| Pulp – Underwear Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| It's someone addressing a girl they have a massive crush on but who is about to sleep with someone else, basically saying "you're going to have sex with this guy and I can't really stop that but, you know, I think you and I would work out better". It's a lovely song, actually, amazingly sweet and lacking in bitterness (which would probably be the overall tone were this scenario to happen in real life). | |
| Pulp – Lipgloss Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Pretty straightforward, it's a song about a woman's relationship collapsing and her having to come to terms with it. In many ways it's a quintessential Pulp song, there's something very ordinary about the subject matter (potentially the girl Jarvis is addressing could be a socialite or celebrity but you can't help but think it's a 30-something woman living in a pokey flat and doing a mundane job) and Jarvis Cocker indulges his usual obsessions about day-to-day life without becoming detached or sneery. | |
| Pearl Jam – Do the Evolution Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| On a general level it's an apocalyptic song, mankind marching towards self-destruction and all that. Specifically, though, it's basically about American conservatives. The stuff about buying stocks, flattening hills and, especially, the bit about "This land is mine, this land is free, I'll do what I want, yet irresponsibly." (which is pretty cringeworthy, to be honest) all feel quite specific to the economic and environmental arguments which were going on in the States at the time (and I gather still are to some extent). Americans, whatever their politics, can be very self-regarding and self-important as a country and this is internal American politics circa late 1990s being rewritten as the entire past and future of the human race. | |
| R.E.M. – Orange Crush Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Some of it seems quite obscure but this part seems perfectly clear: "Follow me, don't follow me I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush Collar me, don't collar me I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush We are agents of the free I've had my fun and now its time to Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me) Coming in fast, over me" It's about America's political leaders using conscripted youngsters to fight a war overseas in Vietnam. "We are agents of the free" refers to the soldiers themselves, "I've had my fun and now its time to Serve your conscience overseas" refers to the "doing your duty" attitude to conscription, whilst "serve your conscience" refers to the fact that the conscripts were being dropped into a war being fought for the ideals (ie consciences) of politicians, they didn't feel it was their war. Hence "your" and not "our". "Got my spine" refers to not being a coward and "orange crush" probably alludes to Agent Orange. |
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| R.E.M. – Drive Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| NB, I know Stipe wasn't a teenager when he recorded the song. I meant that it was Stipe reflecting on his own teenage years and comparing youthful optimism with what happened (Bush Snr and Ollie North) and his feelings about the apathy of the new generation of teenagers. Ought to have made that clearer. | |
| R.E.M. – Drive Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I'd go with it being a song about the frustrations of being a politicised teenager. The song alludes to '80s/early '90s issues (Bushwhacked is Bush Snr, "Ollie" might be, as someone suggested earlier, Oliver North) and most of the lyrics reflect youth culture, past and present. "Maybe you did. Maybe you walked. Maybe you rocked around the clock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Maybe I ride. Maybe you walk. Maybe I drive to get off, baby." That part suggests a certain amount of friction between the singer and someone, possibly how Stipe feels about his peers or what were at the time the upcoming generation, the so-called "Generation X'ers". |
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| Manic Street Preachers – Faster Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think the song is about Ritchie Edwards, even though Nicky Wire wrote half of it. I remember reading that the songs title alluded to the way life "speeded up" in the 1990s with everything being designed to be consumed in bite-sized portions and activities like sitting down for a few hours to read a good book being marginalise. The songs lyrics, however, sound like someone (doubtless Edwards) trying to explain how they feel living in a modern world they don't quite feel a part of. | |
| Manic Street Preachers – Drug Drug Druggy Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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It's a very Manics song in that it was flying in the face of conventional youth culture at the time. In the early '90s "drug culture" was hip and the NME et al used to play-up bands' chemical excesses as being part of a youthful rebellion against staid, conservative, mainstream culture. In this song the Manics are turning that on its head, arguing that designer-drug users are apathetic, decadent, apolitical and self-destructive and are doing nothing to make the world a better place, quite the opposite. "Show me your scars you're so aware" might be a reference to Ritchie Edwards' self-harming, comparing it to drug-use as self-harm (Edwards also had a drink problem) or it might be having at go at "heroin chic" and the idea of the emaciated look as something to aspire to. "Dance like a robot when you're chained at the knee The C.I.A. say you're all they'll ever need" is the most explicitly political part; at the time designer drugs (notably ecstacy or "E" as referenced in the song's last line) were associated with rave culture which these lines allude to with its "robotic" glass-eyed dancers. The Manics seem to be suggesting that, rather than being a threat to the established order, such pleasure-seeking consumers were actually re-enforcing it. |
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| R.E.M. – Shiny Happy People Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I've always thought this song was basically a parody of air-headed commercial pop music full of empty, positive, lyrics. The words, and meaning, are wilfully simplistic; it's practically a childrens' song. I've heard that the band don't like it much and rarely (if ever) play it live. This would suggest that it was a parody that got out of their hands and became popular as a jolly, positive pop song in its own right to much red-faced-ness from Stipe and co. |
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| R.E.M. – Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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There's a literal interpretation to this song and then there's the metaphoric ones. The literal is that the song is about a mysterious carnival ("stranger to these parts") that shows up in a town and then leaves, apparently having kidnapped a whole bunch of people ("gentlemen, don't get caught"), kind of like Papa Lazarou's Pandemonium Carnival in "The League of Gentlemen". The metaphoric is wide-open but let's look at the words. Interestingly, the song isn't about the "carnival of sorts" being in town, it's about it leaving, or having gone. "There's a secret stigma, reaping wheel. Diminish, a carnival of sorts. Chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel. Stranger, stranger to these parts." "Poster torn" suggests this in particular, it's like a remnant of the carnival, something that's a reminder that it was there and that it's since gone. "Stranger, stranger to these parts" suggests that this isn't a regular carnival which comes once a year; it's probably a one-off. "Secret stigma" is interesting though. Something the protagonist is ashamed of or feels the need to keep secret, wondering what will be thought of him or her? "Gentlemen don't get caught, cages under cage. Gentlemen don't get caught, Boxcars (are pulling) out of town. Boxcars (are pulling) out of town. Boxcars (are pulling) out of town." The first line there suggests the protagonist feels trapped, perhaps unable to say anything. The "Boxcars (are pulling) out of town" repeated means, of course, "the carnival is leaving". This suggests that the protagonist wants to say something or do something and time is running out. This carnival is not coming back. A loose interpretation is that it's about missed opportunities in general; not just personal but also professional or even artistic. The "secret stigma" suggests something closer to affairs of the heart, though. If we take that into account, this song might be about a relationship, presumably a short-term one with someone who has since left the protagonist's life. The "stigma" part might mean that the protagonist has feelings about someone they can't divulge. Maybe they're just incredibly shy but, given Stipe coming out as bisexual long after this song was recorded, it might be about homosexuality. |
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