| Sponge – Molly (Sixteen Candles) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Good god, how narcissistic. The actual meaning of it isn't even hidden, but people insist on making stuff up and saying, "I'm totally right, you guys - it's CLEARLY this." Well, I'm going to say that it's 'clearly' what it is: "The song was inspired by a story a bandmember had heard about a 16-year old girl who'd fallen in love with her teacher and attempted suicide after he rejected her advances." Note the lack of the following: "birthday", "actually died", or "in love with a member of Sponge". Though - yeah, the fact that they picked the name "Molly" to describe the otherwise nameless girl while referring to her 16 years as 'Sixteen Candles' was probably an intentional Molly Ringwald reference. But that's just a guess on my part, and not CLEARLY the case. |
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| Sponge – Wax Ecstatic (to Sell Angelina) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Lithium pills are either solid and round, or powder-filled capsules. The ones in the video are translucent gelatin ovals filled with yellow goo. How are they even remotely similar? Not to take away from your idea of the song's ultimate meaning - I agree with you about that part. |
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| Sponge – Wax Ecstatic (to Sell Angelina) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Alright, lemme take a crack at this - I admit that I'm using the video partially for interpretation, and that's not ever a good idea, because the writer of the lyrics is not necessarily the one that comes up with the concept for the video. Nevertheless, I'll take a shot. Lines 1-5: Sometimes things aren't great, but working to make them better (like shaving or plucking that hair) is a pain, you deserve to just have your problems stop instantly, don't you? The answer is right here. Lines 6-9: This will solve all your problems - we're not kidding. Lines 10-17: I'm interpreting 'It's something that is automatic' as being the right number of syllables for the line with the right ending, but actually meaning 'it's something that offers instant gratification'. In that context, these lines reiterate that this is something that will take care of your problems instantly. You will wax ecstatic. Lines 18-22: Quite simply, this product will get rid of all your troubles. This is where there's a bit of a judgment call for me. "A phone call away" sounds like a TV ad, like it's about mass marketing, and thus pharmaceuticals seem like the likely target of the song. However, you COULD be calling up your 'dealer'. Looking at the video, it's hard to decide which it is. But given the 'commercial' nature of the parts with Vinny displaying the bottle, and the fact that he looks more like an old-school medicine show guy on the street (with the special case, collecting money) rather than a typical 'dealer', I'm sticking with the 'pharmaceuticals' idea, and assuming that the 'sold on the street' bits were to link the idea of feel-better pharmaceuticals to drug dealers. The video seemed to make that all pretty clear, with Angelina admiring the roller derby girls, but unable to skate at all, taking the drug, watching, excited, thinking she could do it, and then spitting out the drug as she's knocked down again and again. Seems to me like the symbolism there was of her realization that her drug-inspired dreams of skating were no substitute for the reality of it. That's my 2 cents anyway - short version: Yes, the song is about mind-affecting pharmaceuticals. |
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| Faith No More – Epic Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Barring the open interpretation and guesswork method, and instead opting for what band members have said, Patton on at least one occasion (it was in at least one metal magazine back around the time of the whole G&R, Metallica, FNM tour, though there were about 11 billion of those back then - the metal equivalent of Tiger Beat) attested that it was about masturbation. I've seen him in recent interviews say that a lot of his lyrics, though, are about nothing but the sounds that they make, and he just uses words that will fit. So two answers from the horse's mouth. I used to believe the former, but given the fact that at the time people were listening to them more and wanted a meaning, after hearing the latter, I've come to believe that Patton just made up the masturbation explanation so that he'd have a way to answer the inevitable, "What does Epic mean?!" question. Though an aside to the potential "the song is how people don't understand the meanings behind FNM songs" answer: this was Patton's first album with FNM, the lyrics were written after the music was already recorded, and Patton was still in a band with his high school friends (still in high school himself, actually) at the time. Does it really seem feasible that the song had some sort of meta-meaning that was about how all the people who hadn't yet heard his music were going to interpret it? Actually, the fact that the music was already recorded (at least according to "Faith No More: The Real Story") sort of makes the "writing whatever lyrics sounded good and fit the music" reason all the more likely, in my mind. |
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