| The Clash – Four Horsemen Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The outro lyrics run differently, and are not as metaphoric. I listened to the fragment umpteen times just now and looked through the internets, and I came up with this: "We play all your rock and roll We know your rockin' soul We reach the parts other combos cannot reach! We reach the beaches/beachheads other armies cannot reach! We've reached the top of the mountain they cannot reach!" (That's sing365.com for you.) Anyway, I think it's plain to see the song references Westerns, as Clash songs did several times, and as usual, the reference is antisystemic. And it is about The Clash as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - the system tried to buy them, but they didn't sell out, and they reached the heights while making lazy people realize there's a war to be won. I also think the "grapes that loosen the screws at the back of the tongue" was the wine that the CEOs served them to learn what their next project, "London Calling" was to be like (and about). And, as is well known, they signed a deal for a single album with a set price, and made a double album while the CEOs' hands were tied. |
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| The Clash – Jimmy Jazz Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The ganja trail isn't something I thought about, but it sounds the most likely. Imagine a group of people sitting about in a room, smoking ganja, listening to The Abissynians "Satta Massagana" (a hit album from 1976). They know the police are coming, so they do away with the ganja - "he" was here, but "he" went out (but "he sure went past" - drawn in and puffed out). "Satta a massagana" also means "give thanks" (Wikipedia sez so), "Jimmy Dread" might be just another term for pot - so the next line may be about preparing it; and give thanks for ganja, cut off the leaves and cut the stalk. Just a guess, it's not like I saw them do it :) The final straw is "suck that" - it resonates with this take on the song much more than any other. And the drawn-out singing also makes sense now - as well as the music, which is a kind of combination of jazz and reggae. And the "jazz" is almost entirely definitely not used with reference to music, but rather for jazzpeople's preference for ganja. |
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| Fugazi – Caustic Acrostic Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Hm, well, it kinda sounds like a description of a tv game show of sorts... but then again, it sounds like the "I" is burning the fuse and then caught by the cops... Very cryptic. A small correction: I'm pretty sure it's "throwing round their BODY weight." |
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| Fugazi – Recap Modotti Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I would guess it runs something like this: there's a Mexican immigrant who rides a taxi in the US for the money he needs to keep his family alive (most, if not all of which is still in Mexico). He lives cheap to send back as much as he can. If there's any deception involved here, it's the belief that he can really make it, meaning - get his family up to States and live the big life. If he's disclosed, a judge (or other authority) will decree him illegal and kick him out (this also does away with accusations). "we stand over the dead the vultures all well fed killer running free" is perhaps no longer about him (the taxi driver), but about "us", meaning those who live the good life in a land where aliens induce more fear than killers. The last lines get back to the guy again, remembering his relatives, whom he might not ever see again. Unless there's some real story behind it. |
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