up with an irresponsible parent like that, the speaker of this song may even have trouble recognizing genuine people if she has never known better, which leads her to choosing a similarly disappointing individual as a life partner. This woman works and gives and gives, yet tragically can't succeed without support, because no one is an island. This is in fact the fate of many women, who are left to bear the burden of caring for children and deep emotional scars while in our society, men escape any consequences for their treatment of women and in fact are often rewarded with another woman coming along (as in this song the speaker takes her mother's "place" caring for the father). |
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| Lady GaGa – Joanne Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Even though the song is about a specific person and situation, I feel that it can apply to other tragic situations, like a lost love. I can even see it being sung in the third person by someone who puts themselves in the role of Joanne because they are giving up on themselves or running away from something and need a boost in self-worth. It's poignant all these ways. |
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| Lady GaGa – Joanne Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I read that the song is for Lady Gaga's Aunt Joanne, who died young (and possibly even before Gaga was born, if I remember correctly), but who Gaga is named after (middle name Joanne). |
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| Brand New – Jesus Christ Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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Part of the genius of this song is the tongue-in-cheek dual meaning of that use of the title, "Jesus Christ," that begins most of the verses. Many people use this phrase as profanity, so it could be an example of taking God's name in vain. But if you recognize all of the Christian imagery in the lyrics, it appears that the speaker is actually directing the song to the figure of Jesus Christ. The first two lines especially suggest that the speaker is commenting off the cuff on a beautiful woman, but when you hear "someone that could save," it turns out to be Jesus' own face. It's a flippant kind of humor that you wonder if Jesus would actually appreciate. The phrase "And at the gates does Thomas ask to see my hands?" refers to the Apostle often known as Doubting Thomas, because he refused to believe in Jesus' resurrection from the dead after crucifixion until he actually saw the holes in His hands from being nailed to the Cross. The gates of heaven are traditionally pictured as guarded by St. Peter, another Apostle known as the Rock of the Church. The song modifies this image to imagine having to get the approval of Doubting Thomas to enter heaven, and possibly prove through physical signs that the speaker has suffered sufficiently or truly taken up his own cross after Jesus in life, to get into heaven. Clearly the speaker is suffering from mental illness ("if they don't put me away, it'll be a miracle"), loneliness, and despair. He sees little value left in his life ("'cause this problem's gonna last more than the weekend," another flippant reference to the three days between Jesus' death on the Cross and resurrection), but he's worried he won't achieve salvation in the next, either. "Come in the night like a thief" is actually a phrase from the Bible describing Jesus' return to Earth at the end of the world, which will supposedly be surreptitious. The speaker worries he will not recognize Jesus, just as the Bible says many people will not. They might repeat the same mistakes that people made the first time Jesus came to Earth and give in to the ugly impulse to crucify/kill someone who they did not understand or threatened the status quo. I understand this song as a beautifully human display of the doubts that come with faith. The speaker feels abandoned because his life is so painful, and this imperfection is intrinsically human. By saying "I know you'll come for the people like me," the speaker recognizes that Jesus is there to save exactly such hurt and imperfect people, but trust and faith are challenging to hold. The last line, "and we sleep inside of this machine," actually reminds me of a reference to The Matrix and maybe implies that we are trapped in a human condition under which we are unable to see the truth. |
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| Brand New – Jesus Christ Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I take it to be an example of the doubt that all believers face, showing the brokenness and humanity even of people who try to keep faith. |
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| Moby – South Side Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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As a vegetarian myself, I find it highly unlikely that Moby's diet has any impact on the complexity of his lyrics. Sometimes simplicity does better than deep meaning--look what the Beatles proved. This song clearly has some appeal despite the brief lyrics. |
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| There For Tomorrow – A Little Faster Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I think it's a combination of the two idioms "to bite your tongue" and to say something "between/behind your teeth." He's just barely holding in words from escaping, possibly concealing it with a smile. |
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| Chiodos – Lexington (Joey Pea-Pot With A Monkey Face) Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I think the girl wants to get a divorce, even after promising forever at their wedding. That's what they were drinking and celebrating. She may not even have been certain she loved him at that time, hence just "the idea." |
