| Ben Howard – Black Flies Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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"No Man is an Island", is obviously a reference to John Dunne's poem on the connectedness of mankind, that all men make up a continent and each of us is diminished witht he demise of another. That said, an island is isolated from the world by the ocean (his erstwhile friend/lover whatever), and if Howard feels like an island now, at least he's come a long way since the time when he was just a stone buffeted about by the ocean, which must have seemed immensly more powerful than him. Still we get the sense that he misses this person - "the road is wearier with that fool found in your place". Ultimately I think he is saying that he accepts that all people are connected but in the case of this person he's hoping their paths do not cross again once they part company. All the imagery is isolating, cold, separating and doleful. Beautiful evocative stuff. |
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| Ben Howard – Black Flies Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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"No Man is an Island", is obviously a reference to John Dunne's poem on the connectedness of mankind, that all men make up a continent and each of us is diminished witht he demise of another. That said, an island is isolated from the world by the ocean (his erstwhile friend/lover whatever), and if Howard feels like an island now, at least he's come a long way since the time when he was just a stone buffeted about by the ocean, which must have seemed immensly more powerful than him. Still we get the sense that he misses this person - "the road is wearier with that fool found in your place". Ultimately I think he is saying that he accepts that all people are connected but in the case of this person he's hoping their paths do not cross again once they part company. All the imagery is isolating, cold, separating and doleful. Beautiful evocative stuff. |
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| Tom Waits – Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I don't think this song is about suicide as previous posters maintain, although it is steeped in melancholia and nostalgia in that beautiful way that Waits does so well. To me it's the tale of a traveling bachelor, wandering the globe and drowning his sorrows trying to forget about the woman he loves who ripped his heart out, but she's with him all the while, in his thoughts, waltzing with him as he threads his way through animated night scenes of foreign cities that accentuate his loneliness. Losing his St Christopher doesn't mean that he's finished wandering, only that he goes on traveling but without the protection of the saints. On he goes, remembering Matilda until the last moment of each day - late in the dark when he curls up drunkenly in some dingy hotel, and wishes his lost love good night before drifting off to sleep. Sad and beautiful. |
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| Califone – Stepdaughter Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| As with most of Califone's work the lyrics here are opaque and more poetic than literal. The title, 'Stepdaughter' is obviously a reference to Sleeping Beauty, as evidenced by the cutter (or wood cutter) delivering an Elk's heart instead of a human heart to the evil step mother as false proof of her murder. But this song evokes more than the images of a children's story it seems to deal with the emotions and motivations of the wood cutter himself. His mercy (or lack of nerve) allowed the step daughter to escape (dissolve into the dark woods), and despite the fact that he's signed his own death warrant (Step daughter made my dying bed), and the fact that his name is not even known in posterity (scratch out my name...) he would do it all over again, because - maybe - she was as beautiful and ephemeral to him as steam and soft light. | |
| Kasabian – Reason Is Treason (Jacknife Lee Mix) Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| This song is angry, "Fight it, Fight it". It seems deeply subversive to me. - You can't face the fact that your country is using you! - But he won't quite express why he feels the need to rebel and rage against the establishment, for do do so would be treasonous. But isn't that reason enough? | |
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