| Vampire Weekend – Finger Back Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"Hit me with a canister that's fired while The soldiers drive away" I believe this refers to the infamous killing of a Palestinian by an Israeli soldier in 2011. You can read about it here: http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20131205_mag_closes_file_on_mustafa_tamimi_killing Mustafa Tamimi was killed during a demonstration in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh when a soldier in a moving vehicle hit him with a tear gas canister during a demonstration. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – The Price You Pay Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think dillpickle got it right. There's a price you pay for every big decision you make - whether you get what you want or you don't. This verse kills me: Now they'd come so far and they'd waited so long Just to end up caught in a dream where everything goes wrong Where the dark of night holds back the light of day And you've gotta stand and fight for the price you pay When you go after your dreams with everything you've got, sometimes you fail outright but defeat is so hard to take. So you keep fighting, only now you're just fighting for the hard price you paid for chasing your dream. That's all there is left. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Yeah, I think I buy all the comments saying this is about Bruce's writers block / his label telling him he needs to write a hit. For the rest of us, it can be about working a job you don't care about that just wears you out. By the way, the line 'This gun's for hire' is from a old phrase: gun for hire - a professional killer who uses a gun. Bruce feels like a gun for hire - being hired out by the record company to grind out hits. |
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| The Gaslight Anthem – Here's Looking at You, Kid Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I agree, great interpretation. However, I'd disagree with the idea that he did something wrong. There are a lot of songs out there where someone is alone because they messed up a good thing. Here, it sounds like he's alone even though he did everything he could. | |
| The Gaslight Anthem – Here's Looking at You, Kid Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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I'm with Jax5150 on this one. It's Brian's version of Springsteen's 'Good luck, goodbye' in Bobby Jean. He tried his best with those girls, tried to be what he thought they wanted: a rock and roll star, a guy with a car who would take them out of their dead end town, a guy who shows up every time. But those girls never showed so much devotion. Gayle never gave him a chance, Jane wouldn't marry him and Anna was unreliable. The song is one last goodbye to those girls and all the pain he's been holding onto. He can't carry it around with him anymore. It's difficult for him to forgive - he can't even say it. The best he can manage is 'tell her it's alright' and a vague line from a movie 'here's looking at you kid'. Maybe he realised that he was giving too much without ever directly asking these girls for anything in return, maybe he found someone who gave as much as he did or maybe he's still alone and he's just looking for some peace. |
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| Bruce Springsteen – The Promise Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is probably the best song I've ever heard. As desquire1962 says, for Bruce, the song is about that time after Born to Run, when it looked like all his dreams were coming crashing down because of a broken promise. For the rest of us, it's about all those other promises that get broken by you or someone else. The promises we make with a guy/girl, the promises we make with our families and friends and the promises we make with ourselves. "Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference Something in your heart goes cold" These lines kill me. Ever told someone you love them, expecting it to change everything but they don't love you back? Ever told your friends/family about the hard time your having and they can't do anything to help you out of the mess you've gotten yourself in? Ever faced up to something about yourself that's been coming at you ever since you were born, only to find you can't do a damn thing to change it? It turns something cold inside and you don't know if you're toughening up or giving up. I guess for me what this song means is, you can spend your whole life making promises, chasing dreams and trying to do what's you. You can tell yourself when you're a kid that you're the hardest thing in the world - nothing is going to beat you, you're going to win everything and just throw it away in some wild and triumphant expression of freedom. But life has got its chains and not everyone breaks free from them. Hearts get broken, dreams get swept away and second chances don't always come around. As Bruce sings in Atlantic City "Down here it's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line." To end on a positive note, from This Hard Land: "If you can't make it stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive - if you can." |
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| Bruce Springsteen – I Wish I Were Blind Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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As rmcd0494 pointed out, it's basically about a guy who's hung up on a woman he can't have and it's taken all of the good out of life. This song's playing on the same ideas as 'Man's Job'. In that song he's obsessed with a woman who is being taken out by another guy. In both songs he sees them dancing and in both songs all his dreams get brought down. In man's job he sings 'all my illusions slip away'. In this song he sings 'these eyes that once filled me with beauty now fill me with pain'. It's a heartbreaking situation to be in - you want someone so bad, you think you're showing them just about all the love anyone can ever want...and they choose someone else. I'm not sure if everyone who's going to read this has been in the same kind of mess but I sure as hell have. |
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