| Josh Ritter – Beautiful Night Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| wow, im really the first post on this song? if you read this and you havent listened to the song, you are doing yourself an injustice! this is one of joshes most beautiful acoustic songs. its not as heavy lyrically as many of his songs, there is definitely beauty in simplicity here. in a sentence, i would say its about moving forward in life, understanding the value of togetherness and finding a peaceful culmination of your past, present, and future. this song makes me think of the ideal visual goal of the deepest state of meditation. true nirvana. thanks josh ritter! | |
| Josh Ritter – The Temptation Of Adam Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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:0 wow, that is some intense, heavy stuff. as much as i appreciate reading between the lines, i think josh ritter more often than not writes about incredible fanciful stories that might serve as large metaphor and thats about all they are. dont get me wrong, i honestly think he is the greatest contemporary song-writer anywhere in the world today. but sometimes a musician/author/poet/artist will create a work purely for the fun and beauty of it, and its the critics who make it more than it is... in this case, an amazing song about a fictional couple in a "cold-war era" armed bomb shelter waiting for the world to go up in flames! it turns out that he loves her and in time she loves him back. as the song goes, its hard for him to accept a world without their love and he is not sure he is willing take that chance. as love can sometimes lead to irrationalities, hes nearly prepared to blow up the world for her. as for the religious connotation, there might be something there, but im guessing that josh did that more as a subtle reference than a ground shattering, insanely detailed metaphor. i think in most of his lyrical masterpieces, he would be less detailed or more vague if he was trying to set up an elaborate metaphor. the songs arent as fun if you dont let the artist paint a picture with the words and take you there. thinking way too much can take a lot of the impact out of the best music/art/literature. (and im not saying thats the case every time, but if musicians made every single song a giant metaphor with dozens upon dozens of obscure references and connotations, theres no way they could release albums with any frequency whatsoever!) |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A. Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| that is so awesome! i hate when people who only know about bruce from the radio think that they know his music (bc BITUSA and dancin in the dark are not completely representative of bruce). so many people think that since he writes about the working class, he is a patriotic, flag toting, "america is the best in the world" type of guy. bruce writes music about how life actually is, how we try to imagine life should be, and the distance in between those two. i bet your teacher would crap her pants if she saw the lyrics for american-land. "the hands that built this country, we're always trying to keep down". bruce has never shied away from singing about inequalities and unwarranted wrongdoings. its too bad there are still people who have that misconception! | |
| Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A. Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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ok, its a vietman protest song... i think those of us who have read the lyrics established that already. the most brilliant part about bruce is his constant awareness of the relationship between the words and music. those of you who are familiar with the evolution of his music over time and the fluid nature of his lyrics will notice that the song can subtly change meaning depending on whether its solo or with a band, how fast or slow it is, different instrumentation, etc. EX: how songs from nebraska changed when he played them with e street, or how e street music changed when played with the sessions band, or even how a song can change depending on where it is placed in a live setlist, etc. BITUSA is probably the most obvious example of this dynamic. consider the time it was released. people were loud and outspoken, they were still pissed about the war and there was an obvious (though often unspoken) mistreatment of veterans. if bruce had released a solo/acoustic or even toned down version of this song in 84 it would have probably gone more under the radar. honestly, how many non-springsteen fans know the name of another song from that album? bruce knew the music was as important as the lyrics as far as getting it across to the public. the result was an in-your-face, full band, radio-ready title track (actually the song was originally a cut from "Nebraska" in its slow form, reinforcing my point). unfortunately, along the way there have been many people who only listened to the chorus and high profile screw-ups like the reagan campaign thing. but once he got the song out there and it really blew up the rock music scene, he stressed the fact that the up tempo beat was ironic by publicly denouncing reagan for wanting to use it for his campaign and by doing fund raising concerts for veterans and stuff. when it was at its prime, it had to be loud to be heard. today, more people are aware of its meaning and context. vietnam has evolved into more of a sad memory than a major contemporary crisis and guess what... BRUCE REFLECTS THAT. how often does he play the full band version on tour these days? i know it happens but not too often. he released the "tracks" version to an audience that could appropriately relate to it on a level that was not possible in 84 (when people were more angry than sad). and since tracks wasnt really known by anyone besides the true fans, BITUSA made its way to "Live in NY", complete with a solemn 12 string and a single faint blue spotlight. being that the latter of these versions was solo, blatantly serious, AND IN VIDEO, even the stupidestestest amongst us can realize the true meaning of the song. its just a shame that the radio airwaves still play the original and thats all most people hear. on the bright side, there are more of us nowadays to say something when others declare that its a patriotic rally song. notably, within the past couple years, one of those no-talent pop whores (i think it was christina agulera) said that after visiting troops in iraq, she wanted to do a cover of BITUSA as a patriotic tribute for them. luckily there were enough people to tell her how dumb that would be and she didnt do it. : ) |
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