| Bob Dylan – Emotionally Yours Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Bob Dylan is a messianic shaman of the soul. I can't think of one other artist as direct-through-indirectness as he is. This song perfectly showcases his talents as a mediator between the human world and the spirit world. It's almost a crazed repent to the woman who was always there with the warm soup when he got home. And he'd been out shagging a billion busty maidens, and when she finally saw how terrible he was she went, "I'm splittin'" but this would be an infinite regress. He's howling like the blues and rockin' the hearts of thousands to this day. True magic, Mr. Dylan. Wondrous melody. | |
| Bob Dylan – Idiot Wind (New York Sessions) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I always liked the fast-paced music in the regular version better, but I think some of these lyrics were better. | |
| Bright Eyes – Four Winds Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| A song about what went wrong. There was an age of enlightenment, but we'll have one again as long as those three disgusting near-east religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) keep fucking us up. | |
| Bob Dylan – Workingman's Blues #2 Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| One of his all-time masterpieces, in the ranks of Like A Rolling Stone and Blowin' In The Wind, I'd say, though it'll certainly never get as much credit. A beautiful account of an aged man's feelings toward a woman he'd left behind. | |
| Bob Dylan – I and I Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Very powerful. I've definately thought this song was about a guy cheating on his wife, but there is a very subtle, very beautiful undercurrent to the lyrics of where his shame lies in the act of doing so; he mentions nowhere that he feels guilty because of his own wify, but feels guilty about the other woman, it would seem, in lines like; "In another lifetime she must have owned the world, or been faithfully " and "Took a stranger to teach me, to look into justice's beautiful face" |
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| Bob Dylan – If Dogs Run Free Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Great song. Very jazzy; makes me think of the Beat Generation. In a movie about Jack Kerouac or a film adaptation of On The Road or The Dharma Bums, this would be a good song to run during the opening credits. Love the woman in the background. | |
| David Bowie – Reality Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| A song about the impossibility of life in the modern age of rampant christian and muslim fundamentaslism. It's not a matter of "whether" they will destroy our planet with nuclear war in the name of 2,000 year old superstitions... just "when" it will happen. Anybody who has children must now consider the probable possibility that their children will not live a full life because of these nutjob a-holes, like Pat Robertson or the authors of the Left Behind books. There WILL be nuclear war... not because it's prophecized (as these idiots would have you believe in their fear-mongering books) but because people believe these books and pastors and will think dropping bombs and torturing "heretics" is fulfilling the prophecy and serving their "god". It's truly tragic. This song is about one sick-n-tired youth who realizes how futile it is to resist these war-mongers. | |
| David Bowie – Under the God Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| A song about the impossibility of life in the modern age of rampant christian and muslim fundamentaslism. It's not a matter of "whether" they will destroy our planet with nuclear war in the name of 2,000 year old superstitions... just "when" it will happen. Anybody who has children must now consider the probable possibility that their children will not live a full life because of these nutjob a-holes, like Pat Robertson or the authors of the Left Behind books. There WILL be nuclear war... not because it's prophecized (as these idiots would have you believe in their fear-mongering books) but because people believe these books and pastors and will think dropping bombs and torturing "heretics" is fulfilling the prophecy and serving their "god". It's truly tragic. | |
| David Bowie – Under Pressure Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| A song about the impossibility of life in the modern age of rampant christian and muslim fundamentaslism. It's not a matter of "whether" they will destroy our planet with nuclear war in the name of 2,000 year old superstitions... just "when" it will happen. Anybody who has children must now consider the probable possibility that their children will not live a full life because of these nutjob a-holes, like Pat Robertson or the authors of the Left Behind books. There WILL be nuclear war... not because it's prophecized (as these idiots would have you believe in their fear-mongering books) but because people believe these books and pastors and will think dropping bombs and torturing "heretics" is fulfilling the prophecy and serving their "god". It's truly tragic. Under Pressure is a song about the callous attitudes these "moralists" have towards those who have REAL problems, like AIDS victims or the homeless. These issues were hot topics in the 80s, when people were secular enough to care about reality. but after 9/11 and the Left Behind books and End Times theology, they're more comfy clinging to 2,000 year old illusions. As long as they kill abortion doctors and spit on "faggots" they're doing their lord's work, right? | |
