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Vampire Weekend – Ottoman Lyrics 10 years ago
@[tiggerme123:1964]

"the lyrics show that it takes place in the 1800's if not around that time. "

Except the lyrics reference Peter Gabriel.

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Wilco – She's A Jar Lyrics 12 years ago
Someone else hit on the word play in the song title - She's "ajar", instead of "a jar" - but rather than the "slightly open" meaning, I think ajar's alternate meaning was intended - "not in harmony". In this sense, the lyrics here remind me a bit of the lyrics to Sunken Treasure - "I am so out of tune with you."

So, my interpretation of this song is about two people who care for each other very much, but are just enough out of sync to never be able to make it work. I don't think the "abusive" lyrics are meant to be taken literally - "she begs me not to hit her", I think, is intended to mean she's begging him not to continue his feelings for her, or "hit her" with them. It's become too much for her to bear, and it's an evolution of the song from the beginning where she was begging him not to miss her - she was maybe the one who encouraged the initial stages of the relationship, and perhaps pursued him.

Despite their troubles, they talk about running away together ("we could use a handful of wheel and a day off, and a bruised road"), though deep down, they know it'll never happen ("however you might feel, tonight is real"), and they're probably just instigating each other ("she says forever to light a fuse").

But, in the end, they realize that their respective pasts have molded them into who they are ("my fragile family tree", "I believe it's just because daddy's payday is not enough"), and they have to remain distant and closed off from each other, again using the word play with "ajar" and "a jar" ("she's a jar, with a heavy lid...a sleepy kisser, a pretty war").

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Ben Folds Five – On Being Frank Lyrics 12 years ago
"And old his girl hands on his hats"

I think it's "pulled his girls and hung his hats".

"I shook the hands, a few dames and presidents"

It's "I shook the hands of mafia dons and presidents"

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Ben Folds Five – Erase Me Lyrics 12 years ago
I think this is pretty close, if not dead on. Thanks for fixing the things I had wrong.

submissions
Ben Folds Five – Erase Me Lyrics 13 years ago
I tried to edit the lyrics, but apparently they were overridden. This is my interpretation, which is not perfect, but closer in a number of spots.

"What was our home?
Paper, not stone
A lean-to at most
And when you pulled your half away
Gravity won
Like it always does
Did I weigh a ton?
Would it be easier to just delete
our pages and the plans we made?

Erase me, so you don't have to face me
Put me in the ground and mow the daisies
Ah, the memory, see how it goes
when you erase me, erase me

So what will you do
with no me for you?
I know what we said
"What if I left a thing or two?"
We know that you don't seem
to think about what you need to
You reach to find that you've

Erased me, what the fuck is this?
You're crazy
Turned around in two weeks' time
Replaced me
Ah, the memory, everybody knows how it goes
You just erase me
Do me like a bro and taze me
Fireworks, poof! It's gone! Amazing!
New bio, you've gone solo
Drawing mustaches on our wedding photo
Erase me, erase me

Erase me, this is not shouting baby
Erase me, go and call the cops now baby
Ah, the memory, everybody knows
But the brand new home
Erase me, and you'll never have to face me
Erase me, I'm sure you can escape me
And if you feel nothing
Guess what I wanna be?"

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