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Songs: Ohia – Farewell Transmission Lyrics 9 years ago
@[mwagner5:8719] "Long dark blues"?

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Songs: Ohia – Farewell Transmission Lyrics 9 years ago
Here are the lyrics to the demo version:

Now the whole place is dark
Every light on this side of the town
Suddenly it all went down
Now we’ll all be brothers of the fossil fires of the sun
Now we’ll all be sisters of the fossil blood of the moon

Now they’ll be working in the cold gray rock
Now they’ll be working in the concrete streets
Now they’ll be working in the hot mill steam
In the sirens and the silences now
All those great set up hearts all at once start to beat

After tonight, if you don’t want it to be a secret out of the past
I will resurrect it, have a good look at it
Streak its blood across my beak, dust my feathers in its ash
Feel his ghost breathing down my back

I will try and know whatever I try, I will be gone, but not forever
We will try and know whatever we try, We’ll be gone, but not forever

I will let everything be what it will
It really is this cold and dark in hell
At least this town’s being honest with itself
Some of you, it’s getting hard to tell

Real truth about it is, is no one gets it right
Real truth about it is we’re all supposed to try
There ain’t no end to the sands I’ve been trying to cross
The real truth about it is my kinda life’s no better off
If I’ve got the map or if I’m lost

I only start to taste the dust
I forget who I owe, and what
Who I am, and was
There ain’t no end to the desert I’ll cross
I really knew it all along

Mama, here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall
Mama, here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall

Long Dark Blues, Will o’ the Wisp
Long Dark Blues, The ageless darkness
Long Dark Blues, The big star is fallen
Long Dark Blues, Listen.
Long Dark Blues, through the static and distance
Long Dark Blues, the farewell transmission
Long Dark Blues, Listen
Listen
Listen
Listen

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Elbow – The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver Lyrics 10 years ago
CV, not TV. The lyrics are "Gotta get out a CV". A CV is what Americans call a resume. He needs to find another job. And why would a tower crane driver need to get out of TV? How many of them have a career on television? Not any, I think.

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Jenny Lewis – Just One of the Guys Lyrics 10 years ago
This is an interesting and clever song because Jenny suggests she wants to be "one of the guys" but is prevented, and then the Hot Pockets jingle plays. She wants to be one of the guys but she is prevented by hot pocket, which I suppose is a reference to her vijayjay. Right? And of course it is exactly her womanhood that prevents her from being one of the "guys". It's kind of genius.

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Heartless Bastards – Only for You Lyrics 10 years ago
It’s been awhile since I felt this way about someone, I’d really, really like to know you, more, I know you more. Ah, your eyes sing a song to me, and I really like to move to it, oh, or groove. And I will open my heart, and I will only for you. Ah, your eyes are spin around my head and this line of song can’t go on. Ah, your eyes are spinning round my head and this line of song can’t go on. And I will open my heart, and I will only for you. And I don’t know what to do, my head is such a clouded view, I’m so tired of trying. And I just don’t know what to do, my head has such a cloudy view, I’m so tired of trying Ah, your eyes are spinning around my head and this line of song can’t go on. Ah, your eyes are spinning around my head and this line of song can’t go on. And I will open my heart, and I will only for you.

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Heartless Bastards – Only for You Lyrics 10 years ago
These are not even close to the lyrics I submitted. What happened?

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Fleet Foxes – Bedouin Dress Lyrics 11 years ago
@[huggernaut8:1512] Your comment is for "Quiet Houses" and the lyric, I think, is "darkening" or "darkenin'" - indicating the night is coming, lover, come lay with me.

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Fleet Foxes – Quiet Houses Lyrics 11 years ago
@[benjamink:1511] Your interpretation is so close to mine that I will just bump you. Thanks.

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Fleet Foxes – Bedouin Dress Lyrics 11 years ago
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

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Fleet Foxes – Bedouin Dress Lyrics 11 years ago
@[AmeliaLH:1510] Why do you think the person in the bedouin dress was female?

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Fleet Foxes – Bedouin Dress Lyrics 11 years ago
@[poetogethr:1509] There's nothing to suggest the person in the dress was a woman. Does it matter?

