| Toad the Wet Sprocket – High On A Riverbed Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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" you suddenly stop and realize that it's going to be ok" Because you're stoned. That's the only way to be high on a riverbed - riverbeds are always the low point in the terrain. |
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| Robyn Hitchcock – Queen Elvis Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Reminds me of Van Morrison's "Madame George." | |
| Robyn Hitchcock – Certainly Clickot Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| It's not "clickot," it "clicquot," as in the type of champagne. | |
| Toad the Wet Sprocket – Jam Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| it sounds like that on the record to me. | |
| The Sundays – Skin & Bones Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This song makes me think of Christian Bale in "American Psycho." He's full of himself, and obsessed with his own image: "Whether the world will see I'm a better man than others by far" He's a sociopath: "Oh how are you Can't say I really care at the end of it all" And he hacks people to pieces! "Just one thing I've found We're just flesh and blood Nothing much more Something, just something I've found That we're skin and bones" |
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| Bob Dylan – Clothes Line Saga Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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wth? copyright restrictions? All the other Basement Tapes songs are here... It is generally speculated that this song is Bob Dylan's response to "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry, a song Dylan enjoyed. After a while we took in the clothes Nobody said very much Just some old wild shirts and a couple pairs of pants Which nobody really wanted to touch Mama come in and picked up a book An’ Papa asked her what it was Someone else asked, “What do you care?” Papa said, “Well, just because” Then they started to take back their clothes Hang ’em on the line It was January the thirtieth And everybody was feelin’ fine The next day everybody got up Seein’ if the clothes were dry The dogs were barking, a neighbor passed Mama, of course, she said, “Hi!” “Have you heard the news?” he said, with a grin “The Vice-President’s gone mad!” “Where?” “Downtown.” “When?” “Last night” “Hmm, say, that’s too bad!” “Well, there’s nothin’ we can do about it,” said the neighbor “It’s just somethin’ we’re gonna have to forget” “Yes, I guess so,” said Ma Then she asked me if the clothes was still wet I reached up, touched my shirt And the neighbor said, “Are those clothes yours?” I said, “Some of ’em, not all of ’em” He said, “Ya always help out around here with the chores?” I said, “Sometime, not all the time” Then my neighbor, he blew his nose Just as Papa yelled outside “Mama wants you t’ come back in the house and bring them clothes” Well, I just do what I’m told So, I did it, of course I went back in the house and Mama met me And then I shut all the doors |
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| Bob Dylan – Odds and Ends Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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From wikipedia: The chorus of the opening song–"Odds and ends, odds and ends/Lost time is not found again"–functions as "a kind of editorial comment on the entire Basement Tapes", writes Andy Gill, emphasizing the songs' "fragmentary form and fleeting pleasures".[3] Heylin suggests that this was one of the final basement songs to be recorded, and that here Dylan acknowledges that "when it came to spouting catchphrase choruses while espousing mock profundities in the verses, the process had just about run its course. Dylan admits as much by singing, 'I've had enough, my box is clean/You know what I'm saying and you know what I mean'."[4] |
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| Wilco – I Love My Label Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Cover of a Nick Lowe song - he was a big deal in the New Wave movement, wrote "What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding" for Elvis Costello. | |
| Wilco – Whole Love Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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the line "cold captain tied to the mast" is probably a reference to the Odyssey, when Odysseus wants to hear the song of the sirens and ties himself to the mast of the ship so he won't be seduced by their song and steer the ship into the rocks. Sort of the ancient equivalent of giving someone your car keys before you go get shit faced. |
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| Wilco – Black Moon Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Kinda surprised nobody's said this yet, but I interpreted the lines "I was always right about the morning" and And I'm waiting For you Waiting forever Are you awake now too? as being about an insomniac waiting for his restfully sleeping companion to wake up. And the musics's so somnambulistic besides. |
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| mewithoutYou – Elephant in the Dock Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| It's the chaplain, not the Elephant, speaking. I think he's saying he's given his life to the Church (emblems of kindness) but not to God (the kindness they were emblems of) | |
| PJ Harvey – In the Dark Places Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"As to what she may mean when she sings, "not one man has and not one woman has revealed the secrets of the world" maybe she is reflecting as a nihilist and fears with our unlimited means we are incapable of progress. " Hmm... I'd go wit that, except for choice of the word "revealed" as opposed to "discovered." "discovered" would jive better with your interpretation. "revealed" seems to insinuate that they hold the secrets of this world, but refuse to give them up. Not that I know what that means. But if we believe she's a good enough writer to choose her words carefully, I'm left a bit unsatisfied with your interpretation, even if I don't have a better one. |
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| mewithoutYou – Cardiff Giant Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant Tiger and peacock are the two animals who got caught after the trainwreck; they didn't accept Elephant's offered salvation. Now they are back in the circus, and the experience is hellish for them. |
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| mewithoutYou – Grist for the Malady Mill Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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There's a parallel between Elephant and Casey Jones, as both died as the result of a train wreck in order to save the lives of others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones "Because Jones stayed on board to slow the train, he no doubt saved the passengers from serious injury and death (Jones himself was the only fatality of the collision)." |
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| Low – Done Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Yeah, you can read "tell her I'm done" as the end of a relationship. Or it could be something more interesting than that... The language in this song is so interesting. It has a grandeur - "lair," "wind and sand", blood and silver, and so on. It all makes me think of a gangster movie. So I'm reading it as a guy who stole from the mob (silver in hand), a hit man was sent to kill him in his "lair," but he killed the hit man (blood on my lips.) But he knows he's never going to be safe, so he leaves home to wander. And can't even take the risk of telling his girl that he's gone, or they'll come after her. He's "done" - either he knows he's already dead, or he just knows the life he's led up to this point is over. |
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| M83 – New Map Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Gonzalez has said that each song on CD1 has a matching song on CD2, and this is the matching song for "Midnight City." Both are about Los Angeles - Midnight City's about the external excitement of being in the City of Lights, this one's about the inner excitement. | |
| My Morning Jacket – Circuital Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I think it's "hallowed ground," not "hollow grounds," which sounds like a bad name for a coffee shop. | |
| Fleet Foxes – Montezuma Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I interpret these lines to be at the end of his life, on his deathbed. Are there people around him, or is all he sees the cracks in the ceiling? | |
| Spoon – Out Go The Lights Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I agree with nswnsn in that I think this is a wisftul, sadly nostalgic, elliptic song about a past love in a past era. But for what it's worth, Noel Murray at AV Club says it's Britt Daniels paying homage to Factory Records. Factory was the home of Joy Division/New Order, Happy Mondays, etc. I don't the song sonically sounds like it's paying homage to Factory, so maybe it's in the lyrics. Haven't seen "24 Hour Party People," which is about Factory Records, either. | |
| Vampire Weekend – I Think Ur a Contra Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Reagan-backed, CIA funded revolutionaries. Imperialist punks. Walking contradictions. |
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| Vampire Weekend – I Think Ur a Contra Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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The Nicaraguan Contras were revolutionaries, fighting against the Sandinista government. But they were CIA-funded, Reagan-supported revolutionaries, so one might call them revolutionaries on the side of imperialism, which is a strange combination, a paradox. I think that's the point of the whole album; not everything falls along nice neat lines. Most of the punk bands - like The Clash, whose album Sandinista! was clearly an inspiration for this album - were from middle class families. They sang about communism and Castro, etc., but they went to good schools and had friends with pools. So, in short, to say "I think you're a Contra" is to say "sure, you're a revolutionary, but you also voted for Reagan." |
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