| David Bowie – Heroes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| A song about the impossibility of life in the modern age of rampant christian and muslim fundamentaslism. It's not a matter of "whether" they will destroy our planet with nuclear war in the name of 2,000 year old superstitions... just "when" it will happen. Anybody who has children must now consider the probable possibility that their children will not live a full life because of these nutjob a-holes, like Pat Robertson or the authors of the Left Behind books. There WILL be nuclear war... not because it's prophecized (as these idiots would have you believe in their fear-mongering books) but because people believe these books and pastors and will think dropping bombs and torturing "heretics" is fulfilling the prophecy and serving their "god". It's truly tragic. Heroes is about us, the intelligent thinking men and women of the 21st century, whose futures are destroyed by these fools' disgusting theologies. All we can do is be "heroes"... just for 1 day... just live the best we can as long as the mad governments and religions of the world, who sadly run everything, allow us to. | |
| David Bowie – Sons of the Silent Age Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is about the christian right's ridiculous interpretation of their book of Revelation and the End Times theology made popular by those god-awful Left Behind books. Their BS martyr feelings that we are living in a secular age where THEY are a minority that is percecuted. What a lie! The majority of people in the U.S. are Christian and there is no threat being posed to these few fundies by their less ridiculous moderates or by atheists or secularists. But they suffer in their deluded deception, thinking the world is getting closer to it's end because (finally) homosexuals are getting the rights they deserve, and people are shrugging off supertitious views of the world. | |
| David Bowie – We Are Hungry Men Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Truly insightful song. Millions starving to death every year because of overpopulation yet still the Pope condemns birth control and the "moral" right (immoral bastards) bomb abortion clinics. And of course children grow up in orphanages without love while every middle class yuppie in an SUV ignores the statistics, not "giving a damn" for what intelligent people are saying, they want to "live their lives" and experience the "miracle" of childbirth. Well we'll see how great of parents they are when they ignore overpopulation, global warming, genocidal/apocalyptic bullshit theology and their kids melt in the heat, fight over scraps of food and are obliterated by nuclear war caused by christianity/islam/judaism "End Times" BS. Of course, our kids will die as well, us having no control over it since all these countries keep electing religious nuts as their leaders. | |
| Don McLean – Till Tomorrow Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I always think of two people living in the woods in two seperate cabins, but pretty close to each other, that love each other but are both too shy to say so, and he hopes it won't rain, etc. because he has a ritual of walking over to the other's place. | |
| Bob Dylan – Not Dark Yet Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The disintegration of a dream. The American Dream? A childhood dream? A lost love? Somehow, this is a song about apathy, much like Black Diamond Bay from his Desire album. But Black Diamond seems to take a negative niew of apathy and carelessness, while this one seems to say that it's the only way to stay alive and well, in lines like: "Behind every beautiful thing, there's been some kind of pain" "There's not even room enough to be anywhere" "I just don't see why I should even care" "I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still" "Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb" It's all about hopelessness... the essence of the blues. Bob was always a blues musician, even in his folk, rock, and gospel periods--these genres were just puppets, the blues was the puppeteer |
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| Bob Dylan – Tryin' to Get to Heaven Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Agree, bob_dylan_fan. Other great lines in this song: But I don't know what "all right" even means and I close my eyes and wonder/if everything is as hollow as it seems. Bob Dylan isn't just a great musician... in my opinion he's the embodiment of the American Spirit. Like other greats before him, Thoreau, Kerouac, Martin Luther King Jr., Elvis, James Dean, George Washington, Jesse James. People say America is a "christian" nation--but all of its greatest heroes were freethinkers and freespirits. There's a blood that pumps through American veins that transcends religion, beliefs, race, or gender--it really is the melting pot of the world. And to say it's a one-religion nation takes away from the thing that, in my opinion, is even better than it's democracy (there are lots of free countries) but there is only one real melting pot, only one country where the ghosts of Billy Kid and Abraham Lincoln live in the collective unconscious... and that's the U.S. Maybe I'm just in a 4th of July mood... my apologies. |
