| Fiona Apple – Anything We Want Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think it's: Let's pretend we're 18 years old playing hooky |
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| Joanna Newsom – Flying a Kite Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I do pick up on some rape imagery, but I also think that the song is - at the root - about losing that child part of yourself and wanting to hang on to it. "Until the fog blots me out"... sort of saying goodbye to the girl version. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Colleen Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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To miss out on this whale-woman transformation thing is also a disservice to Joanna's skills as a musician. The harp work in the final moments of the song are beautifully played to accompany the lyrical idea of her returning to her true form. The way she arranges that piece of music is just as beautiful it would be to see the transformation or the whale in water. I love song meanings but I think sometimes we lose sight of the musical clues themselves to the lyrics meaning. Like Joanna has mentioned before, for years she only played harp without ever writing or singing so I think it's fair to say she puts just as many musical cues and clues in her songs as much as she does lyrically - like the sharp piercing noise at the end of 'Cosmia', so obvious a clue! |
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| Joanna Newsom – Colleen Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think it's kind of like those Irish folklore stories. The girl in the story was once a whale who turned into a human. "I must have once been a thief or a whore, then surely was thrown overboard" is an obvious thing to me that she's NOT any of those things. She's trying to make it practical. But it's this man from the sea who shows her the picture of the whale who really knows what she truly is. And she's not ready to accept it! At the end of the day, Joanna is a folkie. And this is right up her alley. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Soft as Chalk Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Glaring and nodding like the character 'God' seems to suggest that she was maybe too controlling over things (i.e., the relationship) Glare is disapproving, nodding would be approving. The piano is great but, like with everything Newsom, is also telling of another layer: mania. The song is intentionally slowed down in certain sequences but allows for breaks of unhinged rag piano playing which would represent a loss of mind/manic state. It is in this song, I think - in the tapestry of Have One on Me - that she has officially decided to end the relationship. |
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| PJ Harvey – Written on the Forehead Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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These lyrics are pretty botched. Here are the lyrics: People throwing dinars at the belly-dancers in a sad circus by a trench of burning oil people throw belongings and lifetimes earnings amongst the scattered rubbish and suitcases on the sidewalk Date, palms, and orange and tangerine trees and eyes are crying for everything (Let it burn, let it burn, let it burn, burn, burn) So I turned to an old man by the generator he was standing on the gravel by the fetid river he turned to me and then surveyed the scene said, �War is here in our beloved city.� (Let it burn, let it burn burn burn) Saw doves in the river who tried to swim away through tons of sewage, fate written on their foreheads Date, palms, and orange and tangerine trees and eyes are crying for everything (Let it burn, let it burn, let it burn, burn, burn) Good-good-good-good-good-bye. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Soft as Chalk Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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She’s pissed off in this song about love’s never ending lawlessness. It’s pretty straight-forward. Joanna has even mentioned in reviews lately that some of the songs on Have One on Me are very straight-forward and this is one of them. |
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| Joanna Newsom – '81 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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She made one precious thing and it was discovered and passed around and misunderstood. That theme seems to be at the root of the song. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Kingfisher Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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She makes it clear in the following song "Does Not Suffice" that she got out of the way in terms of how the relationship ended. She tried to make it work, hell, "On a Good Day" she even tried to imagine the children they'd have. "Kingfisher" is the violent slap in the face; the reality. This is over. Dead. Done. There's blood on the eye, unlace the glove, tell me "Honey, I am not sorry...' It's over. She can bear a lot of things. But she can't bear that this is done for. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Autumn Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think this is a fairly straight-forward song concerning her as a person, not the musician. She's consistent in stating that she is not a roamer and finds touring and world-travel unlike her. She'd prefer to stay in her home, collecting antiques, playing harp and sleeping into the evening. I remember an early interview with JN in 2004 when she said that if the music didn't work out her dream job would be somewhere close to her hometown in a doo-dad or antique shoppe. I believe when you begin interacting with other people (in this situation, romantically) people drum up ideas of you. "I laugh when you speak of my pleasure-seeking ways." Many people who come into contact with you may think you are something different than you are. Oh, so you are a harpist/songwriter who tours the world. You must love that. But, I don't think it's that cut and dry. She loves making music and sharing it, I guess. But I think people can begin to mistake you for seeking out that sort of gypsy life for yourself and bending you into a caricature. Later, in 'Ribbon Bows' she specifies that she is not like that - but she can pass. Honey, she sure can pass. That's all I think 'Autumn' is about, really. Tho I do think it's a bit of an elegy of sorts. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Cosmia Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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DRIED ROSE PETALS (over the eyes) RED BROWN CIRCLES (how the dried rose petals look over the eyes) The knuckles part maybe was used to rhyme with circles. |