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| Barcelona – Fall In Love Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I can't tell if this song is about a couple that is long-distance and testing the viability of their relationship, or about deciding when is the right time to "do it" for the first time, or both. |
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| Barcelona – Fall In Love Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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I can't tell if this song is about a couple that is long-distance and testing the viability of their relationship, or about deciding when is the right time to "do it" for the first time, or both. |
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| Augustana – Stars and Boulevards Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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When he says "sung my life away" I feel like it's just a metaphor for how he longs so badly for the girl he's lost that she's almost chanting some spell that keeps him bound forever... so beautiful. |
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| Passion Pit – Sleepyhead Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Here, so I found that I think these are the only two lines of the Gaelic song used:
Faighimis na maidi - at the beginning, meaning "Let's get the oars"
and
Óró mo bháidÃn - the chorus background, "oh my little boat" |
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| Backstreet Boys – Spanish Eyes Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Mostly I think this song is just about being in love with someone who is Spanish/Hispanic, but I also get the feeling it could apply really well to the musical West Side Story if you think about it! |
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| AFI – Love Like Winter Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I've always thought this song was about someone the singer has loved for the longest time (since "before [he] was born") that keeps being the reason his relationships with other men and women that he "barely dreamt yesterday" don't work out. When they kiss him, they "drink [his] war from years before" or taste all the pain and longing he still has for that person and are pushed away once they find out. In essence he is still in love with an old flame and can't hold it together with someone new. |
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| Riddlin Kids – See The Light Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I think this song is about a girl that dumped him, although she's still his "light." But she keeps coming back and playing games with him, and he finally gets fed up with it and says someone like her will never find her own "light." He can't just let her back in when she feels like it. |
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| Rooney – I'm Shakin' Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Honestly, I feel like this song is just a fun little ditty about being home sick from school. That makes sense with not tasting food, not feeling normal, waiting for it to end, and watching TV all day, and then especially sweating and being snotty and having chills. |
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| Never Heard Of It – Hard Headed Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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It's weird, because this song seems straight forward yet has some very ironic undertones. I think the singer is admitting his true hard-headedness, but also saying that because he owns it no one has the right to put him down for it. So he's partially exaggerating his own faults and sarcastically supporting the poor choices of his so-called friends that give him such a hard time, to demonstrate that he's not such a bad guy, even if he's flawed. |
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| Moby – South Side Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Moby has said this song was inspired by his visits to Chicago. I live there, and for me this song is just a simple tribute to the 4 sides of the city (Yes, there is an East Side, it's not just Lake Michigan). The South and West sides can be dangerous; that's why he describes weapons and death in those verses. I'm from the North side. The lyrics are sparse, but pretty accurate. |
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| Weatherbox – Drop The Mike Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It seems to me like in the first verse maybe he meets a girl, he is grounded but starting to get his hopes up, and then he sees another side of her that's worse, sees she's mixed up, so he doesn't want anything to do with her. Now that he's no longer busy mooning over a girl, he has a lot more time for his songwriting. But then he finds he also has another side to him, raw and wild and good for songs, except this other side is too strong and overpowers him.
In the chorus he wakes up a new man, possibly a Native American more tied to the land, and he starts to do a (tribal?) dance. He is now coming from a more honest place, at least.
But then he gets discouraged, feels that his songs aren't epic and that he should just get up. "Like why am I rapping?/Like do we have no ideas left?" He may be disillusioned with the fans, wearing stupid merchandise and acting like they're some big-name band like Weezer. Another band members has some demons, and is acting sort of brainwashed, and he tries to save face for them. I'm not sure whether the "white with black underneath" is a reference to good/evil or a racial thing due to the rapping, so I won't comment. But still this other band member is paranoid, but also claiming that he's still the same guy and can play. He wants to "just snap back" from their disagreements, but the singer is like don't give me that crap, the way you're acting isn't reconcilable. But the singer actually thinks the rap he wrote about it is not awful, and shows talent unlike before when he attributed it to a lack of ideas. And maybe the bad situation is over, and again he's free to dance.
