submissions
| Duran Duran – Night Boat Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Yes, the video is pretty cool. The band members possess some degree of acting ability here. My interpretation of the video: The guys are all hanging out waiting for some sort of ship to come in. Simon Le Bon, being the most attuned to all things sailing, senses something isn't quite right. There seems to be some sort of curse coming along with the ship. Either the ship brings zombies with it, or the locals turn into zombies, or zombies come out of the island (wasn't this filmed in Antigua?). As it approaches and dusk sets in, the curse starts affecting each band member. John Taylor starts screaming and loses his mind. Nick Rhodes goes catatonic. I think Andy Taylor gets dragged off by one of the zombies. And I'd like to think that Roger Taylor survives the night by hiding in an abandoned cottage. Simon seems like he's "claimed" by the nightboat and leaves with it.
Now that I think about it, it's almost as if it's a commentary on gaining fame (when "you're ship comes in") and how it can actually be sort of a curse.
My interpretation of the song: Basically, how your mind plays tricks on you in the darkness, especially if you are traveling on water in the middle of the night where there are "no light flashes" and you can hear "the rising water moan." Scary. |
submissions
| Duran Duran – Girls On Film Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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It's about girls...on film. Never really thought about whether it was referring to exploitation or legitimate modeling. Maybe the thin line between the two? The unedited video did cause a bit of controversy, didn't it? |
submissions
| Duran Duran – Secret Oktober Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Starting out with "wise on a birthday party" always led me to believe that someone's ruminating about the passage of time in their life. A person has been occupied with "all night parties, cocktail bars" but is a bit world weary now. The person is looking, intentionally or not, for new experiences to feel re-birthed. That old versus young feeling that he/she feels each birthday seems implied by being "wise or naked in secret Oktober." (Was there ever a special meaning behind the spelling "Oktober" versus "October", or is that just simply an alternate spelling?") |
submissions
| David Bowie – Boys Keep Swinging Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Definitely a tongue-in-cheek song. Many cultures systematically tilt the power structure to men. (Some may opine "all" cultures do, but that's a different forum.) Hence the reference to "you can buy a home of your own" and how you can "learn to drive and everything" if your a boy, as these are privileges for men only in these cultures. But note how the song comes across like a sales pitch for boyhood? Like a guy needs to be convinced that being a guy is great? It seems almost like Bowie's addressing guys who over-compensate because they actually have some deep insecurities about their masculinity. The video seems to hint at this: Bowie dresses as three different drag queens, two of whom walk down the runway then suddenly rip of their wigs and smear their lipstick revealing that they are really guys. Oddly enough, the third drag queen stays in drag as an elderly old woman. Is that a commentary on how, with the effects of age, men and women just kind of end up gender neuter? Or was Bowie just having too much of a laugh as that last character to cast it off? |
submissions
| David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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A very haunting song. My interpretation: This guy doesn't make it. The drugs win. Just like how Major Tom is forever lost in space.
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submissions
| David Bowie – Be My Wife Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Seems like everyone's on the same page here. It's definitely a "lonely" song, but underscored by the screetching guitar, it takes on a disturbingly desperate air. I think this is correctly identified as a song coming from or around his "Berlin" era. An exquisite agony set to music. |
submissions
| David Bowie – Blue Jean Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I agree with an earlier comment which refers to the "Jazzin' for Blue Jean" video, or rather, short film. (Back in the heyday of music videos where they were actually interesting and actually added something to the song.) Bowie plays both neurotic rock star and awkward regular Joe in it. He's obsessed with an "It" girl and wants to impress her, so he takes her to the rock star's show, trying to imply that he's friends with the rock star. Turns out, the girl already knows the rock star and leaves with him, making the regular guy look like a bit of a chump. "Blue Jean" sounds like an ode to a woman who's got a whole list of would-be suitors that she can wrap around her finger.
This song's a great representation of Bowie's voice at that richer, deeper level. He practically purrs some of the lyrics. |
submissions
| Duran Duran – The Chauffeur Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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Why don't they make songs like this anymore? All one has to hear is the piercing, crystalline line "Sing...Blue Silver...." and you know something beyond a normal cab ride is happening. |
submissions
| Spandau Ballet – Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On) Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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The song itself is one of those funky hybrids, like "Rapture" from Blondie. The last lines are actually rapped, not sung, as in Rapture.
Song seems like someone's dealing with an anxiety attack. He starts in a panicked manner,("I check the time! It was almost time!") then it's like the medication takes effect and the lyrics drag out in a trippy way. ("I know this feeling is a llliiiieeee...") Then he notices the weird side effects. ("There's a lion in my arms! There's a motion in my arms!") Whatever it is, this guy can't deal with the pressure. |
submissions
| Duran Duran – Grey Lady of the Sea Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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First time I heard it was as background music to a Japanese commercial. It was only a snippet but I instantly recognized Le Bon's voice and thought "which Duran song is this?" but I don't think it is an official D2 song. The few seconds I heard were so distinctive that I could recall it years later.
Very much a seafarer's song. |
submissions
| Spandau Ballet – True Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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This is the song that made me stop in my tracks the first time I heard it. Tony Hadley has one of the best voices. I don't know what the story is with his vocal training or if he even had any before joining the bad, but he's wonderfully distinctive.
As to an interpretation: Contemplative, truth-seeking, but truth-fearing individual "listening to Marvin" all night long and popping pills (physician-prescribed?) to deal with the "sound of his soul". Picture your favorite angst-ridden writer, musician, artist, actor, etc., and you pretty much got it. |
submissions
| Spandau Ballet – Gold Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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This might not be a correct interpretation, but it's not a bad one: A kind of positive take on a break-up/parting-of-ways song. If you take it from a guy's perspective, he's basically meeting an ex- that he hasn't seen in a while ("two years ago"). They had fun back in the day ("Remember we were partners in crime"), but he stalled out and she went on to some sort of success. And instead of him being bitter about it, he's basically saying that he always believed in her and appreciated that she never demeaned him ("but you could leave me standing so tall"). She's someone else's or the world's beloved now ("now he's in love with you..."). She's basically "gold" and he's telling her to remember that.
The video for this is a bit strange and doesn't totally support this interpretation. Plus, you're half expecting to see Simon Le Bon stumble past Tony Hadley through connecting streets from the "Hungry Like the Wolf" video. |
submissions
| Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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An interpretation of this song is that a traumatized veteran is relaying his experiences from a war. He was just a boy when he enlisted/drafted ("I am beautiful and clean and so very very young...") Sounds like he was captured and tortured as a POW ("That's all they ever give me. Questions questions...") And emerged from the experience worse for wear. Now he's "sitting on a park bench, years away from fighting" and basically muttering what amounts to nonsense. So to cut a long story short, he lost his mind. |
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