| Elliott Smith – Alphabet Town Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think this song is about a prostitute. I hate to reach that conclusion but the more I listen to it, the more I'm convinced that that's the case. | |
| Simon and Garfunkel – Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I'm very surprised a the approach all of the comments above are taking (except for idonthavahome). To me, this song is obviously about the existentialist paradox. Paul Simon is not sure that his surroundings are real and must grapple with living a life full of uncertainty. The reference to Plato's allegory of the cave, I think, makes this analysis much more clear. |
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| Wilco – I'll Fight Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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actually i don't think its obvious that he's speaking from the perspective of someone at war. if you listen to a lot of wilco you'll see that jeff tweedy sings a lot about complex feelings and intimate relationships but not so much about political or idealogical ideas. here's my analysis: this song is about how relationships progress and the fighting is just a metaphor for committment. the character is in a relationship with a woman and he is willing to do anything for her because he vowed to do so. the started out in love and said he would of course do anything for his love. but now the love doesn't exist yet he nevertheless feels the need to be true to himself and his word. in other words, in his current stage of life, jeff tweedy feels a greater pull toward his commitments than he does to his feelings. whether this is in regard to his country of his wife is not really important - its about himself and how he is changing. |
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| Simon and Garfunkel – A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It's obvious that this song is about Dylan. But throughout the whole album, the are subtle references/ connections to Dylan. I's say the entire album is an homage to Dylan and the influence he had on music - this song just makes it all the more clear. 'Scarborough Fair' - "Remember me to the one who lives there, cause she once was a true love of mine". Granted this is an old folk lyric but Dylan made it popular and brought it into the forefront of the music scene with 'Girl from the North Country' The two poetry songs ('Patterns' and 'A Poem on the Underground Wall') - Obviously very Dylan inspired. 'Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall' - Anyone who is a Dylan fan can realize how Dylan-y this song is. It's got his signature rhyme scheme and similar type lyrics, it might as well be a song on 'Bringing It All Back Home'. |
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| Bob Dylan – Desolation Row Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is a great question and I've thought long and hard about what this song is all about. "Desolation Row" clearly represents some sort of mental state of despair. Dylan takes a whole bunch of literary and historical characters and puts them in depressing and lonely situations. He connects them all to this desolate place but doesn't mention his own connection to it until the very end. Who these characters are and why they all have this connection to "Desolation Row" becomes evident in the last and crucial stanza of the song. The way I see it, Dylan was in correspondence with someone he used to have a relationship with (probably Sara) and she describes in detail what she was up to in life. Dylan can't bear to hear all of this and it makes him miserable. He then proceeds to take all of the people she mentioned in her letter feels the need to "rearrange their faces and give them all another name". And that is really the crux of what the song is all about. All these ridiculous and exaggerated characters are representations of real people in Dylan's life that he has to send to "Desolation Row". This is the only way he can comfort himself from the fact that he is really the one on "Desolation Row". He hates that Sara is doing so well and asks her not to tell him all about her life. Not unless she sends them from Desolation Row, of course, meaning not unless she too is as miserable as he is. |
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