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| Prince – Somewhere Here On Earth Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is such a great song. Saw him perform it on the second to last Tonight Show With Jay Leno, and it made me want to listen to the Planet Earth album again. | |
| Neil Young – Throw Your Hatred Down Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is a remarkable song. I think it has to do with theology and cold, distanced philosophy ("here in the conscious world, we place our theories down") taking away somewhat from the actual living of life How politics, greed, religion, philosophy, even minor theological disagreements start wars and no matter how great your god is "the power in his hand" he is still cold and distant and unforgiving "can never touch a friend" The whole thing is like this--plotting and planning and philosophizing taking away all the humanity from life itself. Very insightful. |
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| Rent – I'll Cover You Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Simply one of the best songs ever. Period. The whole era of 1980s New York, AIDS, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, etc. is SO fascinating AIDS was such a tragedy. Yet, from this tragedy came the need to examine what matters in life. And when people realized this, and chose to LIVE as best as they could for as long as they had They set an example for all of us (like the line in La Vie Boheme where they sing "to living with, living with, living with... not dying from disease!) SO TRUE You always have to live with, not die from! Just like the Bob Dylan lyric: "He not busy being born is busy dying" This song is just such an uplifting statement! "There's only us, there's only this, forget regret, or life is yours to miss" The message of RENT is so vital. |
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| Nick Drake – Way to Blue Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Probably my favorite of all Nick's songs. | |
| Nick Drake – Man In A Shed Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The cover of the album this song is on "Five Leaves Left" depicts Nick as the Man In A Shed, it would seem. | |
| Nick Drake – The Thoughts of Mary Jane Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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One of his most beautiful songs, really. Less melancholy than many of the others. |
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| Nick Drake – Cello Song Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"When the armies of emotion go out to fight"--you don't get much more poetic lyrics than that. Nick's lyics are very deep and very intelligent, but also very accessible. Other singers get the depth and the intelligence (Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Damien Rice)--but often times their lyrics are much more subjective and open-ended, whereas with Nick, I get the feeling that he wasn't just experimenting with rhyming, or trying to say a social/political message--he had a personal message that he wanted (needed!) to express... And that's why he's such a beautiful artist, and such a deserving-of-praise songwriter |
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| Nick Drake – Way to Blue Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I agree with most of what you all have said But I don't think anybody yet has really put any emphasis on the fact that he is talking to somebody (As opposed to just stating his thoughts out loud about nature, heaven, life, death, etc) I think the love-song aspect of this piece has been ignored. "Don't you have a word to show what may be done/have you never heard a way to find the sun" I think he's fallen in love, but is still depressed, second-guessing himself, his worth, whether or not love can last And he's asking the girl he's singing to in the song, if she can really love him, show him the way to Heaven, and The Sun, and happiness, or if all that she wants is a one-night stand sort of thing... which seems the narrator's deepest fear in the song. He needs to be loved. |
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| Nick Drake – River Man Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The line about praying for the sky to blow away (or maybe stay) is very fascinating to me. I always imagine a sort of suicidal woman who still has hope, but is faithless. She has no faith that things will work out. She thinks everything will go badly. (prayed for the sky to blow away) But she still holds onto the hope that something might happen that will change her life for the better. (or maybe stay) The next line really spells out plainly what the previous line only vaguely infers: her suicidal tendencies laid aside due to momentary hopeful moments... "For when she thought of summer rain Calling for her mind again She lost the pain And stayed for more" The last line in that stanza "And stayed for more" is particularly haunting. |
