| Andrew Bird – Action/Adventure Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I'm pretty sure the pen just implies that he's thinking up the lyrics to the song and he's looking at his hand, unconsciously thinking of writing them down, but he can't find a pen. | |
| Andrew Bird – Gotholympians Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| It's a tribute by Bird (he says) to the goths of his high school and their "sense of competition as to who was the most miserable." Totally hilarious. | |
| Andrew Bird – See The Enemy Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Later part of "Anonanimal." But it's amazing on its own, too. Both of them have so much life! | |
| Joanna Newsom – Be a Woman Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Just as poetically meaningful as the rest of her songs, but still keeping her traditional airy harp melody. Man. One good reason to learn to play the harp, hard as it is. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Colleen Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Seems pretty obvious that she has an allegiance of some sort to the sea--maybe she is a sea creature with a human body. Probably a whale's mind, because they need air, so can "drown." Maybe she is a baleen? Then, when she washes up, a baleen's bones are around her waist, dead. She overwaters all her crops, and is useless on land despite her adopted human form. Then, when she recognizes her kind in the picture book, her memory is jogged and she goes back to the depths of the sea, where her human form feels out of place but her mind is the freest of all, and she belongs. As she goes back to her true nature, her human consciousness slips, and anything related to it is lost to her. |
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| Weird Al Yankovic – Smells Like Nirvana Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| oh you goofs. Not only is Weird Al just joking around, pop music can often cause a listener to believe that the vocalist is VERY constipated. It's not an insult if it's accurate and--this is important--Nirvana DOESN'T MIND. That makes it "constructive criticism." | |
| Weird Al Yankovic – Smells Like Nirvana Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| maybe they just need to stop butt-dialing the keyboard... | |
| Joanna Newsom – Kingfisher Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Only Joanna can really tell us what it's about. It's a pretty song, so take it as a pretty song. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Kingfisher Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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If we came from apes, how come all the ancient statues don't look like apes? And if the dinosaurs died out before we came about, how come there are cave paintings of them? Oh, gee, a pterodactyl picked up a paintbrush. Joanna has made Christian references before in other songs, which show no doubt in her faith. In this life who did you love/Beneath the drifting ashes?/Beneath the sheeting banks of air/That barrenly bore our rations? She refers to Jesus's time on Earth, and whether he loved someone in a romantic way, perhaps comparing his life to her own. When I could speak it was too late/Didn't you hear me calling?/Didn't you see my heart leap like/A pup in the constant barley? Joanna wasn't able to protest against Jesus's death, because she was born in modern times--"too late" to help out. The other lines might refer to when she first read the passage. And for the sake of that pit o' snakes/For whom did you allay your shyness?/And spend all your mercy and madness and grace/In a day beneath the bending cypress? She's talking about how God's always there, but rarely shows up. Blows rain upon the one you loved/And though you were only sparring/There's blood on the eye, unlace the glove/Say, honey, I am not sorry She IS questioning the faith a little here, but it could also refer to a time when God has put His foot down and done a little tough love and discipline. Like in the Garden of Eden: When Adam and Eve sinned, God gave them the boot and cursed the Earth. Since the world is cursed as punishment, bad stuff happens. People still question this, like "Why does God let this happen??????" That's why. Joanna is saying the same thing. Joanna portrays the Kingfisher, God, as kind and patient, like he is in the Bible, and she can't bear that she can't understand Him and how He works. Really, if you can, then you're one weird duck. And if you've read this far, congratulations. You have incredible patience. Geek. :P JK |
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| Enya – Flora's Secret Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| My cat's favorite song. :P | |
| Enya – Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Enya tends to seem kind of airy and light, mellow, serene. The music makes my cats purr. | |
| Enya – One By One Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think it's a song designed to be pretty sounding. It's succeeded in that. I'm pretty sure there's not much for hidden meaning here. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Peach, Plum, Pear Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I thought it said "bolt like a horse..." | |
| Weird Al Yankovic – Fat Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| That has nothing to do with this. You sure this is the song you mean? | |
| Weird Al Yankovic – The Plumbing Song Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| O.O Bad place for DIY? | |
| Weird Al Yankovic – Craigslist Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Mean ol' barista. | |
| Weird Al Yankovic – Craigslist Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Mean ol' barista. | |
