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Shakey Graves – Roll the Bones Lyrics 9 years ago
I am putting this as my interpretation instead of song meaning because I may be way off base here. This song is obviously about working hard for something but I think it is more specific than that.  
There is a type of person it is talking about: so it goes, them city boys in country clothes. Basically saying they're giving up city life in exchange for a more lax lifestyle in some aspect.
These are men moving from urban to rural, but what changes come with this?
Sell them belongings, all them clever drawings; the key in this is clever drawings, which could be thought of as planning, inventions, drafts created of the mind. but on another theme, losing attachment to items and as well letting go of dependence on the analytical part of our brain..

The next part is where my interpretation reaches a stretch. Rolling bones, making a dollar from the grave, makes me think of the use of these terms to describe oil and fossil fuels.


So I think that this song is basically commenting on the theme of men leaving the pursuit of intelligence and complexity for a life of hardworking and simplicity, maybe since that's where The money is or may be because there is a - for lack of a better word- humanely organic quality to it. Think highly stimulating city life vs working hard in the beating sun - or something to that effect.

Agree, disagree?

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Modest Mouse – Steam Engenius Lyrics 13 years ago
Also, my interpretation
is that we are easily compared to robots helping robots, machines helping machines. It is no longer the Animal Kingdoms' survival of the fittest that leads are lives, we are now just clogs in mutual connections to each other. The only fight left for survival seems to be the one in ourselves, one that is trying to make the choice of which connections to make so that we have the longest most successful life possible. As if, we can never stop making a decision between one life and the other. The robot's heart was abandoned by another robot who didn't see love, who saw only transporting to the next ideal life.

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Modest Mouse – Steam Engenius Lyrics 13 years ago
Correct lyrics:
I was born in the factory
Far away from the milky teat
What's the use?
Oh, what's the use?

You cheered as I was split in half
A mechanical sacrificial calf for you
Oh, all for you

Steam engenius, you see
Steam engenius enough to answer anything you need
But what's the use?

Human nature was installed in me.
I did once right but naturally it wasn't natural.
Though not my fault
No

I held in my hands the beating heart of a robot
He'd lost his car
it was sitting there crying
waiting in the parking lot
Just for you.

What a waste of time
What a waste of words
What a waste of strength
Well, I spoke in binary and you for volume and dizzying length

I was born in the factory
Far away from the milky teat
What's the use?
Oh, what's the use?

Birds flew out as I was split in half
A mechanical sacrificial calf. They flew.
Oh, off they flew

Steam engenius, you see
Steam engenius enough to answer anything you need
And ah that speed

I held in my hands the beating heart of a robot
He'd lost his car
it was sitting there crying
waiting in the parking lot
Just for you

What a waste of time
What a waste of words
What a waste of strength
Well, I spoke in binary and you for volume and dizzying length.

(I was born in the factory)

Both halves are the better half
like a joke tryin' to make another joke laugh.
Ha! Ha!

Stasis is what you brought. Like a rickshaw getting pulled around by another rickshaw.
In the past talking present tense.
Gonna break it.Gonna Wreck it. Gonna try to make it all make sense.
Stasis is what you got. Like a rickshaw getting pulled 'round by another rickshaw.

Steam Engenius you see! Steam Engenius enough to bring my own damn doom.
What could I do?
I blame blame that blame had grew.
Well deep inside everybody knew it was them.
It was all on them.
Things rang of stories greek.
I didn't want it, you gave me deity. It was you.
Yeah, all for you

I was born in the factory.
Far away from the milky teat. What's the use?


I held in my hands the beating heart of a robot
He'd lost his car it was sitting there crying
waiting in the parking lot
Just for you.

I was thought up by man to think better than them then revered , admired , then destroyed by them.
Hell even all that that was my own damn plan.

What a waste of time
What a waste of strength.

I held in my hands the beating heart of a robot
He'd lost his car
it was sitting there crying
waiting in the parking lot
Just for you.

Stasis is what you got
Like a rickshaw getting pulled around by another rickshaw.

submissions
Len – Steal My Sunshine Lyrics 13 years ago
I'm so tempted to start this comment with people are so god damn naive, but please read that as this song is obviously about drugs (and their partaking in them.)
The part I love about this is that it seems to relate love and drugs in a way that these two people care about each other and love having fun with each other but would hate to see the other go off the deep end. By the sounds of it, it's like that sunshine feeling you get on acid when every thing perceived is like your brain being splattered onto your surroundings, and you're just picking pieces of it off different objects - this really isn't as horrific as it sounds. Sometimes people hallucinate to the point that they can relate different ideas in a heavy metaphorical sense, but that reality may get too twisted for the first-person, or maybe someone participating. Deemed "the fear," communication becomes unclear and tension rises. When two people so close are tripping with each other, they can have connections that will keep each other grounded. Things are not always what they seem, however; sometimes, when the world is alright in one person's eyes (drugs or no drugs) someone who is interloping with best intentions is stealing the one person's sunshine.
Now kids, you don't need drugs to enjoy music, you need music to enjoy drugs.

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The Naked And Famous – Punching in a Dream Lyrics 13 years ago
I think this song is definitely related to fear of all the possibilities for external forces to penetrate someones success. "Like punching in a dream, breathing life into a nightmare."
Think about that feeling you get in a dream of how you can take yourself anywhere, a feeling of weightlessness and limitless possibilities. It seems like as soon as something could possibly go wrong, it does, and quick - "I don't ever wanna be here." It can be related to someone in a situation where they are not valued for their potential, pressuring the individual to evolve despite any obstacle. Once the individual evolves, the heightened sense of accomplishment thrives - but the fear of being unsuccessful remains. thus, regardless of where the achievement can take us, it always brings us back to the triggers we had feared so much in the first place. As if, we can never have our one moment to shine because of all these fears triggering us to lose the main focus in our ideal reality.

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