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The Go! Team – Huddle Formation Lyrics 9 years ago
@[kleenexplease:17054]

"The revolution has come/time to pick up the gun" is correct, except the reply in the Black Panther chant is "off the pigs"

Here is the Panther version: https://youtu.be/ZrfuPoz4dtI?t=1m19s

The sample in the Go! Team song is sped up so you can't hear "off the pigs" unless you know the reference. Anyway, to state the obvious, "off the pigs" means remove/kill the police.

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Sleigh Bells – A/B Machines Lyrics 13 years ago
when i heard this song i just wrote off the lyrics.
there are times when you're just jamming, or maybe hanging out in the studio, and someone says something off handedly - 'i've got my a machines on the table got my b machines in the drawer' - but you hang on it (maybe its funny in context) and being silly put it to the beat, and hah! you've got a lyric. (if you don't get what I'm talking about, maybe listen to the pixie's Surfer Rosa). anyway, that's just how I immediately related.

the music in this song is what i hang on - fucking rad; the lyrics are vocal place holders.

fall of '10 i was at their concert and it was awesome - loud and crowded and everyone jumping (i don't know how to describe it). there was a moment when they played this song and everyone in the audience was singing along ('got my a machines on the table got my b machines on the drawer') and i stepped back and just thought, "what the fuck are we all chanting about?" and laughed, and got on with it.

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Pixies – Allison Lyrics 14 years ago
I meant to include:

If you look at the pronouns used in the lyrics you will see that this song is about a male.

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Pixies – Allison Lyrics 14 years ago
Yeah, this song is about Mose Allison. And its a damn fine song - meanings aside.

HOWEVER! this is the internet so I'm gonna talk about myself now, hah.
Anyone else with a name that is featured in a well-known song (ie Layla) can back me up here: having someone sing to your name to the tune of said gets awfully boring. My name is Allison and I was not named after a song. But, if you felt the absolute need to sing my name, I would love it if you would display some originality and good taste to sing it to the tune of this Pixies song, rather than that trite Elvis Costello one. (BTW, his Alison is spelt with 1 L, while my name is spelt with 2 Ls, like Mose Allison's last name.)(I do wish that when someone brings a song title into the discussion of my name I could say, "Nah nah, I was named after the PIXIES song" but, alas, Bossanova came out 12 months after I was born and christened.)

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Blue Scholars – Oskar Barnak ∞ Oscar Grant Lyrics 14 years ago
All you need to know about the song is the origins of the title:
Oskar Barnak invented the 33mm camera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Barnack)
Oscar Grant was a kid killed under suspicious circumstances by BART police (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Grant)

"Shoot the cops" means shoot pictures of cops, not "shoot" them with a gun. Decrease violence, don't instigate it. Its about police brutality but also gang-on-gang violence and what a tricky line it is to toe between seeking justice for the dead and putting yourself in the cross-hairs. Both sides have similar motives, doing work to save your family. And here's how they put the metaphor:
"the shit is not the apple it the tree/Its rotten underneath"


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Blue Scholars – Marion Sunshine Lyrics 14 years ago
If you live in the pacific northwest you know what this is about. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle. You value the sun when it comes through and you head to the park and bask, take it in and feel fine.

Fun little song :)

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Blue Scholars – Marion Sunshine Lyrics 14 years ago
Oh, and the title!

Marion Sunshine was an actress from the early 1900s, silent film era. Just another nod towards the cinema

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Blue Scholars – Lalo Schifrin Lyrics 14 years ago
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer of film/tv scores, including loads of Clint Eastwoods. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalo_Schifrin). Chock full of references to cinema:

"Me and Bruce Lee, not so different/Be like water with the flow you drippin'"
Bruce Lee said, "Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

Anyway. There's more to the song, just noting how the song is a part of the larger album. Camera's, cinema. So on. . .

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Blue Scholars – Anna Karnina Lyrics 14 years ago
This song is about the actress Anna Karina.
The context can be read on her wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karina

But the meaning goes beyond Anna Karina - she's just the example from the Nouvelle Vague (which is the theme of the Cinematropolis album). It can be expanded to a much wider scope of life and cinema. A girl seeking something from a guy but nothing can satisfy what she's yearning for.

When I'm feeling crappy I repeat the chorus in my head, "Nobody knows it yet but no, no, no disrespect/ 'cause you deserve much more than this/And all through it all, fuck them all/is your life to live/cuz you a star." though I'm not a star. .

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Patty Griffin – Rowing Song Lyrics 14 years ago
The lyrics repeat, like the rhythmical motion of rowing, but just when its about to get repetitive the horn come in and. . . its just so beautiful.

My first listen through Impossible Dream this song stuck out, but then I forgot about it. A few months ago I was listening to Patty Griffin on random and in that place of mind, this song took on a new meaning - or rather, a new relative meaning, connection. This is the sort of open ended song that can be meaningful in a really intimate way to pretty much everyone.

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Patty Griffin – Off You Go Lyrics 14 years ago
This song has all the parts of Patty Griffin that I love. Of the lyrics there is story, description, poetry, insight. The music is intimate, honest, balanced. The emotion is believable, balanced, tasteful. Lines jump out, like the alliteration of "how their daddy died" or the rhyme "equated/demonstrated"

It all gets rounded up and tied together. For example,
The first line of the second verse, "In the evening the meadow sings without care"
And the last line of the last verse, "Down in the meadow there's darkness descending"
The word choice is intentional, the carefree meadow takes on a negative image, a trigger for flashbacks ('starts her life over but never forgets' the death in the meadow.)

