| Bright Eyes – Jejune Stars Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Personally I take parts of the song to be about love - more specifically the sort of "jejune" infatuation and naive, innocent love that came before, and I can relate to, ha. "Every new day is a gift; it’s a song of redemption Any expression of love is a way to return" I see this as looking back on past "love" and feelings, as if to be grateful for new days after having had bad days, out of love. I see the second line as remembering that first feeling, the nostalgia of past love from a similar feeling in the present. "To that place that I think of so often but now never mention The one the voice in the back of my head says that I don’t deserve" I take the "place" to be that past imagined love - a sort of fantasy or hope of loving someone, and the second line as self-deprecation - telling yourself you didn't deserve it, them, their love. "Come fire, come water, come karma, we’re all in transition The Wheel of Becoming erases the physical mind Till all that remains is a staircase of misinformation And the code we inherit, the basis, the essence of life So I go umbrella under my arm into the green of the radar How did it get so dark in the day? It’s just so bizarre, is it true what we’re made of? Why do I hide from the rain?" This doesn't really apply well to my own interpretation, but much more so to others, so I'll leave it there. "Inside some cloudy nostalgia where there are no features We look at ourselves through a porthole, the passage of time See that sunny day that we snuck down, hid under the bleachers Kissed as the band marched, everything fell into line" This is a literal description of past love and memories of that, how everything seemed perfect, almost naively so. "Sure I had my doubts But I know it now We are jejune stars So it starts again At our childhood’s end I’ll die young at heart" I don't really understand this, but it's always so powerful to me in a way I can't describe. I love this song, this album, and Bright Eyes. |
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| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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seconded, "I and I is a complex term, referring to the oneness of Jah (God) and every human. Rastafari scholar E. E. Cashmore: "I and I is an expression to totalize the concept of oneness, the oneness of two persons. So God is within all of us and we're one people in fact. The bond of Ras Tafari is the bond of God, of man. But man itself needs a head and the head of man is His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I (always pronounced as the letter 'I,' never as the number one or 'the first') of Ethiopia." The term is often used in place of "you and I" or "we" among Rastafari, implying that both persons are united under the love of Jah." More rastafarian references, my mistake. |
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| Bright Eyes – Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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http://museandreverie.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/episode-1-5-9th-january/ I could probably describe all of my pathetic stories in Bright Eyes lyrics. Unfortunately that doesn't make it any less pathetic. |
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| Bright Eyes – Beginner's Mind Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This seems to me almost like Oberst addressing his former self, the innocent child we all once were and reflecting on how the world changes us, and how he would have changed the way he's lives and grown up. It's like encouraging the young not to get wearied and sullied by the cynics and drudgery of life. | |
| Bright Eyes – Triple Spiral Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Triple spiral seems to be a reference to religion - mentioned explicitly as "maiden mother crone" for paganism and later with the "father, son and ghost". The part I understood best was "I loved you Triple Spiral — father, son and ghost But you left me in my darkest hour when I needed you, when I needed you Now that the dream is over I want it to be known That I never saw it coming Through my little human prism How sad it is to know I’m in control That’s the problem An empty sky I fill it up with everything that is missing from my life" Which is essentially his change of mind against religion when it had failed him. I love the line "how sad it is..." how he's kind of realised the difference in life when we have to create our own meaning and make our own decisions without some higher purpose. The next lines are about attributing "God" as something to replace what's lacking in life - such as purpose or happiness and meaning, again quite obvious especially compared to most of Oberst's lyrics but interesting nonetheless. I have to admit, I was very doubtful of the album at first but a few listens and I'm already loving it. |
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| Bright Eyes – Shell Games Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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"At the architect who imagined this For the everyman, blessed Sisyphus Slipping steadily into madness Now that's the only place to be free" This is easily my favourite verse - the architect obviously being "god", and the ordinary people as Sisyphus - read the wikipedia article on the Myth of Sisyphus written by Albert Camus and also about absurdism. It's essentially a man faced with a meaningless repetitive task (pushing a boulder up and down a hill), for Camus representing man's eternal quest for meaning in a meaningless world, or the "absurd". The reference to being "free" could also be related to Camus, as he says for man to be free he must overcome and accept the absurd (the dichotomy between meaninglessness and our search for it in our lives) by recognising his condition, I don't think the previous line fits in with this but it's interesting nonetheless. I think everyone can understand the chorus. |
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| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| There's definitely a lot of religious cultural references... the other thing I've noticed in the album is "I and I" - here in the outro and earlier and in another song, can't remember which. This song's very broad and doesn't seem to focus on a particular topic - what I think of as description/observational lyrics rather than the introspective lyrics Oberst sometimes uses (which tend to be my favourites). | |
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