| Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I agree with the interpretation that it's about drugs, but I don't think it's indisputably about heroin,,. I always thought it was about amphetamine/speed. 'I'm taking the cure, so I can be quiet whenever I want' Amphetamines being controversially touted as a 'cure' for ADHD. It can have the side effect of making people quiet. I've seen it described as a mute button. Smiths toxicology report showed that he'd been taking (Prescribed) amphetamine. I'm assuming he was diagnosed ADHD unless he had a crappy doctor...it's my understanding that it's hard to get a prescription for amphetamine otherwise, He's using 'cure' in a sardonic manner, 'Leave me alone, you ought to be proud that I'm getting good marks' Again, it could be a sly reference to track marks as suggested but I think it's meant literally as in getting good marks in school. This ties into amphetamine and ADHD as they're often thrown at kids to help them improve in school. My take is, the singer started on an amphetamine prescription that turned into an addiction. The way he seems to snap the final line of the last verse with so much venom sounds like he's snapping back at whoever forced him on to amps in the first place. There's also references to amps in St. Ides Heaven, |
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| Tom Waits – Fish & Bird Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This is a beautiful song but the poster who said it was about the love between Dodgson (Carrol) and Alice is spot on and shouldn't be ridiculed for it. It's really obvious in the play. I mean, as a song about forbidden love it is fantastic in its own right and it being about paedophilia doesn't diminish how good of a song it is. Fish & Bird is sung by The White Knight as he rescues Alice, then Alice joins in in a duet. Alice sings the third verse ('Tell me that you will wait for me') to the White Knight first, then the White Knight sings the last verse to Alice. Also of note is that this takes place in a picture frame. Carrol regularly took photos of Alice and it's a recurring theme in the play and it expressly says in the playscript that Carrol's lens 'extends slowly and menacingly at her' which is a clear metaphor. The play mentions 'stopping time ' a lot, as in a photograph. I also thought it was tide at first but it is, in fact, time which is a theme that also crops up a lot in the play. Dodgson's desire for Alice and him fighting that desire is metaphotically shown when Alice discusses the photograph with the Cheshire Cat. "That's wonderful, don't you think, Kitty? How close he wanted me, and how far away he kept me." So, the White Knight IS Dodgson/Carroll. The White Knight also sings Poor Edward later which is about how torturous his love for Alice is. The really obvious part is afterwards when Alice is being accused by the Black Queen, "Going off like that, with a man (The White Knight/Carroll) old enough to be your father!" The evidence she presents are letters written by Dodgson/Caroll to Alice expressing his love. Then, The White Knight comes and says "The little girl is innocent. I am the guilty one here" and then "I am the White Knight. I wrote the letters." Since the White Knight is Caroll, this is Caroll admitting his guilt in loving Alice. TL:DR version - saying it's about paedophilia isn't 'a ridiculous veil of "ooh, man fancies little girl"', it's the literal interpretation and meaning of the entire play and Waits wrote it expressly for that purpose. It's doubtful Carrol was a paedophile in real life but that doesn't matter in the context of the story told by the play. |
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| Tom Waits – Flower's Grave Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| The music was taken from the play Alice which Waits wrote the lyrics for and this song is indeed sung by the flowers when Alice meets them. They all wilt at the end. | |
| Tom Waits – Flower's Grave Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I think it's about being forgotten after you've died. Flowers are used as a sign of remembrance and respect. My mum still buys flowers for the house on the anniversary of my Grandma and Grandad's death to commemorate them. The flowers don't have that. Nobody remembers them so nobody 'puts flowers on a flowers grave'. When flowers die you throw them out or dig them up and buy or plant new ones. 'Another rose blooms' means that it'll be easily replaced and I think the narrator is lamenting that this will be the case if they pass. |
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| Midlake – Fortune Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I had to check the pitchfork rating after I saw that...figured they'd have given it a 6 or something since you'd indicated they didn't like it. But a 3.6? Pitchfork are hit or miss with me, I only use them as a guide to which new albums are being released rather than guidance on what I should listen to | |
| Midlake – Fortune Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is my favourite on the album, probably no coincidence that it feels like the song could have been on The Trials of Van Occupanther. Not that I don't love The Courage of Others, but Van Occupanther is my favourite album of all time alongside Blood on the Tracks. Their songs make me yearn for a simply, peaceful life in the forest. |
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| Tom Waits – I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I see it as a guy who's not in love with the woman but in love with the idea of love itself, so much so that he projects it onto any attractive stranger that he sees through his alcoholic haze, constructing a drunken reverie which dissipates as she leaves. He doesn't love the woman...he hasn't even talked to her, but the idea of the love that he can't find, because he doesn't even have the courage to ask for a cigarette, makes him wallow in his self-pity. | |
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