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| Nick Drake – Time Has Told Me Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It reminds me of Brokeback Mountain. The lines "You're a rare rare friend. A troubled cure for a troubled mind" and "Someday our ocean will find its shore" Are very close to the relationship of Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar in that movie/story. But it's true that these lines are pretty typical... but when you get to the line: "So I'll leave the ways that are making me be What I really don't want to be Leave the ways that are making me love What I really don't want to love" ... that line really speaks of that story. I'm not saying Nick way gay, and obviously this song was written years before that movie. I just find the connections between the two interesting. That's the subjectivity of music. Its interesting how meaning can evolve over time. |
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| David Bowie – As the World Falls Down Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think it's "mountains of gold," not "mornings of gold" | |
| Bright Eyes – Four Winds Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think the lines about the Bible, Torah, and Qur'an being blind deaf and mute Is a pretty obvious statement. The "school of meditation" part, I think is referring to the other end of the spectrum On one hand there are the radical fundamentalist Christians (in the US mostly) And there is radical Islasm in the middle east, and the conflict between the muslims and jews (Israelis and Palestinians) On the other hand there is the school of meditation (Buddhism, New Age beliefs, etc.) meant to soften the times Rather than belonging to these radical religions that preach hell and torture and war, and End Times etc. these New Age religions are meant to "soften the times" (be peaceful, tranquil and all-inclusive) But they just hold us at the center while the spiral unwinds. As the world is destroyed by global warming, and warfare, and these radical religions, Buddhism and New Agism just serve to help people deal with pain personally, but the spiral is unwinding (the earth is dying) and time is dragging on, and unless we get our act together on a physical scientific basis... it could be too late for our children or their children to have the life they could have. |
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| Damien Rice – Amie Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This song is so beautiful it's almost frightening. It never gets old and it never fails to supply the listener with intense emotions. It's everything a good poetic song should be. | |
| Damien Rice – Older Chests Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| One of his most touching songs. He said in an interview that this was about how people percieve changes, using the example that if you see someone every day, you don't notice their hair getting longer, but if you see them again after a long time, you'll see that they have longer hair. He also said it had to do with certain places like Italy, Rome, Venice, maybe, where certain buildings never change and others do all the time, and family values and beliefs, etc. change through the years, but certain things, like father-son relationships are consistent and have been the same forever. | |
| Bright Eyes – Waste of Paint Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Well it's pretty much impossible to really be a lyric poet in this day and age. If you're a poet and want exposure and a career of it, you pretty much have no option other than to put the rhymes to some sort of tune and make it music. Few people really read poetry anymore, so... But Conor is an amazing musician as well. To say he's just a great poet that uses music because he has to in order to get recognition in the contemporary world would be a lie. He's a great musician. |
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| Björk – Aurora Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This song, like many others by bjork, celebrates female sexuality and intuition. It is a beautiful and touching account of a sexual/romantic relationship Told in wonderful, choppy little phrases and stream-of-consciousness glimpses Into the highly developped female sexual experience (one of the reasons women look at pornography less than men do is their sexual imagination is in most cases more developed and their fantasies more personal and less general) Obviously Bjork's (or at least the 'narrator' of this song) Is taking us on a journey through her mind in the midst of spiritual sexual bliss |
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| Björk – Frosti Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think even people who normally only listen to New Age, Jazz, or Classical music, and dislike most Pop or Rock music (and with good reason, most of it isn't very great) should appreciate Bjork (and Brian Eno) Because musically they are extremely innovative and tread the water in ways that nobody else does. They are simply brilliant experimentalists... scientists of sound, magicians of music |
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| Björk – Undo Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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First off, Hotness 2010, just because a lot of her songs are about sex, it doesn't mean she's a freak. Sex is a topic that most people do think about a lot, and if that's freakish to you, well goody for you for being more enlightened (or sociallly inept) than the rest of the human race. And if she were a "freak" than the sexual overtones would be more obvious, and there would be more of an abnormal perversion involved, (how is an empowered woman expressing healthy, ordinary sexual desires and ideas freakish?) But for the record, this song isn't about sex in the first place. It's about letting go of the ego to attain true selfhood, and not having to try so hard to be "cool" and simply being yourself. |