| Andrew Bird – Tea and Thorazine Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This reminds me of how mental people can be amused by the smallest things, like an Etch-A-Sketch. I case you don't know (unlikely), Thorazine is med for schizos. *b.d* ooh sparkly! AAAAHHH!!! Bad ssss...sssoap! ...None of us are schizo here. :D |
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| Nick Drake – From The Morning Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| aww... | |
| Andrew Bird – Simple X Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think this is comparing a soldier's life with that of a normal person's. We really should be thankful to our soldiers here in America, they work so hard ;) | |
| Andrew Bird – Simple X Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I love your username ;) | |
| Andrew Bird – Simple X Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The people like that need to listen to Joanna Newsom. She has TONS of hidden meanings. And yeah, I do agree. Fake Palindromes, for instance. There are the people who think it's about drugs and relationships and all that, but really, it's just a female murderess on a dating site. And that's as deep as it really gets; if you want to make it more complicated, it might end up slightly more accurate or you could get carried away. Imitosis is about school kids. That's it. And while it's fun to make up complicated stuff, it often makes no sense at all. No offense to those who do this. | |
| Andrew Bird – Simple X Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| when you're in an army you'd better be angry | |
| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I explained the monsters in my comment. They're a technique the girl uses to kill; she leaves the victims to die from the monsters and suffer. | |
| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Ha ha, I don't think anyone wanted to admit that Bird cussed. You guys are too literal. | |
| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| thumbs up, less evilly sadistic than my comment | |
| Air – Alpha Beta Gaga Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Easiest lyric ever! | |
| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Yeah... I mean, my ideas are pretty out there, but you make actual sense and that is kind of a rarity. O.o | |
| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
It's going to take me a while to write this, so be prepared. This is a verse-by-verse explanation, so it's long. I'll make it simple, and I won't make you run back and forth between the comment and the song; I have copied and pasted stuff in here so you don't have to go looking (and I don't either). I think this is about mothers, possibly Joanna's mother, or Joanna's experiences herself being a mother. The song starts with the child having a bad dream and waking up several times, each time falling back asleep and having a different nightmare. The nightmares are about: 1. Black planes bombing the child's home 2. The sky falling 3. Running away from a train 4. Dragons (explanation later) After the child has these bad dreams, s/he runs to his/her mother (stubbily running), who they wake up (unfresh, undressed and yawning) to find safety; all of us did it sometime when we were little. The mother knows that nightmares can be caused by sickness and that her child sleepwalks, possibly out into the cold night where they could catch sickness. She explains that it was simply a dream: it was a dark dream, darlin', it's over When the child doesn't believe her, she "fixes" it and "slays" the dragon, the last dream the child had: the firebreather is beneath the clover beneath his breathing there is cold clay, forever a toothless hound-dog choking on a feather Then she goes out to find an herbal remedy: but I took my fishingpole (fearing your fever) down to the swimminghole, where there grows bitter herb that blooms but one day a year by the riverside - I'd bring it here: apply it gently to the love you've lent me She puts the remedy on her child's chest (possibly as an aromatherapy). Then she goes out to fish. while the river was twisting and braiding, the bait bobbed and the string sobbed, as it cut through the hustling breeze and I watched how the water was kneading so neatly gone treacly nearly slowed to a stop in this heat - frenzy coiling flush along the muscles beneath This next verse I have a vague explanation for: the child is restless because they want to see the fish, but s/he falls asleep. press on me: we are restless things webs of seaweed are swaddling you call upon the dusk of the musk of a squid shot full of ink, until you sink into your crib Now the kid's awake, and hungry! The mother is coming back as the child awakens from the nap and the mother fixes a hasty dinner of fruit for the child, but the fruit needs to be cooked. The child is afraid of the fire she is cooking it on, and says she is the last person in the house who will get near it (she is a single parent) rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it! smell of a stone fruit being cut and being opened smell of a low and of a lazy cinder smoking and when the fire moves away fire moves away, son why would you say I was the last one? In the child's desperate move to get away, s/he scrapes a knee, and the mother says, "It's only skin," and tries to cheer her up by saying that it sounds like a violin. The child also seems to enjoy playing hairdresser with Mom, and leaving the birds the clipped hair as nesting material. The mother thinks it's thoughtful and adorable, and allows him/her to do it. scrape your knee; it is only skin makes the sound of violins when you cut my hair, and leave the birds