sort form Submissions:
submissions
Heatmiser – You Gotta Move Lyrics 11 years ago
@[kmkane23:1029] as in, cocking the hammer of a gun

submissions
Elliott Smith – Our Thing Lyrics 13 years ago
This song is clearly about la cosa nostra

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Wolf Parade – I'll Believe in Anything Lyrics 13 years ago
imply this, i recommend the song "modern world"

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Wolf Parade – I'll Believe in Anything Lyrics 13 years ago
It seems pretty obvious to me that "If I could take the fire out from the wire, I'd share a life and you'd share a life" is referring to the way in which modern technological society alienates us from one another. If the narrator could remove the pressure of incessant electronic communication (in other words, turning off the electrical grid), they might have a chance to experience life.

If you don't think wolf parade would

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Elliott Smith – The White Lady Loves You More Lyrics 13 years ago
People seem very caught up in the idea that the "white lady" is a reference to cocaine or (paradoxically) heroin. I was wondering, perhaps it could be simply an allusion to the "white lady" cocktail?

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Heatmiser – Pop in G Lyrics 13 years ago
I think it's

"you go out whistling
'sweet caroline'
and i'm bein' a big pain
'cause i never speak my mind"

this song would seem to me to be a disparagement of Heatmiser. I take the 'sweet caroline' reference as a pun on Caroline Records.

submissions
Circulatory System – Waves of Bark and Light Lyrics 14 years ago
I think this song is about when the sun becomes a supernova. We, along with all of the random people in our lives, will together be consumed by the sun. The "eternal clock" is the sun itself. Once it has burned out, we would no longer have any means of measuring time.

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Smog – Sleepy Joe Lyrics 15 years ago
Am i the only one who things this

"Nature abhors a vacuum
Nature abhors a vacuum
And so do you
Especially when you're trying to sleep late"

is a pun referring to trying to sleep when someone is running the vacuum cleaner?

submissions
Sunset Rubdown – Trumpet, Trumpet, Toot! Toot! Lyrics 15 years ago
"You better stick that thing in the ground."

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Sunset Rubdown – Jason Believe Me, You Can't Believe Your Dreams Lyrics 15 years ago
Jason, believe me, you can't trust your dreams
When they take you alone in your room.
Some of them show girls and some of them queens
But none of them who you swore to

Hold on. Ho-oh-oh-old on
To the stubborn old bones of mothers of old
You say, Love's gonna die.
They say, Love's gonna come home.

Young man, you shake hands too quickly with
Captains that take you alone in the night.
Cause what's in the hull? Is it femurs and skulls?
And why are their hands so slight?

Hold on. Ho-oh-oh-old on.
To the resolute bones of sons who roam
You say you're gonna die
They say you're gonna come home

So sleep with your eyes open
Oh, sleep with your eyes open
Sleep on your back, stave off the attack
Of carnivorous things
Sleep with your eyes open
Sleep with your eyes open
Sleep on your back and kick off the attack of carnivorous things

submissions
Wolf Parade – I'll Believe in Anything Lyrics 15 years ago
It's definitely "handing over all the olive trees." I think the repetition is meant to suggest to listener that "all the olive trees" is more than enough to justify whatever it is he's proposing, hence the later exasperated suggestion to look at them.

I also happen to think this song is about realizing that living in industrial society is not conducive to healthy relationships. True intimacy has been lost.

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Wolf Parade – Call It a Ritual Lyrics 15 years ago
I don't really think this song is a metaphor for war in the Middle East. I tend to interpret it rather literally as a ritualistic journey into the wilderness. The listener of the song is his companion being told to "just drive," to journey into the depths of unknowing even if they are scared. The windmill could be a symbol of antiquated beliefs that no longer serve their function (it is broken windmills that "swing their swords for show"). In the face of such things, you can't just passively "turn flower petals," but must actually confront the issue directly, "tear the structure down."

submissions
Sunset Rubdown – We Got Broken Eyes Lyrics 15 years ago
"Why do you always got to dance to everything?
We'd say she has seen behind things.
Not a lot of love and not a lot of anything."

I think this song is about how people distract themselves from the terrifying state of the world.

