| Son Volt – Methamphetamine Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I love this song. Maybe because I'm from NC, but it really grabbed me the first time I heard it. Jay played this recently when he did the Trace 20th anniversary tour show in NC, and it was great. I've heard some say that earlier recordings said "Take me back to North Carolina.." I'm glad he settled on "Take me back, North Carolina" for the album. It has a much deeper meaning. As if he is saying he has done so much that he doesn't deserve to go back to NC, and wanting to know if that more innocent part of his life would even allow him to come back. |
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| Jason Isbell – Live Oak Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| @[Kafziel:6136] Interesting. Don't think I would have ever interpreted it that way, but it certainly adds a different dimension to it. Though an anticlimactic one. What would be the point of the friction that is building between the two over her fasciation with his evil side only for the two to live out a peaceful life together. I don't agree with your assessment that "you don't kill someone and then make a coffin" There is something clearly anachronistic about this story, it isn't modern day. It is set in a time where a barely-marked grave in the woods would not raise many eyes. And the fact that he "picked up what he needed and headed south again" kind of implies that he is on the run again. If he had been settled for 50 years, why run? | |
| Jason Isbell – Yvette Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| No, I think he actually goes through with it. That's why he can say with confidence. "Saw him hold you that way, he won't hold you that way anymore, Yvette." | |
| The Head and the Heart – Gone Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Definitely my first favorite on the new record. I think it represents two people with totally different paths in life that have some kind of past connection, but it's long gone. I kind of picture a former romantic relationship, where one person is in and out of the other's life. And now the one always left behind is ready to move on and is asking the other to please stop coming back. Stop sending pictures and postcards, let me move on. I'm trying here. |
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| Jason Isbell – Stopping By Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Squirtin' and Desertin'. This is about how absent fathers are selfish and don't think about the affect their choices have on the life of the child they helped create just to abandon. I always heard this from the perspective of a woman talking to her estranged/absent father. I think the use of the term "Daddy" reminds me of a southern girl more so than a dude. In an interview with hearya.com, when the interviewer said "theres a lot of courage in this song about a son seeking out his estranged father", Jason replied: "Or a daughter. There was no mention of a penis in there." |
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| Pedro the Lion – Arizona Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Khaki. | |
| Jason Isbell – Codeine Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I think you are thinking of methadone. | |
| Jason Isbell – Relatively Easy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This may be my favorite song on Southeastern, if it's possible to pin down one. I think the song makes a very good punchline to the album. Most of the themes of the album center around the downtrodden. Slices of life of people who have made choices that lead them to misery. This song continues that theme, showing a few examples of people who are in similar situations. Drug addiction, suicide, widowed. These stories are all tragic and represent extremes of the misery that can come with living. But the punchline is that "on a global scale" that our lives, no matter how depressing and hopeless they may seem, are relatively easy. There's always someone worse off, if that's any consolation. |
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| Jason Isbell – Yvette Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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A young kid notices a female classmate has a domestic problem, and he decides it's up to him to take care of it for her. Yvette's father has taken to a sexual relationship with her. Her mother won't do anything about it, so the boy decides he will. Cleans up his rifle and snipes him through the window. |
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| Jason Isbell – Live Oak Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Interesting little story about a man who did some terrible things as a very young man that he obviously now regrets. He's trying to run away from that life and settles down in a small town with a girl that he has fallen in love with. He's thinking he can settle down and live here, when he starts to suspect that the girl is more drawn to his old self than his new. The stories of his past life catch up with him, and soon the neighbors in the town start avoiding him. When he finds out they know, he comes clean with the girl. He was worried she would be horrified by him, but turns out, she is delighted with this side of him. Knowing he doesn't want to go back to that life, and that he has to keep running. He kills the girl, buries her and moves on hoping to find the next small town where he can settle down. |
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| David Bazan – Wolves at the Door Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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some slight modification to these lyrics: "They prepare a feast FROM your provisions" This is important I think because it's crucial to note that the wolves weren't giving away anything new, this was the wolves making something that was already his. "They took your money and THEY ate YOUR kids" and I'm pretty sure it's "LOOK into your eyes" admittedly, David's voice is a bit slurry there. |
