| Defiance, Ohio – Oh, Susquehanna! Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Correction: It's I-83, not I-88. There are two I-88s, one in New York, one in Illinois. I-83, however, follows the Susquehanna from Harrisburg to Baltimore :) Also, it's Sunoco, not sunolo. Now for the lyrics: I grew up just across the Susquehanna from Harrisburg, in a town called New Cumberland. This song is an absolutely perfect, heartbreaking picture of what life is like here. The song is pretty straightforward until the female voice comes in, which is when it gets really good. She speaks first as a child who grew up and fell in love with the land here, because it really is a place where you can "hide out from the decade." However, that same land being "forced into a grid 'til it looked like the funny pages" is a sad reality. When this land was first settled by Europeans, there were huge estates and farms. One particular one that belonged to the owner of the house I live in now many, many years ago covered over 100 acres. It was split up over and over again and now it's down to 1.5 acres surrounding the house. What used to be rich farmland and woods is now cul-de-sacs and developments. The song takes this idea and closes out with what I consider to be a comment on this generation: the kids will never know what stood here, both because they can't see the work of the pioneers under their cookie-cutter houses, and because they probably don't care. TL;DR: This song is so accurate it makes me want to cry. |
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| Vampire Weekend – Horchata Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| This song has a number of inconsistencies in it that give me a particular image. For one thing, horchata is a cold beverage made from rice and cinnamon, which is meant to be refreshing on a hot summer day - certainly not something you'd drink in December. The next line: "winter's cold is too much to handle / pincer crabs that pinch at your sandal" is another contrasting image of the same variety. All of this evokes images of living in paradise: Hawaii or southern California where you can sit outside and drink horchata while shooing away the crabs with your sandal-ed feed even though it's the middle of December. I think it's a mildly sarcastic look at an ideal paradise where you can jokingly complain about "winter's cold [being] too much to handle" while not really meaning it. | |
| Neutral Milk Hotel – April 8th Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think this song is about getting lost in thought in the middle of the night, when everyone's asleep and there's no one to talk to. He's thinking about a girl he either can't have or who doesn't want him, and how he'd much rather climb up her stairs (sneak into her room) and sleep on her floor than be alone in the darkness, watching TV and agonizing about it. "There is no use in waiting" makes me think she's either too young for him, or has rejected him on the grounds of not being in the right point in her life for a relationship. As for the title, I always thought that he wrote in on April 8th. I write songs, and when I can't come up with a good title for one, I just name it after the day (my latest being 19 May). |
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| Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I know the album is about Anne Frank, he admitted it himself, he was madly in love, whatever... but I think in this, and all his songs, there's more to it than that. This one is about friendship. Not romantic love or sexual passion, but a close bond that only exists between people who grew up together. I'm an only child, but I have this bond with a friend I grew up with from second grade onward, and we're still as close as ever today. The song is about when one "brother" is suffering or going through something that the other brother knows they can do nothing about. "I can hear as you tap on your jar" could be knowing that that person needs you, but "I am listening to hear where you are," even though you can't get to them. As for me, it makes me want to cling to my best friend and cry with her all night until I fall asleep because all I want is for her to still be there in the morning. |
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| Dropkick Murphys – The Hardest Mile Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| "The Hardest Mile" refers to a stretch of track on the Pennsylvania Railroad (then the Philadelphia & Colombia), about 30 miles east of Philadelphia in Chester County, Pennsylvania, known as Duffy's Cut. 57 Irish immigrants were hired for 25 cents a day to build the section of track in 1832. All 57 of these men later died. The official explanation given by the railroad was that they died of cholera, but recent archaeological work on the site shows that at least seven of them were murdered. | |
