| Tori Amos – Cooling Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[sarule:28009] yes yes yes | |
| Tori Amos – Talula Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| Like she says in her quote, she’s referring to loss - as in the loss of a piece of yourself when a relationship ends. I think she’s named this missing piece “Talula”. She’s calling for her in this song, the wild and wiley bit of herself that she feels is getting away. She references Ann Bolen, who Henry adored but she was so strong willed and bold and confident, he eventually couldn’t take her anymore and had her killed. I think Tori empathizes with the feeling and sentiment in that verse. As for the bridge, she’s talking about several things here. Big Bird doubles for youth and the “polite, everything in its right place” attitude of the actual big bird - but also THE big bird, Talula that’s flying away, she’s hanging onto it all by a thread, and she’s calling for it - a bit of a shout. I know about his only bride and the Russians: another reference to Josephine and Napoleon- that tragic story of unrequited love and neglect, and Tori says she knows all about that. I’ve got my rape hat on- this is real deal Tori saying that she knows how others perceive her, like she feels that rape is top of mind when you think of her, but she shakes it off with the accessories line in her spectacular Tori way. She says I’m not doing this life, the music, for the money and the whole thing is above me, whatever or whoever (I don’t know who the father is) divine power has control of it. I think the whole song is a reflection on the brokenness of the end of a relationship, finding the pieces of yourself that you felt like you lost, salvaging what can be saved, pulling yourself back together, and looking forward to a more free and confident future: mind, body, and soul - not perfect - but intact. | |
| Tori Amos – Almost Rosey Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[starpatroller:27279] I think when she's referring to Violet, she's talking about her miscarriage. She refers to her elsewhere in her songs and also references flowers. [Example-In Playboy Mommy: "Somewhere where the orchids grow, I can't find those church bells that played when you died."] She talks about how the cause was identified, because they never identified what caused the miscarriage. There are also other references regarding how she thought her love and strength of would be strong enough to keep the pregnancy viable, but like she says in her song 'Honey', "When we died, I tried to bribe the undertaker." The same is true here: you "can't seduce seduction." You know - when something happens, it's going to go that way and you can't change or make it different. It happened. Another of life's many unexpected and unchangeable life events. So in this song, she's talking about how a lot of things can affect you on several levels. Culturally, globally, and in this particular verse regarding her miscarriage, very deeply and achingly personal pain and heartache. She is saying that you have two options: just let it hurt, or try to see the silver lining of things and do your best to go on with a positive, bit more optimistic approach. But she's realistic; she knows it's not perfect, and that life is tough - which is why she says you'll feel ALMOST fine, ALMOST rosey. And after all, isn't that the best anyone could really hope for? | |
| Amanda Palmer – The Point of It All Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Here's what I believe she's talking about here: the sad, empty life of a heroin addict who couldn't, and then wouldn't kick the habit and ultimately just died from OD'ing or being too hard on their body with the drug. The end part: I think she's alluding to the fact that the person died. Not sure if you've heard the old expression "getting fitted for a pine box." The men who had some dimensions to take were measuring the addicts' dimensions, and then Amanda says "they sure made a mess of your face." I'm sure you've been to funerals with an open casket and the person lying there looks totally different from how they did in life, pretty much a mess. But you've got the needle, "I guess that's the point in the end" is the jab to us - this line could also be written, "and I guess that's what hurts the most in the end." Amanda Palmer is the most phenomenal song writer. |
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| Amanda Palmer – The Point of It All Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[MorganULookLikeHell:27017] I think she's alluding to the fact that the person died. Not sure if you've heard the old expression "getting fitted for a pine box." The men who had some dimensions to take were measuring the addicts' dimensions, and then Amanda says "they sure made a mess of your face." I'm sure you've been to funerals with an open casket and the person lying there looks totally different from how they did in life, pretty much a mess. That's what I believe she's talking about here: the sad, empty life of a heroin addict who couldn't, and then wouldn't kick the habit and ultimately just died from OD'ing or being too hard on their body with the drug. But you've got the needle, "I guess that's the point in the end" is the jab to us - this line could also be written, "and I guess that's what hurts the most in the end." | |
| Tori Amos – Cruel Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| @[mikeygoestohollywood:26030] YES YES YES this is it. | |
