| Furniture – Brilliant Mind Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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I heard this shortly after it was released in about 1986. It's open to all kinds of interpretation, so here's how it struck or strikes me. "I'm at the stage" mean becoming an adult and also disillusionment. The song begins and ends with disillusionment, not just ennui. "Ready for the real thing" could mean truth or true love, because we as individuals have the capacity for both, but it is frustrated. This is not a love song though, nor addressed to a potential lover as the "Shame on you" bridge confirms. It's cynical and mordant but maybe in a deeper way than most of the Smiths' stuff about meaningless alienation and youth; there's still something sincere about it. "You must be out of your brilliant mind" recalls for me the first line of Allen Ginsberg's famous "Howl": "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness". The tension and passion in the music is critical of society, bemoaning and castigating those who lie. "empty words" - for example, advertising or political "gestures" latching on to the desire to believe in something. "Let me in", into one's heart, but that heart is rightly sceptical, and knows falsehood cannot satisfy the hunger it feels, nor can buying into shallow 80s values. "I want my words heard and no one wants to listen" - this verse seems to be about the disillusionment of being in a not-yet successful band, but wider than that being young and unheard and misunderstood and ignored and drowned out by those who are "successful". "You and yours" often means a family, but can also mean other people like you. "I'd have the answer if only I'd open up" means pressure to buy into the system, or could mean religious proselytising. "They must be out of their brilliant minds" - despite people having ability to do the right thing and tell the truth, those with the chance do the opposite. Oppenheimer was a brilliant mind for example, but was led to become a "destroyer" and this could be Reagan and the Soviet leaders escalating their nuclear madness, or the huge amount of waste and nonsense we are sold. For Morrissey, "Come, Armageddon" is a joke, but there is a chilling reality to the way Irvin delivers this line. You either mock or risk mockery, and this song balances both. "Shame on you", for forgoing honesty, for perpetuating a dishonest system for personal gain. A powerful phrase, often misused. |
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| Van Der Graaf Generator – Still Life Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| This song has no meaning... and nor has anything without the presence of mortality.\n\nOr something like that. This song is an imaginative fantasy of a city full of people who will live forever, never growing old. But having made that choice they cannot escape eternity. The singer has forsaken one bride for a figurative one - lovers say forever but this is really forever. The \'hollow ring\' is how the lure of immortality now seems an existence empty of meaning, but also perhaps a play on the wedding ring mentioned earlier. What have they lost? Among other things, fear and accountability; law no longer has any meaning or force. A still life is a genre of painting, and this life has become a contradiction, an dead image removed from the real living thing.\n\nI don\'t see many alllusions to other works here, but someone compared it to the poem \'From too much love of living\' by Algernon Charles Swinburne: \'We thank...Whatever gods may be // That no life lives for ever; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea.\' A song comparison may be with Talking Heads - Heaven, where heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.\n\nThe sterility is both literal non-existence of offspring and having become used to familiar tastes, nothing evokes any pleasure. There are no new experiences. Philosophers have written on what mortality brings to the human condition and to a good life. This highlights that by contrast, showing the counter-factual. Is this vision of immortality as a curse right? What about people who never talk of death, and haven\'t yet had experience of age or loss? Some see mortal life as a burden already. Would you choose immortality? | |
| Mitch Benn And The Distractions – Call Me During Doctor Who and I'll Kill You Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| I think the meaning is pretty clear. | |
| Genesis – Supper's Ready Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| @[dgkfhjlffjfjhlfhja:37061] Do you just mean Yeats's 'The Second Coming', or something more? | |
