submissions
| Icicle Works – Out of Season Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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Whoa. This song has haunted me for decades. Less so since getting out of my toxic early relationship. And I sure as hell quit smoking. |
submissions
| Tommy James And The Shondells – Crimson and Clover Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I always assumed it was about period sex. He wants to do “everything”. A lucky clover has 4 leaves and if you go for the crimson you can get lucky 4 weeks out of 4, instead of the usual 3. I came up with this interpretation as a teenager over 40 years ago and never gave it another thought. It’s fun to read the deeper, druggier, more romantic meanings people have thought up. I just love the song and love that Joan Jett covered it without changing the gender. |
submissions
| China Crisis – Diary Of A Hollow Horse Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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This album was produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan so I can't get away from the phrase "my kind" which works the same in this song as in the equally cryptic Rikki Don't Lose That Number." This 1989 song, which may be the epitome of the 'tragedy and mystery' of China Crisis' songwriting, has not received any commentary or interpretation as of yet. So allow me.
On it's surface, this is the plea of a husband caught cheating and facing the end of his marriage. It being the "way of the world for me and my kind (adulterers, like in the Steely Dan song) is no excuse for his "bitter betrayal" and he knows it.
What is a Holllow Horse? I think of the legend of the Trojan Horse, a false gift that let to destruction and doom. Thus his marriage was a false promise of fidelity to his wife (a "slave to the veil" - ouch) as he was "drawn to the flame" as in the image of the moth drawn to a flame and it's own demise. The chorus seems to invoke a fantasy, a different world, another life, where he and his missus meet again and he can rise to being faithful. But this is real life and there is no turning back. This song is often China Crisis' concert closer. The last verse is devastating: 29 words that sum up the song and the situation, the end of a love and a marriage in one verse. One of the most powerful verses I've heard sung, to end one of the most profoundly sad and poignant songs I know. |
submissions
| Duran Duran – The Chauffeur Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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This song is from Rio, DD's 2nd LP and the one on which they expected to breakout in America, which they did amply. The Chauffeur is, I believe, a meditation on their forthcoming absorption in to American culture, and almost every image in the song can be seen that way. (The sexy non-MTV edited video is also worth seeing, in Homer's humble opinion).
Way down the lane away, living for another day
The aphids swarm up in the drifting haze
(Warm weather in America)
Swim seagull in the sky towards that hollow western isle
(Yep that's us, a hollow western isle, and they are swimming or flying here)
My envied lady holds you fast in her gaze
(The Statue of Liberty always symbolizes arrival in America, and if you come in to NY late in the day the sun will be setting behind the great lady, and she will cast "shadowy lines" across the harbor toward Manhattan)
The mysterious signature line "Sing Blue Silver" was used as the title of Michael Collins' rockumentary of Duran Duran's 1983-84 tour of the US and Canada. Other commenters have pointed out the "silver" reference to various models of often-chauffeured Rolls Royce. I note that Rolls Royce also makes airplane engines, but this may be going too deep for Duran Duran. |
submissions
| The Guess Who – Road Food Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I can't believe no-one has commented yet. Of the myriad songs about touring, this one, B side to hit Clap for the Wolfman, has got to be one of the more provocative. I understand about Kathy (like the famous Lola) being a man but I'm lost at chippa chee chee. Can anyone explain? Do I need to be Canadian? Better have a whiskey... |
submissions
| Soul Asylum – String of Pearls Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Dave Pirner outdid himself with this amazing lyric, made even more interesting with its unusual reflexive rhyme scheme. As a fan of Kurt Vonnegut I couldn't miss the "president with two heads" section as this has got be inspired by his novel Slapstick. In that book a set of brilliant, incestuous, not-Siamese twins actually become co-presidents and do their best thinking when they literally "put their heads together." At the same time, Pirner was undoubtedly taking a jab at then president Bill Clinton, who had to "fend for himself" after the Monica Lewinsky scandal had everyone thinking about another meaning of "head" involving the president. |
submissions
| Sparks – Thanks But No Thanks Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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I was exposed to 1970's Sparks at a young age and their strange songs influenced (warped) my perspective. I couldn't help noticing this song and wondered how I'd feel about it as a parent. Well here I am and I hope I am the parent the Mael brothers were thinking about and that my kids keep right on walking. Because I said so. The world is cruel. Do we prefer it cruel? |
submissions
| Spoon – The Fitted Shirt Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Definitely one of their best songs. By saying a little about a shirt Britt says a lot about wanting to be like his father. And he does like to wear fitted shirts. Great hearing this live last week in Brooklyn. Happy Fathers Day. |
submissions
| The Church – Already Yesterday Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Surprised no-one has commented yet on this beautiful haunting song. I believe it is about finding our better nature and freeing ourselves from the evil we all have within ourselves. The apocalyptic imagery and sense of reversed time make this all the more powerful. Will we follow our greed and our leaders orders to war and (nuclear?, Biblical??) destruction? In our last days, will we finally learn to love one another? |
submissions
| The Church – Already Yesterday Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Violet Town is a small remote village on the road from Melbourne to Sydney. Ten Mile Beach is a beautiful remote beach between Sydney and Brisbane. The two destinations are nowhere near each other, but both represent long drives away from cities. |
submissions
| Robyn Hitchcock – I Got a Message for You Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Not hard to interpret, it is a perfect love song as only Robyn Hitchcock can write. My wife loves Robyn and loves this song. Proof enough we're right for eachother and it is our anthem of sorts, despite the meat references as we are vegetarians.It is a statement about love and about commitment, the forever kind, like marriage. And in it lies the secret of marriage and commitment: you get old and disgusting (maybe even a "hairless spinster covered in festering boils.)" Doesn't matter. True love and true desire is forever: You'll always, even when "blubbery," want to "go to the shrubbery, roll in the greenery" or less poetically screw in the bushes. If you are young, "lean and wirey, hot and fiery" you may not understand. You can't picture life after 20 years with the same mate, still in love and still hot for eachother. But if you've done it right you'll still be doing it, whatever it takes to spice things up-a little custard, a little mustard (or a lot). I know. |
submissions
| Sparks – Hospitality On Parade Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I've been puzzled by this song since I first heard it 38 years ago. Of course, it's a Sparks song and they sure are quirky. What I know is this starts off Indiscreet, the last of 3 albums they recorded in England before returning to native LA. Bonus tracks on the Indiscreet CD include a snarky song about England and a a questionably serious cover of I Wanna Hold Your Hand. This song, I think, is a bit of a snipe against the English, serving up their musical art mostly for the American customer. . |
submissions
| Sparks – Tits Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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RevAndroid has it right but I always wondered if there's more, especially considering the bitterness that pervades the whole Indiscreet album this comes from: Why does he want Harry to keep drinking. He knows Harry is cheating with his wife, could he be poisoning the drinks? |
submissions
| Grateful Dead – Cosmic Charlie Lyrics
| 12 years ago
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I love the Dead and was particularly enchanted with this song since my early teens, which was BEFORE I did any psychedelics. Didn't end up like Charlie though, just enjoyed the beautiful song. Then my first child was born on the first of February (a windy day in New York City), and I sang this to her as a lullaby. |
submissions
| Inspiral Carpets – Two Worlds Collide Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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It's about the division between rich and poor, upper and lower classes, the 99% and the 1%. It makes the point by alternating points of view between the two. |
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