| PJ Harvey – Bitter Branches Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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War affects the present and future of many more than just the poor soldier being sent to fight and possibly die. War will make you bitter. Whether a family member who has suffered a loss, or a soldier who has survived war but seen and done unimaginable atrocities, it all adds up to senselessness in the end. War solves nothing and creates pain, shame, and/or resentment through each person affected. Like a twisted, stunted tree filled with suffering and pain, there is indeed none more bitter than the wood making up the branches signifying the people of the bitter family tree of a war-torn country. Bitter roots make bitter branches. PJ has a similar lyric in the song "England" on the same album that conveys how she, too, is affected: "I cannot go on as I am - Withered vine reaching from the country that I love, England." |
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| PJ Harvey – All and Everyone Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[zillah:7999] Excellent. Thank you! | |
| PJ Harvey – In the Dark Places Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[blue412:7998] Hi blue. Love PJ and this album is amazing. Love all of your thoughts on it, and agree for the most part with all you have to say. Here's what I think about this particularly spectacular track in response to your questions. Imagine, if you will, ANY and EVERY war or battle - the Crusades, any world war, or battle that you can imagine across time. I think that's important to remember because war is recurring. It's key to concept of the entire album. The mountains are indeed damned because many soldiers die crossing them, even though there is no actual fighting happening. They are cold and high, there is no food to hunt, it's too cold to get proper rest; the conditions are plain and simply hellish. The line repetition goes back to what I was saying about all the wars throughout time - she's counting out all the places where there have been battles fought: in the fields, in the forests, at night and all day, fighting all throughout the fall, spring, summer and winter. And always, it's the young men they want to send. They want the young, strong, virile, brave, passionate and unafraid to fight, and possibly die. So these countries, these governments, whoever is ultimately the big "THEY" - they send our young men, and our young men are on the battlefield. They are the ones in the trenches, scared to death, hiding with guns in these unimaginable places, under these senseless, horrific conditions, in the dark, where no man should be - literally no man's land - again and again and again over these thousands of years of wars and battles and fighting. And we keep doing it! We keep fighting! I think the "So" in the lyric is really a bit of sarcasm. Like a nonsensical proof of sorts. As in - "War solves absolutely nothing, so let's go to war!" She says it again and again and by the 3 or 4th time, her voice is almost agonizing. You know the part when she's like "Our young mennnnnn" and her voice goes high and painful. I think she reflecting on that loss - all those young men, senselessly dead. And for WHAT? What is this amazing secret that we should all know about? What a sad and crying shame. And after all this time, not one man or woman has learned, revealed, discovered, unveiled, through war, the secrets of this world: Whatever it is that we keep fighting over, whatever in this world that is so fucking important that we keep killing each other over, it hasn't presented itself yet. War is hell. So, shall we go to war? |
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| Tori Amos – Beulah Land Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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If you ask God or the cosmos or the universal spirits to send a sign to let you know that a higher power doesn't exist, and then you receive a reply, the existence of a higher power is completely confirmed. So yeah, give me religion and a lobotomy lol. |
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| Tori Amos – Beulah Land Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[ericacmiller:7171] I meant to also add that when she says the line "Maybe I don't wanna go to live where you're not" she is saying maybe she is saying "maybe I don't want to live in a life without hope". So what we do is, we float. We keep on going, with all of our hopes of heaven and our fears of hell, our weird, unfaithful faith. And we'll sink (rubber boat) and hope for the best, despite the fact that it's so weird and improbable and mentally + spiritually dangerous (crocodile) until we die or grow with some kind of stronger conviction. But tell me when I won't need to keep on hoping anymore - hoping in the face of all the contradictions and inconsistency and uncertainty... i'm still hoping on heaven. But anytime, if I'm wrong, gimme a sign to let me know to give up hope. | |
