submissions
| Rufus Wainwright – In with the Ladies Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think this song is about how Lord Alfred [Bosie, Oscar Wilde's scadal boyfriend] and how he denied his homosexuality, playing on what would happen if Rufus toyed with Bosie's emotions as Bosie did with Wilde's... at one point Bosie apparently said he was bored of Wilde and stated he was going to play away, and that Wilde could watch. Twisted but see below for some more details.
Bit of Back Story- [this has fascinated me in the past you see]
Basically, Wilde was smitten and Bosie kept demanding things from him in what was a mutually destructive relationship. Wilde tried to help Bosie with his predicament with his beating bastard father who had made Bosie's brother commit suiside following a similar scandal with another man. He dogged Wilde, insulting him to the point that Wilde initiated a court case for assault [many experts think Bosie prompted this action from Wilde]. It was revealed that he was gay, and when Wilde gave a moving speech about Platonic love [which Bosie had written a poem about... sort of. He'd basically gone all out gay, and titled it 'The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name'. This was used as evidence.] instead of denying it he was shouted out of court and given two years hard labour [which at the time rich men were expected to survive about a year]. Wilde managed to survive, wrote the poem 'Ballad of Reading Gaol' there [which is a masterpiece, unlike 'The Love That Dare Not Speak It's Name' which I also read] and when he got out moved to Paris and changed his name to Sebastian Mermouth. He is buried there, but he was under the name he was born into.
Really tragic stuff. It makes me very glad that, as a gay man, I live now rather than then, despite my many Victorian fantasies connected to literature.
How this relates to the song
After all that, Bosie decided he did love Wilde and then they "lived together" for a bit i think.., but decided he was straight in the end and started becoming an activist against gay rights. Bastard. Troubled pretty two-timing strange bastard. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – Billy Liar Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Is Billy Liar the book the one where he has three different fiancees? Doesn't sound like the film.
I just thought, teen, masturbation, running out of school as people have already said in order to fantasize [in whatever way] but in reality a slimy guy at the post office, resented for his horny kiddishness. Hence he's masturbating in the first verse whilst watching the neighbours- it may or may not be absent minded, but either way the neighbours are disgusted by his behaviour. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – Billy Liar Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I agree with you mostly, just want to add to your last note about the radio- maybe it's a little of Colin Meloy's exasperation at it being a "familiar" song instead of a good song. He's complaining about how popular songs are only popular because of the ampount of playtime they get- which is loads because radio stations now get told what to play, and don't get to play what they LIKE.
God bless John Peel. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – Billy Liar Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"moan and a weep" are both sexual references. Loads of guys cry at climax. And the first you should be able to work out. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I don't agree that the book will be that similar, as I said somewhere else, I think that prostitution is a very broad topic if you chop it up, and people have already compared this song to other songs, films, and now you offer a book.
All I can say is you've made me want to read the Handmaid's Tale. :D |
submissions
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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SEriously? They aren't gay? If they aren't gay, don't you think they'd make money ANY other way than prostitute themselves to other men? Like pimp? An dwould you hold hands with another guy if you weren't gay? Why couldn't hetrosexual men whore themselves to women, like in the Chimbley Sweep? It's been done before.
Why is it that so many people claim not to be homophobic, then just cannot accept it when a song is about gay men? I see it everywhere! I'm not saying you are necesarrily homophobic btw, I just think it's very strange how people tend to draw the line at practicle points, like song lyrics. Such people think Basil Halward wasn't in love with Dorian Gray, just that he had a very physical fraternal love for him!
You can very much tell when Meloy builds up a female persona because he's very good at it. Also, Colin Meloy is the sort of person who, if he wants to say a something about a something he does, right? So don't people think when he stands around with his GAY band members holding Gay Rights posters that maybe he might write a song about gay people, that he wouldn't have reservations about writing about such a thing, unlike some interpreters of songs like this and the Soldiering Life?
I mourn for you all.. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I think he's great because he picks enourmous themes. I mean here we have the trials of growing up, which everyone can sympathise with, and then feeling rejection due to being gay, which the gay and lesbian community can sympathise with [I'm gay and I ran away twice, but I can't possibly imagine how bad my time could have been- just like to say 25% of homosexual kids committed suicide before the age of 25 in the early Naughties and that's just sick, so please tell homophobes off, because the acceptability of this in general is murder], and then prositution, which prostitutes can sympathise with, and other people can feel indignant that people like the characters in this song really do exist. Through this Meloy appears to be speaking to a select audience, but addresses everyone! 8D |
submissions
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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May be he's saying he won't have to mourn for him because he doesn't intend to lose him, like he did his other family, the mother and brother at home. He feels guilty about not leaving a note or anything, but still resentful at his brother- the cause for his running away. So he pretends they are dead, and mourns for them as if they were.