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Fleet Foxes – Bedouin Dress Lyrics 11 years ago
To me the song is about taking and not returning or replacing - so when he's tired of being on the road and all the constant interaction with people he was able to sneak away to have a day purely to himself in Innisfree. It had a big impact on him and he wants to be there again - "driving me over the stern" or pushing him backwards to be free even for a minute.

I've felt that feeling when I spent years on the road. Personal time is so precious.

He didn't give anything to Innisfree. He only took. Borrower's debt.

The person in the bedouin dress could be a stranger, doesn't matter, the effect was of capturing a moment of beauty that was given by another person. Not giving anything back. Borrower's debt.

And it's interesting that "gleaming white just as I recall" admits that memory is the result of our mind. He recalls the dress -"in geometric pattern" as gleaming white - doesn't matter what color the dress was in reality, in his memory it is gleaming white.

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Fleet Foxes – Bedouin Dress Lyrics 11 years ago
Have you ever been on the road on business - such as on a tour with a band - where all of your time is taken up? You don't own your time. But once in a while you will get a few moments for yourself and those moments are precious. "One day that is mine there."

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KT Tunstall – Black Horse and the Cherry Tree Lyrics 11 years ago
You are all thinking too much. Use Occam's Razor. This song is about losing your virginity to a huge black man.

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Ryan Bingham – The Poet Lyrics 12 years ago
I love this song but the lyrics are weak. "Out to the back" isn't descriptive. "After the fight" or "After the pipe" or something else is better. How does the poet pull a pistol on his sister when he is sitting out back? How does he know the barmaid's pulled a gun? Why does the barmaid pull a gun just before the poet pulls a gun? Is the barmaid the poet?

And "how I love the highway sun" should be "how I love the highway song", anyone who has spent much time on the road knows the highway song, but the sun on the highway is just the same as the sun on Manhattan.

And "my horse ain't too drunk?" wtf? That's just filling in a sound rather than a meaning.Make the horse a harley and then "Out on the bike the poet writes his song in blood" - anyone who has laid down a harley on the highway knows that blood very well.

Anyone care to sharpen up Ryan's lyrics?

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Radiohead – Dollars and Cents Lyrics 13 years ago
There is nothing about a baby in the song. The word he says is "beg" or "begging". And the blues are the weapon to use to keep the minions (the blue collar conservatives - tea baggers) fighting for the cause of The Wall (Wall Street). That's why in some songs Thom screams "G8" (Global 8), "IMF" (International Monetary Fund) and "WTO" (World Trade Organization) at the end of the song live. And in one live version, I think it is in Mexico, he shouts "Murderers" over and over talking about the way those groups manipulate us (like Cheney taking us into Iraq).

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Radiohead – Dollars and Cents Lyrics 13 years ago
These lyrics don't match the version on Amnesiac. I listened to dozens of live versions on Youtube to glean these lyrics. The lyrics I chose are what Thom sings in most of the live versions (with alternatives thrown in right and left).

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Radiohead – Dollars and Cents Lyrics 13 years ago
Dollars and Cents is about the manipulation of global money markets to suit those in power (WTO, IMF, G8). There are two voices in the song: the manipulators ("Why don't you quiet down") and the free man ("Let me out of here"). Here are my interpretation of the lyrics along with some alternatives that Thom seems to throw in from time to time.


There are better things to talk about
Be constructive

They're a weapon we can use
Be constructive with your blues

There are many times the walls cave in

Even when it does the leveling

(Sometimes he signs variations of "There are many times the water comes, Even while you drown the water comes")

Why don't you quiet down
()
Why don't you quiet down
()
Why don't you quiet down
()
Why don't you quiet down
()
Quiet Down

Burn down the neighborhood
Sing songs and you never stay
(Sometimes he sings "You go out and I never stay")

Burn down the neighborhood
Livin' in times if I could stand and beg

It's all over the streets tonight
It's all over the streets
So let me out of here

It's all over the streets tonight
All over the streets
Let me out of here

All over...
(Sometimes he adds "...the world" and other times "... and over and over")

