| Passion Pit – Sleepyhead Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Does anyone else hear a repeated refrain of "Knees to the groin" at the intro? | |
| The Decemberists – A Cautionary Song Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree, the lyrics and rhythmic timing seem to me to be invested with an aura of fantasy; I can't say that there's any certainty this is a lie told by a nanny ... but look at the title "A Cautionary Song" ... as there are also "Cautionary Tales". But maybe the genius of the song is neither in what someone above called the courage to speak plainly about rape and prostitution, nor in the brilliant fabrication to scare / guilt a child into compliance. We all, at some point, do (and feel compelled to do) things we'd rather not. Whether it's an alarm clock at 330am or getting dressed up for an event we'd rather miss ... we prostitute ourselves, sooner or later, in bigger or smaller ways. And we tend to think quite highly of ourselves, a bit of holy aura over our 'victimization' and of the suffering we accept "for the greater good." Perhaps the comedy of this song is buried a little deeper -- a gently mockery, a reminder we should not take our own suffering too seriously or pat ourselves on the back too generously ... I found the song brilliant, one of the thirty or so best I've heard this decade. |
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| Toto – Africa Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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On inherent meaning: I'd say there is only the meaning we create in response to art, music, etc. Some of the meaning we create seems (to me) exquisite and some (to me) seems like rubbish: but remember "your mileage may vary" (YMMV) and "one man's meat is another man's poison." Before I start guessing about how to interpret this song, here are some things that seem like "facts" (within the song): -- "I know I must do what's right" :: the boy has a choice to make -- "I seek to cure ... frightened of this thing that I've become" :: the choice is important, it concerns his future health and well-being, he is afraid of allowing the current condition to continue Perhaps the choice is between ~two~ loves ... the woman arriving on the plane, and Africa. That's a bald either-or contrast, and much of the song seems to me to pull away from this dichotomy. However, what if the choice is about how to knit his loves and life ... both Africa and the woman and himself ... together in a meaningful way? If so, then these interpretations might follow: -- Stopping the old man along the way, and hearing his comment -- it is ambiguous, it might relate to choosing Africa, to choosing the woman, or to finding the creative synthesis, but he's urged to stop weighing things and commit to a choice (of a love -- Africa, or her -- or of a strategy for making it all work together.) -- The allusion to the wild dogs pre-flects "this thing that I've become" -- solitary, wild, hearing drums -- right now, more bound to Africa than to the "civilized" woman flying on the airplane -- "I bless the rains down in Africa, Gonna take some time to do the things we never had" -- the short and the long rains (split seasons) bring Africa back to life. Here is a mundane possibility: the dry seasons force game to congregate around fewer waterholes, and vegetation is more sparse, so spotting exotic animals is easier during the dry season, and that's when most touristas arrive for safari. Everything is less expensive during the rains (the off-season,) so perhaps blessing the rains is like "TGIF" ... an opportunity to take time off from work, maybe, and to "take some time to do the things" ... -- "to do the things we never had" -- now, that sounds to me like more of a focus back on the woman; it feels like he's talking about investing in building 'relationship equity' (equity = something to have, owned) -- "It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you, There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do" -- "you" is, once again, ambiguous: are we talking about someone dragging him away from Africa (more likely) or dragging him away from the woman (less likely, something has already separated them.) But perhaps this is a statement of resolve, of his intention not to be dragged away from either Africa nor from the woman, nor to be himself torn apart by the tension he perceives between those two. So, this is evidence of tenacity; the boy is not 'commitment-phobic'. Some odds and ends: -- The Serengeti looks like a forest, and not like a classic desert with sand dunes; but it is functionally and practically a desert; the setting for the Serengeti and Mt. Kilamanjaro is the nation of Tanzania, on the east coast of Africa, south of Kenya. The exotic island of Zanzibar is part of Tanzania. -- Rain is the symbol of fertility, rain soaking into the earth is emblematic of sexual penetration. -- The western slope summit of Kilimanjaro is called 'the House of God' -- close to top of the 19,710 foot peak there is the carcass of a leopard; no one has even been able to give a plausible explanation of what the leopard was seeking at that altitude. (In Greece, Olympus was the home of the gods.) So: "A solitary young man with a deep feeling for the mysteries and majesty of the continent and so a strong desire to remain in Africa must make a choice about how to remain fully human, and true to himself, as he waits for the return of the woman his has loved in a less than satisfactory manner in the past. As a seeker, he crosses the path of a wise man, who tells him to hurry, what he wants is waiting for him. Away from the woman, he's become somewhat wild; he's frightened of some aspects of himself. "But, he's in luck: it's off-season -- as the rains in Africa provide a new lease on life for all of the animals of the desert, including humans -- and the young man blesses this opportunity to take the time to (re-)build a relationship with the woman while seducing her to become open to the beauty of the continent he loves. He wants her to commit to a life with him in Africa, and 'the ball is in his court'. He reiterates his own commitment and blesses the rains again." |
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