| Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I can now answer my own question: it should be 'peal out', not 'peel out'. 'Peal out the watchword' is a line from a 19th-century hymn. See here: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1957253 Tori Amos must have heard the line somewhere, either as part of the hymn or separately. The meaning of the line in the hymn could be relevant to her song. |
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| Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Just a thought: are we sure the line 'peel out the watchword' is correct? 'Peal out the watchword' sounds the same but might make better sense. Sounds - bells, thunder, laughter, cries - peal out. I can't think of anything that 'peels out'. I don't know if there is an 'official' lyric sheet, but they are often wrong anyway, especially if the writers themselves are bad at spelling. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I'm not going to repeat my earlier objections to some of the popular misinterpretations, but there are some interesting comments in Imogen Heap's video blogs (vBlogs) on YouTube. In vBlog #7 she describes a painting being designed for the ceiling in her house (the house she grew up in). The painting includes various small details. These are either connected with the history of the house itself, or are suggested by members of her family. The details include a little train and a little sewing machine. She doesn't explain what the train and sewing machine represent, but in vBlog #8 she mentions that her father has given the artist detailed instructions on the type of train to paint, specifically a Stirling Steamer. So this supports the idea that the lyrics of Hide and Seek have something to do with her family or her childhood home. My own guess is that the 'trains' symbolise childhood memories of her father, while the 'sewing machines' symbolise memories of her mother. No doubt someone will now find ingenious reasons to connect a Sterling Steamer train with the Native Americans or the Holocaust. Incidentally, remind me what sewing machines have to do with Native Americans? Sewing machines weren't invented until long after the Native Americans were displaced. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I didn't intend to comment again, but I just found an interview from 2006, soon after the album came out, in the magazine QNotes (I haven't got a link, but Google "Imogen Heap QNotes" and it should come up first). In the interview Imogen is asked: "What’s the most personal song on “Speak For Yourself?” " and she replies: " “Hide and Seek.” I rarely tell anyone what it’s about. Other people’s interpretations are probably far more interesting, but it was a very cathartic song for me. I wrote it in a very short space of time and it was obviously just dying to get out of me. And I don’t want to let anyone know [the story behind it] because I don’t want the person it’s about to have the satisfaction of knowing it’s about them! " So I think that definitely, finally, rules out the 'Holocaust' and 'Native American' theories. Or at least, it would if people paid any attention. |
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| David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Of course, it's about aliens. Or drugs. All songs are about aliens. Or drugs. Or aliens on drugs. But seriously, Bowie was into Nietzsche when he was writing this song, and I would guess that the first verse alludes to Nietzsche's famous saying that God is dead. So the message of the song is that God is not dead, but he has given up on humanity. (By selling the world he had created.) In the second verse the narrator searches for some meaning in the Godless world, but admits failure: 'who knows? Not me. You're face to face with the man who sold the world'. It's a very good song, with marvellously evocative music, and the lyrics are just coherent enough not to be hopelessly pretentious, but let's not imagine that Bowie was a profound philosopher. He was a young man with no formal education who had read a few books and liked playing with words. |
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| David Bowie – The Man Who Sold the World Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The lyric is not 'I searched a foreign land' but 'I searched for form and land'. | |
| David Bowie – The London Boys Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I'm pretty sure the lyric starts 'Bow bell strikes'. Traditionally, a true Cockney Londoner must be born within hearing distance of 'Bow bells' - the bells of the Church of St Mary-le-Bow. Later on in the lyrics, it is 'mustn't lose face' not 'lose faith'. It has been suggested that the song alludes to the world of 'rent boys' - male prostitutes - who did their business around Soho in the 60s. |
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| Bob Dylan – Ballad of a Thin Man Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Until I came here I didn't (and still don't) think there was much doubt about what, in a general sense, the song is about. It is a satire against all the pompous critics and journalists who were constantly asking what Dylan's songs were about, but didn't have a clue about the creative process. Whether there was some particular writer who got on Dylan's nerves, and if so whether that writer was called Jones, is almost irrelevant. | |
| Imogen Heap – The Song That Never Was Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I've remembered now that the film title was 'The Little Spirit'. The DVD description is "When a friendly cabbie tells two young sisters the story of a boy named Leo who moved to Manhattan with his family, a magical adventure begins in this new-to-DVD animated adventure. While adjusting to the big city and enjoying the days leading up to Christmas, Leo accidentally loses his dog Ramona in Central Park. Leo is devastated by his loss until a magical creature named Little Spirit appears and takes him on a quest to find Ramona. Leo and Little Spirit venture out on the journey of a lifetime, taking in the festive surroundings of the city and meeting people from all walks of life. By the time Leo is reunited with Ramona, he has an eclectic group of friends that make the strange city seem like home." |