Why don't you quiet down

We are the dollars and cents
And the pounds and pence
And the mark and the yen
(Why don't you quiet down)
And yes, we're going to crack your little skull
Crack your little skull
(Why don't you quiet down)
We are the dollars and cents
And the pounds and pence
And the mark and the yen
(Why don't you quiet down)
And yes, we're going to crack your little skull
Crack your little skull

We are the dollars and cents
the pounds and pence
the mark and the yen

(The IMF)
(WTO)
(G8, G8, G8)
(Murderers)
(Murderers)
(Murderers)

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Joni Mitchell – A Strange Boy Lyrics 13 years ago
Later in the CD, in another song she mentions chasing either gold or Gould and Reggie.

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Joni Mitchell – A Strange Boy Lyrics 13 years ago
So who was she writing about in this song? It doesn't come close to describing her well-known lovers (her husband, Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash). Anyone know?

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Joni Mitchell – A Strange Boy Lyrics 13 years ago
Jaco Pastorius played a fretless bass and was an absolute master of string harmonics. On many of the songs on Hejira there are eerie high crying sounds that you would think came from a synthesizer but they are from Jaco playing high on his bass.

Jaco met a very sad end but his impact with Weather Report, Aierto and Flora Purim and here with Joni was huge and beautiful and too brief.

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Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Lyrics 14 years ago
@special 3lend, John Lennon always said that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was NOT about LSD. I mention that because it is common for artists to NOT say what their lyrics are about. I think this song is about the KKK burning crosses, chasing men down and burning them to death. That is a theme worthy of Sufjan Stevens.

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Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Lyrics 14 years ago
It is about the KKK. See my post below.

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Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans Lyrics 14 years ago
This song, Seven Swans, is about the KKK. It is told from the perspective of a young child who woke early because of a fire in the lawn (burning cross) and he saw seven swans (the KKK in their white pointed hoods). "We saw the dragon move out" meaning the Grand Dragon, who then burned the child's father to death (my father turned into coal). To the child something so horrible, so huge could ONLY be the work of the All Powerful Lord.

Then the song progresses into a minor key and we get "He will take you, if you run, He will chase you. Cause He is the Lord". We could presume that the mother and children ran to hide ("my mother watched it from far") and were chased by "The Lord".

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Radiohead – Supercollider Lyrics 14 years ago
Before the CERN super collider was started up there was much wringing of hands about what might happen. Some scientists actually suggested we don't know what we're doing and that we might actually set off a reaction that could destroy the world. A similar argument was often made during the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer later quoted ancient Indian scripture to describe himself "I am become death."

This song, I believe, has several voices - that of the scientist watching the colored lights, that of the concerned citizen (trust in the moment) and most important of all the voice of the "thing" exposed during that fraction of a fraction of a billionth of a second after the particles collide. It is that thing that puts the shadows back into their boxes. It is that thing that is opened and welcomed into the world for a fraction of a second. And it is that thing that sees angels hanging over the balcony.

Angels, according to Zoroastrian/Judaic/Christian and Muslim beliefs, often watch what we humans do and in this case they are so fascinated to see if we will destroy ourselves that they are not just watching passively but hanging over the balcony of heaven to watch.

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Radiohead – Give Up the Ghost Lyrics 14 years ago
Don’t hurt me, don’t haunt me (loops through song)
Gather up the lasting souls
Into your arms (x2)
Gather up the pitiful
Into your arms (x4)
What seems impossible
Into your arms
I think I have had my fill
Into your arms (x4)
I think I should give up the ghost
Into your arms (starts a two-part round of this over the loop)


My take on this song, after listening to it a couple hundred times ;-) is that it is about the Christian myth that Jesus will return and take the souls of the meek (pitiful) and pious (lasting). But it is also about Jesus himself, giving up the ghost on the cross. All being gathered into the arms of God.

