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| The Guess Who – Glamour Boy Lyrics
| 8 months ago
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Perfectly matched with the comments, I just heard this song on the radio (WFMU: DJ Glen Jones). Right after, he played Bowie's "Velvet Goldmine". I am sure that was an intentional connection. I had no idea they were connected until looking up the song meaning. That's why I keep coming back to this site, for oldies and not just new songs. :-) |
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| The Guess Who – Glamour Boy Lyrics
| 8 months ago
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Perfectly matched with the comments, I just heard this song on the radio (WFMU: DJ Glen Jones). Right after, he played Bowie's "Velvet Goldmine". I am sure that was an intentional connection. I had no idea they were connected until looking up the song meaning. That's why I keep coming back to this site, for oldies and not just new songs. :-) |
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| The Police – Omegaman Lyrics
| 10 months ago
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The lyrics for me are evocative of a musician tired and needing a change from his band, feeling like he has been trapped for eons in his band. The televisions in the sky remind me of those TVs you see in everybody's windows in the city at night. (City dwellers often don't cover their windows.) |
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| Frank Sinatra – The Lady Is A Tramp Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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@[Mr_X:52919] - The California reference could be an ironic reference to people of the Hollywood set having attitudes contrary to their local climate. |
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| Soho – Hippychick Lyrics
| 11 months ago
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It seems to me the narrator doesn't want to be responsible for changing someone else. She seems to offering guidance to her partner to find his/her own insights through self-examination, but she is not so interesting in doing lots of hard work for someone she is no longer that into.
For example, it seems her lover didn't have care too much about the miner's during their famous strike(s) during the 80s. The song doesn't say what opinion or reaction puts off the narrator, but in song lyrics the narrator usually doesn't get upset because their partner is putting people over money, so my bet is the lyric suggests her partner puts selfishness over fairness and that is something her partner would have to work on in his/her own time.
She is done with the relationship. |
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| The Hollies – Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[caucasian:50684] - Where does he put down women or exploit them? Women are just as welcome to write lyrics like this. They are an indulgence in the passions of desire. The only reason you don't hear women singing these kinds lyrics almost ever is because of the actual bigotry that is the exclusion of women from the music industry. THAT is real, measurable, and backed up by endless testimony of misogynistic comments and actions, even today. |
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| The Hollies – Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Greenport:50683] - Yes, he was. Lots of rock stars start out working as informants. Then they choose to start a musical career and sing about their betrayal of others in public. That way, all the people they double-crossed can easily find them after their shows. :-D |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[JohnAPrestwick:50680] - A post-storm review revealed a problem with the weather forecast. Some storms - "bombs" - develop so quickly, the "bottom drops out". That is, the pressure falls much faster than typically developing storms (even the strong ones). When a low pressure system deepens, the pressure gradient tends to push wind towards the lower pressure. As the wind begins traveling in a straight line and slowly picks up speed, it doesn't have enough time to pick up speed before the Earth's rotation turns the wind to the right (in the Northern Hemisphere). When this happens, the wind keeps being directed around the low pressure center due to the rotation. The wind reaches a certain maximum speed, beyond which it can't accelerate. Weather forecasts can tend to calculate this wind speed. From the wind forecast, they create a wave height forecast as well.
HOWEVER, if a storm develops extremely rapidly with a strong pressure gradient, the wind can accelerate dramatically before the rotation of the Earth can limit it's acceleration towards the low pressure. This storm had such rapid wind acceleration, the forecast wind speed and wave heights were substantially below what they should have been. As a result of the loss of these lives, the intense review of the storm helped to develop a better understanding of how to forecast rapidly developing storms and the waves they produce. The normal assumptions had to be changed. In fact, in meteorology studies, students were then taught they should no longer ignore the "isallobaric" wind effect during rapidly developing storms. - A former meteorologist, who learned this at Penn State a looooong time ago. |
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| The Who – How Many Friends Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[the:50342] orrible oo - Your comment still lives!
I listened to the song for the first time I am aware of just now. Twice. I never once noticed how the guitar part went. Yet, I was *still* highly aware that the guitar was making the song fantastic. That's a new experience for me. (I think I was focusing on the meaning of the song and Roger's vocals, which are great, too.) I suspect some of that greatness of the guitar part is surely the writing, not just the playing, so Pete really delivered with something there. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Songbird Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Jekaterina:49485] - That's great you shared that in 2023 and I only just now was looking for that information. It's never too late to add to this website. For all she wanted the band to stay together, it seems McVie knew the score and put that right into the lyrics. That phrase, from my experience and what seems to be that of many others, is that the final outlook is not a happy ending. The band couldn't last. (Few bands with such talent last long, right?)