| Genesis – Supper's Ready Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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Originally I misheard the climactic verse of 'Apocalypse In 9/8', and I sort of prefer my mishearing. '666 is the name of the law'. Everything on Earth has now become corrupted - it won't be easy - evil has complete power and the people are subjugated on pain of the worst Earthly punishments for speaking truth. 'He's getting out the metal [rather than marrow] in your backbone' - much the same really except with an added connotation of becoming a machine or cybernetic slave. 'In fact, he's writing the lyrics [of this song] - Oh, they grabbed you too!' where this is said by the male narrator to the songwriter, who is maybe also his female companion with whom he is reunited. 'He' is either the Beast, or Pythagoras who is into the numerology and mythos of the Beast (as I said elsewhere, Gabriel consciously used the numerology of 'Fox'=666). By building the fear of the evil and tyranny through song we have been aiding its power. This seems to be the ultimate defeat and hopelessness until we hear the tubular bells bring redemption. (See also _Breakfast of Champions_ where the writer is implicated in the plot; this was supposedly influential on LLDOB and incidentally provided the title for 'Blue Monday'.) 'the lyrics of a brand new tune' still makes less sense to me: it would be lyrics _for_ a tune, and the tune that follows is actually a reprise of 'Lover's Leap'. Or is this verse, rather than continuing the dramatic threat as it appears to be musically, actually the resolution, and the new tune is the love of God? I find that interpretation less satisfactory in terms of telling the story of Revelation, where the supper of the mighty one (which comes later) is the resolution. Note the hypothesis that St John experienced his apocalypse under the influence of psilocybin (see John Allegro) - Genesis's songbook was not written under the influence of psychedelics except by proxy! |
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| Genesis – Supper's Ready Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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I haven't seen anyone remarking on the line in Willow Farm: 'the fox on the rocks and the musical box'. That inspired Paul Whitehead's most memorable cover image (the idea of a 'foxy lady') and choice of album title, and in turn for Gabriel to appear dressed accordingly in fox head and his wife's dress during a performance of 'The Musical Box'. The word 'FOX' is the number of the beast (Revelation 13) in numerological systems, F=6, O=15=6(0), X=24=6(00). Peter Gabriel says in the 2007 DVD that was indeed his intention. The use of Christian symbolism and mythology is obvious elsewhere. The title is of the song is from Revelation 19, resolved by Word of God arriving and taking charge on his White Horse, 'King of King and Lord of Lords'. 'Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.' I don't see Christian myth in the other songs of the album, but whether by serendipity or design, they contribute other themes in preparation for Supper's Ready: humans ascending from the Earth in 'Watcher of the Skies' (Arthur C Clarke references); metempsychosis or transfer of faces and consciousness between different times in 'Time Table'; tyranny and abuse of power and reshaping humanity in 'Get Em Out By Friday'; and false prophecy and the power of time and tide over kings in 'Can-Utility and the Coastliners'. |
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| Genesis – Get 'em Out By Friday Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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@[Madprophet:36987] "corporate greed and oppression of the UK's council housing system in the 1970s as commented by woolymore". Private rented housing, not council, as I say under Woollymore's comment. If the Howard Fast short story is an inspiration (presumably for the SF idea), I can't find any source that explains this, just a personal site linking the two. |
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| Genesis – Get 'em Out By Friday Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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@[woollymoore:36986] Yes, some argue demolition of back-to-backs broke up communities, but the characters in the song (Mrs Barrow, Mary) are not council tenants. Their house is privately owned and has been purchased by a 'firm of gentlemen'. That wouldn't be possible for council housing, which is also pretty secure and has rents controlled. This isn't about social policy so much as exploitative slum landlords and business opportunists (buy-to-let would be more relevant now). In the 2007 box set DVD, Gabriel specifically mentions Rachman, who subdivided private houses to get the maximum rent and evade rent controls. Wikipedia cites Easlea's 'Without Frontiers' to say it was partly inspired by Gabriel's own landlord problems he was having with his flat' in Kensington (you could rent affordably there in the 1970s; times have ineed changed); and an NME interview of 23 Mar 73 where he mentions television documentary he had seen about housing in Islington. Design of housing can influence the community, but the song is simply about the rich and powerful using intimidation to get the last drop out of ordinary tenants. |
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| Genesis – The Battle Of Epping Forest Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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I suppose it's a character piece and a moral story about the difference between the generals in their Rolls Royces and the troops. The comparisons to the English civil war and Robin Hood suggest it is also an attempt to mythologise the present and familiar (just outside your door), much as a film about the Krays (gangsters) was called 'Legend'. Anyway, a little London geography in case it helps: Epping Forest is on the outskirts of East London. The Forest Road could be the one through Walthamstow towards the Forest or maybe the one from Loughton into the Forest. Barking and Bethnal Green are both parts of the East End. Wandsworth is a district in south London, but here mentioned because of its prison (which Len was inside). 'Mug' of course is face and 'gob' and 'kisser' (misspelled in these lyrics) are both mouth. |