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Radiohead – Kid A Lyrics 15 years ago
OK, here is my take: there are two transitions. The first is when the man becomes totally detached from his life, fights with his wife over silly shit like "where did you park the car", he walks away from that life, had doubts but then kills himself and falls through the trap door into limbo where he is tortured and tormented ("I laugh until my head falls off, I swallow til I burst" sounds good until you think about it - he can't just take a drink of water, he has to swallow until he bursts open) ("We're going to crush your little souls") but then he finds his way through another door into heaven where he swims with black eyed angels.

You have to mix Kid A and Amnesiac together to get the narrative. The transitions happen at "Morning Bell" and that is why the song appears twice. The first Morning Bell from Kid A is when he gets his divorce. The second Morning Bell is when he remembers what he had (he is am amnesiac) and when he comes to terms with that he falls through the doors.

Here is the song line up:

Kid A
Optimistic
Life In A Glass House
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box
Morning Bell (Kid A)
I Might Be Wrong
How to Disappear Completely
Everything In Its Right Place
Knives Out
Motion Picture Soundtrack
Untitled
In Limbo
Dollars and Cents
National Anthem
You And Whose Army?
Idioteque
Morning Bell/Amnesiac
Like Spinning Plates
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors
Treefingers
Pyramid Song
Hunting Bears


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Radiohead – Kid A Lyrics 15 years ago
And the band saying they pulled lyrics from a hat is like John Lennon saying "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is not about LSD and that "Strawberry Fields" is not about San Francisco. It is pure poppycock.

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Radiohead – Kid A Lyrics 15 years ago
This whole album, and Amnesiac too, is about a man who is married, has children, but his life is not going well. He's bored. He's practicing weird sex stuff like autoerotic asphyxiation ("yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon"). He's lost his way in life "That man, that's not me.", "you're living in a fantasy", "I've lost my way". "The lights are on, but no one's home". He gets a divorce "You can keep the furniture", "Cut the kids in half".

But the divorce doesn't help. "Red whine and sleeping pills, Help me get back to your arms"

There's no one to turn to for help "I'd really like to help you man." so he kills himself with sleeping pills and "I will see you in the next life." His soul departs on a journey, falling through "trap doors that open, I spiral down". At the end of "In Limbo" he is called "Come in here, Come in here" (reminiscent of "Here Kitty Kitty" which opens "Everything" - he does not say "Kid A" he says "Kitty"). And now things are happy "I laugh until my head comes off", "Here I'm alive, everything all the time".

And this is where Amnesiac takes over to tell the rest of the story and fill in gaps.

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Al Stewart – Roads to Moscow Lyrics 16 years ago
Well Kotep, let's consider this further. Al Stewart was born on September 5, 1945 and WW2 ended on September 2, 1945. So, theoretically, there were actually 3 days during which Stewart may have mowed people down. But it is unlikely that a 3 day old child could operate the weapons required, especially a weapon that fired a slug the size of a coke can (~70mm). Maybe I'm just being pigheaded, but your interpretation doesn't hold water.

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Al Stewart – Roads to Moscow Lyrics 16 years ago
I here a few lyrics differently. Here is my transliteration:

They crossed over the border the hour before dawn
Moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground t'were they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood
Word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away

Ah softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mist in the fields on our hands and our knees

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the smoke on the breeze

All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolensk and Viasma soon fell
By Autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill

Winter brought with it the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground, while the skies filled with snow

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The fire in the air, glowing red
Silhouetting the snow on the breeze

In the footsteps of Napoleon, the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow, standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines, the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outpost, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know, which way to turn, which way to look you'll never see us
As we're stealing through the blackness of the night you'll never know, you'll never hear us

And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning road leads to Stalingrad and the sky is softly humming

Two broken tigers on fire in the night
Flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home, it will almost be spring
The flames of the tigers are lighting the road to Berlin

Ah quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down

And all that I ever
Was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening now
It's the end of the dream

I'm coming home, I'm coming home , now you can taste it in the wind the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask me of the time when I was caught behind their lines and taken prisoner
They only held me for a day, a lucky break I say
They turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know, why I was taken from the line with all the others
to board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia

And it's cold and damp in the transit camp and the air is still and sullen
and the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when I'll be home again and the morning answers never
And the evening sighs and the steely Russian skies go on forever...

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.