I love that it ends on that line. |
submissions
| Weatherbox – The Drugs Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I think in the first verse he is talking about being reborn at the first show his friends gave, and how it was so breathtaking and magical, especially under the influence of the drugs. But unlike him there were other kids there who only cared about getting high and not the music, so they barely noticed when the concert was over, and he wants to draw a line between them and him, despite admitting in the chorus that he is a junkie.
In the second verse he describes the difficulties of actually becoming the performer, how there is so much pressure and so many expectations, especially when playing for your friends like that, because they knew you before you were a big name and they don't care that you are supposedly talented, they will judge you like the kid they knew you as. So he describes the process of creating the album to try to impress everyone, and how he once again supported the music with a liberal dose of drugs.
Then the chorus changes to being a junkie for love, not drugs, perhaps when he gets some groupies for his new, successful band.
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| Weatherbox – The Clearing Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Also, he states in "The Drugs" that "you can paint me a junkie/ it's quite alright", so it seems like some of you are on the right track. |
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| Weatherbox – The Clearing Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I agree with the idea of this being a vicious cycle of some sort, but I don't think he destroyed the houses himself, I think his whistling just denotes his total apathy towards what happened to them. Also, this might be cliché and wrong but I think he meets a girl who seems like an angel, and he thinks she can save him from his recurring bouts of *insert problem here*, but after they have sex he doesn't feel any better and his life continues as it had been. |
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| Weatherbox – Armed to the Teeth Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I think this song is about, or at least using the metaphor of, being a wanderer in the wilderness, wading through mud and grass. He tries to avoid predators like wolves. But he can never seem to make his way back to human society. He lights flares and fires, and gets frustrated, like "come on, if you just push the leaves away you'll find traces of me." But he is never found and always alone. |
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| The Scene Aesthetic – Beauty In The Breakdown Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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We shouldn't forget that the title is "Beauty in the Breakdown." It isn't mentioned anywhere in the song, so I think it really is like a caption for the scene. It has to be about a relationship breaking down, but they are slowly finding their way because of it.
I actually think it might have to do with being in a relationship while on tour with a band also. In the first verse the singer is trying to coax the girl to trust him just for a second, saying that even when he doesn't have the music anymore he'll still have her.
In the chorus, she thinks it's useless, they're not in love, but he says they're young and don't have to figure that out yet.
In the second verse, he tries to help her remember when their relationship was healthy and happy, and says that if she gives him time she will see him grow into a bigger man. Also, he is running away from the town they grew up in, on tour with his band.
She says in the bridge that she wants to stay in the town, but he promises to write and try to stay emotionally close to her.
I think the song is basically the girl having doubts in the relationship and the guy trying to reassure her that everything's fine. |
submissions
| VHS Or Beta – Can't Believe A Single Word Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I feel like this song is talking to someone who could easily find the love they deeply desire if only they start letting go of their own pessimism and insecurities. When someone says they care, this person "can't believe a single word," and gives up out of self-deprecation. |
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| Saving Jane – Girl Next Door Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I could be slightly off, but towards the end of the song when trying to make out the lyrics sung softly in the background I get:
Every smile she fakes
Every heart she breaks
Everything she takes
Everything I'll be
Everything is me
Everything you see |
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| Saving Jane – Happy Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It seems more like she's being sarcastically happy to me. Like she does want him to know that she's not over him without explicitly saying it. |
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| Kings of Leon – Closer Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I see this song as being about a guy who has lost his love and it's sort of messed him up and destroyed him, so he goes out and sleeps with other girls and hurts them without a care because he's entirely consumed by her, and he's become a "dark soul" as julissakh said.
