| Arcade Fire – Intervention Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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i think its about Christians who are only a Christian out of fear of death etc. They keep their faith to themselves and do not share the love with others. This song has a lot of Christian imagery. "The king's taken back the throne, The useless seed is sown" the king would be Jesus/God taking His place back in someone's life. maybe a person becoming Christian again? and the seed of faith that is sown (also a biblical reference) is useless because this person will keep it to their self. "You're still a soldier in your mind, Though nothing's on the line." many Christians refer to themselves as "soldiers of Christ" and believe that they fight a spiritual war. But to the non-believer there is "nothing on the line", i.e. no spiritual war. "You say it's money that we need, As if we were only mouths to feed, I know no matter what you say There are some debts you'll never pay." this person is in belief that money will solve all the worlds spiritual problems, but this person has past debts too. this could mean actual debts and maybe he has done some wrong things "Working for the church While your family dies. You take what they give you And you keep it inside. Every spark of friendship and love Will die without a home." this person does not reflect the love that the Church encourages, and keeps their faith separate from their family. Every spark of friendship created in this person by their faith will die before it gets passed on. "I can taste the fear. Lift me up and take me out of here, Don't want to fight, don't want to die, Just want to hear you cry." this person who has become a Christian may have a troubled past with the "narrator". the narrator does not want to fight with this person or discuss religion, but just wants to see real emotion, and can sense a lot of fear in this person. "Who's going to throw the very first stone? Oh! Who's going to reset the bone? Walking with your head in a sling Want to hear the soldier sing." waiting to see who will open the discussion first (another biblical reference). the broken bone is the troubled past that needs reconciliation. the narrator wants to hear this stoic "soldier" speak honestly and confide. "We can't find you now, But they're going to get their money back somehow, And when you finally disappear We'll just say you were never here." this person is obviously in debt and is being sought after. (like his phone service getting cut off earlier) this person leaves the narrator without any communication. "Been working for the church While your life falls apart, Singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart," this is a very haunting verse. someone who is religious for the wrong reasons and just simply follows the rules. this person is just ignoring all his problems in his life, even ignoring his family while he hides under the false security of religion. this doesnt seem 100% consistent to me, but it was the first strong interpretation that came to mind |
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| The Blood Brothers – American Vultures Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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a paper i wrote for a class last year. not the best but its ok. A society in which Paris Hilton is a household name needs to reexamine its values. The Blood Brother’s song “American Vultures” forces us to do so by painting a disturbing caricature of American celebrity that exaggerates the horrendous aspects of American culture. With egoism at the forefront, detrimental idols are replacing the American ideals, such as selflessness, upon which this country was meant to be founded. Jordan Blillie and Johnny Whitney, the lead singers for The Blood Brothers, if one could venture to call them singers, scream and slur their lyrics to the rhythms of a piano recording that sounds like a sarcastic rag-time tune. The piano and the drunk-sounding, seductive vocals add to the satire that the song so vulgarly depicts. The result is the song “American Vultures” which achieves the sound of an intoxicated, decayed impersonation of an era that was once happy. The song describes a young, but worn out woman who has achieved almost-Hollywood fame by despicable and deplorable means. As The Blood Brothers so delicately address their character, “for all your charms and graces, you’re not a Hollywood starlet, you’re just a fuck film harlot.” The woman is further depicted as unhappy due to her compromises as the lyricist inquires, “Do you know the difference between memory and fog? Do you know the difference between a laugh and a sob?” While the song may be excessive, ties to our society are evident in the constant dramatics and sex scandals that seem to be rampant in the celebrity community. Celebrity has become the golden calf of American culture, a detrimental ideal that many have sacrificed themselves for. This is not to say that celebrity is always undeserved, because in many cases it is, but it becomes a problem when the position of being recognized by others is worshipped. The lyricists tell the woman in the song that to get back to the “twilight ball”, or fame, that she will “have to crawl”. Many work hard to get to the position they are in, but many also sacrifice value and personal dignity. Desire for fame is a fantasized idea of acceptance, the result of insecurity. However, a cycle is created when these celebrities also promote a culture that breeds the very same insecurity. The general public admires celebrity because they envy the over-glorified lives that celebrities lead, because they want someone to care where they shop for clothes, or for someone to take pictures of them while they eat. These shallow desires show that there is a lack of personal confidence and identity among the younger generations, and that popular culture is further eating away at the traditional American values. The idolized view of celebrity morphs the perspective of perfection to one based on superficiality, instead of any moral substance. Now, instead of his character, a person’s physical appearance and social status are what defines him. Just as the woman is described as smiling big “through that kaleidoscope cute”, so society expects everyone to uphold a façade that can change with each passing trend. The song illustrates society’s insecurities through the woman’s interactions with the vulture; a multifaceted symbol for the paparazzi, media, and general public. “Stumbling from the alleyway, walking a vulture, or is that vulture walking you?” is the opening line of the song. The lyrics call into question how much the woman relies on the paparazzi or the media to support her luxury and insecurity as evident in the fact that she holds onto them with a “diamond leash like the sabertooth queen.” Looking at our celebrities, it is easy to see the ‘socialites’ who will debase themselves for the attention of the media. To delve further, the vulture is a bird synonymous with feeding on death, a fact that can be used to show how the paparazzi and media are focused on scandal and hardship. These “vultures”, which can represent the media, can also simply represent the curious celebrity fans who are infatuated with the smell of decay that hangs on celebrities. The gossip, slander, and criticism of these famous strangers that result from the “vulture” mentality soon become socially acceptable. From this fact alone, there is much to be said about human behavior. On one hand, it could simply just be interesting common ground