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| Imogen Heap – Missing You Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song was written and recorded when Imogen was still at the Brit School. It appeared on the 'Class of 94' collection of recordings by Brit School students, so as she was born in late 1977 she can't have been more than 17 at the time. So it is probably about an imagined relationship rather than a real one. In all her early recordings (from the Brit School and IMegaphone period) her voice is quite low. She widened her vocal range a lot when she worked in Frou Frou, but she can still sing the lower range when she wants to. |
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| Imogen Heap – The Song That Never Was Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The background to the song was explained in one of Immi's vBlogs. She was asked to write a song for a TV film. The story was that a child (not sure if it was a boy or a girl) had moved from the country to the city (New York), and was anxious about going to a new school, and losing all their old friends. The song is written from the point of view of the child's mother trying to encourage the child to face the new life, make new friends, and so on. This helps make sense of the lyrics, e.g. 'don't give me that look... 'cause I know you're up to it'. Also the reference to Manhattan, since the film is set in New York. Incidentally, the line should be 'golden old streets', not 'oak' or 'oat'! This could be a reference to the 'brownstone' buildings in the older parts of New York. Of course in the end the song was not used for the film, hence 'The Song That Never Was'. |
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| Scott Walker – Montague Terrace (In Blue) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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There is a Montague Terrace in London (Bromley), another one in Edinburgh, and probably in other places as well as Brooklyn. Scott Walker had been living in Britain for some time when he wrote the song, so I always assumed it was a British location, but I don't really know. BTW, isn't the lyric 'stomached room'? In other words the room is like a stomach which has swallowed them. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Little Green Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| My copy of the lyric sheet (from the CD release some time in the 90s) has 'non-conformer'. | |
| Joni Mitchell – Twisted Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| My copy of the CD credits the song to 'Ross and Grey'. | |
| Lou Reed – Perfect Day Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Someone says "This song is about Heroin and Heroin addiction. Look at the lyrics, it all fits." What absolute bollocks. Yes, I have looked at the lyrics, and no, they don't all fit. In fact, they don't fit very well at all. Do you go with heroin to drink Sangria in the park? Do you take heroin to feed animals in the zoo? Do you go with heroin to watch a movie? Of course not. These are things you do with a friend or lover. People who keep insisting that the song is about heroin ought to compare it with Lou's song 'Berlin', which has a similar nostalgic, bitter-sweet feel to it. But no-one, so far as I know, has ever suggested that the 'you' in the song 'Berlin' is heroin, because even the daftest smackhead would have difficulty claiming that heroin is 5 feet 10 inches tall. If Lou had included a similar personal description of the 'you' in 'Perfect Day' there would be none of this argument. I will accept that with a certain metaphorical straining of language 'Perfect Day' *might* be interpreted as a song about heroin, but its most natural interpretation is as a bitter-sweet love song. If Lou Reed himself had said (without irony or sarcasm) that the song was about heroin, then I would be forced to accept that strained interpretation, but I don't think he has. Of course, Lou has written songs about heroin - most obviously 'Heroin', 'Waiting for the Man', and 'Street Hassle' - but in mood and imagery these bear no resemblance to 'Perfect Day'. |
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| David Bowie – Silly Boy Blue Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Just a small point, the word quoted as 'Botella' should probably by 'Botala' or 'Potala'. The Potala Palace in Lhasa was the ancient home of the Dalai Lama before the Chinese invasion. In the late 60s Bowie was of course very interested in Tibetan Buddhism, and interest he picked up from reading Jack Kerouac as well as meeting Tibetan refugee monks. |
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| David Bowie – It Ain't Easy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The song was written by Ron Davies, but I once heard the original, and I think Bowie played about a bit with the lyrics. | |
| David Bowie – Buzz the Fuzz Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Bowie sometimes played this song live around 1970, but he didn't write it. The songwriter is Biff Rose. | |
