| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – Night Noises Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
In his KEXP live recording of the song Bonnie 'Prince' Billy said "Night noises always reminds me of- I feel like I go back to Maurice Sendak's book 'In the Night Kitchen' all of the time." The track reminds me of the dualism between night and day, things which might not occur often during the day are commonplace at night. The day provides warmth, security, and predictability, while the night brings a world of shadows, and questions- perhaps it is this uncertainty which makes some people feel more alive at night. Perhaps it's also the unstructured nature of the night that makes people this way, as daytime could be seen as the human hours and nighttime is a world of shadows- a boundary between the living and the dead. |
|
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – A Minor Place Lyrics | 12 years ago |
|
This song reminds me of a quote by Søren Kierkegaard: "In addition to my numerous other acquaintances I have still one more intimate friend – my melancholy. In the midst of pleasure, in the midst of work, she beckons to me, calls me aside, even though I remain present bodily. My melancholy is the most faithful sweetheart I have had – no wonder that I return the love!" The first few lines seem to say that the narrator has been to a low place in life, but he understands what the feeling is for and its importance to his life- perhaps even to the point where he loves his intimate friend. I've been to a minor place and I can say I like its face if I am gone and with no trace I will be in a minor place In the final stanzas of the song he seems to say that a minor, or low place, in life is not the end, nor is it a barren place like a desert- it's really what you make of it. It's minor in sound/feeling alone, and it has a commanding tone to it that drives him to make art despite the pain. o it's not a desert nor a web nor a tomb where I lay dead minor in a sound alone yes a clear commanding tone singing from my little point and aching in my every joint I thank the world it will anoint me if I show it how I hold it |
|
| Iron & Wine – Upward Over the Mountain Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
"Mother don't worry I killed the last snake that lived in the creek bed Mother don't worry I've got some money I saved for the weekend" I think that the the creek, or creek bed, is alcoholism; when he says "Mother forget me- Now that the creek drank the cradle you sang to" he's saying to forget about him, because he's been absorbed by the substance. Several of the lines from the song are comparing the earliest parts of his life to where he is now, as in the way a young boy might play around a creek bed because there's always something to do there- whether it's picking up interesting stuff floating around, trying to build a bridge to the other side, or messing with the wildlife that lives there. In a similar way alcohol makes everything more interesting so to a young man it can easily be the "go to" place just like the creek was the go to place for the boy he once was. Alcoholism has probably cost him his job, and perhaps much of his life, this could be why he says "I've got some money I saved for the weekend" as in he may not have much of a future, but he can still plan for a few days at a time so he's not totally helpless. When he says "Mother, remember the blink of an eye When I breathed through your body?" it brings up an interesting contrast to the point where he is now, the point where he needs alcohol for survival just as he started his life needing his mother for survival. Sons can be said to be like birds flying upward over a mountain because as an infant they are totally dependent on their mother but as time progresses they fly further and further from the nest, one day they don't come back- it's as if they're flying over a mountain because the mother can still see them for part of the trip but once they get over the peak the mother can no longer see them. "Mother forgive me, I sold your car for the shoes that I gave you" reminds me of a movie called "Requiem for a Dream" in which a young man repeatedly pawns his mom's tv for drugs- in this case it sounds like the narrator has sold her car for shoes that he gave her. Maybe there is some kind of symbolism here, I'm not sure, cars and shoes are both used to help a person move from one place to another. When he says "Mother, don't worry, I've got a coat and some friends on the corner" he seems to be saying I don't have much, but I have enough to survive. In the line about the garden he seems to say that he has a woman that he's planning a future with. "Mother, remember the night That the dog had her pups in the pantry? Blood on the floor and the fleas on their paws And you cried 'til the morning" I think these lines are a way to highlight the beauty and sadness inherent in life in a way that parallels his own experience- trying to be hopeful despite the poverty and darkness around him. |
|
| Palace Brothers – (I was drunk at the) Pulpit Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
I think that this song really speak for itself, but especially the final lines of the work. Church is a man-made construct, and one can give reverence to the world through any number of acts which are less artificial. This is the principal behind yoga- the practice is the yoke and the person who practices is the oxen, the smooth movements calm the mind so we til the same land again and again until we become inseparable from the practice. I once met a man that attended church alone in the woods, I don't know what language he preached in but his gospel was heard. “Wherever folks gather, to imply a rule, They are each one a sinner, each one a fool For if I drink my whiskey, and if I sing a song I have no breast companion, a-trailing along To imagine a sharing of burdens I earned To steal from the embers I strove so to burn God is one's corpus, and Jesus one's blood The world is within you, without is of mud...” |
|
| Palace Brothers – I Send My Love To You Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| This song seems to be about giving love to another but for whatever reason they don't accept it, so it's being sent but not received. I think everyone can relate to this-; you feel like if you just say the right thing the person will understand how you feel about them and come around but they never do. That's been my experience at least. | |
| Joanna Newsom – Sawdust and Diamonds Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
