| James – Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I don't think this song is about Grease: there is a Daniel/Danny in Grease, but no Grace. Also, since Travolta plays Danny, it would be silly to say Daniel dances LIKE Travolta. The first lines are obviously about it doesn't mattering if you want to die, because we all will. Getting away with it all messed up - I love how this can be read as: "Getting awway with it. All messed up" or "Getting away with it all. Messed up", so either: since we are getting away with it, means the world is all messed up or we are getting away with it all, which is messed up. The combined meaning would be that is it all messed up that we are getting away with it all/everything: we can do whatever we want. That's the living, alright, but we are also getting away with everything negative and self-destructive, because nobody cares about anyone else. Then comes Daniel - a nice allusion to John Travolta, who is merely being mentioned as a great dancer, IMO, but also to the Biblical Daniel, who is a dream-interpreter who is taken away from his homeland aged ten, never to return, being more or less locked in a golden cage at the royal court of Babylon. Daniel is saving Grace, who is in deep water. Daniel cares about at least ONE other person, apparently. But it can also be read as: "Daniel's saving grace", as in: the thing in Daniel that makes up for his faults, apparently being in trouble at the moment. The second verse explains Daniel to be a heavy drinker (literally or figuratively), partying to a great extent. Well, he would need a saving grace for that, I reckon :-) Daniel plays his ace - he shows his best feature or he uses it up (too quickly perhaps)... Or maybe his ace is the ace of spades, alluding to him committing suicide or maybe even killing someone else (Grace or grace maybe?). Deep inside his temple - more religion, but his temple would be his own private place, probably the part of his mind his keeps hidden from others. Then the next bit I believe is officially "He knows how to serve her", but I think that here another ambiguity is being introduced by the pronunciation: serv-(h)er and suf-fer are both quite recognisable. So he knows how to serve her (Grace? grace?) and/or he knows how to suffer/what suffering is. Combined with the previous phrase, it could again mean he knows how to serve Grace (who is probably also his saving grace) by killing her (well, with the opening referring to a death wish, it is not depression talking here, but the actual song! I am a very happy person, thank you very much :-)) and that he knows how to suffer and therefore wants to commit suicide. Picture the people one reads about in newspapers so often: they are depressed and hate life (e.g. because their childhood has been taken from them, like it happened to the biblical Daniel), drink heavily and party all the time to beat the emptiness, yet they end up being more miserable and then their last saving grace, their girlfriend/wife (who could be called Grace), leaves them and they snap. They know plenty of suffering and what is 'good' for their ex-partners: they both have to die and be re-united in death. So they commit homocide and then suicide. "Daniel's 'saving' Grace" (yes, from the 'mistake' she is making by leaving him, no doubt) "He was all but drowning / Now they swim like dolfins" - well, Daniel almost 'drowned' in his drinking problem, e.g. he almost hit rock bottom or even died from his bad habbits, but now he is together with 'Grace' again. Not happily swimming with dolfins, maybe more like 'sleeping with the fish'. I think the music and the opening lines set the proper tone for the song and the rest of the text seems deceptively positive. I am not some emo who wants to read about suicide all the time, but I genuinely think this song is about the story I have written down here. There is no way anyone would make a song about Grease that had such a serious sound to it, instrumentally. Grease is all about happiness and feeling good and happy endings. Don't spoil Grease by linking this song to it and don't spoil this song by linking it to Grease; they are both marvellous and very enjoyable in the right state of mind. But the right state of mind is totally opposite for them! |
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| James – Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Hello, my name is Co and I created planet Earth :-/ Songs about personal losses are not written by others FOR the artist and since you can't even spell properly and obviously are new to this planet (10-year-olds do not drink their weigth, dance like John Travolta (are you saying John Travolta dances like a 10-year-old? :-P) or have boyfriends who jump into the water to save them. Enjoy your stay on our planet and try and learn more about it quickly. |