the trimmings I am the happiest woman among all women This next part is about the mother leaving on business, and the child reluctant to allow her to leave. The mother explains patiently that this is just to keep her child warm with food on the table. and the shallow water stretches as far as I can see knee-deep, trudging along a seagull weeps; "so long" I'm humming a threshing song until the night is over hold on! hold on! hold your horses back from the fickle dawn I have got some business out at the edge of town candy weighing both of my pockets down 'til I can hardly stay afloat, from the weight of them (and knowing how the common-folk condemn what it is I do, to you, to keep you warm being a woman, being a woman) The mother is getting rather tired of hearing her child's whining about food after a long day... especially since she found candy in her child's pocket! but always up the mountainside you're clambering groping blindly, hungry for anything: picking through your pocket linings - well, what is this? scrap of sassafras, eh Sisyphus? The mother's patience wears thin, but she keeps the tensity of her lifestyle away from the child. The child is upset over the broken flowers, the spiders, the ghosts... etc. "He will be back again" refers to the single parent thing (read: he BETTER be back again, he made a commitment to me). She recalls to the child that she has taken care of the ghosts and spiders in the past, and s/he doesn't need to worry about anything. I see the blossoms broke and wet after the rain little sister, he will be back again I have washed a thousand spiders down the drain spiders ghosts hang soaked and dangelin' silently from all the blooming cherry trees in tiny nooses, safe from everyone - nothing but a nuisance; gone now, dead and done be a woman, be a woman! This is about the child and his/her mother going out to the town, across the water they live by, and about what they see. I think. It makes not much sense to me, sorry. But it sounds cool. I memorized the lyrics to Emily, but I'm not going to try with this one. though we felt the spray of the waves we decided to stay 'til the tide rose too far we weren't afraid, 'cause we know what you are and you know that we know what you are awful atoll - o, incalculable indiscreetness and sorrow! bawl, bellow: Sibyl sea-cow, all done up in a bow toddle and roll; teeth an impalpable bit of leather while yarrow, heather and hollyhock awkwardly molt along the shore Then it goes through the child's growth. are you mine? my heart? mine anymore? The child grows away from the mother, and doesn't cling like s/he used to. The mother misses it and wonders if s/he's still her baby. Awwwwwwww. The child starts getting more violent, but clings to certain fears, such as that of lightning. stay with me for awhile that's an awfully real gun I know life will lay you down as the lightning has lately done failing this, failing this, follow me, my sweetest friend to see what you anointed in pointing your gun there The mother is able to guide the child away from violence, showing him/her other things. lay it down! nice and slow! there is nowhere to go, save up up where the light, undiluted, is weaving in a drunk dream at the sight of my baby, out back: back on the patio watching the bats bring night in - while, elsewhere, estuaries of wax-white wend, endlessly, towards seashores unmapped The child becomes more sympathetic with more time with Mom, and gets over the violent streak, especially when... (this next bit is self-explanatory) last week our picture window produced a half-word heavy and hollow, hit by a brown bird we stood and watched her gape like a rattlesnake and pant and labour over every intake I said a sort of prayer for some sort of rare grace then thought I ought to take her to a higher place said: "dog nor vulture nor cat shall toy with you and though you die, bird, you will have a fine view" then in my hot hand she slumped her sick weight we tramped through the poison oak heartbroke and inchoate the dogs were snapping so you cuffed their collars while I climbed the tree-house then how I hollered! cause she'd lain, as still as a stone, in my palm, for a lifetime or two (The mother is upset over the bird's death, but then...) then, saw the treetops, cocked her head and up and flew (while, back in the world that moves, often according to the hoarding of these clues dogs still run roughly around little tufts of finch-down) With the mother's care, the bird revives and flies away. But it's obvious that death looms at the end of life. the cities we passed were a flickering wasteland but his hand in my hand made them hale and harmless while down in the lowlands the crops are all coming; we have everything life is thundering blissful towards death in a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness Later, the child has grown up, gone to college, whatever. The mother pays a visit, but when her child gets upset over the stress in her own life, the mother knows to leave her alone. There are people who would much rather not be messed with when upset, and I should know because I am one of them. The mother, though, wonders if her child is all right. you stopped by, I was all alive in my doorway, we shucked and jived and when you wept, I was gone: see, I got gone when I got wise but I can't with certainty say we survived The mother comes back to her child when the tears subside, and the child voluntarily strips away layers of problems in his/her life... and the mother is glad that her child isn't fully recognizing the depth of the problems, or fire. S/he is "asleep" to them. then down, and down and down, and down and down, and deeper stoke without sound the blameless flames you endless