| Imogen Heap – Glittering Cloud Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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As people have already pointed out, she was commissioned to write something about locusts for the 'Plague Songs' project. On her blog she said: Quote: My mission, should I choose to accept it was "to write a song about Locusts" That had to be the strangest request I've ever had so of course I took it on! What I had no idea idea of is that for the most part our locust is actually a pretty nice solitary kinda guy. It's only until the rains fall and they're forced to hand out together to eat and breed they become the creature we all know and hate...Our locust is battling between his two sides. In the verses he's trying to explain that he's misunderstood, that he's not really like that and and in the chorus, he's become the tribal cop-eating warrior! I thought that when they are swarming they're probably having a fantastic time about it. Hedonistic even. I imagined them all at some huge rave or something. End quote (A couple of obvious typos in the blog: 'hand out' must be 'hang out', and 'cop-eating' must be 'crop-eating'.) I must admit I would never have guessed it had anything to do with locusts if I hadn't been told, but it works as an expression of a kind of frenzied feeling amyway. |
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| Imogen Heap – Aliens Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Sorry, having said it was available, I checked the website, and it looks as if downloads are now only available to people with a password from the School. Pity. But it is on YouTube, so people can listen to it. | |
| Imogen Heap – Aliens Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This is one of the songs she wrote when she was about 17 at the Brit School. It is available as a free download from their website. | |
| David Bowie – Everyone Says 'Hi' Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I just found an interview comment similar to the one quoted by Supersix4: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_5_32/ai_87130421/pg_4/?tag=content;col1 But in this interview he says it is 'metaphorically' about death. |
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| David Bowie – Everyone Says 'Hi' Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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When the album came out some of the reviewers found a similarity between this song and 'Kooks', and assumed that this song was also 'about' Bowie's son, but unless Bowie himself has confirmed this interpretation I would be very doubtful about it. Bowie has a close relationship with his son, whereas the song implies a rather awkward and distant relationship. Also, the line 'your mum and dad' would be very odd if Bowie himself is the 'dad', since he is not on speaking terms with his ex-wife. More recently, I saw some journalist confidently asserting that the song is addressed to Bowie's father, who died when Bowie was about 20 and happened to be away at the time. This appears to be confirmed in the interview quoted by Supersix4, if this is authentic. (I don't remember such an interview.) But some of the lyrics would be very odd indeed if addressed to Bowie's father, or for that matter to anyone else who has died. The verse beginning 'if the money is lousy' would hardly fit this interpretation! I think the interview quote is closer to the meaning of the song when it says 'It was a general song about losing someone in one's life and wasn't written about anyone specifically.' On this interpretation 'losing someone in one's life' wouldn't necessarily mean dying. |
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| Imogen Heap – Speeding Cars Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The lyrics on Imogen Heap's website have 'violins' not 'violence', and if you listen to the song through good headphones this is definitely what she sings. It may seem an odd phrase, but I interpret it, in the context of the song, as meaning something like 'don't get tearful and self-pitying'. It is a common gesture (in England anyway) when someone is complaining about their misfortunes for unsympathetic listeners to make a gesture like playing a violin, alluding to the way film music often uses violins to accompany sad scenes. Incidentally, I found this amusing description on Imogen's blog from when she was writing the song: Quote: Just been going round and round in teeny little circles trying to crowbar out some lyrics for this b-side. Sometimes they come easy (1% time!) and others they don't...one line has come out easy though... I may just have to repeat that over and over if I don't come up with the goods soon! Which would read a little something like Verse "Run with me through rows of speeding cars" "Run with me through rows of speeding cars" Chorus "Run with me through rows of speeding cars" "Run with me through rows of speeding cars" Weird extra bit "Run, run, run, and now backwards and to the left and stretch..with me oo ooo oo through rows of speeding cars, cars, da da dey ya" End quote |
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| David Bowie – 5:15 The Angels Have Gone Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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It is definitely 'strange sandy eyes'. It is very clear in this live performance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXVMJX1Z70Y |
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| David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I'm with the 'Nietzsche' interpretation. I'm not sure that Nietzsche himself ever actually used the phrase 'homo superior', but it is a term that anyone would associate with him. As for the Arthur C. Clarke connection, obviously Bowie had some interest in science fiction, but Clarke himself was probably drawing on Nietzschean themes, so the two interpretations are not mutually exclusive. Nothing to do with homosexuality, of course. | |
| David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Do you have a source for this claim? I think I have read most of Bowie's interviews from 1970 onwards, and I don't believe he has ever said this. | |
