| Beirut – The Rip Tide Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| After reading the definition of a "rip tide" I wonder if subconsciously Condon wasn't in some ways struggling with his newfound need to settle down. As Dictionary.com describes it, "a stretch of turbulent water in the sea, caused by the meeting of currents or abrupt changes in depth", could be interpreted as a conflict between the paths that two (or more) of his inner drives have been taking (e.g. fame vs. creativity). This collision of forces then may have left him feeling helpless to choose either one, resulting in the somewhat calming sense of letting the flow take him where it may. | |
| A.C. Newman – Secretarial Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Wow, I wasn't sure what this was about, but war never entered my mind. I had thought the refrain started "Can't take the math", so the song had something to do with someone taking an administrative job because they didn't have an advanced education. Hence, Secretarial. Haha, I was way off. I think IGotIt got it, except that the song is more about Dick Cheney, who was the link between the US presidents Bush. Under H. W. Bush, Cheney was Secretary of Defense, leading the nation to the first Iraq war in the early 90s. Under George W. Bush, he was Vice-President, and was rumored to have pulled his superior's strings in order to get the military back to the Middle East to finish the job. The line "let the son in, we've been gunning for promotion" represents the former Cabinet Secretary wanting to move up to VP, and "The motion to defeat it is repeated" would then be the Congressional vote to go back to war after the 9/11/2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Furthermore, "We've been divided, we've decided it's a problem we can live with" speaks of the general split between hawkish Republicans and dove-ish Democrats in the US government about going to war. The situation became a non-issue for the military-minded Cheney since he was able to get legislation passed approving an invasion of Iraq in both cases. The repeated line, "will it happen to me?" refers to the 2007 assassination attempt by a suicide bomber on the Vice President while he was in Afghanistan seeking Pakistan's help in defeating the Taliban. The US at the time had been having difficulty wiping out their foe with traditional Western weapons, i.e. "baby artillery". "Lady, it's secretarial" may be directed at the US Secretary of State between the Bush presidencies, Madeleine Albright and/or the much Republican-despised wife of the Democratic head of state who served between them, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ironically, she would later become "Secretarial" when president Barrack Obama named her to the same Cabinet post Albright had occupied. |
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| A.C. Newman – The Changeling (Get Guilty) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Overall, I think this song is about one person in a relationship trying to make the other feel bad for an indiscretion, probably for cheating on her. The singer's partner found evidence of him having an affair by going through the pockets of his clothes. He senses that she is now going to punish him by trying to make him feel guilty. The female's method for doing this is to say something hurtful in the form of a joke. A cutting comment, a smart alack response. She wants him to feel bad and for that so he will leave her. "Change your mind!!" is either the singer's plea to his wife/girlfriend to let him off the hook, or her plea for him to stop seeing the other woman. Maybe both. "She kissed the back of my hand and she smiled" is how the songwriter experiences his woman's anger. In his eyes, she is pretending to be nice while breaking up their relationship, but really acting that way in order to make him feel worse. His response is to say something that he later regrets, and feels even worse for saying it: "I will die with my foot in my mouth". And he does it in that same passive-aggressive manner of making a pointed, pain-inducing joke, just like she did earlier: "With the same cruel sense of humor that I came with". However, the singer somehow feels like his wife/girlfriend might forgive him for his infidelity due to the fact that he did, in the end, take responsibility for his actions. He got guilty. |
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