"I knew your broken eyes and
I knew your watch is ticking down
I knew you had it down to take
All the gold off of all the poor caps "

Stealing gold from people's teeth?

"Do you think I sing SAD songs to be a son of a bitch in the night?"

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Wolf Parade – Wits Or A Dagger Lyrics 15 years ago
I thought it was: "Gone crazy in a maze of dollar signs and traded days/Gone crazy in a maze of bling bling bling and blood red tape."

The mythical allegory of getting lost in a labyrinth seems to be complicated by allusions to prostitution and self-debauchery (romantic entanglement? artistic compromise?)

submissions
Elliott Smith – Mr. Goodmorning Lyrics 15 years ago
ok, these are what I have for the studio version:

I saw you with Mr. Goodmorning
Some velvet rope on the curb
He gave me his stormiest warning
You held your head like a sign that said 'do not disturb'

"Don't try being part of my life
Isn't gonna get you anywhere
Go by--just between us, you know, don't you know how much I care?

"I made the interior landscape you'll soon be walking through
You'll land in the ruins of ruins--
All of the beautiful things that I made once for you

"Don't try being part of my life
Isn't gonna get you anywhere
Go by--just between us, you know, don't you know how much I care?
Like nothing happened at all
Don't come by, don't hang around, and don't call
I'll be kicking your memory's ass, like my shot glass"

"I saw you with Mr. Goodmorning...
I saw you with Mr. Goodmorning..."

"Don't try being part of my life
Isn't gonna take your pain away
I'm fine, strong with my life
Feeling stronger every single day
Feeling stronger every single day"

-----------------

It is my opinion that this song is about the narrator encountering a former lover who is ignoring him. All of the lyrics aside from the opening stanza and the refrain later in the song ("I saw you...") are spoken from the perspective of the former lover, words implied in her attempts to pretend that the narrator doesn't exist. Thus it is she who is "feeling stronger every single day," which makes sense considering those lyrics are sung with such boastful invective and agony that it makes me want to crumble into a heap.

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Elliott Smith – A Living Will Lyrics 15 years ago
I'm pretty sure it's:

"But I wanna get well soon"

"There's nothing you can see from insight"

"Time was always a wired/wild animal in a cage"

submissions
Elliott Smith – Have You Seen Her? Lyrics 16 years ago
these lyrics are wrong. they should be something like:

"covered the window with a sheet
looking out on the street and the side
the little kids were still complete but fractional faults
are supposed to keep them in line
he rented a room and back to bed
happened to tell me that you want me to call
but you never wanted just to rent
speaking in southerner drawl
have you seen her? have you seen her?
have you seen her? have you seen her?
the figurine is snow, snow white
let me come in on a second flight
when i went downtown to meet the girl
i sleep next to now every night
she doesn't acknowledge work classes
she doesn't listen to a novel on tape
her face is simple excellence
but it's always changing shape
have you seen her? have you seen her?
have you seen her? have you seen her?
i miss her.. i miss her.. i miss her.. i miss her..
i'm over it now.. i'm over it now..
i'm over it now.. all over it now..
i've got acid in my cheek
i've got acid in my blood from the wait
'cause every minute's been shot up
full of yesterday's muted hate
i saw you just plain forget
i saw you remember and cry
the time that you didn't give a shit
the time you did but i didn't know why
i saw you come round old town, down,
looking for somebody to score
i saw you in Kingsboro with some clown
but i couldn't stand to see you anymore
i've been meaning to tell you i'm all over it now
man, i've been meaning to tell you i'm all over it now
have you seen her? have you seen her?
have you seen her? have you seen her?
i miss her.. i miss her.. i miss her.."

submissions
Elliott Smith – I Can't Answer You Anymore Lyrics 16 years ago
I see the "one [he] adores" in a different light:

I seriously think this is song is about suicide from the perspective of the deceased.

For some reason I never noticed the inherent ambiguity of the line "Over the Hawthorn Bridge" (the "coast to coast" imagery perhaps?). The way "bridge" is dragged out definitely, for me, evokes a sense of falling.

It would certainly clarify why he "can't answer you anymore."

I don't mean to suggest that there is no "romantic" element to the situation being described in the lyrics, but that self-murder was at least a hidden subtext.

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