I didn't know about McVie or Nicks specifying what Songbirds and The Chain related to (though I had not sought out the meaning, either). Still, it's interesting to hear and nice to think about it. It's also sad to think about Christine McVie being gone. I would have liked to see Fleetwood Mac in concert. I guess I have to settle on watching The Dance. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Songbird Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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From an interpretative approach, if you believe in clues found in style or tone, the narrator is singing from a sad place. The phrase "know the score" is a phrase I don't ever recall being a positive one. You might see it used in movies like a 1930s gangster movie ("Give up, Anthony, you're surrounded and you know the score!"), a 1950s romance ("Who are we kidding? We could never make it together. A star actress and a carpenter? You know the score!"), or a song of an all-wrong love triangle ("You love him dearly, but he has another to adore, and I'm stuck loving you, we all know the score.") These are all made up, but try finding a positive use of that phrase. Then add the the fact that this song clearly doesn't include an uplifting section of melody to raise the appearance of hope and joy. I think those two things point in which direction a universal interpretation would be most acceptable. Find in it what you want, but if you want a common agreement on the meaning, you have to go with finding in the song commonly-used signatures for happiness or sadness. This one goes with sadness. |
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| Midnight Oil – Shakers And Movers Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Ah, there is no helpful history of commentary on this song. It's too late to ask Jim. I saw MO for my first and surely last time in their farewell tour in the US, 2022. :-b
For the history books, I was wondering about "a caveman could a saint become in a hospital ward on the Somme." Personally, my only reference to the Somme is the historically awful Battle of the Somme, the murderous battle of brutal trench warfare that killed endless people for so little purpose except to literally kill off more enemy than one lost of one's own side. Little territory was exchanged. So, maybe a wounded warrior who had become a savage "caveman" fighting in that battle could be wounded, then go to the nearby hospital (on the Somme?) and heal (become a saint)? If not, maybe some famous artist of other person had been a pscyh patient there.
[huh, I just checked up on Van Gogh and he had been a patient near a French River, but it was near the Rhone River, not the Somme.] |
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| Sheila E. – The Glamorous Life Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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All these years later, and nobody ever commented on what problem the protagonist ran into. Did she find herself IN love? Did she find herself lacking love and wanting it. Inquiring minds want to know! |
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| Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Gordon Lightfoot passed away yesterday, May 2, 2023. RIP.
This song is one of the greats. It´s about unrequited love. And if you´ve ever lived the pain of that, you know that you can think about it all you want. The whole song has the singer thinking about it, trying to figure it out, but he really already has it figured out in the only way that matters. She no longer has the right feelings for him and it is over. End of story.
Gordon´s life story has come to an end, but within this song of his, the storyteller will forever be trapped in the cycle of trying to think and feel his way back to what he wants. He will never succeed. Heroes often fail. |
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| The Moody Blues – Question Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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Folks, the prior link needs a correction. Here it is:
https://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/justin-hayward-of-the-moody-blues |
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| First Aid Kit – Out of My Head Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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This song is my lament. Let me out of my head, my thinking and dreaming (even "nightmaring") patterns that have cost me so much time. I am older now, running on low both in my health as well as my ability to withstand my own failings to find, open and go through doors. I am running out of time to work on my realities rather than being stuck inside my dreaming. I need to move out on a journey going somewhere rather than falling behind and running on low. And so I begin. I will let myself out, thank you. :-) |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[emanroga:42898] - War years are not divided years compared to peace years. People unify during war. During peace, they divide over the simplest things that are far less important. That is why the song calls them desperate and divided years. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[emanroga:42897] - War years are not divided years compared to peace years. People unify during war. During peace, they divide over the simplest things that are far less important. That is why the song calls them desperate and divided years. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@Adaptable=] - The song is not about war. The song is about years between wars. There is a difference! Nations that focus on remembering wars end up with war-like societies hankering for another great war with heroes and a perceived historical purpose of superiority. The point is to go from honoring and appreciating all sacrifices (not just war, but indigenous kicked off lands ("signatures stained with tears" does not exclude those years) and other groups oppressed through violated "contracts torn at the edges". Remember all that went into the benefits of the peace, and celebrate and remember the peace, the peaceful "Forgotten Years". That is what even makes the song so poignant these days as once again society (in the Western countries that are primary consumers of Oils music and websites like this), well society is tearing apart. Remember what you're tearing apart before you find out what years are like, those war years well-taught in history books and remembered with annual holidays. Remember the Forgotten Years. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@Adaptable=] - The song is not about war. The song is about years between wars. There is a difference! Nations that focus on remembering wars end up with war-like societies hankering for another great war with heroes and a perceived historical purpose of superiority. The point is to go from honoring and appreciating all sacrifices (not just war, but indigenous kicked off lands ("signatures stained with tears" does not exclude those years) and other groups oppressed through violated "contracts torn at the edges". Remember all that went into the benefits of the peace, and celebrate and remember the peace, the peaceful "Forgotten Years". That is what even makes the song so poignant these days as once again society (in the Western countries that are primary consumers of Oils music and websites like this), well society is tearing apart. Remember what you're tearing apart before you find out what years are like, those war years well-taught in history books and remembered with annual holidays. Remember the Forgotten Years. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[iloverock18:42896] - Garret joined government and you think that is bad? If you think the solution is to refuse to participate unless you have a perfect government, then you will never even have good government. And anarchy is not only bad as a goal, it never existed nor will it ever. All humans and nature itself constantly engage in organic self-organization. Structure and governing processes will always arise and exist so you must either vigilantly participate in the effort to guide their evolution or you are letting someone or something guide that evolution without your opinion or values mattering. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[etron:42895] - Old comment, but I have to reply. I just saw the Oils a few days ago perform this song, my favorite among their best. You are just plain wrong. Understanding references does *not* mean those references are the focus of the song. Below is a comment I have made to reply to a misguided comment like yours. The Oils are not trying to *focus* this song on a call for jingoist war memorialization or even a more serene version of that.
Here is my longer reply to another:
I think you kinda get the point, but you miss the focus of the very title. FORGOTTEN YEARS refers to the years between wars. The phrases "pre-war years" and "post-war years" exist because wars are forgotten less often than the peaceful years. Overall, history is poorly remembered. So, everything is mostly forgotten. As it should be. Information is infinitely vast. The purpose of life is not to reproduce the past in our memories of everything that has happened. We should live. But, of the things we remember, we would do well to *remember* the peaceful years, not just appreciate the sacrifices within war years. Remember the great times in peace, remember the sacrifices and efforts to maintain peace as well. So, read through the lyrics. You can find explicit references to what I refer to. I think you get the general appreciation of past heroes and their sufferings, but the song is NOT focuses as a tribute to them. It is a call to celebrate the actual times of peace. You can see news media do 24/7 obsessive coverage of wars. You will never see news media have weeks of obsessive coverage directly focusing on peace. Ever. Thus the song about what we would do well to remember. Thanks. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[PapaJ:42892] - I think you kinda get the point, but you miss the focus of the very title. FORGOTTEN YEARS refers to the years between wars. The phrases "pre-war years" and "post-war years" exist because wars are forgotten less often than the peaceful years. Overall, history is poorly remembered. So, everything is mostly forgotten. As it should be. Information is infinitely vast. The purpose of life is not to reproduce the past in our memories of everything that has happened. We should live. But, of the things we remember, we would do well to *remember* the peaceful years, not just appreciate the sacrifices within war years. Remember the great times in peace, remember the sacrifices and efforts to maintain peace as well. So, read through the lyrics. You can find explicit references to what I refer to. I think you get the general appreciation of past heroes and their sufferings, but the song is NOT focuses as a tribute to them. It is a call to celebrate the actual times of peace. You can see news media do 24/7 obsessive coverage of wars. You will never see news media have weeks of obsessive coverage directly focusing on peace. Ever. Thus the song about what we would do well to remember. Thanks. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[LYoung:42889] - No, no, no. You're understanding of "definitely" is not so much an understanding but a point of view that you must be right and others clueless and wrong. Such is not the case. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[LYoung:42888] - I think you widely miss the point of the song. The song is about how "these are the years between, these are the years that are hard-fought *and won*" (not "will be won"). The war years are not forgotten relative to the peaceful years. Turn on the history ocumentaries on the TV and you can find war documentaries. Try searching for "peace documentaries". You might find most (especially young) people unable to tell you about history, but that goes double for peaceful times vs war times, including myself. I can tell you all about battles around the world involving the US and even many without. I can describe the battle of Jutland and the Russo-Japanese War. I couldn't tell about the peaceful years in Jutland or nearby. Nope. History lessons (and the nature of men who primarily write them) is disproportionately about war. Perhaps if women controlled more of the agenda, lessons would not be so disproportionate. So, ask someone in the US or Europe about 1942's biggest event, and they will probably tell you it was WII (ongoing since 1939). Ask them about 1947 and what will it be? *Forgotten*. In fact, my literal first memory of 1947 is US legislation to restructure...**the military** (National Security Act of 1947, as was drilled into my skull at the US Air Force Academy when I was a cadet there).