on which to make small talk at the beauty salon, but on the other hand, these are real human lives being exploited for society’s temporal entertainment. Like the woman in the song, some of these celebrities have sacrificed much to gain their fifteen minutes, but as the song suggests “it ain’t gonna last much longer.” These celebrities then become the beautiful playthings of the public eye; “oh teen ruby queen give us a scream!” demands the vulture. This song would suggest that people are intoxicated with watching celebrities trying to obtain perfect beauty and grace and watching them crumble under the weight of expectation, falling victim to smuttiness and scandal. An unhealthy attraction to the failure of others grows in our society as a result of the social acceptance of critiquing celebrities. While people are enamored with celebrity, a dichotomy arises when envy leads to the same people finding pleasure in celebrity downfall. The general public enjoys watching the fantasized lives of celebrity, but the dark, resentful side to humanity is revealed when people find enjoyment in watching society’s stars come crashing back to earth. With this transition of values comes also a disregard of the means that accomplish the ends. Since appearance is treasured over character, sacrifices are made to the latter to attain the former. This idea is evident in the rapidly rising designer clothes and plastic surgery industries. Some would argue that an increased interest in appearance does not necessarily imply a forfeit of character. I would agree, however in most circumstances, a person who is willing to spend thousands on clothing or on changing her physical appearance by means of cosmetic surgery is far from secure in her personal identity. An emphasis on appearance grooms the ego, and stresses selfishness and eccentricity over practicality. This movement towards frivolity leaves humility and reality behind. The woman described in “American Vultures” has sacrificed herself and has used others to achieve her status, but now all her past ‘suitors wished she was dead’. This selfish behavior influences others to live selfishly, creating a causal loop that will surely deconstruct our society as we know it. The fabrication of perfection that celebrities and media attempt to uphold is also the result of capitalism preying on these insecurities and egoism. The senseless exaltation of actors and models leads to an aspiration for status that is easily tapped into by the market. The celebrity area of popular culture is heavily encouraged in order to sell more products to the masses. It is the perfect outlet for marketing and advertising, so companies are all-too-willing to help deify their clients. However, overbearing consumerism also undermines ideal American values by stripping the people of identity, confidence, and selflessness by promoting the opposite values of each. Consumerism is fueled by the same egoism that it promotes, in a self-fulfilling spiral of the decay of humanitarianism. Many might object to say that this claim is an impractical exaggeration, and that consumption does not lead to a deleterious form of egoism. But this argument is grounded on a slippery slope; the amount of consumption necessary to surviving, necessary to living enjoyably, and the amount that defines living in excess are very subjective boundaries. While it is unclear, I believe that our indulgent way of living has crossed the line of living enjoyably to living in gross excess as evident in the negative effects our lives have on the environment and humanity itself. In the song, the woman asks for a driver for her limousine or expects a chariot to pick her up, an example of how people have come to think that they deserve luxury. We have become desensitized by advertising and consumerism to the amount we actually consume and how much we think we deserve to consume. People need to view our amount and purpose of consumption with a perspective based in selflessness and other values that America seems to be losing. While it may seem like an overstatement, in the most significant of general senses, American values are deteriorating into detrimental goals based in arrogance. The Blood Brothers’ song “American Vultures” further examines the effects of an American culture based around celebrity by illustrating the story of an actress who has crawled her way to mild fame by compromising her character. The celebrity lifestyle, and the ethics that it promotes are destructive to American culture and to each individual who longs for stardom. The woman in the song is left looking in the mirror at the “dead stare of a sagging skull”, a haunting image of the devastating effects that the selfish ideals promoted by popular culture can have on each individual and American society as a whole. |
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| The Blood Brothers – You're the Dream, Unicorn! Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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yea it definitely seems like it is describing vegas, and using vegas as a symbol to portray the decay meaningful love/sex among other values. especially the last few lines: up in "glossy treetops" (skyscraper/big hotels) kids having sex, and "Out on the streets at night the money's well spent" which i think is referring to prostitution. all this sleeping around yields unwanted/unloved kids: "pissed-off babies turn to pissed-off children". there are a lot of symbols of modern/synthetic material things and gluttony, which seems to be a trend in a lot of blood brothers songs. i.e. "corvette" "jet" "limousine" "neon" "spandex" "obscene riches" "carnival". these things are also very characteristic of las vegas. 60,000 yards is roughly the diameter of las vegas (the whole city) and carnival graveyards seem to pretty obviously describe casinos. the unicorn symbol doesnt seem as clear to me, but here is my hypothesis: a unicorn is sort of an ideal, magical creature that many fantasize about. las vegas, or sin city, is a sort of 'paradise' for those that fantasize about living in sin, such as lust, greed, superficiality and all that jazz. however this 'paradise' is quite appalling when the fantasy of a 'sin city' is actualized in the form of las vegas. thus the unicorn has tar teeth (black, street-like teeth) that chew up spandex nightmares. spandex nightmares is a metaphor for las vegas life in general, a reference i think, to performers who wear spandex costumes. just my .02 |
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| The Blood Brothers – Teen Heat Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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"The Fifth Horseman stuffs the radio" is a reference to the four horsemen of the apocalypse. may be suggesting a post-apocalyptic world. or just some use of irony. but i would agree that it is music producers/record labels or just general influences of media. may suggest ending of the music industry. "And when he steals your teen heat it sounds a lot like... " sounds like "he" or the horseman is stealing virginity when the sexual sounds ensue. could be symbolic of the record labels "raping" young talent or processing/changing their unique sounds to appeal to the masses in return for their fame. "He scouts the dumpsters for a cobweb guitar to polish into a superstar, finds the gurgle of a skeleton without love, turns it into a commercial." the music industry using old sounds and hollow people and making them into glittering, plastic stars for financial benefit. |
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