You can take the story at face value, you can relate to the subtext, you can find beauty in the song. And, ultimately, its Patty Griffin's voice and guitar that carry the song, that are so perfect.

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Blue Scholars – Hussein Lyrics 14 years ago
I love the meter of the chorus.
I think this song is about right now in the US - well, maybe not *now*, cause its like the US before the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The chorus, "what happens when you think patience always means wait" is one to make you take a double take. definitions of "patience":
1.an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay
2.quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence.
if you live like the first definition yeah, that's 'wait' ("wait patiently for change") whereas the second definition means plod steadily towards change ("work patiently for change")

And then there's my favorite line: "Scrape the resin out a pipe dream,"


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Blue Scholars – Cinemetropolis Lyrics 14 years ago
I think the meaning of this song is pretty straight forward: the point is laid out in the chorus. But fun part about hip-hop and especially the Blue Scholars is the name dropping. This song is the title track of their 2011 album and the theme is evident in most of the other songs.

Its all about the director Jean-Luc Godard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard). The cover lay out is an homage to his title frames which are typically laid in blocks of blue, red, and white.

Here are some of the cinema shout-outs I can find:

"Grandchildren of Marx and Coca-Cola, yet quoting Godard" This is a reference to Godard's film Masculin Feminin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculine_Feminine).

"scream like a Hitchcock dame" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock)

"To root for the Doughboys, the O-Dogs, the Bishops" O-Dog is a character from The Wire, the other ones?

"The Godfather poster on the wall" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_godfather). For the meaning just think about why that would be on a kids wall, what it stands for, how a 14 year old would relate. Its inspiring.

"Flyer than a Concord" the concorde is a type of plane, 'Flight of the Conchords" is a comedy band (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_of_the_Conchords)

"Blade running like a samurai, killing himself" Regarding the film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_runner) and samurai is probably referencing Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Kurosawa)

Anything else to add?

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The Hidden Cameras – Golden Streams Lyrics 15 years ago
um, watersports?

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M.I.A. – Bamboo Banga Lyrics 15 years ago
The bit that goes:
"Road runner, road runner
Going hundred mile per hour
With your radio on"
Is from a song called "Roadrunner" written by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, which loads of people covered (Yo La Tengo, Sex Pistols, Joan Jett). So just to be anal and factual.

I always thought she was singing "bamboo bhangra" (before I read the tracklist) but that doesn't really add anything to this discussion cause that's prolly not what she was intending.

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Elvis Presley – I Was The One Lyrics 15 years ago
one of my favourite elvis songs. . . songs of this generation are pretty self-explanatory. . . (girls are cleverer than the guys expect)

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Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself Lyrics 15 years ago
there are some times where i've prayed to God - even though i've atheist - just "DEAR GOD, I HATE MYSELF". its a desperate sort of plea, confession, baseless hope. . . 'dear god i hate myself' - its sort of a mantra you repeat over and over 'i hate myself and want do die i hate myself and want to die'. . . i don't know what jamie stewart was meaning, but that's what i think when i hear this song. and it brings me to tears.

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Xiu Xiu – Chocolate Makes You Happy Lyrics 15 years ago
yup. pretty obviously about self-hate and purging.
"out of your mind" oh so true

and then whoring yourself out.

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Sleater-Kinney – Modern Girl Lyrics 15 years ago
the guitars are HARSH
and thats all i care about

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Stereo Total – La Musique Automatique Lyrics 16 years ago
French translation...

The music, automatic
The music, mathematic
The music, telepathic
The music, erotic
The music, automatic
From the robot of music
If you press this button
Here's a piece demonstration

From my mouth to my mic
From my mic to the amp
From the amp to the PA
From the PA to your ear

The music, automatic
The music, barbaric
The music, enigmatic
The music, romantic

My robot, a machine
Extremely sophisticated
Plays you a little music
Very complicated
From my mouth to my mic
From my mic to the amp
From the amp to the PA
From the PA to your ear
From my mouth to your ear
From your ear to your brain
From your brain to my antenna
Telepathic (tic tic tic)

The music, automatic
The music, eccentric
The music, euphoric
The music, heroic

The music, automatic
The music, hysteric
The music, hypnotic
The music, cosmic
The music, automatic
The music, nostalgic
The music, pathetic
The music, chaotic

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Stereo Total – L’Amour Á 3 Lyrics 16 years ago
my french translation:

Me, what I like
Is to make love
Especially to three
I know it's old fashioned
It makes a complete hippy
But I shout on the ???
I like the love of three [threesomes]

Me, what I like
Is the little
Caresses of four hands
If one of the two goes to sleep
The other is occupied with me
Ouh, here's the love of three

OOooouuuuUUUuuuh i like the love of three

Me, what I like
Is to make love
Especially to three
I know it's old fashioned
It makes hippies complete
But I cry on the ???
I like the love of three

It's sexy, ecstatic, crazy, eccentric, animal, romantic, it's communist

OOooouuuuUUUuuuh... I like the love of three

Long live the love of three

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.