| Regina Spektor – Riot Gear Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I think that this song may be a portrait of power, a perspective on the lives of those who uphold the establishment. Eating exotic food (game killed with an arrow, tuna sashimi, staying out drinking with friends until half past three, being a vision in a horse drawn tank, and enjoying a Medieval joke in an family heirloom smoking jacket, thanks to an advanced degree. This is life at its elite, the inner circles of power. And the days consist of putting on the riot gear to maintain it. That brings me to the lines I haven't seen anyone mention, those that are central to the song: "Heaven help the ones who know/ What makes the world go slow" followed by the "tick tock" lines. To me, this is Regina extending her sympathies (or maybe cursing) those in power. They keep things orderly, moving apace through their painstaking routines. Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock. And she throws in a Medieval joke in the end, by quoting Shakespeare, "what dreams may come." |
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| Regina Spektor – Hotel Song Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This song is about giving yourself away for nothing real in return, and then the discovery that that’s what’s happening — specifically, with the image of a woman having sex at a hotel, but there are some hints that it applies to a singer. Take a look at another Regina Spektor song that touches on these same themes, â€�Happy Hooker.â€� In the first stanza of â€�Hotel Songâ€�, it is pretty straightforward: An invitation. The words â€�come into my world,â€� are an invitation to the song itself — her world as we hear her sing. Then, in the second part, it’s sex: an invitation to bed, to â€�knowâ€� in the biblical sense. Performing sex, performing a song — the two are right there together. The woman in the hotel dreams of â€�orca whales and owls but I wake up in fear.â€� There must be significance behind Regina's specific choice of Orca whales and owls. Both are hunters, one that swims the depths, one that flies in the night — both silent almost mythical predators. They have an image of friendliness — they are animals that appeal to children -- but the truth is that they are each skilled killers. I think this maybe says something about why she wakes up in fear. Between the night and the morning, between the mythology of these animals and the reality, there are two worlds, a dangerous reality and an enchanting illusion. What she fears are explained in the lines â€�you will never be my foolâ€� and â€�you will never be my dear, dear friend.â€� This is her discovery, and it’s made in the morning, seeing the little bag of cocaine, looking at herself and wondering â€�Who’s the girl wearing my dress.â€� The porter is just another professional at the hotel, offers a smile as part of his job, and there is no enchanting illusion left from the night before. Her phone number has been left behind, discarded, and she delivers a stunning line about herself: â€�I don’t know her address.â€� She doesn’t know her home, what this arrangement is, only that she’s woken up in â€�cigarettes and liesâ€� and she’s too young: for her, orca whales and owls should still be full of wonder -- not killers that do their work silently. She has given everything she’s got inside, and come away without a fool, without a dear friend. And I would think that fear would be real for anyone who’s taken the stage to sing their song. |
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