| Tom Waits – Falling Down Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"You forget all the roses don't come around on Sunday / She's not gonna choose you for standing so tall" I think roses here refers to young women, i.e. 'English Rose'. They don't come around on Sunday refers to the tendency of women to go for the 'bad boy' who steals, drinks 'the poison', etc. They don't want the goody-2-shoes saintly Mr. Nice Guy who is an upright, morally impeccable, viceless person. |
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| The National – Mr. November Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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An interesting pattern I noticed that would support the theme of failure in the song: "Mr. November" could likely reference Derek Jeter, nicknamed after Reggie Jackson's Mr. October who saved his best for last. But despite this nickname, Derek Jeter was 3 for 12 in November that season, and his team the Yankees ended up losing the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. So the pressure was on "Mr November" to bring out his best at the end of the season, but he failed, 'fucked us over'. "Blue Bloods" is a racing movie in which the horse ultimately loses - failure again. As was mentioned, "The Great White Hope" was the boxer who was supposed to beat African American boxer Jack Johnson, but ended up losing. It seems the singer is looking at the situation from multiple perspectives at once in Matt's usual self-aware fashion. He is under pressure, and not wanting to let anyone down he reassures himself that he is "Mr. November", "The Great White Hope", "The New Blue Blood". But somewhere inside he doesn't really have confidence in himself, since Mr November, The Great White Hope, and The New Blue Blood all ultimately failed and let everyone down. He "wishes he believed in fate" - he wishes that he could believe that his destiny to be a winner was set, but instead he is full of self-doubt. |
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| The National – Looking for Astronauts Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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An interesting pattern I noticed that would support the theme of failure in the song: "Mr. November" could likely reference Derek Jeter, nicknamed after Reggie Jackson's Mr. October who saved his best for last. But despite this nickname, Derek Jeter was 3 for 12 in November that season, and his team the Yankees ended up losing the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. So the pressure was on "Mr November" to bring out his best at the end of the season, but he failed, 'fucked us over'. "Blue Bloods" is a racing movie in which the horse ultimately loses - failure again. As was mentioned, "The Great White Hope" was the boxer who was supposed to beat African American boxer Jack Johnson, but ended up losing. It seems the singer is looking at the situation from multiple perspectives at once in Matt's usual self-aware fashion. He is under pressure, and not wanting to let anyone down he reassures himself that he is "Mr. November", "The Great White Hope", "The New Blue Blood". But somewhere inside he doesn't really have confidence in himself, since Mr November, The Great White Hope, and The New Blue Blood all ultimately failed and let everyone down. He "wishes he believed in fate" - he wishes that he could believe that his destiny to be a winner was set, but instead he is full of self-doubt. |
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