| Laura Marling – Hope In The Air Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I agree with what fibberdyjibber said, partly. But my hypothesis is that it's about her own relationship with her father. There is a man that I know For seventeen years he never spoke Guess he had nothing to say He opened his mouth on judgment day Laura Marling was raised in a religious school, and probably in a religious home, and it may have been that her father was quiet, stoic, and emotionally unavailable. Perhaps he presented few words and less emotion to her until he laid down the law when she was 17 (He hopened his mouth on judgment day), probably in response to finding out she had done something against his beliefs - in my mind, probably something to do with a relationship of hers. I listened with all of my might But was scared by the look in his eyes Like he'd already lost the fight And there was no hope ever in sight She listened to his words, because the less one says, the more people pay attention when one does speak, but his anger terrified her after years of not seeing any emotion, positive or negative, from him. His look "like he'd already lost the fight" is his anger at losing his daughter to worldly ways, and that "there was no hope ever in sight" - that she'd never be the little girl she once was in his eyes. No hope in the air, No hope in the water, Not even for me, Your last serving daughter He felt hopeless after this experience, even toward his last remaining daughter (Laura was the youngest) Why fear death? Be scared of living Oh, hearts are small and ever thinning There is no hope ever of winning So why fear death? Be scared of living Laura had a fear of death around this time, and perhaps the first and last line is her teling herself that life is far worse than death could ever be. "Hearts are small and ever-thinning" could be saying to her father that people become more jaded as they get older, so why not forgive her and let her keep her heart young? But alas, "there is no hope ever of winning" this particular argument. I have seen men provoked I have watched lives revoked And I looked at my life and I choked And from there, no more ever has spoke She had seen a lot in her few years, but despite that when she looked back on her actions, she was apalled at her own behavior (a feeling brought on more by her father's disapproval than by a breach of her own morals). And after that, she was scared of relationships because of the anger they could cause in her own family. But I won't give up that quick My life is a candle and a wick You can't put it out but you can't break it down In the end, we are waiting to be lit Despite her father's rage, she won't give up living her life the way she wants to that easily, viewing life as a "candle and a wick", waiting to be lit by the life she could have. There's hope in the air There's hope in the water But no hope for me, Your last serving daughter Her father recovers from his pain, and regains hope, but not in her. A friend is a friend forever And a good one will never leave, never But you've never been south of what rolls off your mouth You will never understand, ever Despite her father's emotional unavailability, she still had a friendship with him, and that will not change, but because he's "never been south of what rolls off [his] mouth" - that is to say, he's never experienced the kind of relationships she is experiencing - he will never understand what she's going through, or why she did what she did. Speak minds handed down to you By the lies handed down by your truth Your angels that dance at your will Will mask your scrambling youth The first two lines may be a reference to her father's religion, all his life having had his opinions handed down to him by the lies handed down by his Truth (religion). His "angels that dance at his will" may be his other two daughters, who ended up how he wanted them to be, thus "making his scrambling youth" - he lived vicariously through raising them "properly," to fill the void of his lack of passionate relationships. I forgave you your shortcomings And ignored your childish behavior Laid a kiss on your head And before I left said, "Stay away from fleeting favour" She forgave him his shortcomings and his childish rejection of her right to make her own decisions. She left the family home (she moved to London at 16 - maybe 17 was poetic license, and the events occured at a previous time), still loving him, but telling him to beware his other daughters' apparent acceptance of his doctrines. Oh, pick up your rope, Lord, sling it to me If we are to battle, I must not be weak. And give us your strength, World, and your food and your water Oh I am your saviour, your last serving daughter I think these are the most powerful lines in the song. The first two lines are a challenge to the religion she had been raised with, and her saying "if I have to fight this faith for the rest of my life, I can't do it weakly." She then asks the world of human nature to provide her with sustainence she now lacks after leaving the church, saying that she is now a partisan for her cause and that of those like her, the "last serving daughter" of the carnal world. This is what this song says to me. Perhaps I relate to it in this way through my own experiences (it's the story of my life o.o), but this is my interpretation of this beautiful, haunting song. |
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| Beirut – Le Moribond Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I agree, he's going to die and he's saying goodbye to all the people in his life. I think Émile is his best friend/'partner in crime'. The person with whom he drank the same wine, courted the same girls, and shared the same sorrows. I think Curé is his priest. They followed vastly different paths through life, but both wanted the same fate in the end (i.e. heaven). Antoine would be his enemy (I mean, come on, he actually says 'I didn't like you a lot', which could be taken to mean 'I hated you'), perhaps even his woman's lover (in which case one of the lines should read 'cause look/we saw that you were HER lover). The last verses are obviously his wife or girlfriend. Just my take on this amazing song. |
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