| Bob Marley and the Wailers – African Herbsman Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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oh, i cant believe no ones picked up on this. well i personally really saw this as an elegy, for an african herbsman, which i just presume to be the general rasta. 'why linger on', 'heaven lives on', 'how quick they had to part'? does seem like a song about death to me. 'lead me on, oh lord i pray to you' seems to confirm to me that this is about the death side of bob's religion and that hes presenting it as a positive, natural thing that comes to the old and there is no need to 'linger' i also find it very poignant. i mean i know theres a number of ways to interpret it but the "retired slave men" (dunno what greet--i-eth is but im sure its 'retired') who "look with a scorn, with a transplanted heart" is an image of bitterness and "how quick they had to part" is just very telling of the fleeting nature of their lives. but this is balanced by the hope in the song with "heaven lives on" etc. i love this song, i find it very meaningful. |
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| The Knife – Heartbeats Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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i sgree with all these theories. i think its about a drunken/druggy one night stand leading to love but its a obvisouly a very flawed romance. the whole song is very fatalistic, from the beginning we can see its a doomed/painful love. "four hands and then away" - the confusing lack of contact after sex. i think it is a night on drugs, perhaps a psychadelic one like e, due to the references like 'red and blue' and 'magic rush' in the second verse. the guy might be the main drug addict, as hinted in the middle section. 'to call for hands from above to lean on wouldnt be good enough for me'...i think shes saying she needs his love not just to sleep with him, and also the dual religious meaning there kinda saying shes in so deep even god cant help her now. from her pov, it kinda seems like shes more in love with him than he is with her, or due to his drug habits lacks the ability to give as much to her as she does to him. he knew the hand of a devil ie. is some kind of bad boy or is cruel to her in ways. and he kept her awake with 'wolves teeth'. i see this to mean mercilessly, perhaps sexually. i also cant help but see the drug connotations of 'wolves teeth' - needles, and harmful ones. 'sharing differet heartbeats in one night' is kinda the central line of the song, summarising their flawed but intense relationship/exchanges. |
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| Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| i reckon this is aic giving up 'the ghost' as it were, a bit, of anger with layne, and reaching a sort of vaguely settled state by the end of the album. | |
| Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| i agree with all these interpretations of what 'black gives way to blue' means but something i do disagre with is how blue is necessarily better than black. theyre both very sad colours, blue is less absolute and debatebly less bearable. i agree theres a positivity in that lyric, it says something about the endurance and strength in bearing scars that never heal, but i think theres also the reality that chaos in all its horror is only transposed to melancholy, and flattened out, dulled down. its a different kind of horror, but what is worse. | |
| Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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yeah its about whatever but i think this song captures the essence of a restless spirit, just waiting to move your whole life not necessarily a bad thing |
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| Arcade Fire – Keep the Car Running Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| what chilling lyrics, beautiful | |
| Sting – Englishman In New York Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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brits are better than yanks ;) this songs got the atmosphere down to a tee - not necessarily condemning america, but presenting british society as a refreshing little break in the commercial chaos america can be - the culture that kinda stands still, still upholding the values of decency in the face of anything... |
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| Hot Chip – Shake a Fist Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| its blatantly about buzzing or tripping. | |
| Patrick Wolf – To The Lighthouse Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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ok so you guys are right and this song is about virginia woolf's book,but when you publish a piece of art it becomes an entity in its own right, which means it can mean what it says to you personally as much as whatever the artist had in mind when he created it. even though what im saying is kinda just a deeper version of what hes saying about woolf anyway, it applies on a bigger scale...he can be talking to us just as much as virginia. to me this song is about finding sanctuary - the lighthouse - in the midst of turmoil - the storm - , whatever that may be. sancturay could be enlightenment, like people stopping judging woolf for her beliefs. the song seems to suggest it may be blaming yourself or taking the blame for something you shouldn't - a 'borrowed crime'. its so inspiring because patrick is commanding us to this sanctuary - 'it cannot be a question, just go', hes taking entire, selfless responsibility for us, the people who are listening to his music, so that if we have no one to take care of us that fully, he will, in his own indirect but perfect way. 'build your castle stop collecting stones and the riverbed shall not be your home'. before i found out this song was about woolf, it seemed like a really accurate metaphor to me - stop drifting, find your place, and you won't live in destitution. the whole war imagery again just builds up the idea of this turmoil. 'im sorry that you came to find great great minds against themselves conspire' seems to be apologising on behalf of the world about what you grew up into and that you ever had to find yourself in these situations. its a song for people on the end of their tether, like woolf. it works both ways, i think. |
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| Placebo – Every You Every Me Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Like the naked leads the blind I know I'm selfish, I'm unkind Sucker love I always find Someone to bruise and leave behind this bit is so raw and powerful. the way he outs with this dramatic confession in the same tone as the rest of the song - blunt, straight to the point - it just makes it so much more convincing, like hes stating it as a fact. cos the style of the confession is that of someone summing up their sins in a booth or something but its not like 'i shout at my daughter and im lustful' its like 'i bruise people and leave them behind. i am selfish' he says it with such detachment, this humiliating self condemnation. its like hes forcing himself to say it. |
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| Yoko Kanno – Call Me Call Me Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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you guys are right when you say it speaks for the crew members but dont forget, when we hear it in the series, its during the time that faye has run off and left the bebop and the others are all sulking in her absence, albeit perhaps unadmittedly so although yeah its versatile and it can easily refer to the relationships you mentioned, i believe it more specifically references the deep, unspoken feelings the bebop have for faye at the time of course theyd never tell her so the series uses this song to let us know how they feel |
