submissions
| Warren Zevon – Veracruz Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[BobbyNix:25353] This song is indeed about the 1914 occupation of Veracruz by US troops — hence the line about “Woodrow Wilson’s guns.” Wilson sent troops down to protect American business interests and because he disliked the military dictator who had recently seized power. This was but one of many imperialist moves by Wilson before the US got drawn into World War I. |
submissions
| The 1975 – Chocolate Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[fexysox:15627], your explanation is the best I've heard. The "never gonna quit it" line is especially convincing that the song is about heroin. Best wishes to you in your recovery. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Desperados Under The Eaves Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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@[bkabbott:15610], thanks for the anecdote. I associate Jackson Browne and Warren as pioneers of the post-Beach Boys "California Sound." I'm sure the loss of WZ has been hard for Jackson Browne. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – Dixie Flyer Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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In this song, Newman offers a fleeting insight -- or maybe an "outsight," given his Jewish background -- of the American South, from the view of a wide-eyed child, most likely retelling the story he heard often growing up of his mother's return home to New Orleans to be with family during the war. The lyrics are marvelous
-- Her brothers and sisters drove down from Jackson, Mississippi, in a great green Hudsen driven by a gentile they knew, drinking rye whisky from a flask in the back seat, trying to do like the gentiles do, Christ, they wanted to be gentiles, too. Who wouldn't down there, wouldn't you? An American Christian, God Damn! --
The music is lovely and lush as well...The NPR Car Talk guys use it as a transitional piece between segments (and they would ask that we not hold this against Randy Newman). This is a ballad that transports the listener back to a place that was crazy with racism but also magical and absurd and, well, dreamy. |
submissions
| Warren Zevon – Backs Turned Looking Down the Path Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I agree with tenace...this is an amazing song that I have loved for years, and I can't begin to capture all that it means to me in a comment. I feel Warren may have been wistfully reflecting on a life, his midlife most likely, with all its joy and pain. To me the song evokes a moment locked in the mind's eye...maybe he had a picture or memory from his wedding showing "the couple" with their obvious backs turned, hand in hand, laughing, with that synchronicity and solidarity you can only have with a mate. The song begins and ends in the singular, with the "we" in the middle. We come into the world alone and leave it that way. I'm left to reflect that life is a blur of bittersweet, mostly sweet. Warren made so many things sweet. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Do It Again Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Without a doubt, the beginning of this song -- it's beat, the feeling it evokes, the hypnotic rhythm -- make it close to divine. If I were a baseball player, this would be my "walk up" song!
I like the different interpretations about the karmic wheel, the life cycles, repeating the same mistakes (addictions, compulsions and other assorted sins). The lyrics are compelling, but it is the amazing skill, artistry and precision with which Fagan, Becker and their band play their magical music that makes this my favorite Steely Dan song. The artful repetition of the music seals the lyrical message of life's cycles. Amazing! |
submissions
| Bettie Serveert – Co-Coward Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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This is one of my favorite Bettie songs. There is something exotic and haunting and beautiful about Carol van Dijk's voice in general, but in this song she gets under my skin. Perhaps many of us have felt the coward about something in our past, something that we should have gotten fully behind. Cow-cow-cowward incurable...what an indictment! The grudge, the regret, the guilt, the beauty of not letting go of rejection. Who could jilt such a one? That voice certainly doesn't happen every day! |
submissions
| XTC – The Wheel and the Maypole Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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This disc -- especially with this song -- has brought me hours of joy, even as I think about cycles and decay and how I am no better at enduring than the next piece of organic material. I do simply love the songs on WASP...Stupidly Happy, the Man Who Murdered Love, We're All Light and, of course, the Wheel and the Maypole. It's become a road-trip standard for me and my kids (so despite my decay, my kids can keep the XTC love alive for a bit longer). |
submissions
| Nick Lowe – All Men Are Liars Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Hated Rick Astley but loved (and still love) Nick Lowe! This song is brilliant and I can attest to the value of toting rusty pliers. I've used them rather frequently! |
submissions
| The Mekons – Empire of the Senseless Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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This is my favorite Mekons song...how can you not love a song that promotes homosexuality? It really captures the despondent, helpless feeling that many of us had during the Reagan and Thatcher years. Many today probably have no idea who Ollie North is, how he subverted and perverted Democracy. I think we all felt a little guilty ("even the silent are now guilty") though we proceeded with "unacceptable gropings." ;-) |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Nightswimming Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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Oh, and regarding your question about the five lines above...what if there were two, side by side in orbit...maybe its a yearning for the love of another, and/or it might refer to two moons? The sun could be the "bright, tight forever drum" that keeps us turning, moving through time, in a 'tight' clockwork-like fashion? |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Nightswimming Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I sure agree about feeling nostalgic for a moment even as it is upon us, knowing then and there that it is special and we will look back with fondness (among many other emotions). There is a lovely YouTube video where Stipe and Mills appear on a British TV show and perform the song. It is so beautiful and you can see the strong ties between these two. I love it even more than the official video...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx9br5ISRpo
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submissions
| Randy Newman – Falling In Love Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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The feel of this song, the mood it evokes, is delightful. Latin seaside harbor, happily sleepy, heavy with love...I've never heard such an apt description for "falling" in love, with all the heavy, weighted, fated references. "What have I done to deserve this? Well you haven't done a thing." That's the way love is. |
submissions
| The dB's – Molly Says Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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The lyrics is this song are some of the sharpest I've encountered.
"She could stand at the top of the world and still complain that she could not see. She could stand in a deep dark hole and still look down on me."
I try to image Molly; I've known thoughtless complainers, but I'm not sure I want to run into Molly... |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Nightswimming Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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This song is about memories, lost love, lost youth, shadows and light, warmth and water on a moonlit night. Water is where we came from. To go back to it, naked, at night, is like going home. Many are the reckless kids who have gone skinny dipping. The lyrics remind us of risks taken and perhaps regrets of some actions we didn't take. Simply a gorgeous song, quite sad, but also a reminder about how beautiful (and fleeting) life is. |
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