Also, there's a great video on Youtube about the former Shah of Iran that has this song playing in the background and I have to say the creepy vibe fits it PERFECTLY and even some of the lyrics, like "Showin' no mercy, I'd do it again", "I'll bleed you dry", and the references to two-thousand years (of monarchy, in this case) and a storm coming (the Iranian Revolution). I KNOW the song has nothing to do with that, but the video is genius. |
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| Metric – Black Sheep Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I hear "It's a mechanical bull at number one" meaning it's hard to stay on top and filled with chaos when you've made it. |
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| Jack's Mannequin – Bruised Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It seems to me to be about a guy who breaks up with a girl and leaves his sunny home (she is also the sun in a way) and moves across the country. In-flight he starts having second thoughts and it's hard for them both. He wants her to be happy without him, but really wishes she'd come get him and bring him back. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Landslide Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I've always seen this song as being about a person getting divorced later on in life, and therefore it can also be applied to breakups at any life stage.
But basically I interpreted it as a woman saying that after building this great love all these years she realizes it just isn't what she needs anymore, and that what took years to create takes only a quick avalanche to destroy. She is very confused by this sudden change in what it seems are the very foundations of her life, and this makes her question everything. She wonders if she can start over again, like a child. She is terribly afraid, but now as an older woman she is bolder than she was as a young newlywed and knows she has the strength to end things if they aren't good for her. Their children are grown up, and so is she.
In this sense, I find it to be an intensely emotional song because she is simultaneously grieving for the good in the relationship that is now dead and longing for what she knows can be better. Apply it to any long-term or deeply felt ormantic relationship. |
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| Scarlett Pomers – Valentine Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I've realized now I think the narrator is actually engaged to the guy she describes in the song...
"Got a life to give as set in stone"
But she won't marry him unless he changes |
submissions
| Dave Matthews Band – Satellite Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I've decided this song has two meanings. One the one hand, I agree with everyone who's said it's an updated version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", because the phrases "how I wonder" and "like a diamond in the sky" are direct quotes from it. Also, the album name, Under the Table and Dreaming, makes me think of being a little kid crawling around between people's legs at a big family dinner like the table is your fortress. Plus the swing ride on the cover. It's all a childhood fantasy revisited.
But also, I feel like it's a love story between the narrator and a girl, except he never explicitly names either himself or her. She's just the "satellite", someone who it seems has been in his "orbit" or on his radar for a while. "Everything good needs replacing", so she should give up her solitary roaming, which is not of itself bad, and instead be with him. He wants to know if she feels the same way, so he asks "Who is the king of your satellite castle?" And all the while he compares her to things like "diamonds in his eyes" and laughs at himself, the "weatherman", for how childishly infatuated he is. |
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| Finger Eleven – One Thing Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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My friend and I have a disagreement: this song is slow and depressing to her, but whenever I hear it I interpret the overwhelming tone as JOY. It sounds quietly happy to me. Who has the skewed perception? |
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| Ludo – The Horror Of Our Love Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Has anyone noticed this song and "Please" have very similar melodies? I almost think this is a very dark version of the other very innocent song. Deep love and, yes, sex, portrayed from two opposing perspectives. |
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| The Honorary Title – Along The Way Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This song is the anthem of my life right now. I keep rethinking, or resurrecting the evening, I said yes to my first boyfriend. It filled a hole that had always been empty in me, but after a year of liking each other we were so starved that now everything is way too intense way too fast. And I've been so overwhelmed I have been crying a lot, even though I keep telling myself it's what I've always wanted and I'm really happy. I did realize that this is so serious he might be my first and last boyfriend ever, and it's tough to deal with destiny possibly taking away any chance to be young and free. If this does last forever I think I will need to take a break once in a while, like I am now, to take it all in and breathe. I think the lie that I've been telling myself is that I'm ready for a relationship like this, and I hope my boyfriend can forgive me for making him think I was. I hope I don't repeat that mistake. |