He's found a new family on the street [just putting this out there, but could there be a plural "you" in the latter half of the song? I mean I personally think he is in love with the other boy, but there could be quite a few prostitutes, like a circle, who have become like a family to him?] and he wants to keep them, unlike the others. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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If they'd said "queens" it'd be slightly more ambiguous, but let's face it, you can normally tell when The Decemberists are describing a straight relationship or a gay one. Here they are gay. More old guys are into young boy prostitutes, and the joke with the "limp dicks" is basically old guys so long locked in the closet they're too old to get it up at last when they want to tell themselves the truth. Also, the fact that their SHOES are their showbouts, not dresses or corsets or high calf boots [which could still apply to both, but not hot] show that the guys are trying to show they are gay.
So yeah, I think they are guys, and I won't insult you for thinking otherwise [I don't want to be one of those basstards that say " well you're wrong, fucker"- but that's why I think this. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Sorry, a bit sarcy there. let me explain myself- "kings among runaways". there.
The Shins are like them. And if you like the traditional creepiness of the Decemberists, Nick Cave does it well, but he's heavily influenced by Tom Waits, and Cave puts a bluesey edge on things as opposed to the nautical edge of the Decemberists. Bright Eye's are highly lyrical and keep the folkyness that's in the Decemberists. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Soldiering Life Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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A gemini to HIMSELF?! THAT's more likely than two gay guys? Seriously? I'm not hurt by the insults, because it's just so ridiculous.
And RandomRANCOR of course there was no point. It was nearly as good as the porno spambots ["DO you like BOOBS? CLICK HERE to JACK OFF!!!!"] It just made me lol. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Soldiering Life Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Look, princess, I realise you have decided what the song means, and I agree with you. The dudes are indeed fucking, as you said. But why you deem it necessary to insult and twist everything EVERYONE says on here, including me [By the way, do you think I haven't heard THAT before? I'm fucking gay! What, you think I'm going to hear your message and go and weep? Or better still, suddenly go "dig pussy"? sadly not. I had a girlfriend when I was thirteen- she was great, but she had another boyfriend, boobs and no dick. I dumped her.] I don't know.
I sympathise with what you want. You want to be the kind of person with that awesome sarceasm which sets everyone around you slightly on edge because you're gently insulting them, right? But seriously, when you twist what anybody says on a WEBSITE, where no-one will find you funny, hear your voice dripping with irony, where is the fun in that? Maybe you're trying to hone your skills in the humour department, but instead of being cool everyone's just found you annoying. You're acting like [though I realise you probably aren't] a silly House MD fangirl. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Soldiering Life Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Don't ever use the word faggot. It's crude and isn't the sort of thing a Decemberist fan [traditionally the rather intelligent type] should do. It's not the done thing. That word is along the same lines, in my opinion, as cunt and paki and spade. Just don't go there.
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submissions
| The Decemberists – The Soldiering Life Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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No I'm not. Don't you just love that you can hear Colin smile in this song? I kind of forgot that this is a happy song in my analysis. They are happy because they are in love, but sad because of the perpectual fear of death that hangs over them. Very Decemberists. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Soldiering Life Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Whoops completely forgot that the reason I think person 2 thinks he's being pressured is because a radio can be obnoxiously loud and it would play propaganda. Right, now I'm done. |
submissions
| The Decemberists – The Soldiering Life Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I do, esp in the lines "We tumbled to sleep/ our eyes, align" and "Corperal Bradley, of Regiment 5/ In proud array/ standing by the bathing." though the rest might be seen as a jolly good friendship I suppose. Though I agree it isn't quite a passionate soldier love-up either. It's more honest than that. It's a sort of naked song, not in that way. It's bare. It's a very good love song, I think. *muses*
I think that the two choruses are meant to be taken from two different points of view- I agree with words and tricks in that they are different people certainly but that their views are slightly different.
Say Person 1 who heard a whisper thought that the call to arms was something personal to him, perhaps an escape from wherever he was before [where he was a bowery tough btw bowery can just mean uncouth, poor and rude] and so secretly wants to be called up. His accompanying chorus is jolly, and he doesn't dwell on the injuries.
The other man felt pressured into joining, either socially [men who didn't enlist were shunned socially, labled cowards. Women would frown at any men they saw off leave, at least in England. It was seen as very bad to leave the army and worse to not join. Doctors were not even allowed to send soldiers home with shell-shock or write it on their medical notes for fear of men dropping out] or emotionally, to prove himself as a "real man" as many gay men feel as if they are not "real men" because of the homophobes. Anyway, this guy's less optimistic about the trenches- you can kind of hear Colin sing a little slower, and a little more minor. Something anyway. There's something sad about his voice. His chorus ends "And the mortars may fall...." in a cliffhangerish "did the other guy die?" kind of way.
But you know that's just Perry's point of view- put a little too much personal exp and history in, but I listen to this song a lot. |
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