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| Tarkio – Weight of the World Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think its about someone trying to maintain a weekend alcohol addiction. Standing in line at the liquor store with all the homeless drunks... just to get a weekend's worth of booze. Then going cold turkey through the week, which seems to draw on by Tuesday. | |
| Freelance Whales – Broken Horse Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think it's "She slept in the cul-de-sac rye" and "You saw something I did not in the night" Maybe everyone is intentionally ignoring the obvious from the song title but I think this song is actually about a horse that got spooked and ran away. The human is lamenting the loss of the horse that he never quite trained. He's saying sorry for taking the horse's mane for cello strings, and for putting horse shoes on the horse's feet. |
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| Vampire Weekend – Run Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I really think this song is about moving to Africa. He talks about leaving to a place where there are no cars, far from stars and bars (the US), where condensation means so much (clean drinking water). It could be somewhere else.. a 3rd world location though. The reason I thought Africa, was because I really think the last chorus he's saying "apartheid radio", even though it doesn't align with the lyrics in the booklet. |
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| Derek Webb – Freddie, Please Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I don't think this is from Matthew Shepherd's point of view. I think it's supposed to be from Jesus to Fred Phelps. | |
| The New Amsterdams – Intelligent Design Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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A few errors in these lyrics. The first line should be "Any science of proof gets choked" Also.. "Tell me more about the STATE I'm in" .. probably others, but these jumped out at me. |
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| David Bazan – The Stitches Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I read an interview with David in which he said that he essentially has abandoned a lot of notions of God that were ingrained in him as a kid growing up. He went on to say that, some days when he is comfortable enough to consider the idea that God may exist, that he still attempts some sort of connection. I think that's what he is referring to in the second verse. Still hearing the voice.. shadows on the water, whispers in the wind. Questions from his daughter. It's amazing how much the innocence of a child can make you feel some sort of faith again. I think this song represents a bit of remaining traces of faith as closure to an album that spends every other second casting it off. I have also had this same experience, and I can say that it is a very sad, scary time when you find yourself basically rudderless when you cast off the faith of your childhood and try to figure out what exactly to connect to moving forward. David Bazan does a remarkable job of cataloging this transformation. |
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| David Bazan – Heavy Breath Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| What if there is no God? What if we weren't created by an all powerful being who molded man from dirt and spit and breathed life into his lungs? Well.. we're still here. This is probably a snapshot of one of David and his wife's many debates on this issue. | |
| David Bazan – Bearing Witness Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| you talk real good. | |
| David Bazan – Lost My Shape Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Definitely. this is a deeply personal conviction. This is old Pedro The Lion vs. new "enlightened" Bazan. David was always on the fringe of Christian songwriters. He went to places that most Christians wouldn't go, but somehow always was viewed as a truth-telling prophet. A forest fire burning is something of power that tears down old views to make room for new growth.. but a child throwing tantrums, well that's just kind of pitiful. Likewise.. the smoker outside the bar eager to get in and play his set after the opener finishes, while fans await his words contrasted with the pathetic, 20-day-sober alcoholic who can barely fight off the temptation to get loaded. | |
| The Decemberists – Annan Water Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| yeah i think it's her hair. | |
| The Decemberists – The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Yep.. it is "banks" not "bends" | |
| The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I felt like this was the Rake's greeting into death. That William had killed him, and the first thing he sees upon dying is all his murdered children, which will be with him for eternity in death. A fitting sentence. | |
| The Decemberists – Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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people keep saying she was raped by the shape shifter.. but i just don't think that is the case. I think they shared a moment of passion. So I think wanderingaloud's translation isn't accurate. And now she is definitely pregnant.. but, as annanwater pointed out.. she's not going to let a little pregnant belly keep her from gettin' it on. The line "And I may swoon from all this swelling but I won't want for love" means.. I'm going to get it on.. and I may pass out because I'm so big and pregnant.. but I won't be horny anymore. |
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| The Decemberists – A Bower Scene Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| agreed. The love between Margaret and William is legit.. no unwanted advances. | |
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