| Death Cab for Cutie – Talking Bird Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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I know this song is heavily commented already. I didn't go through them all, but with a cursory check, I think I can add something I haven't seen. I think this is a song about having a relationship with a narcissist. The metaphor, relating someone to a talking bird, is inherently biting and a bit condescending. This relationship didn't work out well. The song is written from the perspective of still being in the relationship, how the artist felt at the time with a person. The individual he's having a relationship with sounds like a narcissist, consumed with themselves and their lives. But he can overlook this. He's happy in their situation, and willing to tolerate it. But narcissists are never happy for long. And in their unhappiness they sabotage their relationships and create chaos. One way they might do this is by accusing the person who is happy of making them feel trapped because they want out. The protagonist is content in the relationship. He recognizes his lover's flaws but can overlook them. Yet they sing their plaintiff refrain ad nauseam. Again, written in retrospect, I think, because the metaphor itself is a bit mean. The artist believes this person messed up a good thing for no good reason. |
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| 16 Horsepower – American Wheeze Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| I think this is a dark but spiritual song about a virtuous man intervening in the life of either a woman or a child who has an abusive father or spouse or is otherwise in a bad place. He\'s confronting the abuser. At the end of the song, he\'s goading his foe, just saying I believe in my immortal soul and I\'m not afraid to die, so bring it. | |
| Dinosaur Jr. – Garden Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| This is about the Pandemic, or rather I think, the feeling we all got at the beginning of the Pandemic that this might become something...apocalyptic. And in a way it has. In the US at least, we are a democracy in decline. Driven to madness by divisions manufactured in the service of a greedy few. Worldwide, the wealthy elite have shown their hand as we continue to slouch into authoritarian dictatorships and oligarchies. There\'s nowhere to escape to except home. To the garden. And with a little luck, we\'ll survive. My spin on this anyway. \n\nOr you could take it from the horse\'s mouth via the Pitchfork album review: \n\n"Barlow is allotted exactly two songs, [...] a slightly mawkish song of devotion called “You Wonder,” a compelling English-folk pastiche called “Garden.”\n\nThe latter is a survival anthem, and takes its title from a sign Barlow spotted on a shed while driving through Massachusetts: Back to the Garden. “I was looking for a resolution,” Barlow explained. “Where do we go when faced with such dramatic confusion? Back to basics, back home, back to the garden.” | |
| Johnny Flynn – Hong Kong Cemetery Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| If his grandfather died in 52, he's likely refer to Hoagy Carmichael's version from 1930, which snoggy's referring to. Interestingly, Hoagy Carmichael also sings a song called Hong Kong Blues. | |
| Nina Gordon – Tonight And The Rest Of My Life Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I think it's about doing drugs. Maybe shrooms but more probably ecstasy, perhaps to self-medicate against depression or just the realities of life...thus 'heavy things won't fly'. If you've ever partaken, you'd know that night is the preferred environment for such things, and the harshness of the sun can be quite unpleasant, which is why she might prefer the 'sunless sky'. The rest of it, the weightlessness, feeling so light, floating breathlessly, etc is evocative of a drug trip. But it's really the line: 'everything is waves and stars / the universe is resting in my arms' that I think makes its pretty unmistakably clear. This is a fairly universal hallucinogenic experience, waves, lights (stars) a feeling on oneness with things. My vote is this is a drug trip. An escape from reality. |
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| New Model Army – Marrakesh Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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@[Nacaer:20102] I'm just speculating but it feels like they're arrested for some political reason. They're activists, reporters, or volunteering for some cause. They're very close at the time, maybe unified by their beliefs, and because they're human, make promises of loyalty and kinship. Maybe fall in love. Then the song cuts to much later, year later. They've drifted apart, and the singer feels great regret and remorse. His star rose while the others fell. But maybe somewhere along that ascent, he forgot what really mattered, and now he's realizing that. This person that gave his life value was lost along the way. He wonders if he can have a second chance. The real question is: does he really want a second chance? Or is this confession just a way of consoling himself? |
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| Tom Petty – Cabin Down Below Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| This song's about boning on a boat. | |
| Front 242 – Headhunter Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Huh. Maybe I'm too literal. I first heard this back in the 80s and was reading a lot of cyberpunk. I kind of always associated this era of industrial with it. Anyway, I translated it literally. It's a song about a bounty hunter hunting down some genius (maybe programmer or other information expert) who's wanted for some very urgent reason. But he plans to double cross the his employer and sell the man to the competition to make him rich and famous. But ultimately he'll kill the genius if either side crosses him. And he's explaining this to someone -probably to a contact who might know where he is. The whole piece is a vignette. A snapshot of time in this bounty hunter's life. Anyway, that's what I thought. |
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