| Regina Spektor – Somedays Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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I think this song is pretty literal - and I think it's a concept any adult, especially a parent, can understand. Some days you wake up and you run through the things you have to do. Your obligations, your responsibilities, your children, your work, your lunch, your errands... It's as if your entire day is decided and scheduled out for you before you even wake up in the morning. It's so different other days, like a Saturday or a Sunday, when YOU get to choose what things you would like to do and the friends with whom you will spend your precious moments. More like a Monday, a rainy Monday, when you are going through the motions of your life. And these motions, these rainy days, they are harsher than those days when you get to pick what happens. And they can be cold and bitter and bleak, too. And these days, they sneak up on you! One day you just wake up and your freedom is gone, you are overloaded with responsibilities and debt and worry. Time with your friends is limited now. Now your commitments are much "stronger" than the relationships with friends that used to mean everything and were the only focus of attention. Sometimes you'd like to escape, downtown, run away, leave no forwarding address and skip out. But those who have kids can understand what keeps you going with the line: "I'm in love with your daughter I want to have her baby I'm in love with your daughter So can I please" Still, despite the choices you made that got you to this place, you want to escape sometimes. Some days. |
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| Tori Amos – Beulah Land Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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This song to me is about the religion, the confusion that surrounds it and the concept of hope; this song reflects that it's necessary. So, as a background first - Beulah Land is mentioned in the Bible as a reference to marriage, but I think this song references the hymn called Beulah Land, in which it is referred to as heaven, the promised land, the land of milk and honey. If you ask a southerner what/where Beulah Land is, I can pretty much guarantee you that they will say it's Heaven. I feel that it's used in that way for this song. Beulah Land - (promised land, heaven) Got a wasted gun - (what reason is there for living?) Licorice man- (it's sweet, it's old, it's kitsch, it's so many things.) I'll sum you up (^) Thumbs up Got something you're not sayin' Beulah Girl You've been hitching me up (pulling me towards you - drawing me in) Got some candy (we all use things that pacify us, distractions) And a sweet sayin' 'Gimme religion and a lobotomy' (religion is confusing, it's easier to laugh it off and say it's too confusing to wrap your head around. it's overwhelming, why not just say haha, let's forget about it for now?) Beulah Land You beautiful whore Tell me when I don't need you anymore (now this is the most poignant line of the song. Heaven. the promise of heaven and eternal life and the sweet by and by just spreads itself out over all generations and past and present. it's just for everybody, isn't it? and logic says there is no heaven. and her father preached it into her... but she made that separation long ago. so why now? why does she still feel the need for it? why is it still so necessary and the pull so intrinsic? tell me when i won't need this promise, when i can go on without this eternal hope. it's something else, this line.) And said that, somehow, You're gonna get something here So, you're right in the middle And then I'm you Something is coming back again I said Maybe i don't wanna go To live where you're not So... (it's this way and that way, Beulah land Gotta find me a warm Place to lay this body on down Got a rubber boat And a crocodile Gonna float on past your home And say when Just say when Just say when. |
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| Tori Amos – Bachelorette Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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It's easier for me to do it line by line on this one: Bachelorette, you climb on rooftops (single girls can be wild and free) Bachelorette, you can turn dust into champagne (dust being both figurative in getting older and time gathering behind her, years getting dusty - and also literal in the fact that she lives alone, has no one to clean up for, she doesn't have to clean, instead she'll just drink champagne and the dust will "disappear" for a while.) you even remembered his name! (it's the small victories, remembering a one-night lover's name, this time around, anyway.) Bachelorette, the braves you painted pink (she's been close to settling down once or twice) Bachelorette, you tried to show him that he can but you can never rush a man (<---but things just didn't turn out) [Now this next part seems to be advice from women who aren't single to a bachelorette. It's impossible for me not to hear this part as patronizing, and a bit condescending - as in, "Your turn is coming, poor thing."] you must remember you're a car girl (keep going) you're a star girl (stars and high and shiny, but alone out there) you are at the door (it could be any day that...) the tide will turn (things will change...) there's a window... (look, opportunities are anywhere - jump!) But maybe she doesn't want to just jump! just because he's a man doesn't make him the man SHE wants! bachelorette the things you do, girls, to your bachelorettes... This line really exemplifies what the song means to me. the things you do, girls, to your bachelorettes! Girls are taught early that things should go in sequence and in order, and there are some girls who can't get the rhythm and never get on. Society as a whole is not so kind to the girls who haven't had the love story happen to them. With