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| Genesis – The Battle Of Epping Forest Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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@[proggie:36983] I don't know if Harold Demure is gay. He is fastidious and aspires to refinement among the gang members, something of a standard type in depictions of the underworld. I get the impression more of an affronted and prudent Robert Morley than Frankie Howerd, maybe clutching his pearls and making a tactical retreat, but that says nothing whatever about sexuality. Not as some here have said against violence or pacifist since he is 'firing acorns from out of his sling'. Cowardice or prudence, he's ultimately another of the victims. I presume the Reverend is gay because of being tempted by Bob the Knob's offer of 'plate' (oral sex). His is a longer story of hypocrisy, but it isn't clear how someone goes from stumbling on a brothel (accidentally or not, it happens) to being recruited to the protection racket. Blackmailed by the pimp? Then there's the confusing bit about Little John of Sherwood Forest, which is more of an echo than a pun. I think there's much more unconscious sexism than homophobia on this album. Even if satire, it's hard to beat the social conventions of 'Willow Farm': 'Dad to the office, mum to the washing'? |
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| Genesis – The Battle Of Epping Forest Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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@[jonarcee:36982] You may be right that the voice is mockery, but it also could be a shorthand, because Harold hasn't any lines. He's not non-violent as he has a sling. I don't see any connection with George Best. Jack the Ripper was the wrong parish (Whitechapel) and wrong century. But good point about 'Liquid Len' - I'd never heard of him. |
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| Prefab Sprout – The Best Jewel Thief in the World Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Like the other poster, I think it's autobiographical, about something he feels is maybe undeserved. But... I think it's a love song to his family. |
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| Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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(One of my favourite Gorillaz songs, partly perhaps because it's after DARE. Despite a lot of comments here and that one line I don't think it should be thought of as specifically about USA.) Here's the 'fact' part. Wikipedia links to Notion magazine's interview with Damon. The song 'is a parable read by Dennis Hopper that seems to have clear parallels with the war for oil. "That came from a very naive idea, which is: what is going to happen when they've taken all of the oil out of the earth? Aren't there going to be these vast holes? Surely those holes shouldn't be empty. Surely there is a reason why they had all of this in. It's like bad plastic surgery, eventually it collapses."' Damon opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (as did a huge number of people who try to avoid politics). He supported CND and went on Stop the War rallies in London. Those organisations often painted the wars as being about strategic control of oil supply. (now opinion) The naivety may not just be Albarn's but the naivety of the Happy Folk who cannot see the cause of their worries; the romanticisation of any 'primitive' culture that is stable and not destroying its environment; the oblivious distance of the 'little town'; the naivety of the audience ('once upon a time'). It's funny how both sides can see the other as 'naive'; no doubt the Strange Folk would laugh at Damon for thinking their extraction of non-renewable resources is 'fuelling the chaos' and 'excess' of their own world, and will ultimately have consequences. It's a common enough kind of allegorical set up in modern or science fiction: see for instance the film Avatar (2009) or 'The Word For World Is Forest' by Ursula Le Guin. It can stand for that Strange exploitation from the East India Companies onwards, up to Shell against Ogoni and Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria. Three or four environmental defenders die a week, not all shot in the head, mostly related to this 'neo-extractivism'. We're mostly blind about the destruction, because the perpetrators have good reason to conceal themselves. Was the 'catastrophony' from the mining of the jewels a metaphor not just for oil's role in the Middle East, but for specific ecological damage, air and water pollution, ocean acidification, nutrient collapse and climate change? If so, wouldn't 'a cold and bitter wind' be a fierce and scorching wind? Not necessarily: the contrast of 'harmony/peace/enough' and 'digging away at their souls' works for that theme too. The line 'There's nothing you believe you want' implies not wanting for anything, but not knowing what you're missing. Again both sides ('rich' and 'poor') may be naive Happy Folk in different ways. 'Where were you' again is about ignorance of the destruction that's already come to some and will come to others. It's probably not intentional, but it could be read as 'There's nothing significant you believe. You just want,' |