To me, the song seems to be told from the point of view of a sailor and also his wife/significant other that waits for him. Most of the song seems to be told from the point of view of the wife, up until the lyrics “in the trough of the waves which are pawing like dogs.” As I see it, the sailor left on a voyage and never returned. Throughout life we all have moments like the sailor's wife where we contemplate eternity and a possible afterlife. The song starts out with someone seemingly philosophizing about eternity- I believe this is the wife, she asks if her lover will wait for her at the door to eternity so to speak. There is no mention of setting for most of the work, this adds a dream-like quality to the piece. The bell symbolizes the memory of the loved ones that left us, thus when the bell is dropped from the “top of the wide, white stairs” it falls forever and echoes not just throughout our remaining days, but forever as it passes from generation to generation. After the death of a loved one we're left with memories, and like a bell falling down a staircase they never fade from our lives completely. But if someone leaves on a ship and is lost in a storm many times they are never seen or heard from again, this was especially true a hundred years ago or more. Their family and friends would be left wondering whether their loved one's ship crashed in a foreign land and they didn't have a way back, if they are slowly dying on a deserted island, or if they died before anyone even realized that something went wrong. The memory of the sailor is muted by the waves, by the possibility that they aren't gone forever. Not to say that the memory of them is forgotten, because it would still be there despite the lack of closure, but the most powerful feeling associated with the sailor would be the hope that they're still alive somewhere out there. The sailor's wife was so deep in thought, and grief, at the start of the poem that she was in a listless, trance-like state as she fell asleep. “The moment I slept I was swept up in a terrible tremor, though no longer bereft, how I shook, and I couldn't remember.” From these lines I gather that she began to dream, and all of the lines up until “in the trough of the waves which are pawing like dogs” are taken from her dream. The dream itself is made up of fractionated memories that have been filled with new symbolic meaning. The point of view seems to shift to the sailor aboard his vessel with the line “In the trough of the waves which are pawing like dogs,” but this could have been the wife dreaming of the sailor's fate. |
|
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – Heart's Arms Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| This is such a simple, but beautiful song filled with wonderful metaphors. I think that most people can relate to this song, whether it's because of a failed relationship or friendship. I really resonate with the line "Why don't you write me anymore?"- I ask myself this question quite often. When he says "I open this awful machine to nothing, where once your intimacies came pounding" seems to refer to opening/turning on a computer and finding that your lover, or friend, didn't respond to your email. "What did you bind my heart's arms for?" refers to the way which we may feel unable to love another after a relationship ends with no closure. When he says "I hope you find glory in some new heart's arms story, and can close doors on mine for sure" he is wishing his lover well despite what happened but at the same time wanting closure- something we don't always get. I would write a poem about this but my muse left me long ago. | |
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – Wolf Among Wolves Lyrics | 13 years ago |
|
Perhaps I think too philosophically for my own good, but to me the song begs the question can one person ever truly know another let alone love them as they are? The woman "holds a phantom, she kisses and she hugs him," not because of something inherently wrong with her but because it's not possible to hold what he is so she does the next best thing. A person is more than a body with physical needs- each of us is the sum total of every experience which we've ever gone though. But we're not just this either, there is something more- limitless potential and perhaps something without words to express what it is. Similarly, "she craves a hole that she can go in" to protect her from the harshness of reality, and this is "a sheltered cave that" the narrator has "never seen." He's never seen the sheltered cave just like she's never loved him for what he is. And in this way we are alone despite the presence of others around us. |
|
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – I See A Darkness Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I agree with the interpretation, he definitely says "I'll know I see a darkness" in the final chorus. | |
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – I See A Darkness Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| This song, and the whole album, really speaks to me on a level that other musicians haven't quite approached with the exception of Elliott Smith. I've been seriously depressed for as long as I can remember (around 6 or 7 years-old) and I've come to see it as both a blessing and a curse; in knowing the darkness that waits for us all one can appreciate life a little more, but at the same time, in the words of Nietzsche, "if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." I haven't had a good friend to share my thoughts with in a long time, music always was and always will be my best friend. | |
| The Silver Jews – Tennessee Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| This is one of my favorite Silver Jews songs. I've seen them live a few times and I think that he says "Goodbye users and suckers, steady bad luckers." When he's performing it live sometimes it's unclear whether there is a less enunciated "and" before "steady bad luckers." | |
| Joanna Newsom – Only Skin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
"Scrape your knee; it is only skin makes the sound of violins" What creature scrapes it knee and makes music- the grasshopper. There are so many levels to this song that you can just about see forever from here. |
|
| Joanna Newsom – Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie Lyrics | 15 years ago |
|
"Your skin is something that I stir into my tea And I am watching you and you are starry, starry, starry" I believe that she's referring to the Milky Way, many people literally stir milk into their tea and it would explain the stars as well. "And some machines are dropped from great heights lovingly" As a previous poster mentioned, I think this refers to the literary term "Deus ex machina," or God comes from a crane. "Some great bellies ache with many bumblebees" This line sounds like it may be referring to a myth of some kind but I'm not sure. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.