| Imogen Heap – The Moment I Said It Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Imogen Heap's blog for May 21 2004 says the following: " er...so much to say.. so little patience to write it all down. Hello? I think i'm just gonna pretend like i've been doing this diary thing forever and this is just another day...otherwise i'll be here all night filling you in! am i aloud to swear? how much of the day should I mention? what I ate? a high carb take out if you're interested. The quickest thing i could get...because today has been a GOOD day in the studio of her heapness and i didn't want to let any lyrics go by in my head unnoticed. See that's what i've been doing specifically. Lyrics for a song called "the moment i said it". I came up with that line about two months ago and the melody to match...that's, most times, the best part of songwriting. The initial inspiration. The other best part is finishing it! Inbetwen can take months and months sometimes well not years...give me time though! My..it's hot in this little room...(the vocal booth. I have my internet monitor in here so i don't stay on it all day!) anyway. The annoying side of the day is that all the piano I had so beautifully recorded very late one night when all the trains had stopped passing the studio (un double glazed) windows are unfortunately now in the wrong key..the verse sounds better a tone down...never mind...at least i've figured that out now. I have hardly put any piano on these songs at all. So to make up for it, i am going to make this song entirely piano based...though it may not sound like it. Playing parts of a piano that even it didn't realize it had! So with plug-ins and a a lot of binary chewing up of audio it will have all the mod cons. Quite excited about the limitation of only using the one instrument (not counting His Royal temperamentalness, the computer). Sometimes having access to all sounds, all music, all lyrics, all the gear you need leads to a lot of indecision. So there we go. Should i write lyrics here? mmmm...can't hurt. That way i guess i won't be tempted to over think them, which I am prone to do... the moment i said it the moment i opened my mouth led in your eyelids Bulldozed the life out of me I know what you're thinking But darling you're not thinking straight. Sadly things just happen we can't explain. It's not even light out But you've somewhere to be No i've never seen you like this I don't like it, i don't like it, i don't like it at all. Put back the car keys Or somebody's gonna get hurt Who are calling at this hour? Sit down, come round, I need you now We'll work it all out together But we're getting nowhere tonight. Now sleep, I promise it'll all seem better somehow, in time m8...something about plates smashing?? They sound a lot better sung! I am not a poet..." Interesting that at this point she hadn't written the last verse, but had the idea of 'plates smashing'. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Another correction is needed to the lyrics. In the printed lyric sheet (with the original Speak For Yourself CD), and clearly audible in all the performances, after the line 'trains and sewing machines' in the second verse she sings 'oh you won't catch me around here'. This may make sense if the song is alluding to events and places in her personal life, but doesn't fit well with other interpretations. | |
| Imogen Heap – Between Sheets Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Yes, apart from the rhythm, melody, lyrics, chords, and instrumentation all being different. But they do both contain the word 'sheets'. | |
| Frou Frou – It's Good to Be in Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The cucumber treatment for puffy eyes is apparently well-known. See here http://www.ehow.com/about_5072947_remedies-puffy-eyes-crying.html |
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| Frou Frou – It's Good to Be in Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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There is a beautiful live version here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OqYVVY45wE Hearing her sing it live I think it is clearer that it is a sad song. She is happy (she says) that the man is in love, but not with her: "How's it happening without me? How's it happening that he feels it without me?" Just a thought on the line 'these cucumber eyes': women (in England, anyway) sometimes put slices of cucumber on their eyes to reduce soreness and puffiness, for example after a late night - or when they have been crying. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hopefully this is my last word on the subject. A while ago I pointed out that the 'Holocaust' interpretation doesn't fit at all well with the last section of the song, from 'what d'ya say?' onwards, as nobody goes round saying that the Holocaust was 'all for the best'. To which someone replied (roughly) that the Nazis *did* argue that it was 'all for the best'. This is at best a far-fetched response, but there are two more specific objections to it. First, as a matter of historical fact, the Nazis did *not* defend the Holocaust at all. During the War they tried to keep the extermination policy a strict secret. After the War, when individual Nazis were accused of war crimes, including the Holocaust, they either said they didn't know anything about it, or that they were 'only obeying orders'. And even now, the favourite line of neo-Nazis is not to *defend* the Holocaust but to *deny* that it happened at all. So nobody actually claims that the Holocaust was 'all for the best'. But this is not conclusive, because it might be said that in writing the song Imogen Heap was herself confused or ignorant of the historical facts. This is where the second objection comes in. Here I have to point out that the lyrics quoted at the beginning of this thread are not quite accurate. The printed official lyric sheet is quite clear that the last line of the 'what d'ya say?' section of the song is 'what did she say?'. It is also clear from the two studio recordings of the song, and various live performances, that the lyric does include the words 'what did she say?' Now the word 'she' must refer to some individual female person. I challenge the defenders of the Holocaust interpretation to say who they think 'she' is! Eva Braun, perhaps? |