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| Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[jstitzer13258:33873] Why don't you want to sound like a tree hugger? It's just the song, and it's an old kind of story: you can see it in Avatar. Or the real world, come to that. | |
| Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[thendofthetour:33872] Not political as such, not particularly Buddhist. But metaphorical. | |
| Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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@[rhavin:33871] I agree. What you say about the media ties in with 'Feel Good Inc' (of which Murdoc seems to be the proprietor) on the same album. Also later on 'Demon Days': 'You can't even trust the air you breathe because mother earth wants us all to leave.When lies become reality you numb yourself with drugs and TV' is like the innocence and naivety of the Happy Folk. Also last month's 'Momentary Bliss'. |
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| Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @[TEC:33870] Yes. It's a catastrophic cacophony, or at least a cacophonous catastrophe. | |
| Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| @Ndianefo Chigozie Africa is only one example of colonialism and extractivism, but it's a good one. Gorillaz likes to work with African musicians, particularly people from Mali. | |
| New Order – Run Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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It's definitely "hard done to" (meaning hard done by, treated unfairly), not "hardened too". The refrain to me does conjure up moany celebrity interviews, the idea of someone overburdened by life's gifts and still unsatisfied... the solution being to simplify and cut back. The official video (by Robert Frank), featuring a middle-aged man (David Warrilow) sitting at a table and changing expression as he recalls memories, is quite trippy. The Denver case was settled out of court, I think. It seems baffling when you think you know both songs. Isn't it about a faint melodic similarity between the last line of the verse (also in the guitar)? "I hate to wake you UP to say goodbye" with "I can't recall the day *when I* last heard from you"? There are extra beats in Run, but the interval is similar. |
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| Ian Dury And The Blockheads – Itinerant Child Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I wouldn't actually say this was a political song. Chas Jankel on piano gives it that comic lift. It's contrasting the police brutality to human and humorous, people wanting to have good time and capable of self-mockery. So the chorus comes across as an anti-confrontation warning, perpetuating non-violent travellers' values. Just an idea - it could have been called "Runaway" (run away). As he says it's a miracle no-one died on 1 June 1985, but did his dog really get it? |
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| Peter Gabriel – Here Comes The Flood Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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A few more possible connections below. Take them or leave them or write a dissertation about them... The last song of Gabriel's first album shares with the first song of the second ("On the Air") an inspiration in radio waves. The changes in strength of radio signals at night are due to a change in the Heaviside and Appleton layers in the ionosphere. Ionosphere cf noosphere, one a discovery of physics, the other metaphysics? Unlike the poster above, I always heard it as "Lord". Gabriel obviously had a fascination in the 1970s with Western mythologies including Christianity, although he doesn't really return to his own fantastic imaginings until "Ovo". You can interpret "Lord" as a simple interjection like "Wow", or you could see it as supporting an interpretation of the song as about the "rapture" where people give up "flesh and blood". I believe the German version "Jetzt kommt die Flut" omits any equivalent of "Lord" but does use "last days". "Easter tide" I assume is a pun on "spring tide" (the highest tide, when the moon, earth and sun are aligned) but also Eastertide being a period in the Christian calendar. The scenario reminds me of Arthur C Clarke's _Childhood's End_ (again using some Christian imagery, although Clarke was not a Christian), where the Earth is taken into care by the "Overlords" who serve the "Overmind", and where there is a telepathic joining between individuals that is likened to the connection that exists between apparently separate islands under the sea. The commentary on this site about "Watcher of the Skies" (on the Genesis album _Foxtrot_) also mentions Clarke and that novel, and Clarke was a radio engineer. The other obvious "island" resonance is John Donne's "Meditation 17" (1623): "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." I heard it as "The *act* is gone, there's only you or me", which is the image of dramatic masks being removed or possibly "The actor's gone, there's only you and me" as in loss of a role. In 2004, John Cale (of Velvet Underground) chose it as one of his "Desert Island Discs" and they played the "Shaking the Tree" version (I think): "It just got really interesting to me to figure out how this song was written. I think maybe the piano's done first, then the vocals? The link between the two is really tenuous, it's an amorphous sort of mood that you're in, but it's very beautiful, and very calming." |
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