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| Yeasayer – 2080 Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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incredible 40wattclub has it down pat these "times were living in" are times of apathy and this "future he was born into" is a seemingly meaningless one, not one of fame or importance as we've been raised to believe we'd have. "outsiders dressed up like sunday morning" illustrates the lost feeling he has amongst all these fake people, and how our time is one of isolation and loneliness in disagreement with tifnz, i think what "with no berlin wall what the hell you gonna do" means is that we are a lost generation - we have no battle to fight, no purpose. nothing big is happening in our time,so our lives feel meaningless. as tyler durden said, we have no great war, our war is a spiritual war, which is what this line is getting at. on a side note, its interesting that this hippie esque music arises from a hippie esque people, a 'lost generation', people once again defying the position handed to them. like history repeating itself. the chorus is the message of the song, which is a hedonistic and hippie one. its saying live for the now, its the way to get by and overcome the obstacles described in the verses. smell the roses. the fact that he uses 2080, not some year far, far in the future emphasises his message, we really havent got that long to live, so its important we enjoy it despite a grim future. he provides an alternative view to all these "think about the future" issues that bombard us these days, which we need, as its getting too much. he says that our purpose is but to live. "and the moon shines bright on the water tonight so we wont drown in the summer sound" is such a meaningful two lines. it says "we get by" - perhaps only just. perhaps we can only just save ourselves from drowning, and going under, being beaten, but we are such strong creatures that we can take the smallest thing such as the beauty of moonlight and let it save us. there is always hope. By the bridge, hes gotten so desperate (he's "grabbing at the chance") with his situation that hes suggesting this really quite drastic ultimatum. he suggests an escape from our cold, harsh reality by getting back to basics, and stepping back in time to days when to live was a struggle in itself - you had to grow your own food ie. people had a purpose and were not faced with the issue of a meaingless existance. it was also a time when people were more simple, and contented by "winning blue ribbons in county contests", because there were simply less problems of consumerism and materialism. to summarise, "dude, lets start a commune" is exactly what hes saying, because essentially, its just drastic - we need to wipe the slate clean, go back a century or two and just start again. that is the state we're in, why the bridge out of the whole song hammers it home the most. hes saying "is this the way forward?", "do we need this?" and something that makes it so affecting, is quite how desperate it is and how it is so clear that although he doesnt say it, he absolutely craves this escape. the lyrics AND the music paint this scene as being a complete idyll to him ("handsome farmers"). The modal music and old fashioned flutey thing not only accentuates the step back in time but the medievalness of it gives it a fairy tale quality - like the legendary dragon slaying tales of old ie. this escape is elusive, and hard to attain. also, the way he suggests this course of action so directly as if things were that simple is child-like, and ironically sad as we know its not that simple and he can't just snap his fingers and have that life. The following fill is easily the most beautiful part of the song, to express the beauty of his vision. All of this combines to leave us with a nostalgic feeling, and a sadness that these happy times are mostly gone from the world and it really effectively alerts us to the sad height of the situation we got ourselves into, that we need to go that far to pull ourselves back from the brink. |
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| White Lies – Death Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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all good points obviously a song describing the emotion of fear, whether that be of death, love or loss of love, but this being afloat, or flying as the state of safety as opposed to the looming foreign territory - i feel the song uses flying as a metaphor for the way his life is going in general, not only as a prop to describe the impending crash this makes it a bit of a personal statement from the band, a good way to start the album off as well as the fact that it describes taking off - the start of a journey, ie, the album the last verse is where the song is revealed as also a metaphor for his life, as here is where i believe the context of the song expands from the 'flight' at hand, to the flight in general, ie, his life, which makes it the most affecting part of the song Floating neither up or down I wonder when I'll hit the ground. Will the earth beneath my body shake and cast your sleeping hearts awake? Could it tremble stars from moonlit skies? Could it drag a tear from your cold eyes? I live on the right side, I sleep on the left thats why everything has got to be love or death. the last two lines give meaning to the whole verse, making us realize it is describing his personality - it fits, as this is often the 'rock star' lifestyle he "lives on the right side, sleeps on the left, everythings got to be love or death", ie. he has an extreme personality and lifestyle, everythings got to be hot or cold he is running through life in a daze "floating neither up or down" he wonders when he'll come back down to earth, and his life will slow down whether hes in love or just inspired, he seems to see and experience everything so intensely and beautifully (tremble stars from moonlit skies) he questions whether everyone else's hearts are not merely asleep. as an artist, it is his selfless purpose to "drag a tear" from our "cold eyes" and make us see the same thing, to enliven us from our uninspired state its such beautiful poetry |
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| White Lies – The Price of Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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i agree the wife left her husband, who truly loved her, and ran off with this other guy, who didnt really he was only using her, but love blinded her and she couldnt see that he was trouble however, "she knew deep inside that he planned it this way" tells us that even despite her doubts, she fell for him, ie. love is illogical and dangerous EITHER they pretended it was a kidnapping, so they could get a million dollars, but the husband didnt come up with the money, so the new man leaves her, OR he really kidnaps her and as her husband couldnt come up with the whole ransom he takes no pity and has something horrible happen to her trapped in that room either way, he tells the husband she's dead out of revenge, or spite, so she can't go back to him she realizes the mistake she made. the girl gets her just desserts it shows that all is fair in love (and war), so theres a sense of irony in this sick form of justice all this can just as easily be a metaphor for the same kind of situation in every day life in the end of the story, all love has brought out is the worst in people, and fucked up peoples lives and everyone has come to realize "the price of love" baically it isnt worth it |
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