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| Jack's Mannequin – American Love Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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A lot of you have said that "break the door down to find a baby cryin" means that after this illicit sexual relationship there will be a pregnancy and a child, but I actually think it's more of a metaphor. The relationship HAS created children... out of the people involved, because they didn't know how to handle themselves properly. So when people finally "break the door down" and find out, the singer of the song will be the baby crying there, so naive and "unprepared" for the situation. |
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| Sugar Ray – Every Morning Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I watched the video that gbxdl recommended, and although it is making fun of the song... it makes sense. His interpretation, at least. He's saying that there's a halo hanging on the girl's bed every morning because she DIDN'T cheat on her boyfriend, but the guy wants to borrow the halo (which is not his because he is not so angelic) to get away with cheating on her. Basically a song about being a jerk. I think this makes just as much sense as the other interpretation that the girl is cheating... either way, great song! |
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| Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think this song is about the best and worst of American culture: on one hand, TV is our friend, we drown our troubles in alcohol, and we take our crazy pills; on the other, we have worked hard to earn pride in our nation, especially in times of war or in coal mines, as it were, and not always voluntarily. Possibly contrasting this glorified past with our laziness today, how we no longer "bleed American". That phrase is how I interpret "salt, sweat, sugar on the asphalt/our hearts littering the topsoil". The blood that our hearts pump (containing sugar) and our sweat has been poured onto the ground for love of America. |
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| Matchbox Twenty – Push Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Starting off, this song has so many meanings it's hard to interpret, as well as lyrical genius. What I hear when I listen to it is a song about a girl that has been emotionally manipulated and scarred by many of her previous relationships, and is so messed up that she's no longer sure of herself at all, so when she gets in a fight with her latest love she decides she can't take this from him too and kind of desperately forces herself to be the aggressive one, pathetically convincing herself to be the one that wins for once: "I wanna push YOU around. Well I will!" |
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| (+44) – Baby Come On Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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First of all, I thought it was "Isn't there something familiar about me?", not "as if". Second, I think the line "the past is only the future with the lights on" is one of the best song lines ever written. For anyone who's seen the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that's exactly what it means. Past and future are the same thing except for one you see, the other you don't. So when everything comes full circle and history repeats itself, you might be able to learn from your mistakes, or you might make them again but that's okay, because the past IS the future, just with the lights on. |
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| Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I recently fell in love with this song when The Rocket Summer covered it acoustically in concert. It was a really touching moment. I wanted to say I agree on the meaning with whoever said it was about a lover leaving to go on tour with his band-- "Wait, they [the fans] don't love you like I love you" is so appropriate. They may scream his name, but she whispers it and it means more. It reminds me a whole lot of a line from "Doll Parts" by Hole, that has the same gist-- "Yeah, they really want you, they really want you, oh yes they do/ Yeah they really want you, they really want you but I do too". |
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| Blink-182 – Adam's Song Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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i really enjoy how expressive this song is of what it's like to have only the past in what you look forward to. "16 just held such better days, Days when I still felt alive". except im 16 right now, and high school is a death trap, so for me its 14 held such better days. but i recognize i was really alive then, now im like the living dead. this song is about the bitterness that comes with growing older for me. |
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| O.A.R. – Love and Memories (Live From Madison Square Garden) Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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although i love the original version of this song these lyrics are simply stunning! the part in the middle is so different but it adds an entire new UNIVERSE to the song in terms of meaning. the phrasing is as delectable as the cupcake he mentions.
it shows fully how this girl was no good for him, but he was absolutely smitten with her and even though its killing him that shes gone so soon (loved him faster than the devil) a part of him still needs to cherish her memory. her ghost is bittersweet- "im not sayin i wanna forget you, but dammit i have tried", such a beautiful sentiment that fits in exactly with the harder-to-interpret studio lyrics with the same meaning, "drownin deep inside your water" and "i am stuck inside a yesterday".
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| Scarlett Pomers – Valentine Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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this is a great feminine empowerment song! she wont stay in an emotionally abusive relationship with a guy that thinks he's god any longer. along with "headstrong" by trapt, a classic to channel your anger through :P |
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