| David Bowie – Young Americans Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Afro sheen was a 70s hairspray for blacks and whites sporting afro hairstyles. google is your friend. | |
| Līve – Selling The Drama Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Does your mum know you've been at the keyboard again? I gave at least half a dozen reasons for this interpretation, based on the corpus of Live lyrics and the known beliefs of the writer. You gave zilch. Want to try again? | |
| The Mountain Goats – Ending the Alphabet Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| The ending of the Greek alphabet is Omega, signifying both the Christ (in Christian mythology, 'the Alpha and Omega') and the last, the end, or the ultimate limit. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Ending the Alphabet Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| A song about endings, with a capital E. Elements of both the Rapture of Christian mythology, and a nuclear holocaust, possibly Hiroshima. The Hiroshima clock tower was near to ground zero in the atomic bombing of the city, and it features prominently in photos of the aftermath. | |
| Līve – Iris Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| 'Felix' is a Latin root for 'happy', 'luck', 'successful'. Think 'felicitious'. | |
| Līve – Selling The Drama Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Begin by looking at the album cover: A man clutching a book to his chest is about to walk over a cliff. A church is prominent in the background. Consider the profound influence of Hindu philospher Jidu Krishnamurti on Kowalczyk's lyrics and of the themes of Hinduism that dominate the early albums. Consider the many warnings, begining with 'Waterboy' about blind acceptance of organised religion. Think about the song title, 'Selling the Drama'. Consider also, 'Lightning Crashes' another track on Throwing Copper that deals with exactly the same theme. 'Selling The Drama' is about karma and the cycle of birth and rebirth - the sun that burns, the wheel that turns. it is about rejecting Christianity and organised religions that sell the drama of 'salvation' by screaming their false certainties from the wall. It is about finding an authentic spirituality and repaying your personal karmic debt. "And to love: a god And to fear: a flame And to burn a crowd that has a name And to right or wrong And to meek or strong It is known just scream it from the wall" Christianity with it's fear of hell, preachers selling the drama screaming simplistic messages to the crowd. "I've willed I've walked I've read I've talked I know I know I've been here before" Doing the hard work, thinking and reading, rejecting the unquestioned 'truths' received from family (another repeating Live theme) the singer accepts the truth of reincarnation and karma - he has lived before, and will continue to reincarnate until he burns of his karmic debt. "Hey now we won't be raped Hey now we won't be scarred like that" Unthinking monolithic religion messes people up. Also, the promise of release into moksa, nirvana - liberation from the burden of karma. "It's the sun that burns It's the wheel that turns" The Wheel of Rebirth, the universal law of cause and effect, the truth that that we reap as we sow - karma. "It's the way we sing that makes 'em dream" "And to Christ: a cross And to me: a chair I will sit and earn the ransom From up here" Christianity promises salvation through the cross, but the singer knows this is false: he has to take responsibility for his own karma, sitting, living, earning the ransom of release into moksa - liberation. 'Lightning Crashes' then gives an example of this law in action. I find it deeply ironic how some listeners seek to to turn this into a quasi-Christian hymn. |
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| Patti Smith – Seneca Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| A lullaby for Smith's godson, Seneca Sebring. | |
| Patti Smith – Amerigo Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The album 'Banga' is a mediation on the role of the artist, based on the conceit of Columbus dreaming in horror of the 20th century ecological apocalypse. 'Amerigo' is of course Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian navigator who made several voyages to the New World between 1499 and 1502, and whose name was later given to the continents of 'America'. The song is based on Amerigo's survivng letters, especially the Soderini letter - his famous letter to Pier Soderini ('Your Excellency') in 1497 describing his voyages to the New World, and it borrows phrases directly from that text. Patti explains, '"The explorers had this hubris and excitement. They were going to find the New World and baptise the people. Then they arrived and it was so pure and beautiful that they themselves were transformed. I think of Amerigo as an overture to the album." The conclusion of the Album's final song, 'Constantine's Dream' returns to the theme of the early encounter with the New World. |
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| Patti Smith – Banga Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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'Banga' is Pontius Pilate's dog in Mikhail Bulgakov's 1937 novel 'The Master And Margarita'. Not published until 1967, the novel is a fierce anti-Soviet satire in which the Devil visits Moscow, and is considered one of the great literary works of the 20th Century. Patti explains, "That dog was loyal for 2,000 years on the edge of heaven while Pilate was waiting for Jesus Christ to speak to him. The dog didn't run around heaven looking for bones. He sat at his master's feet. I thought that is true loyalty and used it as a fun metaphor for all the loyalty I've experienced." |
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| Patti Smith – Tarkovsky (The Second Stop Is Jupiter) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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A collections of dreamlike images relating to the cinema of Russion filmmaker and theorist Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky, creator of such classics as 'Stalker' and the original 'Solaris'. A shamanic incantation - very Patti. "Black moon shines on a lake, white as a hand in the dark" and '"Come along, sweet lad, fog rises from the ground" seem inspired by scenes from the film 'Ivan's Childhood'. The wasteland of the Zone from 'Stalker' (a cinematic rendering of the Strugatsky Brother's novel 'Picnic Area') is referenced in the lines "The telegraph poles are crosses on the line, rusted pins, not enough saviors to hang," The planetary imagery evokes 'Solaris' with it's space station orbiting a mysterious and deadly planet. "The bridge of magpies" evokes the famous Chinese myth of the cowherd and the weaver girl, where magpies form a bridge once a year to allow the lovers to meet. The myth is celebrated in the Chinese Qixi festival. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Lovecraft in Brooklyn Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Ok. :) | |
| The Mountain Goats – Lovecraft in Brooklyn Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Marcus Allen works for me - publisher of weird conspiracy magazines like Nexus. Who is DeMarcus Allen? | |
| John Vanderslice – Kookaburra Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I don't get the '117' reference. Anyone? | |
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