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Wild Beasts – The Devil's Crayon Lyrics 15 years ago
Seeing as how I'm a gay nude model who wakes up with hardons all the time, I have no desire other than to take that explicitly--so you mistake my defense of the song as a defense of homosexuality when in all reality I'm simply defending objectivity and empiricism. The song is "wishy-washy" in the first place, but thats what makes it fun to interpret. So really I just have to commend you, mellow, for trying harder than tpdewhurst, albeit in a way that implies a certain level of distate for gay people on your part. Although, now, I think I would have been equally impressed if you had skipped all of the hyperbolic mockery and just said "faggot". :D

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Wild Beasts – The Devil's Crayon Lyrics 15 years ago
Devil's Paintbrush is also a colloquial name for Orange Hawkweed. And a nickname for a machine gun, the Maxim gun. That's not quite damning evidence on your part, is it, tpdewhurst? Besides, even if there is something "gay" about them (perhaps one of the members actually *is* gay god forbid!) if a song were called "Gone with the Breeze" would you say "There's something really straight about this band."?

Anyways, since that doesn't really have much to do with the meaning, I thought I'd sort of offer my take:
It's a lament about humanity--from the narrator's perspective, at least, which seems disappear intermittently. His grief at being human comes from the realization that we build ourselves up by falling back on our worst vices, that we've been practicing cynicism and tracing our cliched responses using the Devil's Crayon, which represents to me that which is evil, and in some respects, easy; as a crayon would be, a device that we've been using since we were children to create. This would be a way to simplify our own problems or correct situations to suit our desires. Thus, we act like children, and this infantile desire practically bleeds out of their voices on the "tiny pieces" "clambering hands" and "molded dough" lines, and those stanzas gain even more weight with the bridge, which is an overly emotional, almost whining (albeit tasteful whining) plea for the attention which only griping and falling into unnecessary nihilism and depression can merit. The narrator is self-aware of this mental pitfall and perhaps is interchangeably referring to himself as the devil--it is especially unclear who is addressing who near the end of the song, but the abstract quality of the lyrics leave me thinking that the songwriter must have been addressing himself for the most part; warning himself about falling too deeply into his dark side.


submissions
Wild Beasts – The Devil's Crayon Lyrics 15 years ago
Devil's Paintbrush is also a colloquial name for Orange Hawkweed. And a nickname for a machine gun, the Maxim gun. That's not quite damning evidence on your part, is it, tpdewhurst? Besides, even if there is something "gay" about them (perhaps one of the members actually *is* gay god forbid!) if a song were called "Gone with the Breeze" would you say "There's something really straight about this band."?

Anyways, since that doesn't really have much to do with the meaning, I thought I'd sort of offer my take:
It's a lament about humanity--from the narrator's perspective, at least, which seems disappear intermittently. His grief at being human comes from the realization that we build ourselves up by falling back on our worst vices, that we've been practicing cynicism and tracing our cliched responses using the Devil's Crayon, which represents to me that which is evil, and in some respects, easy; as a crayon would be, a device that we've been using since we were children to create. This would be a way to simplify our own problems or correct situations to suit our desires. Thus, we act like children, and this infantile desire practically bleeds out of their voices on the "tiny pieces" "clambering hands" and "molded dough" lines, and those stanzas gain even more weight with the bridge, which is an overly emotional, almost whining (albeit tasteful whining) plea for the attention which only griping and falling into unnecessary nihilism and depression can merit. The narrator is self-aware of this mental pitfall and perhaps is interchangeably referring to himself as the devil--it is especially unclear who is addressing who near the end of the song, but the abstract quality of the lyrics leave me thinking that the songwriter must have been addressing himself for the most part; warning himself about falling too deeply into his dark side.


submissions
Wild Beasts – The Devil's Crayon Lyrics 15 years ago
Devil's Paintbrush is also a colloquial name for Orange Hawkweed. And a nickname for a machine gun, the Maxim gun. That's not quite damning evidence on your part, is it, tpdewhurst? Besides, even if there is something "gay" about them (perhaps one of the members actually *is* gay god forbid!) if a song were called "Gone with the Breeze" would you say "There's something really straight about this band."?

Anyways, since that doesn't really have much to do with the meaning, I thought I'd sort of offer my take:
It's a lament about humanity--from the narrator's perspective, at least, which seems disappear intermittently. His grief at being human comes from the realization that we build ourselves up by falling back on our worst vices, that we've been practicing cynicism and tracing our cliched responses using the Devil's Crayon, which represents to me that which is evil, and in some respects, easy; as a crayon would be, a device that we've been using since we were children to create. This would be a way to simplify our own problems or correct situations to suit our desires. Thus, we act like children, and this infantile desire practically bleeds out of their voices on the "tiny pieces" "clambering hands" and "molded dough" lines, and those stanzas gain even more weight with the bridge, which is an overly emotional, almost whining (albeit tasteful whining) plea for the attention which only griping and falling into unnecessary nihilism and depression can merit. The narrator is self-aware of this mental pitfall and perhaps is interchangeably referring to himself as the devil--it is especially unclear who is addressing who near the end of the song, but the abstract quality of the lyrics leave me thinking that the songwriter must have been addressing himself for the most part; warning himself about falling too deeply into his dark side.


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