sleeper through fire below, and fire above, and fire within sleeped through the things that couldn't have been if you hadn't have been The mother says simply that her child is in a fire of their own, and cheers him/her up with a childhood memory... and when the fire moves away fire moves away, son why would you say I was the last one? The child explains his/her problems more, and the mother provides sympathetic solutions to them. The child is upset over health problems, his/her mother's increasing age and lack of plentiful food, everything going wrong, being cold and hungry himself/herself... and the mother's now-adult daughter or son goes back to the childhood mindset and throws a small, emotional, weepy fit. all my bones they are gone, gone, gone take my bones, I don't need none cold, cold cupboard, Lord, nothing to chew on! suck all day on a cherry stone dig a little hole, not three inches round spit your pit in the hole in the ground weep upon the spot for the starving of me! till up grow a fine young cherry tree well when the bough breaks, what'll you make for me? a little willow cabin to rest on your knee what'll I do with a trinket such as this? think of your woman, who's gone to the west but I'm starving and freezing in my measly old bed! then I'll crawl across the salt flats to stroke your sweet head come across the desert with no shoes on! I love you truly, or I love no-one fire moves away fire moves away, son why would you say I was the last one? clear the room! there's a fire, a fire, a fire get going, and I'm going to be right behind you and if the love of a woman or two, dear, couldn't move you to such heights, then all I can do is do, my darling, right by you The mother will stay with her child until s/he is happy, as she always did. ... I don't know if that's what it says to you, but it says that to me. If you agree, please tell me I'm not going nuts. ;) |
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| Joanna Newsom – Inflammatory Writ Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| (3 | |
| Joanna Newsom – Inflammatory Writ Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Get your ears checked... the squirrel's name is Sandy, who has much more of a Southern accent than Joanna here. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Inflammatory Writ Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| As a writer myself (quick ad, my web site is myexplodingcat.com and it has my writing on it) I can totally relate. Almost. If some professional comes up to me and my rather amateur fantasy writing, and starts trying to "help," usually it doesn't work. I'm pretty young, so either they talk down to me or get critical. Either option is unhelpful, and only one or two experts have helped me in writing (Cynthea Liu), but I have never had them save me from block as illustrated here. I'm really glad Joanna got over hers, but if you yourself have block, it would be much more helpful to listen to the song than to take its advice. But that's me... you are most probably different, especially if you write nonfiction. :) | |
| Joanna Newsom – Emily Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| it's meteor | |
| Joanna Newsom – Cosmia Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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can you hear me? will you listen? don't come near me, don't go missing in the lissome light of evening help me, Cosmia, I'm grieving I love this verse, if not for the fast, smooth beat, then for the fact that the words make sense with the rest of the song and still manage to rhyme, plus the whole psychological conflict between not wanting to forget a lost loved one but also the want to forget the pain of losing them... it almost seems like this song was a therapy for Joanna herself. Beautiful. |
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| Muse – Knights of Cydonia Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Cannot believe how many comments there are on this.I think this song is totally awesome and applies even in 2010 with Obama around... seems like the government's more Communist every day... we need to fight for our freedom here! this guy's doing too much sneaky stuff... | |
| Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| yah please... read my comment below | |
| Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
I think this is about stress, inability in dealing with people, and self-criticism. It's like, when you can't quite bear to look directly at someone's face but you have to make eye contact. The speaker has a stressful job with a big project he needs to get done, but is falling behind. He's talking to his boss, and is so jittery with guilt over the unfinished project that he doesn't want to make eye contact, but is trying to force himself to, thus shifting his gaze between the safe place past his boss's head and the face of the boss. When his boss berates him over procrastinating on the project, he walks away covering the blisters (from the words) in flannel to hide that he's secretly freaked that he'll lose his job. When he goes to try and find answers via the History Channel, they give him an incomprehensible answer except the encouraging bit: "YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED." Real helpful, guys. Now he wants to be on a jet tarmac, ready to fly away from problems, and he "can't stand to look back" at his failure. He feels like he's lost his life and "wants it back," but can't quite transition back into normality and his job, even though the boss probably didn't mean anything that serious. But he knows that the History Channel dudes don't always get things right (in fact, they're wrong quite often, depending on your religious opinion) and he's second-guessing their so-called advice... Though the words we speak are banal Now one of them's a lie Now one of them's a lie You're what happens when two substances collide And by all accounts you really should have died |