every june bride, every engagement diamonds television commercial and magazine, billboards and romantic comedies, brides brides brides, it twists the knife into these bachelorettes that feel a push to conform, to participate, to fall in line with the cycle, to have their own love story. Sure everyone wants to be in love, have someone, a partner, a lover. But sometimes it doesn't happen that way. But moreover, it's the pity that others lay on them; that might be the worst of all. Awwww, poor, pitiful, loverless bachelorettes, as if to be without a man is to be nothing at all. [Please note sarcasm!] "Be strong" (you'll go to Paris on your own), and and "hold on" and hold out for... what? a man?! Ugh. It's sick! The sentiment here is pathetic. Stop feeling sorry for these women - they don't need your pity any more than they need the phone number for your wedding planner. How many girls do you know who married a guy just because he was there? And that they fell "in love" because he was the only one around? Or because getting married was just on the list of things to do? And yet, they feel sorry for the single girls, who can't "land a man"... Ugh, the things you do, girls, to your Bachelorettes! [ I re-read this, and I sound angry! lol! I'm actually married, but this song speaks to me. :) -erica ] |
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| The Dresden Dolls – Dirty Business Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think what she is saying here is that during that time period, she looked at these girls, these girls with tattooed backs, these masochistic, uncaring, bored, non-committal, cold and self-destructive yet self-centered suburbanite girls, and she saw herself. I think we all know these girls. She wanted them to like her because she would fit in perfectly with the group - she was just like them at one time. In the song there's the Golly Gee line and she's basically saying, Good Lord, I should have been the poster girl for this group! She knows all about what kinds of girls these are, because hell, she was one once. But I think she has definitely moved past the ways and mentality of these girls. She definitely has matured, but harbors the "White Suburban Girl Guilt" still, because of how selfish and cold - it's a pretty dirty business being one of those kinds of girls. And the whole 'who was mine in 99' line - She's saying that she's been through so many men since then, if you really knew her well you would know the guy(s) she was with back then. She'll need a last name so that she can try to remember them [there were just so many], and she'll want their current status, single or otherwise, just in case she wants to get back with them again. Haa, I love it. |
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| The Dresden Dolls – Dirty Business Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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@[smittenerest:1726] "I turned to whatever else was making me angry. White Suburban Girl Guilt dies hard. At the time, there was a collection of checkout girls at Pearl Art & Craft Supplies on Massachusetts Avenue. I wanted them to like me." I think what she is saying here is that during that time period, she looked at these girls, these girls with tattooed backs, these masochistic, uncaring, bored, non-committal, cold and self-destructive yet self-centered suburbanite girls, and she saw herself. I think we all know these girls. She wanted them to like her because she would fit in perfectly with the group - she was just like them at one time. In the song there's the Golly Gee line and she's basically saying, Good Lord, I should have been the poster girl for this group! She knows all about what kinds of girls these are, because hell, she was one once. But I think she has definitely moved past the ways and mentality of these girls. She definitely has matured, but harbors the "White Suburban Girl Guilt" still, because of how selfish and cold - it's a pretty dirty business being one of those kinds of girls. And the whole 'who was mine in 99' line - She's saying that she's been through so many men since then, if you really knew her well you would know the guy(s) she was with back then. She'll need a last name so that she can try to remember them [there were just so many], and she'll want their current status, single or otherwise, just in case she wants to get back with them again. Haa, I love it. |
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| Tori Amos – Suede Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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This particular song spoke to me, and still does when I hear it. I feel this duality that she is talking about. I have felt that other person inside of me, too, "hiding underneath the skin." This slick, suede, person that is different from what you usually consider to be "yourself." And this person is just as much part of you as they are foreign to you. (Like in Cruel, also by Tori) But sometimes this other persona just seems to take over, (mass so big it can swallow her whole star intact) and can make you wonder where the line is between yourself and this other persona that pops up from time to time and confuses things (my absorption lines are frayed). Now I see how this sounds like a schizo, the dual personalities thing, but everytime I have ever encountered this "alternate me" is when I find I have done or I am in the act of doing something that I didn't think I was