Thus we get to the point of the song. The Oils don't want to perpetuate focus on war, especially the myths about heroes and how war is the answer to many problems. The Oils are well aware of the benefits and but also the costs. The demands put on war heroes are usually a reflection of societies failure to remember the value of the Forgotten Years, a failure to put in the hard work of focusing on unity, resolving problems rather than posturing as a victim and wanting more control and oppression of others. The song contains appreciation of the costs of war and also manipulative and deceptive "diplomacy" and internal suppression ("signatures stained with tears" is not just about war victory treaties), but the song is *explicitly* about the "years between" the wars. You can even hear citizens refer to years "between WWI and WWII". You don't hear people refer to years "between" whatever-you-call-pre-WWI and whatever-you-call-post-WWII". In fact, we have a phrase "Post-war years". We don't have "post-peace years". Peace is rarely the most referenced phase in history. The peaceful years should not be the Forgotten Years. It was in those years yet more wars were avoided and more happiness was found. |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[mats_fan_710:42885] - Thanks for your comment.
I just saw the Oils in NYC on Father's Day 2022. They closed the show (before the encore) with this song. I was a bit disappointed to realize half or more of the attendees did not feel the poignant depth of this song. These peaceful times are not only the times to enjoy, but the times to painfully reflect on if we're doing a sufficiently good job of not ending up again in the memorable times of war and 24/7 news coverage of "shock and awe". Great song with great, wondrous, painful recognition of the realities of peace and how we appreciate it (or don't). This might be the end of the "best time" to which you refer, and so these must *not* become Forgotten Years.
One thing so obvious still puzzles me. When you learn about ancient history, you typically learn more about wars that start and end empires rather than any evidence of how populations were faring in terms of happiness or at least economic well-being. For example, few people could even make a decent guess at the first civilization. One example is Agade. What normal citizen recognizes that name? How much effort has gone into studying civilizations outside of war vs *just* the efforts gone into the agonizingly detailed studies of just one year of the battles of WWII. The obsession with battles misses the point of our existence. It is NOT helpful to maintaining peace to study only war. War victories are the culmination of violent conflict. Maintenance of peace is the thing we need even more. I hope we can keep it up, even if keeping the peace is boring and leads to "Forgotten Years".
Thanks for your comment! |
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| Midnight Oil – Forgotten Years Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[mats_fan_710:42884] - Thanks for your comment.
I just saw the Oils in NYC on Father's Day 2022. They closed the show (before the encore) with this song. I was a bit disappointed to realize half or more of the attendees did not feel the poignant depth of this song. These peaceful times are not only the times to enjoy, but the times to painfully reflect on if we're doing a sufficiently good job of not ending up again in the memorable times of war and 24/7 news coverage of "shock and awe". Great song with great, wondrous, painful recognition of the realities of peace and how we appreciate it (or don't). This might be the end of the "best time" to which you refer, and so these must *not* become Forgotten Years.
One thing so obvious still puzzles me. When you learn about ancient history, you typically learn more about wars that start and end empires rather than any evidence of how populations were faring in terms of happiness or at least economic well-being. For example, few people could even make a decent guess at the first civilization. One example is Agade. What normal citizen recognizes that name? How much effort has gone into studying civilizations outside of war vs *just* the efforts gone into the agonizingly detailed studies of just one year of the battles of WWII. The obsession with battles misses the point of our existence. It is NOT helpful to maintaining peace to study only war. War victories are the culmination of violent conflict. Maintenance of peace is the thing we need even more. I hope we can keep it up, even if keeping the peace is boring and leads to "Forgotten Years".
