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Andrew Bird – Arcs and Coulombs Lyrics 13 years ago
This song is freaking amazing.

The Lusitania was a British ship sunk at the beginning of World War I, and the Maine was the ship whose sinking was catalytic in the beginning of the Spanish-American War. The slogan, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for anti-Spanish sentiment.

There are references to electricity run throughout the song. The title is a play on words; it refers to electrics arcs (a discharge of electricity through air between two electrodes) and Coulombs (the unit for electrical charge, named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb), but also brings to mind architectural arcs and columns.
This gives new meaning to the lines, "Let the arcs spit from my fingertips/Till we'll become a hazard in the rain./Yeah we'll get charged out in the rain." They're a "hazard" because the metaphorical electrical charge running between them is conducted through all the water.
The "60-second hum" is a reference to the Mains hum (yet another play on words--the Maine sounds like Mains). The Mains hum is the sound electricity lines make, which oscilates at 60 Hz (Hertz=cycles per second).

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Andrew Bird – Arcs and Coulombs Lyrics 13 years ago
Your candy apple lips keep sinking all my ships,
And you're the one who sang for Lusitania
But somehow don't register its pain at all.
With your serum in my veins
To help me not not remember the Maine.

So if we let our backbones slip
Let the arcs spit from our fingertips
Till we've become a hazard in the rain.
Yeah we'll get charged out in the rain.

And there's a 60-cycle hum.
Go ahead say something dumb, boy, there's no shame.
There's no shame.
Go ahead say something dumb, boy, there's no shame.

submissions
Phish – Farmhouse Lyrics 14 years ago
I think this song is about escaping from life's harsh realities: guilt in a breakup, pain in losing the one you love, disappointment in how little you've accomplished ("I never ever saw the Northern Lights").

Also, the clusterflies represent the banal problems we exaggerate in everyday life; only when something truly terrible happens (betraying the person you love) do we look at everything in perspective: the problems we thought were a big deal aren't even real problems.

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Phish – Farmhouse Lyrics 14 years ago
Hmmm... Anybody else think this guy's a little too angry to be true? I think I smell a troll.... This is a little fishy to me.

...Or should I say, "Phishy".

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Belle & Sebastian – Is It Wicked Not to Care? Lyrics 14 years ago
I think this is about a celebrity musician who's got so caught up in showbiz that he/she has lost sight of his/her original aristically pure intentions for writing songs.

"Skipping tickets making rhymes
Is that all that you believe in?"
He/She has become concerned with just selling tickets and writing songs for the sake of rhyming, that lack deeper meaning.

"Wearing rags to make you pretty by design"
A comment on how celebrities perform in ripped jeans and other casual clothes, trying to look like average Joes even though they've been drawn into the upper class and no longer live the average Joe lifestyle. Maybe satirizing expensive designer clothes that look pre-worn.

"Rusting armour for effect
It's not fun to watch the rust grow
For it will all be over when you're dead"
The celebrity is aging, and trying to use nostalgia to stay in the public eye, but his/her youth is inevitably fading.

This makes a nice juxtaposition with the more serene, innocent nature imagery in the next verse.

Also, the lines
"Is it wicked when you smile
Even though you feel like crying
Even though you could be sick at any time?"
could refer to celebrities' need to present a perfect public image, even if they're miserable inside.

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Belle & Sebastian – Is It Wicked Not to Care? Lyrics 14 years ago
Sorry, y account was being weird...

submissions
Belle & Sebastian – Is It Wicked Not to Care? Lyrics 14 years ago
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