| Regina Spektor – You've Got Time Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I agree that it's “... a bit of sun”. There's sort-of a dominoes structure of the first verse, where a word uttered in the last part of one line is repeated at the top of the next line: Trapped, trapped, trapped 'till the cage is full The cage is full / stay awake and then: Searching the ground for a bit of sun The sun is out, the day is new And once, between the above two instances, the opposite word is placed in the same way, thus: In the dark, count mistakes The light was off but now it's on [clever wordsmanship!] ------------------------------------------- Also, I'm wondering about the ambiguity of using the word "on" after "waiting". When you're awaiting someone, you're waiting FOR them. Waiting ON someone means (to me) that you're serving them. If this is the intention, I'd say she's being just a wee bit sardonic. |
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| Harry Chapin – Taxi Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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@Nuschler: Just to clarify, I didn't say his choices were gentle, I said that Chapin was reflecting gently on his choices. Not: "I really fucked up!", but rather: "ahh...hmm...if it had only been different..." Also, I differ with your deterministic view that if you're gettin' high while driving a cab, you've hit the end of the line; could be just a stop before getting it together...who knows? But yeah, now that you point it out, there is that element of "wrong dude" when looking objectively at his situation. That makes the song even more bittersweet to me, because he's sort of in denial about himself, isn't he? |
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| Harry Chapin – Taxi Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Did he change the lyrics in the "getting stoned" parts? | |
| Harry Chapin – Taxi Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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This is a wonderful song on a few levels. It's a simple story, spun with restraint. The time span of the face-value story (the taxi ride) is only a few minutes. But the retrospective element reaches decades back, reflecting gently on choices made, the intervention of fate, the true nature of his inner self contrasted with external events. He doesn't write emotively per se, but the facts he chooses to report add up to a very melancholic musing. Chapin's a master of this writing style. He made an impact on the ethos of popular songwriting in the 70's, and he'll be missed. One thing bugs me about this song, however. It's a little teeny thing, but...how far can a $2.50 fare have gone, even in '72? A mile? Two? I mean, the starting fare would have had to be at least $1. So the realtime occurrences in the song had to have transpired in a very short time span indeed. How far away from her home was Sue that she had to take a cab? Now, there aren't a lot of upscale homes in SF with lawns. In the posh neighborhoods where there ARE homes with lawns, the only things close to them are other upscale homes. So if she was that close to home, there's a good chance she was at someone else's house. Why didn't THEY run her home? She's monied, but she didn't have a car? These are things I worry about. All this said, LOVE this song. |
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