| The Black Keys – The Lengths Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Yes, the guitar isn't crying, but close to it, it seems | |
| Vampire Weekend – A-Punk Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I suppose you cannot give only one direction to these lyrics: they're purposedly mysterious, and they may refer to something very precise to the band, but what they give is open for us to wonder about it. A lot of people here say they're not sure about their interpretation: so am I for mine, but I think that's no problem, the songs keeps you wondering. About the ring: could be a wedding ring, could be just a sing of wealth or of "his Honor"'s dignity. "His Honor" may be sarcastic, a simple way of making fun of the respect due to high dignities, but may also be literal: a judge. She spied the ring: that is to steal it, since she'll take it from his hand. A thousand years in a peace of silver; lily-hand; his honour... All these may be indications of the wealth and dignity of the man. Lily is the flower that represents monarchy. And white hands are hands that did not work. So the construction of the text about an injustice that she repairs by stealing is not stupid at all. If the man is noble, this ring may be a chevalière, and indeed represent "a thousand years" of injustice. Moreover, that's the only explanation of the title, "a punk" to me (with that of the music - I love it that this energetic music, which makes you feel so happy, actually hides rather sad lyrics): that would be the idea of rebellion. If "His Honor" indeed represents an actual judge, their is an injustice about the very man who represents justice... I think the man is dead: the lily-white hand is indeed probably thus because of that. And the "thing", as you said, is probably death. She's seen it in the young men's wing in a cancer hospital: who was the young man she'd come to visit? We get no clue about that. My idea, but that's only my imagination, is a relative, or someone she loved, who died to soon. From it could have come a feeling of injustice, even though this was nobody's fault. How did she know him? I don't know. Thay may have been former lovers, but I don't think Johanna had any feelings for him, or she wouldn't show no fear when stealing from him when he's dead. She may have been a hooker, that's possible. Raincoats: your interpretations are good, anyway we have no other! Probably sadness, wich comes along the cold weather. It's outside, as the snow (falling on the Hudson River): the kind of things that influences your mood. All grey... The police, I wouldn't imagine that, but it's possible. "Oh" may mean that she doesn't care, but may also connote a sort of resigned noticing that this is how it is. Here comes sadness, she simply looks at it. The next stanza, I think, is definitely a flashback. I think it describes how the guy was out to find things he wasn't used to, to find something new ("exotica"). But couldn't find it: the turquoise harmonicas are probably cheap stuff made just for tourists, so he wouldn't have found anything real, just a distraction. It's a running theme of their songs: Walcott for instance, where thay're telling Walcott to get out of Cape Cod, that is of all he already knows... So his Honor would be one of these persons thay often depict, not a bad person, but just somebody who cannot manage to see beyond their own world - not because they don't try, just because it isn't that easy. Their wealth, their being used to comfort... becomes kind of a hindrance for their seeking something else. I: who is the narrator? Nothing's told about him really. The most obvious guess would be that he's been a lover of the girl, that's what I tend to imagine, but it doesn't have to be thus. He could even be more or less omniscient, a guy who looks from the outside (or how would he know about his honor's trip to New Mexico?), but that's a bit hard to believe, since he saw her in the subway, and has a part of the ring. Washington Heighs: I've read here this is a poor area, so that would go with the idea of injustice, and of her stealing the ring only to repair the injustice. She 'd be poor and know what poverty is, while his Honor doesn't, she'd feel disgusted about that injustice, and fight it in her own small (meaningless?) way. That doesn't change a thing of course, but she probably didn't do it so much for the consequences as for the gesture. Again, this is pure imagination, not construction, but it's a possibility of the text. The two halves of the ring: I have a idea about it, don't know if that's really possible... A symbole, etymologically, is a sort of ring made out of two halves. You give one half to a person to who you made a promise, towards whom you have some sort of engagement. It is possible that both parties are committed by the promise. So I think Johanna more or less promised something to the narrator, since she must have given the half to him : love? something else? He still has it, he has not forgotten about it, but she's put that behind, threw her promise in the sea. The only thing that makes me think that the ring is indeed a symbole, apart from the fact that it's divided in two parts, is the "a thousand years in one piece of silver" line. A piece of silver is not just a piece of silver. Now what's really weird about the song is the quasi-absence of connection between all the stories: the young boy who died of cancer, Johanna and his honor, his honor taking a trip, and then Johanna and the narrator... They're only connected by details, the song has no obvious unity - except that, very important I think, of sadness and melacholy. Whatever the precise meaning of the song, what the lyrics leave to you for sure is the idea of sadness: a young man who died; an old one who died - after failing at truely getting out of his small world; a poor woman outraged by injustice; a promise not kept... That is, to me, the only important thing to see. The fact that you cannot know for sure all the details make me think they don't matter all that much. What you can find here is questions, misunderstanding, and sadness. The weidest thing is that you don't feel any sadness in the music: it really makes you feel good! |
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| Vampire Weekend – Walcott Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| What's a ghetto? A place where you are among people that are just like you, not necessarily a poor place, thought it did take taht connotation. I think the word originally described Jewish areas in Italian cities as Venice. So Hyannisport, with all the huge houses you talk about, must be a ghetto: a place where you only find people just like you, quite rich, quite nice, but where you do not get to see anything else than what you're already used to. Don't you want to get out of Cape cod, and see something else? It's insane to stay. | |
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