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| Bob Dylan – Dear Landlord Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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As an older (if not more 'mature') Dylan admirer, I remember the album from when it first came out, and I have always thought this is one of Dylan's greatest songs. But what is it 'about'? More specifically, who is the 'landlord'? My own first theory (like some of the comments here) was that - in a broad sense - the song was religious, and that the 'landlord' is God. This fits the first verse quite well: 'when that steamboat whistle blows' is when Dylan comes to judgement, and the verse is a plea not to judge him too harshly. But the more I thought about it the less well this theory fits the text. Especially the lines: "I know you've suffered much But in this you are not so unique All of us, at times we might work too hard To have it too fast and too much And anyone can fill his life up With things he can see but he just cannot touch." These are not words that can easily be applied to God! The first line might of course be applied to the suffering Jesus (though it is awkward that Dylan was not, so far as I recall, a Christian at that time), but the remainder does not fit the interpretation at all. My second theory was that the 'landlord' is primarily the listener him or herself - in other words the public to whom Dylan addresses himself, and especially those who hung on his every word at that time. I still think that this is the most convincing single interpretation. But I would no longer be confident that everything written by Dylan has to have some consistent, single meaning. There is room for deliberate ambiguity, and we should also accept that Dylan sometimes just used enigmatic, oracular phrases that sound good but don't stand up to close analysis. The one thing I am fairly sure of is that it has nothing to do with his manager. At least, I hope not, because that would reduce it to triviality, and I don't think it is trivial. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Oh no, not the Holocaust again! Why do people keep dragging up this nonsense? As I have pointed out in previous comments Imogen Heap has said very clearly in interviews and elsewhere that the song is inspired by personal experiences. | |
| David Bowie – Life on Mars? Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Just a small point - which may already have been mentioned - but the official lyric sheet has 'Amerika' not 'America'. This is probably deliberate. According to Wikipedia 'In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.' I would guess that Bowie is satyrically alluding to disillusion with the 'American dream', especially due to the Vietnam War, etc: hence 'it's on Amerika's tortured brow, that Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow'. Incidentally, as someone mentions that Bowie sometimes uses 'cut-up' techniques, I don't think this was till much later in his career, and then not to any great extent. The idea that he frequently used cut-ups is a mischievous idea that he started himself in the famous 'Cracked Actor' documentary, but a moment's thought should suffice to show that cut up lyrics would not rhyme or scan to the extent that Bowie's lyrics usually do. |
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| Imogen Heap – Come Here Boy Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The CD lyric sheet has 'show you a night' and not 'show you the slut I am'. On the iTunes live version from 2007 she introduces it by saying it was about a teacher she was in love with at the Brit School. |
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| Imogen Heap – Angry Angel Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I don't think this helps much, but I think the printed lyrics are not quite right. I think she refers to the 'angry angel' as both male and female: the angel is 'he' in the first verse and 'she' in the second verse'. This is clearer in the live version from 2007 recently released on iTunes. In introducing the song she also says she is not going to explain it 'because my mum is in the audience'! | |
| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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When there is absolutely no evidence whatever that the writer was thinking about the Holocaust, and plenty of evidence that she wasn't, then you do have to be 'fixated' on the subject to keep insisting that she was. To quote another piece of evidence, from Imogen's written blog on July 30 2004, when she was in the process of recording the song, she said this: "Got some good ones today...i do and do don't want to put them here...coz funnily enough they sound better coming from my larynx than typed here and read..but...well maybe just one line... "crop circles in the carpet"... Just in case you're wondering it's not about an alien upholstery invasion... it's partly about going back to a house you're very familiar with...that emotionally for whatever reason you haven't quite left behind. " |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Yes, of course, the Kristallnacht, with all those references in the lyrics to broken glass - oh, wait, there aren't any! The Holocaust interpretation has nothing specific to support it and a lot against it. If the lyrics said something like 'cattle trucks and shower rooms' instead of 'trains and sewing machines' there might be something to it. But they don't. I don't pretend to know what Imogen did mean by trains and sewing machines, but my guess is that they are a private reference to childhood memories. We know that her father was interested in steam trains, and her mother may have done a lot of sewing. That would fit in with what Imogen has said about the song, for example in one of her vBlogs where she says 'my family all know what it is about'. And I guess that the title 'Hide and Seek' itself is a reference to childhood games - 'pleasure moments' - before the happy family was broken up by her parents's divorce. It is undeniably an obscure song - probably too obscure - but at least the 'family breakup' interpretation has the advantage of taking account of everyting the songwriter herself has said about it. |
