| Tool – Pushit Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is one of my favorite Tool songs and one of the best songs Maynard sang and wrote. So much emotion. I love the lyric "If, when I say I may fade like a sigh if I stay." The song evolves and changes, with the lyrics building on each other, up to a powerful climax at the end. It's a song about an unhealthy, parasitic or abusive relationship. It might also mean that the speaker is having flashbacks to tramautic events from his past, and he knows this relationship isn't good for him, that it will slowly kill him or cause him to eventually lash out in harmful ways. |
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| Tool – Lateralus Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I'm just going to throw out a different meaning here. I think the spiritual interpretation is pretty accurate and the most likely explanation. But, I think you can also see this as a song about music. With my feet upon the ground I move myself between the sounds And open wide to suck it in, I feel it move across my skin I'm reachin' up and reachin' out, I'm reachin' for the random or Whatever will bewilder me, whatever will bewilder me And following our will and wind, we may just go where no one's been We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's be This could be about how fulfillment is found in music. Instead of overthinking and overanalyzing lyrics or music, people should let go and just experience it with their emotions and senses. Let the sounds wash over you. Here, Maynard is reaching out for meaning in what he hears, to see what words he might fit with the music. I think music can be a transcendent and spiritual experience. |
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| Ashes Divide – Ritual Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Beautiful song. It's about a relationship that is starting to come undone, with all the secrets that both people are keeping from each other. They're not quite suited for each other, which is what the parts about whether people can change are about. The narrator wants to make the relationship work and hates to see that they are drifting apart. He also feels guilty for saying something that hurt the other person, which is probably where the conflict came from in the first place. I know Billy is married and has a kid, but does he ever talk about having a *wife?* |
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| Ashes Divide – Stripped Away Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This song has weaker lyrics than others on the album, but I still like it a lot. Billy's vocals are powerful. I think it's fairly straightforward, in that it's about being used by someone else and then refusing to be a victim any longer. | |
| Ashes Divide – Defamed Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I have to admit, I thought of Maynard when I read the lyrics to this song, too. People do tend to raise Maynard on a pedestal. But it can also have a more general meaning. I suppose we'll never really know. |
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| A Perfect Circle – Orestes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This is my second favorite APC song (Rose is my #1). This song is close to the Orestes myth, as other posters have said, and it fits with the themes of Maynard's other songs. But here's my personal interpretation. The song is about the narrator's family. He feels resentment towards his family for pain they've caused him in his life, but because they're blood relatives, he feels tied to them ("umbilical residue"). He can't bring himself to "kill" them, which in a figurative sense means forgetting about them and moving on with his life. Something keeps bringing him back to them, even when they're not good for him, even when they hurt him. "Give me one more medicated peaceful moment" refers to how the narrator takes antidepressants to help him deal with his issues, but they also keep him from actually facing his emotions. Basically, the narrator is stuck in his dilemma and resents his family for keeping him from escaping from it. Maynard's and Billy's voices complement each other perfectly in this song, and it has a beautiful, sad atmosphere. Definitely one of the best! |
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| 10 Years – Just Can't Win Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This song reminds me of multiple personalities. | |
| The Smiths – William, It Was Really Nothing Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Again, another perfect example of a serious and moving first few verses with a funny chorus. I can see it in different ways: the narrator being a friend who gives William advice; the narrator being an ex-lover of William's--they once had an affair, but then William decided to get married and the narrator realized their relationship meant nothing. "I don't dream about anyone except myself" is, again, both amusing and depressing depending on how you look at it. |
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| The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This song is really interesting. The two verses are serious and seem to be about someone who wants to get away from a difficult home life and overbearing/fighting parents. The narrator just wants to have fun and forget it all, and relies on the friend with the car as a kind of savior. It's the chorus that baffles me. In typical Mozz fashion, it's both humorous and extremely sad. I really don't quite know what to make of it, it's overdramatic and somewhat funny, but still moving. Such a teenager song. |
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| The Smiths – Back to the Old House Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This song is one of the rare Smiths ones that is straightforward and brutally honest (don't get me wrong, I love Morrissey's songwriting!) His past always comes across as something he'd rather not talk about in interviews, and it sounds like his family life wasn't all that happy. So the old house could be a symbol of his childhood. I don't know when this song was written in relation to his return to Manchester, but he had quite a love/hate relationship with the place. Or maybe it doesn't refer to the family house, but instead the home of a dear friend/sweetheart who he never really got to tell how important they were to him. As for me, I can definitely relate to the sentiments in the song. |
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| The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Oh God, this song speaks to me! A very emotionally heavy song for me because I relate to the lyrics so well. I can only hope that Morrissey has found himself a lover after all this time. I mean, being lonely in one's 20s was bad enough. Going through life without anyone in one's 50s is sad beyond anything else, no matter how much one may profess one's comfort with isolation. Granted, I really don't know much about him. |
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| The Smiths – Hand in Glove Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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An interesting song. At first listen, a typical lovesong. But in typical Morrissey style, it's both somewhat absurd/sarcastic and heartfelt. C'mon, "the sun shines out of our behinds?" But it also has some very beautiful sentiments toward the end of the song. So you can definitely see it as a love song, one of Morrissey's most positive (except for the "never see you again" part). I also have the impression that this song could be about wishful thinking. Perhaps the narrator has a brief affair with someone, and imagines the great love that can come out of it, but realizes that nothing with probably happen. It was their first single, so perhaps in a metaphorical sense, this was them saying, "Here we are! We're not like anyone you've heard before!" Them being covered in "rags" is perhaps about their plain name and appearance... |
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