capable of doing. Usually it was all bad stuff... like in the song, "call me 'evil', call me 'tide is on your side', anything you want. anybody knows you can conjure anything by the dark of the moon." Like anybody knows you can get into just about anything when the sun goes down. In my 20s I did some weird sneaking around type stuff- it was weird - and I remember physically saying out loud to myself, "What are you doing?!" But something had a hold on me... and I couldn't talk myself into just stopping. But when I go through these spells - it never lasts too long. and in the end it all kind of washes out, and I want to just separate myself from myself! Worn out and ragged... what is left over, what is left after all the drama is over, is just heartbroken. And that's where the song really sings - "Oh little sister, I hoped you wouldn't feel that way. Oh little sister, you'll forgive me one day." -Suede. And it does take time before you can forgive yourself for the things you've done that you can't believe you were capable of doing. Some people would think of it as a bad memory and leave it at that. But I remember my actions as deliberate, and there was a wildness to me, something feral, something primal, something different. And Tori calls hers Suede. I don't know what to call mine. I think Suede will suffice. And I hope Suede doesn't show up again too soon. I know someone out there knows what I mean. |
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| Ugly Casanova – Hotcha Girls Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| "we were dropping dimes on the ponies" - remember those mechanical horses outside the front of grocery stores? when we were kids you could put in a dime or quarter and ride on them for a while. I remember the day I was too big to fit in one. It's a very youthful memory - something that you can only do when you are young... and this song helps you remember how long ago and faraway a time that was, wrapped in other lyrical memories, to create a nostalgia that paints everything sienna. | |
| J Roddy Walston & The Business – Heavy Bells Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| "but the seed survived" - referring the love of rock and roll, the seed that was planted in his mind the first time that he ever heard it. | |
| J Roddy Walston & The Business – Heavy Bells Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I think johannd is the closest to the real meaning. Mama knew my mind would know this song - because even as a kid he was all rock-n-roll. I muscle holler and moan, referring to how he sings on stage. Black chords in the night - he was up late, even as a kid, listening to rock and roll on vinyl and radio. Parents don't always approve of the kind of music you want to listen to - Daddy burnt the dirt but the seed survived - maybe his Dad threw his records out, talked shit about what the kind of music he liked. Maybe he physically even threw his records into a burn pile, but the seed survived! Once you fall in love with rock n' roll, you can't end it. It's IN you! I know that old Catholic tone - I live near J. Roddy's hometown, and in the South rock n' roll isn't always so easily accepted by the older, church-going, old fashioned Bible-belt crowd. And you hear those church bells, and they're metal, as metal as your guitar strings. "The heavy bells oh god I felt that metal move. You're gonna wake up You're gonna wake up You’re gonna wake up and find the heavy bells toll their tune for you too." I love that line - oh God I felt that metal move. The same feeling that these church goers get from those church bells, it's the same feeling he gets from hearing that rock and roll heavy metal. It's the same! It's so powerful - it moves you beyond. "You're gonna wake up and find the heavy bells toll their tune for you too!" To me this line is self-explanatory, but I also personally feel an underlying theme: Heavy church bells or heavy metal rock and rock - it means different things to different people. But universally similar, they are designed to move you. To remind you. To touch you in some way. And how you choose to listen - or wake up - to hearing it is all up to you. |
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| Chelsea Wolfe – Mer Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Na not about black magic. Mer mean sea in several languages (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mer). It sounds to me like she's describing the sea and things that have happened on the ocean as a metaphor or allegorical perspective on a relationship. At one time or another, (or endlessly even) the sea has been all of the things she is describing in the lyrics. Swallowing cities, a place of multiple wars, I mean think about it. I like the line Awake Never Fully Ever, because that is such a truth. The sea in a whole is like that...just floating endlessly not caring or feeling or even fully awake - a feeling that is definitely not foreign to me in a relationship. "La mer haunted sexuality, curves, angles - charcoal to paper Memory, history Capsize-explain, express, stomach, take it out out out out out out out" Study it, try to understand, draw it out on paper, it's not going to make it different because you can't change it. It's too big. You can't explain, and you'll never know why or how or what it could all mean. You can only try to take it out out out out out of your head. That's what it meant to me, anyway. |
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