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| The Birthday Massacre – Sleepwalking Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I actually think the title tells it all. The first verse is just an indication of Chibi's "regular life". The chorus and the title add up to something we probably all know: you have a dream and do not want to leave it, also because you know you will never be able to return to the world of that particular dream, hence: "I'm looking for a place I'll never see again". "A night turns to a day": not only night turns to day, but also the passing of time since the dream - from the rest of the night to an entire day (24 hours). "A street I've never walked on" - sleepwalking: she walked it during her dream, not in real life - "I was never here / Just a faint reflection": only the dream-me was there, a faint reflection of the real me. The next line emphasises the passage of time, then "a second of affection" seems to imply a bit more about the nature of the dream that the person in the song is so desperate to return to: there was affection - love, tenderness, that kind of thing. Perhaps meeting their soulmate! (Cf. Rammstein's Stirb nicht vor mir / Don't die before I do.) The second verse I believe should be interpreted exactly as it is sung: "Faking. There's nothing here worth taking." (I.e. instead of "Faking / There's nothing here worth taking", implying the person is faking that there's nothing worth taking.) The real life is all fake, there is nothing of real value in it for the I-person. The reflection fading on the wall seems to be a reference to the faint reflection in the dream: the memory of the dream is fading, losing its vividness. "Not the fairest one of all": fits in quite nicely with "reflection" but seems to be mainly important as a way to state the I-person is not particularly attractive (if ever any line would make it clear song lyrics are not to be considered to be connected to the singer, this would be it ;-) ). So in real life, there is not that huge degree of affection that is mentioned in the chorus. The "street I've never walked on" could also be interpreted as a course of action that was never taken to get to that moment of affection - that probably was cut short to just a second by the sudden ending of the dream. A very sad situation indeed that would fit TBM nicely and that adds a lot of emotional depth to the song because of its recognisability. Perhaps some of the readers of this post will also be able to enjoy the song even more after reading this; if so, I am happy to have been able to help this great band gain more interest. If not, I hope nobody feels offended by my presenting my interpretation. |
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| The Birthday Massacre – Happy Birthday Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"I think my friend said" and "I think I said" could also imply there was no friend, just a voice or additional personality in her head. That's option D for you right there :-D I love it when the main meaning is clear but there are minor things left to fill in for the audience. |
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| Lene Marlin – Unforgivable Sinner Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I was wondering what this song could be about and I read some of the remarks above but found they didn't fit properly. The remark about Lene herself stating nobody would know what it was about stuck with me and after reading the entire text once more, I found it very ambiguous: yes, the person the song is about did something terrible to someone else, but apparently he (or she: there is no way of telling!) feels bad about it and apparently cared a lot for this person. However, this person is dead because of him (or her). Now, of all the possible explanations, I find this one the most plausible: The subject of the song (who can either be male or female, but I'll say "he" for short) killed a loved one out of kindness, but feels very bad about this: it was an act of love, but he cannot be sure if he did the right thing, because he cannot ask the person he killed. If he could hear her sing with the angels, he would probably be reassured. Now, as for the title: "Unforgivable sinner". What is considered THE deadly sin? Matricide/patricide methinks. My theory is this: someone's father or mother once said: "If I ever end up as a vegetable (or suffer from serious dementia), please kill me." The person involved does so, thereby committing an unforgivable sin in the eyes of the church and the law. Obviously, he is not happy about it, but he still believes it is what his beloved mom or dad would have wanted. The last lines can be taken several ways, but "Maybe one time lost / But now you're found" implies that this is not merely an emotional rollercoaster we are talking about! I assume this is where the law comes in: the 'parent-murderer' is arrested or, by some out-of-control cop (no offence to police men and women; aren't we all misguided by Hollywood in this respect? ;-) ), even shot. The second thing makes more sense in my mind, because of the repetition of "hit the ground", a kind of ghostly after-sound. This is my personal idea anyway. It may seem far-fetched, but it seems to fit and cover all of the lyrics, and didn't Lene herself say no-one would guess it? I would love to be able to put all the pieces together, so if anyway has any constructive criticism about my interpretation, it would be very welcome. |
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| Tristania – Open Ground Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I would have to disagree. I think it is about the tradition is some cultures where a man who dies can choose to take his wive(s) along with him - i.e. they are buried alive. In this case, however, it may be that the man is buried in a big tomb, where the woman is going insane, because she knows she will die. And the rats or whatever vermin it is that has picked up the scense of the dying person are not very nice company... To me, this unreal situation (which is al too real for many women in the world) is the heart of the song and the main reason for me to enjoy it (in a morbid way, maybe). |
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