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| Bob Dylan – I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| It's a fine song, but I wouldn't make too much of Dylan's theological interests and knowledge, which were probably quite superficial (at that time, anyway). When writing the song, he evidently thought that St Augustine had been martyred, which is not correct. He probably did't know anything specific about St Augustine, and just used him as a convenient symbolic figure for a 'prophet of doom'. | |
| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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For anyone who wants to know what Imogen Heap herself has said about the meaning of the song, the fullest account I know of is in a 2005 interview in Barcode Magazine, which is available here: http://www.barcodezine.com/Imogen%20Heap%20Interview2.htm When Imogen was specifically asked what 'Hide and Seek' was about, she replied: "I'm not going to tell you exactly what it's about, because I think that part of the reason why it is not so obvious is sometimes it's good to have those songs that really mean something very dear to you, but maybe you don't want to speak about it to the rest of the world. But, with that one, I wrote it so quickly, the lyrics I probably wrote in about 20 minutes, which is unheard of. But I like to be clever with words and I like to make them like a puzzle, I like the words to sound interesting in the mouth and create patterns within themselves. So with that one, it just literally came out of nowhere and I found myself getting really passionate about it and it just poured out of me. There was something in my life that obviously needed to be said. In a broad strokes way, it's about losing something very dear to me and how much of an impact that person had on my life and about maybe how when something awful happens to somebody else, how other people react to it." She then went on to say how shocked she was by President Bush's apparently calm reaction to the first news of the 9-11 attacks, and went on to say how this reminded her of someone in her own life. So, nothing about the Holocaust, nothing about native Americans, but a very clear indication that it is inspired by personal events in her own life: "losing something very dear to me and how much of an impact that person had on my life". The fact that she then mentions the 9-11 attacks is maybe the origin of the idea that the song itself has something to do with 9-11, but IMO that is even dafter than the 'Holocaust' interpretation. She only mentions 9-11 to bring up the comparison with how someone in her own life reacted to 'something awful'. |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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There is one glaringly obvious objection to the 'native American' theory. Imogen Heap is English (to be precise, half-English and half-Scottish), she lives in England, and she wrote the song in her studio by the River Thames in London. So why in the name of sanity would she write 'they were here first' about the native Americans??? As for the ever-popular 'Holocaust' theory, apart the from fact that Imogen Heap has said that the song is about personal events (which kinda rules out the Holocaust), it really doesn't fit the lyrics at all. There is nothing that specifically suggests the Holocaust (unless you are fixated on the subject), and the second half of the song fits the 'Holocaust' interpretation very badly. (Presumably this is why Kelsey's commentary leaves it out!) Notably the lines: Mm what'cha say? Mm, that you only meant well Well of course you did Mm what'cha say? Mm that it's all for the best Of course it is Mm what'cha say? Mm that it's just what we need You decided this? On the 'Holocaust' interpretation, who is supposed to be saying this??? Some unrepentant Nazi?? In fact, if you think about it, even unrepentant Nazis don't go round publicly saying 'we only meant well' about the Holocaust - they deny that it happened at all! |
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| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| There is one glaringly obvious objection to the 'native American' theory. Imogen Heap is English (to be precise, half-English and half-Scottish), she lives in England, and she wrote the song in her studio by the River Thames in London. So why in the name of sanity would she write 'they were here first' about the native Americans??? | |
| Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hi, this is the first time I have commented here, and maybe the last. I could say a lot about 'Hide & Seek', but for the moment I will just point out a piece of information that people may be unaware of. A recent blog post here: http://inspirethegrind.blogspot.com/2009/09/works-in-light.html was written by someone who says they worked as a PA to the Director of the official video for Hide & Seek. This person says that Imogen Heap told him/her "this song was about her father getting a new wife and how she felt estranged from him because of that relationship." Of course, the person who wrote this may be a liar or a lunatic - there are plenty of those around - but he/she does seem well informed about the making of the video. More important, this interpretation is quite consistent with other things that Imogen has said in interviews, and with the lyrics of the song itself. There are still some points that are obscure, but I may comment on these some other time. I really don't understand the mind-set of people who think the song is 'about' the Holocaust, or Native Americans, or 9-11, or whatever. They seem to have picked single lines out of context, like 'they were here first', and constructed an elaborate fantasy interpretation around them. On this method of interpretation, practically any song can be 'about' practically anything. |
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