| Dr. Dog – Distant Light Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This seems to me to be a religious song, but an offbeat and unusual one. The "distant light" is God and/or heaven, and the stranger in the second verse is the devil. From the point of view of the narrator, the important thing is the search, not any expectation of reaching the destination. | |
| The Shins – Port of Morrow Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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There's a lot in this song, but there's only two areas that I don't feel other comments have covered adequately already: >Under my hat it reads "the lines are all imagined" >A fact of life [I know to hide from / I must impress on] my little girls This is an existentialist statement --that all the rules and boundaries governing human behavior are imaginary. He hides them from his children, because they need structure and discipline at this age. The second time through, however, he reverses it to emphasize how important he thinks it is to teach his children this existentialist perspective >I saw a photograph: Cologne in '27 >And then a postcard after the bombs in '45 >Must've been a world of evil clowns that let it happen >But now I recognize, dear listeners >That you were there and so was I" 1927 was before the war, so the city was beautiful and pristine in that picture. In 1945, it was destroyed by the war. When you see the old postcards, you feel sick and amazed at the human capacity for destruction and terror. Your first instinct is to distance yourself from these events which took place before your birth, but Mercer challenges us to recognize our kinship with the people of that time. |
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| Os Mutantes – Panis et Circenses Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| One of the best songs ever written --it's about being an artist in a world that doesn't care. He sings his song, he lets loose the lions and the tigers, he murders his lover in public, he plants the tree of dreams, and no one notices, because they are all preoccupied with being born and dying (and dining). | |
| Fountains of Wayne – Fire Island Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Some other comments have noted the contrast between the full-on party of the lyrics, and the gentle wistfulness of the melody. I think the reason lies in the fact that this is really a nostalgia song. The singer isn't actually the age of the narrator --he might even be closer to the age of the parents --but he's remembering back to the last time that absolute freedom seemed like a real possibility. It reminds me a bit of the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't It Be Nice," which similarly takes on the voice and perspective of a much younger narrator. I was struck by this thought when I recently saw a video of a live performance of this song, and the lead singer was silver-haired --"wow," I thought, "they really aren't teenagers anymore." Any way you slice it, however, this is just a great song. "We're old enough by now, to take care of each other...," what a great line. I never lived the unrestrained suburban adolescence myself, but at least through this song I do get to re-live it! |
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| The Shins – Turn On Me Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This goes above and beyond the actual lyrics --it's just my take: I hear it as being about two otherwise straight guys who briefly had a "more than friends" relationship during their youth at a Catholic boarding school. As adults, the other guy completely denies the relationship ever happened and has completely rejected the narrator as a way of sweeping the whole thing under the rug. The narrator has also moved on with his life, but he misses the friendship and is both angry and a little contemptuous at how the other guy reacted to the whole thing. I'm not suggesting this actually happened to James Mercer, it is just what the lyrics suggest to me --maybe because it's so rare to hear a song about the intense emotions that can still exist in a purely Platonic friendship. |
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| Oregon Bike Trails – High School Lover Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I hear this as a guy talking to a long-time friend (since high school) he's developed feelings for. It seems like he's really important in her life (she sent him a pile of letters), but he wants her to be upfront about whether she sees him as a romantic interest or just a friend. Eventually, after accidentally seeing her partially undressed, he just blurts out his feelings. Even though I love this song, I find the narrator kind of unsympathetic. He seems to want Elizabeth to make the first move, he's a little contemptuous of her and her obvious affection --romantic or otherwise --for him, and when he does make his move, it's not exactly the most romantic of confessions ("why didn't you let me hit that back in our school days?") But maybe that's part of what makes it a good song. It's definitely true to a certain age and mindset. The overall narrative reminds me of "Come on Eileen" which has a similar theme. |
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| Awolnation – Swinging From The Castles Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Tomahawk and Fleet Foxes are both alternative bands --it sounds like he finds their sounds to be derivative, since he compares them to the Karate Kid film remake. The concept of this whole verse seems to be how all current pop culture is retreads and remakes. I'm not sure about the next verse, but the last one seems like a comment on hypocrisy in religion. | |
| Hot Hot Heat – 21@12 Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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This is all just guesses, but since no one else has taken a stab at it: The narrator is talking to his friend, who is looking in the mirror in a bathroom at a bar on the night before his 21st birthday. He's saying goodbye to his father's son --i.e. himself as a child --and hello to his child's father --which is himself as an adult. He's feeling very ambivalent about leaving childhood behind --he's drunk already and getting in fights. The narrator and the birthday boy have known each other since they were 12 (1999). They idolize and envy some other guys also at the bar --really no better than they are ("scumbags from a better town"). The tombstone in his hand is his drink --maybe he's already trying to drink himself to death. He's fighting to give away his dignity and self-respect but he'll want them back when he sobers up. He may also have a child already --that he isn't taking care of --some lines seem to hint at that: "fertilize the village green", "obligations plague you", "your poor child's father". However it might just be metaphorical. |
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| Van Morrison – Madame George Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The confusion with the extra set of lyrics is because there are two versions of this song. The more famous version is from Astral Weeks, and the lyrics are as above. The other version is from a late release of some early recording sessions, and has the extra verse that a couple of people have included in their posts. Morrison has always denied the popular interpretation that MG is a drug-dealing transvestite (the drugs presumably being the item that she drops into the snow to hide from the cops), but the deleted verse seems to add extra support to that idea. |
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| The Kinks – Pretty Polly Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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There's always a tension in Kinks songs between celebrating and satirizing conventional values. On the face of this, it's a pretty straightforward song about a young girl who goes off to the city and lives a wild --and we can assume sexual --life on her own, and then comes back home. It seems as though the Kinks are waving a disapproving finger at her --but some ambiguity creeps in with the two versions of the "chains" line. Are the chains on or off for Polly? And is that a good or a bad thing? |
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| Wyclef Jean – Guantanamera Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I always thought Lauryn's quip about the woman turning "dinero into dinera" was a reference to the then-current news story where actor Robert De Niro was accused of patronizing a French prostitute. In other words, she turned the man ("De Niro") into money ("dinero"). I also hear what is rendered above as "act sent" as "accent" as in the way she spoke and "call late" as "got laid". Regardless, the entire verse is clearly about a high-powered, high-class multi-racial prostitute and her powerful clients. |
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| Brett Dennen – Sydney, I'll Come Running Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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"Come correct" is an idiom originating in black American slang --roughly meaning do something right. Basically the narrator is challenging his friend's antagonists to provide solid proof instead of vague accusations. When I first heard this song, I assumed Sydney was a woman, but a close reading of the lyrics suggests a male childhood friend who has been accused of an unspecified crime. The song rather sounds to me as if Sydney might actually be guilty, despite Brett's vigorous defense of him. I'm fascinated by the question of what the crime was, and whether it's based on a true story --but haven't found any answers. Great song regardless. |
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