| Joe Jackson – Nineteen Forever Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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I love this song. It haunts me, and I listen to it often. I agree with some reviewer that it's "sardonic." He's cleverly mocking his youthful arrogance since he's become what he had previously mocked. Why do I think so? Two lyric lines defy the apparent youthful bravado: "And if you see me looking tired, I've just been sleeping through the day." and "Only my mirror sees my crying each time I lose another year." These are like his actual thoughts leaking out amid all the childish denial of aging the rest of the song seems to convey. |
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| Jethro Tull – A Time For Everything Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Not profound, really. Do something, it's better to fail than to have never tried, life is short, you'll regret the undone more than the done, etc. A common message usually lost on youth and, in most rock music, written by youth. Interesting. But from the more mature, we can fine a different perspective, from the future looking back, not about regret. We have something like Rush in "Time Stand Still": "Summer's going fast Nights growing colder Children growing up Old friends growing older Freeze this moment A little bit longer." There's no time for everything, surely. But looking back no matter what you did or didn't do, it's the past, and doors closed, but you should stop regretting the done or undone and realize where you are and what is. The wisdom of the "Do something while there's time" is replaced with "It ultimately doesn't matter. There is only now. There was always only now." No regrets. |
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| Steve Earle – Copperhead Road Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The interesting thing here is that he identifies with the Vietcong. His own government is coming after him -- The DEA chopper. He learned some neat tricks from his brother, Charlie, over there in how to run a kind of insurgency against the U.S. Government. One can think he (JLP III) and Charlie are spiritual brothers fighting the same kind of war against the same enemy: The U.S. Government. And he's now an enemy of his own government after serving two tours in Vietnam and because he's trying to make a buck up where his people were chased a hundred years ago to make do but fight wars when asked to protect the interests of those who chased them up there in the first place (to fight the Indians)! He says he's white trash, which means he recognizes he's considered to be white trash. Reminds me of "Fortunate Son" -- Some folks inherit star spangled eyes Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord And when you ask them, "How much should we give?" Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! y'all The white trash, the Scots-Irish, have always been our best soldiers. They were born fighting, as James Webb says, always willing to do the dirty work and ask only to be left alone in return. Kicked around from country to country, always denigrated and oppressed, they were born fighting Englishmen, Indians, the new nation's enemies, cops and revenuers . . . . a fierce demand for liberty and a fierce willingness to .fight for it. But once they've done the fighting for "the man," the cannons are turned back on them: "And when the band plays 'Hail to the chief', Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord!" Anyway, in spirit, they have been a national treasure. Adapting, not complying, as in this song. Entrepreneurial, JLP III changes the business model from booze to pot. He uses (sucessfully or not, it doesn't say, but it's fun) his experience fighting for the man in Vietnam to help him survive. |
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| Bruce Hornsby – Across the River Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| Don't understand why she had to come back. What's with the row boat? Why look West? Why 35 weeks? What is it that might not happen for him if he leaves? | |
| Steve Earle – Copperhead Road Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Until the last verse, it's just a story about moonshiners, probably Scots-Irish hillbillies who naturally and historically resisted government control, which was a penchant for liberty intensified by being shunted into the mountains by rich to live on less arable land and act as a buffer against the Indians. They mounted the Whiskey Rebellion very early in our new history to protest taxation of whiskey, and though they lost, their spirit was one of personal liberty in which such a whiskey tax was more-or-less just the old tea tax (against which we had our Tea Party) in new clothing, and the New American federal government was just a new boss, same as the old boss (to them). At the end, we have the ironic twist that they still do this but can update their product, tactics, and technology, again appropriating what they need from the government to use against it (or to avoid it). In old days, they appropriated a cop car. In new days, they appropriate what they learned when forced to fight in Vietnam (again, in place of the rich kids) and, in the end, felt as much affinity for the enemy soldier in Vietnam as they did for their own government. It was jungle, insurgent, warfare, and Charlie taught them as much about resisting government intervention as anyone else. And they can use it here. |
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