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The Decemberists – Rox in the Box Lyrics 15 years ago
You're right, it's a threat. But I don't think the counting is about gold, but rather more like, "You have 10 seconds to get your ass in gear." The line "what are you meant for" is sort of like "God, you're worthless!" And if you make it to 10, you're dead.

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The Decemberists – Rox in the Box Lyrics 15 years ago
It was leaked on the internet well before its release date. Also, NPR (an American public radio service) streamed the whole album for free on the internet for a couple or three weeks before its release.

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The Decemberists – Rox in the Box Lyrics 15 years ago
Then again, it's a song by The Decemberists, so it doesn't necessarily have a deeper meaning than it just being a cool story that Colin Meloy wants to tell.

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The Decemberists – Rox in the Box Lyrics 15 years ago
On the surface the song is clearly about mining, but I wonder if it isn't more broadly about life in general, when it comes to lines like these: "We all do what we can / We endure our fellow man".

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The Decemberists – Rox in the Box Lyrics 15 years ago
I think bovizzle has it right, except one line should be this:

"And it's seven, eight, nine, get your *shovel* back in line"

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Jeremy Messersmith – A Girl, A Boy, and a Graveyard Lyrics 15 years ago
As to the interpretation: Are the singer and Lucy dead or not?

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Ben Folds – Rockin' The Suburbs Lyrics 15 years ago
Regarding "sham on" from earlier on this page: I always took it to be a white-boy'ish spoof of Michael Jackson.

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Cake – Jolene Lyrics 16 years ago
Just a heads up that I haven't seen mentioned in the past 7 years of comments here (whoa). The first two lines of the first verse go with the last two lines of the second verse:

>> Well Jolene unlocked the thick, breezeway door,
>> Like she'd done one hundred times before.
>> [...]
>> Jolene heard the singing in the forest.
>> She opened the door quietly and stepped into the night.

With this in mind, "Like she'd done one hundred times before" does not imply that she's bored with her life--it means she's contemplated leaving a hundred times (she "unlocked the thick, breezeway door") but has never gone through with it.

Otherwise, I agree with some of the posters here, namely:
- It's a song with two separate but related sets of lyrics (narration of Jolene standing in front of the door and eventually leaving it; and the singer's own angst/lust/other confusion over how he feels about Jolene and wanting to save her from the life she has).
- The narration of Jolene implies abuse of some sort by her father.
- The cacophonous ending of the song, while quintessential Cake, is indicative of the singer's confused and angsty thoughts.

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