| Fleet Foxes – Oliver James Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This song is clearly a veiled allusion to O.J. Simpson's dual murder, his acquittal, and eventual imprisonment for an unrelated crime. The "valley" is San Fernando Valley, and the "whitest" water refers to his slow-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco. But the chorus, that O.J. ("Oliver James" may not be his real name, but the connection is obviously intentional) is "washed in the rain" (i.e., washed of his sins) "no longer" implies universal recognition that Simpson received his just desserts after his criminal activity in Las Vegas was demonstrated to a grand jury. |
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| The Shins – A Comet Appears Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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What many of you have posted is right, I think. Uber-man is a blatant reference to Nietzsche. No longer are we grounded, but we are boats out at sea. Here's a passage from Nietzsche's parable of "The Madman": The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nietzsche-madman.html) In this parable, the planet is unhinged. No longer is God, or, as Heidegger suggested, metaphysics, an option for us. We are without a ground to stand out, like a boat out at sea with no compass. To Nietzsche, this should be freeing for the uber-man, but the speaker in "A Comet Appears" is not an uber-man. He is not comforted by nihilism. Instead, he sees a comet (the title of the song), a ground on which to stand, perhaps, but he can't hold on. Every attempt is another attempt at believing in God or some other external metaphysic to justify a certain type of behavior: "Every post you can hitch your faith on / Is a pie in the sky / Chock full of lies / A tool we devise / To make sinking stones fly." The post is the comet is God-- there is nothing to anchor us, but we keep attaching ourselves to finite things "to make sinking stones fly," or in other words, to do what we know is impossible. "And still to come, / The worst part and you know it," sings the speaker-- This is death, but the speaker can't even mention the word. It only reaffirms our limits. How do we overcome nihilism, the song asks, but it doesn't know the answer. |
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| The Shins – A Comet Appears Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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What many of you have posted is right, I think. Uber-man is a blatant reference to Nietzsche. No longer are we grounded, but we are boats out at sea. Here's a passage from Nietzsche's parable of "The Madman": The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. "Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? Do we hear nothing as yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/nietzsche-madman.html) In this parable, the planet is unhinged. No longer is God, or, as Heidegger suggested, metaphysics, an option for us. We are without a ground to stand out, like a boat out at sea with no compass. To Nietzsche, this should be freeing for the uber-man, but the speaker in "A Comet Appears" is not an uber-man. He is not comforted by nihilism. Instead, he sees a comet (the title of the song), a ground on which to stand, perhaps, but he can't hold on. Every attempt is another attempt at believing in God or some other external metaphysic to justify a certain type of behavior: "Every post you can hitch your faith on / Is a pie in the sky / Chock full of lies / A tool we devise / To make sinking stones fly." The post is the comet is God-- there is nothing to anchor us, but we keep attaching ourselves to finite things "to make sinking stones fly," or in other words, to do what we know is impossible. "And still to come, / The worst part and you know it," sings the speaker-- This is death, but the speaker can't even mention the word. It only reaffirms our limits. How do we overcome nihilism, the song asks, but it doesn't know the answer. |
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| Barenaked Ladies – Wrap Your Arms Around Me Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song is NOT a positive, uplifting song. It's apparent sexiness is meant to be subversive. Think about the lyrics: I can make a perfect outline of your body if I trace. First this is sexy, but after he puts his hands around her neck "choking," one is apt to think of a chalk outline of a corpse at a crime scene. Also the reference to turning off the lights is sexy the first time around, but the second time is reminiscent of death, as in "lights out for such and such [who died]." What connects the sexiness to the killing is a transformation in the tone of the relationship. The speaker is becoming self-conscious, asking her if the lover "could love him 'til tomorrow." This is not sexy, but fearful. I think there could be more to analyze in this song, too, especially more with the mirroring of the first and last stanzas/verses. |
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