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| Warren Zevon – Transverse City Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Another prime example of Zevon's willingness to incorporate very obviously modern-day references into his work, something that other artists, in an effort to appear "timeless" shy away from. But something that is really very poignant and important. Zevon is like a single cherry in the rock-n-roll fruit cocktail. A true genius. | |
| Warren Zevon – The French Inhaler Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Great analysis imperial.bedroom | |
| Warren Zevon – This Time I Have to Leave Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| If not Warren, then who wrote this? | |
| Warren Zevon – Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| One of his funniest and saddest songs. | |
| Warren Zevon – The Rest Of The Night Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| His most fun, lighthearted and energetic song. Amazingly it's on his album THE WIND, which was recorded after he found out he had a terminal illness. | |
| Warren Zevon – The Indifference Of Heaven Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I love the line about the 7-11. Warren never shyed away from incorporating lyrics that are undeniably modern into his work. Certain writers, even ones I love, like Bob Dylan, in an effort to be timeless, will be impressionistic and try to write songs that could have been written 300 years ago or 300 years from now. Warren's songs have a very acute awareness of his place not only geographically, but of this moment in time as well, and that's just one of many rare treats his music has to offer. | |
| Warren Zevon – The Hula Hula Boys Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| In one interview w/ David Letterman, I think he said that the lyrics meant "sing the chorus again" in Hawaiian. | |
| Warren Zevon – The Heartache Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Similar lyrically and in feeling to Bob Dylan's song NOT DARK YET from his album TIME OUT OF MIND. Beautiful in every definition of the word. | |
| Warren Zevon – The Factory Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Reminds me of a poem by Patti Smith called "Piss Factory" or something. Anyways, great song. | |
| Warren Zevon – The Envoy Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Astute observations OpinionHead. Agree 100%. It's pretty sad that Warren didn't get the recognition he deserved, though I'm not certain his primary interest in art was fame... because had it been, I'm sure he could have sacrificed a certain amount of artistic merit for commercial noticability. He was certainly savvy enough to do that had he wanted to. But he was always more intellectual and artistic about the things he wrote, and wasn't going to sacrifice any of his principles just to attain commercial success... and THANK GOD! It's good to have at least one singer/songwriter rock musician that has principles to keep, much less keep them. | |
| Warren Zevon – Suzie Lightning Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Warren Zevon's favorite song he ever wrote was this one, and the melody is so good you can see why. A great moment for the master musician of the 20th century. | |
| Warren Zevon – Splendid Isolation Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Michael Jackson in Disneyland Don't have to share it with nobody else Lock the gates, Goofy, take my hand And lead me through the World of Self One of my favorite lines in any song ever. |
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| Warren Zevon – Similar To Rain Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| A testament to the romantic male soul in an isolating, ever more materialistic and cold-hearted world. | |
| Warren Zevon – She's Too Good For Me Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My favorite song from his album THE WIND, which he recorded and released right before he died. A beautiful, haunting love song with the usual Zevon folk-blues-rock feeling to it. |
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| Warren Zevon – Sentimental Hygiene Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Reallly, that's Neil on guitar...? | |
| Warren Zevon – Seminole Bingo Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The line "A long way from Lichtenstein" refers to (I think) the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein {Whose art was usually enlarged acrylic-on-canvas copies of romance and war comic book panels or pages} I think he uses Lichetenstein as a metaphor for the city, fame, and the rewards of the artists' fame and glory And contrasts that to his new position with the gators & flamingos... |
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| Warren Zevon – Searching For A Heart Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"They say love conquers all You can't start it like a car You can't stop it with a gun" What a great line. |
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