Thanks for your comment! |
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| The Dubliners – The Black Velvet Band Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[kim1166996:41471] - That interpretation is fully inconsistent with the lyrics. The judge himself SAYS the lad was betrayed. This song is about how the British Empire used the penal system to procure labor. Incentive existed for people to be framed as criminals.\r\n\r\nHere is one example of an analysis explaining the song. https://www.irishmusicdaily.com/black-velvet-band |
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| The Dubliners – The Black Velvet Band Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[kim1166996:41470] - That interpretation is fully inconsistent with the lyrics. The judge himself SAYS the lad was betrayed. This song is about how the British Empire used the penal system to procure labor. Incentive existed for people to be framed as criminals.\r\n\r\nHere is one example of an analysis explaining the song. https://www.irishmusicdaily.com/black-velvet-band |
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| Van Morrison – Raglan Road Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[sdz896542:41323] - I think the author is letting you know - by writing such a full poem of the story(!) - that his experience was signficant, and it sure was not good. He is rueing the notion that he could dismiss grief so easily. The song in that context is not so hopeful. For the author, the pain of those memories will always be, until his memories die with him. |
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| Celtic Woman – Spanish Lady Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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What the hell is that chorus about? :-D \n\nIf it\'s like most pop songs, it has no intended meaning figuratively and maybe doesn\'t have any literal meaning either. Perhaps I have found the origin of "That is whack!" |
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| Eric Clapton – Cocaine Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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Does anyone else think songs like this actually tempt people into using drugs, even if the song is about how the drugs can ruin you? Seriously, in high school and college kids would happily cheer to the "Cocaine" part of the lyrics, and they ALL knew what the song was about. I think some definitely got excited at the prospect of using. Hell, they knew Eric used, despite the song meaning. How the hell did he learn they were bad. HE DID THEM! That's the sad takeaway that souls eager for misadventure will see and hear. And I am sure some did, some got hooked, and some even died. The song, IMO, was too damn good for the good of any message about the destruction wrought by drugs. Does anybody have that feeling or belief about some great songs like this? |
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| Eric Clapton – Bell Bottom Blues Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[lyricstudent:35253] o add to a response made years ago, Bell Bottom Blues are what you have when you are on your knees looking at someones Bell Bottoms. He is not addressing the top. That would be standing. He explicitly talks about crawling back. That is a CLEAR reason to mention Bell Bottoms. Further, as the reply from mussman717 said, he actually gave Patti a pair.
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| Eric Clapton – Bell Bottom Blues Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[lyricstudent:35252] - To add to a response made years ago, Bell Bottom Blues are what you have when you are on your knees looking at someones Bell Bottoms. He is not addressing the top. That would be standing. He explicitly talks about crawling back. That is a CLEAR reason to mention Bell Bottoms. Further, as the reply from mussman717 said, he actually gave Patti a pair. |
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| Eric Clapton – Just Like A Prisoner Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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I wish there were some interesting comments here! This song is haunting to me. It just popped into my head now and I was wondering what takes people might have on it.
For me, I am a prisoner to feelings that won't be requited. Not like a prisoner who doesn't have a moral compass. However, I feel like the song is not necessarily trying to say that (if anything is being "tried" anyway, since music is clearly for interpretation by the listener). I think the connection I have is my heart just doesn't know any better. It doesn't know it's making the wrong choice. So, the feelings will always be there. On the other hand, is not that normal? If you love someone for who they are, do you love them less for not liking you? |
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| Eiffel 65 – Blue (Da Ba Dee) Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[MaximumDepth:34727] - I was being indirect about the movie Ciricle of Iron because, great or not, I didn't want to reveal the plot. It was dreamt up by Bruce Lee himself, who then abandoned his project shortly before he died. Others decided to bring his project to fruition, but when they did it was no longer Lee's. |
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| Eiffel 65 – Blue (Da Ba Dee) Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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Damn! Many years ago when this was out I would be dancing each week at this club that played this song near the end of each night. Everybody enjoyed it, but I felt like somehow I was "late to the party". I ONLY heard this song at the club. It was not played on the radio stations (remember those?) that I listened to, and none of my friends ever introduced me to this song. I heard the lyrics and thought - "Oh, this guy is saying something that everyone is jamming to, and I have no clue what he's saying." Now, god knows how many years later, I found out the lyrics are just babble! LOL! Now that I am wise, I feel like the main character Cord in Circle of Iron. The wisdom I sought was nothing but what I knew about my own thoughts (babbling lyrics) from the start. I laugh and walk away to learn from a true teacher, the blind man. |
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| Enya – Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[heavynova:34102] - For me, that very personal reference to Rob Dickens diminishes the work, like a great actor in a moving scene choosing to break the fourth wall and suddenly making a "shout out" to a colleague. The reference to Ross is similar, though I choose to think of the Ross Sea and that helps restore the sea theme for me. |
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| Enya – Orinoco Flow [Sail Away] Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[tesseracts:34101] - Thanks for the interesting background. This song, though, already had another entry you might have put this under. |
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| Pat Benatar – Shadows Of The Night Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[Sandhedspile:33513] - When none of the songwriters, producers, or performers involved are Satanists or even close, what would make you think they would suddenly have a one-off moment where they were *all* not only OK with it but had the inspiration to initiate the communication of such a ridiculous intent. First, believing in Satan is a form of religion and I don't think you'll find religion as source of the messages these folks communicated. They liked art, not rank negativity. |
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