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| Andrew Bird – Armchairs Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| the song is Armchairs... the ALBUM is Armchair Apocrypha. | |
| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Correction to my prev. comment... It's actually the girl killin' people, not the guy (that's what I've been told). It reminds me of the Maximum Ride books, about genetic experiments. It seems like this girl is a scientist going on a dating site to try and find subjects to use in experiments(which is easy because she's cute), but she needs a certain kind with special likes and dislikes or a certain trait... and she says i like long walks and sci-fi movies if you're six foot tall and east coast bred so she can "run them hot and cold" and "drill a tiny hole into your head" before she kills them off either with her death kit or with the "monsters that walk the earth." Or she could be testing you to see why you survived a different kind of monster (one that's common on the East Coast) which are armed robbers, muggers, etc. But hey. |
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| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| then this girl is out to get you... better stay off dating sites | |
| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| That's mean...! | |
| Andrew Bird – Darkmatter Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
This song has sort of this awesome rebellious theme to it, which I love. Why do I say that? First, it implies that this kid's parents thought he was going nuts with this whole Operation thing, and bought a truckload of self-help books for him... which he makes into a gun. Um. Then in the 6th paragraph, it suggests escaping your own death and running away with this gun that you made. Everyone else is sane and comfortable, but you are different and you rip through the town escaping your own medieval-style death-by-hanging using a gun that has a very modern concept embedded (darkmatter, that is) in it. The speaker is fighting for his own freedom, and yet, in his escape, he wonders if that's his "self" telling him that he needs to do this, or plain instinct -- Do you wonder where the self resides? Is it in the head or between your sides? because his head is telling him to get the heck out of there and he wants to know if that's the voice of his "self"... not to be too repetitive. But anyway, I might be reading WAAAY too much into this... or maybe not... jus' my opinion. |
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| DM Stith – Fire of Birds Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| love this one | |
| DM Stith – Pigs Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I can't believe nobody commented on this yet!... ... O.O |
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| Andrew Bird – Imitosis Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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YO! You guys think too hard. Psychadelicsally, you made me dizzy. There's a simpler explanation. Playground -- he actually seems to be looking at one. There are bullies who swing their fists, shy mice who stick to the shadows, etc. The mitosis thing refers to trends and how when new kids come into the school, the "popular kids" make them simply a copy of themselves, according to the trends, and the new kids go along with it because they want to fit in. This song is simply about a scientist who tries sociology (did I spell that right?) for a change of pace. He happens to start with kids. But kids are more complicated than he expects (we typically are) and he "ponders" it as he goes home as he is incredibly confused. The friends congregate, and usually in fours or twos. (Threes don't work because two always gang up on the other.) Then they have to go to class, and it looks like they're scattered on the wind. Or they go home. And kids who aren't used to ignoring others get "fatal doses of malcontent through osmosis" because of the mean words that float around a school every day. In keeping with the theme, if one is not "immune" to these, then one's self esteems and dignity die. And you seem to die with it. I think that's pretty thorough. I should know about this because I AM a kid, and I see this "nature show" every day. I also think that you guys are WAY over-complicating things. I took four paragraphs to sum up the song (including the current one) not 14. Just saying. |
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| Andrew Bird – Skin Is, My Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think Andrew watched too many Olay commercials.... ;) | |
| Andrew Bird – Tables and Chairs Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| cyanidebreathmint and bobwronski: That's Armcharis. Armchair Apocrypha is the album. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Monkey & Bear Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Annelise, your explanation makes this song a lot less confusing. :P That's why this site is worth it -- for the songs that leave you gaping and going Huh? until someone smacks you upside the head with something obvious (or, knowing Joanna's style, not very obvious at all). ;) | |
| Andrew Bird – Fake Palindromes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Is this about a guy who is trying to bump off all his girlfriends? Because when I read the lyrics, it kind of sounded like that. O_O | |
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