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| Joanna Newsom – Cosmia Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The dried rose petals is a reference to burial rituals in which women place rose petals over the deceased person's eyes. | |
| Hole – Nobody's Daughter Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is the best Hole song in a LONG time. I love it. | |
| PJ Harvey – Uh Huh Her Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The valley. Not the family. lol |
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| Joanna Newsom – Go Long Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Basically a bitter song ripping the guy a new one. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This song seems to be about becoming mature. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Occident Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Outside forces are coming in to tear up what they've built together. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| She had friends who had a tendency to mock religion. Now, after partying and wearing herself out by being drunk and being the life of a party - sees the importance of faith. And no longer wants to mock it. | |
| Joanna Newsom – '81 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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To add, "Even muddiest waters run -" Even waters (situations) that are confused and muddied by sex - still run in nature. It's all a part of nature. |
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| Joanna Newsom – '81 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The song is explicitly asexual. She lays naked by the spring due to the heat and nothing more and is being observed by someone (“the wandering eye that I have caught”) tho she is not interested in sex anymore. “Tell me what is meant by sin or none” - why can’t people just hang out in the garden and not want to have sex? And if they do have sex, why does it have to be a bad thing that ruins gardens and makes people split apart and ruin friendships, etc. She believes that it’s possible to befriend males and not have it be a sexual relationship. |
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| PJ Harvey – No Girl So Sweet Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| These are not the lyrics at all. Horrible job. | |
| PJ Harvey – One Time Too Many Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The man in the song is depicted as whiny and pathetic. The woman is fed up with it. |
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| PJ Harvey – Long Snake Moan Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| An unholy baptism. | |
| PJ Harvey – Angelene Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Collecting a soul sounds dark to me. This song opens Is This Desire? which is sort of a cinematic album with many characters (many of the women missing or murdered by lovers.) I think this song is about a whore named Angelene who longs to be taken away from the life she's currently leading. |
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| PJ Harvey – Horses In My Dreams Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Returning to her home in Dorset *by the sea* after being in the "city" (possibly on a tour...) |
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| PJ Harvey – Grow Grow Grow Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Frustration with her inability to fall in love. She is showing her irritation with love. She planted the seeds, she's even saying she forced them hostile into the ground - but still nothing. |
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| PJ Harvey – A Perfect Day Elise Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| He kills the woman who turns him away. | |
| PJ Harvey – Black Hearted Love Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Sounds like some dangerous sex games. | |
| PJ Harvey – Electric Light Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think the girl in the song is being stalked and is eventually murdered ("sirens rising"). | |
| PJ Harvey – Harder Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| "that dog can sure hunt." | |
| PJ Harvey – Hook Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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and rode in - barking mad TEMPT my love... make me gag! |
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| PJ Harvey – Dry Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think it's: "You're caught up in my hair." | |
| PJ Harvey – I Think I'm A Mother Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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“You love her - support her - then give me a mother” “Roll over, roll over, and roll me a man - uh, you love her my lover?” “Come on and support her, I said to this mother, she said you’d come over, she said she’s a boulder. I loved her I kept her and man, she just left and - alone I employ ya.” |
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| PJ Harvey – Dance Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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And it's also: "Time left, time died, O time trickled by..." |
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| PJ Harvey – Dance Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| It's "This car's seen better days" (hence the caught under headlight.) | |
| PJ Harvey – 50ft Queenie Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It's - "I'm number one" not "i'm your new one". |
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| The 6ths – Aging Spinsters Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Some corrections: but when the city's so hot... the wino's burst into flames GREAT SONG. But I think he says "Wino's" instead of windows (i.e., drunks who drink wine.) |
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