| Conor Oberst – Lenders in the Temple Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Also, the tiger in the book is not a circus tiger. He's a zoo tiger. | |
| Keaton Henson – Metaphors Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Your features defy all metaphor And I'm the king of those Your hair is too pretty to be compared to a city so I'll leave it out of all my prose And your eyes are unlike any ocean that I have ever seen Unlike any jewels They break the writing rules And I am trying to keep this song clean And not to mention despite pretension You are infinitely interesting to me It's so unexpected, my heart feels unprotected I'm so thankful for that way you look at me, me And everything that you say is a poem And I'm hooked on every word Your mouth speaks no lies, it needs to alibis and not one single word is slurred And I love that you talk about Dylan And all the books you read I know you so well, didn't notice any spell But you seem to be taking the lead And not to mention despite pretension You are infinitely interesting to me It's so unexpected, my heart feels unprotected I'm so thankful for that way you look at me |
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| Bright Eyes – Trees Get Wheeled Away Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I'd like to comment on the lines "There's a song stuck in my head And I can't help singing it Oh, how I hope my singing pleases you 'Cause this is not who I've become but what you make me into" because I feel like they've been inadequately understood in other comments. I think these lines go together, and I think Conor is acknowledging how helpless we are in deciding who we become. He is a famous singer/songwriter because he was lucky enough to have friends early on who loved and supported his music, and who encouraged him. They are as responsible for his success (both personally and more publicly) as a singer as he himself is, I think. How other people react to us dramatically shapes how we continue to act in the future, and who we turn into. | |
| Bright Eyes – Trees Get Wheeled Away Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Hm...When I hear the lines "while your tvs change stations scroll messages victims and christians both drinking blood and they pray for the destruction of all hatred more often just those with hate for us cause it hurts when you discover one's worse and one's better to suffer or cause others to and you can live by your conscience now guilt is a concept you're no longer subscribing to" I think of Christianity's long long history of oppression..."one's worse and one's better" is Christianity's claim to be the one true religion of civilization, that that those uncivilized pagans will accept its missionaries' messages or suffer, because Christianity has historically had the power and money necessary to make this so. To acknowledge this and other situations like it is to feel guilt, and so the public consciousness shoves it aside and willfully ignores it. What follows is that our concern more than often lies with those who wish harm to us, and not those who we have harmed or continue to harm. Also I think the singing comment is more speaking to how those we love shape us more than we do or can ourselves; it's the same sort of helplessness conveyed throughout the rest of the song. |
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| Bright Eyes – The Joy in Discovery Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| she wanted to say the same to me* | |
| Bright Eyes – The Joy in Discovery Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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When I listen to this song I hear it as a variation on the theme explored in his other songs "A New Arrangement" and "The Joy in Discovery/ The Joy in Acceptance." This song, to me, is someone asking a person suffering from depression why they aren't trying to be happy. I've always been very curious as to whether Conor believes that depression can be overcome by choice or personal will, and, in his song, his answer seems to be no, and a criticism of those who believe that it can. He seems to equate the question of why a depressed person is not trying to be happy to why the sun is not trying to find a hole in the clouds; he seems to be saying that that's just not how it works, and the question itself is as ridiculous as it is insensitive. On a less related note, my best friend and I recently had a conversation of sorts about this same topic; she said I had once told her to just try to be happy when she was depressed, and the bitterness in her voice when she said this sort of blew me away. She said sometimes she wanted to say to me, when she knew I was in a low spell, and the irony sort of hit me, because she had told me before after a two year relationship of mine had ended, "You should be trying harder to get over this." This song reminds me how depression is impossible to understand unless you're going through it, often even by those who have experienced themselves. |
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| Bright Eyes – The Joy in Forgetting/The Joy in Acceptance Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Pronouns....change from "I" to "you" (much before it's his mother speaking). That might be a key to separating the song into it's components of "forgetting" and "acceptance." Not only do they separate the song in two, but it seems like as the song gets more honest/straightforward, the speaker has to distance himself from the subject by changing to the second person. Alternatively, as the subject gets more general/widely applicable, it changes, as if he is talking to his audience and appealing to their common experience. |
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