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Vampire Weekend – Step Lyrics 12 years ago
This song is about our relationship with music - and feelings of possesiveness over the bands/songs you like. The "girl" in this song is music itself.

In that light, the line, "Step to your girl" is a double meaning - you literally step to your music (as in moving to the beat), and it implies someone else coming onto your woman - which in this case means other fans following the music you like.

Some other line interpretations:

"Ancestors told me that their girl was better" - this is older folks insisting that their generation's music was better - richer, tougher, what have you.

"The Punks would laugh when they saw us together" - Punk rock kids seeing Ezra listening to his music and laughing at it.

"We saw the stars when they hid from the world" - meaning Ezra appreciated his music when it were still relatively unknown, hidden from the world

"You cursed the sun when it stepped to your girl" - you get envious/possessive when your music hits the mainstream - i.e. is out in the sun

"The truth is she doesn't need me to protect her" - coming to terms with the fact that music doesn't in fact belong to you. The chorus and the rest of the song reinforces this - it's about Ezra maturing and realizing it doesn't matter if the music he likes is obscure or mainstream.

"Everyone's dying, but girl you're not old yet" - his music is still vibrant, still relevant.

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