| Yo La Tengo – Tom Courtenay Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| This song is particular poignant for me, and sort of makes the hair on the back of my head stand up. My mother was a sort of local beauty and minor luminary in the 60's, before dying of a shot of heroin in 1969. I never knew her. "Looking for a lucky charm, with a needle hangin' out of its arm...." is a sort of devastating line to listen to. | |
| Hair – The Flesh Failures / Let The Sun Shine In Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Of moving paper fantasy Listening for the new told lies The "moving paper fantasy" refers to shadow puppets used in some Asian cultures, emphasizing how little Americans really knew about Vietnamese society and culture- our allies and the communist north were in fact fleeting shadows to us, with reality being something else entirely. The addition of the next line "listening for the new told lies" is poetic and brilliant in that it emphasizes our own media's stream of promising lies from Vietnam during the height of the war- our own shadows production. I am always curious about the very emotionally laden line "Facing a dying nation". Since the metaphor immediately moves to the paper fantasies of an oriental puppet theatre, perhaps it refers to Vietnam, though perhaps it refers to our own dying culture (evolving into the age of aquarius), Walking proudly in our winter coats Wearing smells from laboratories These two lines well illustrate the foolishness of sending American soldiers flying off to fight and die in a tropical country 10,000 miles away. "Our winter coats" and "wearing smells from laboratories" emphasize the utter incongruity of flying from our northern country wearing colognes and soapy smells to go fight in a tropical jungle. Honestly, I love this moving song more than any other tune from any play or movie. Brilliant, over-poweringly sad... |
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