| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Sweet Sweet Bulbs Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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I posted by accident before I was done writing.. somehow twice. Here's a few things I wanted to add. - A phoebe is a bird common to California and the wider US. “… only a crow would peck/ and a chicken would scratch/ her lips turned up to kiss/ I see ya Phoebe baby in your bonnet/ with the sunset written on it/ in the shadow of a tree.” Phoebe is contrasted with the pecking crow and the scratching chicken, perhaps with her “ lips turned up to kiss.” The sunset colored Says phoebe might have been particularly familiar for van Vliet: they are prevalent in the arid southwestern U.S., where van Vliet spent much of his life, and also are found seasonally in California. Also a phoebe baby bonnet is a popular type of bonnet that babies wear. - “I see ya Phoebe baby in your bonnet/ with the sunset written on it” is a striking and affective line A powerful way to introduce the darkness and drama which obsesses this part of the song. The first three verses are free from any hint of darkness or trouble. But the six consecutive lines that follow introduce and focus solely on looming darkness and negativity, an almost predatory, serpentine force, which endangers the sweet and innocent Phoebe baby. There are easy parallels to draw here to the garden of Eden: so far the song describes only a garden paradise, until the sudden introduction of “in the shadow of a tree/ curled around her knee in color/ just behind ya was a sea of negativity.” - Mercury is really toxic. It's also used for fuel in fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent lightbulbs are an antithesis to sweet, sweet bulbs, and everything else that is garden-like and decent about life. - “Lips turned up to kiss” also makes sense as the garden’s lips, turned up to kiss. This means that Phoebe is introduced more dramatically, in a place of uncertainty and endangered, totally passive. Not yet a “queen uncrowned.” - Phoebe’s bonnet is suggestive of a baby bonnet. The sunset written on it symbolizes mortality, foreshadowing, creating conflict, drama. Every image prior has only suggested fertility, germination and growth. Phoebe under the shadow of the tree is reminiscent of Eve, beneath the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like Eve, she's presented with, or confronted by, evil (in the shadow of the tree “wrapped” serpent-like around her knee) and she must make a choice. Unlike Eve, though, who’s fate was exile from the garden, Phoebe's is a return, triumphant, back to the garden. Nature’s queen uncrowned. The “gate swings lightly without weight;/ open to most any one that needs a little freedom,/ for God’s sake, come/ as many as you can.” Eve's hand-me-down to humanity was more or less shame and sin for all eternity. Phoebe's a beacon and a queen of freedom. Phoebe Baby is more ore less anti-Eve. |
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| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Sweet Sweet Bulbs Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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A few notes: - The repetition throughout the first verse is very evocative. Not only the repeated words ("Sweet, sweet..." and "Warm, warm...") but also repeated vowels: the long 'a' in "latest," "wave," "latest," "faces," and "brave." Also the repeated consonant 'r,' especially 'ar': "grow," "garden," "warm," "fingers," "their," and "brave"-- nearly half of the words in the entire verse. - In the second verse "hominy" is a play on 'hominy,' meaning corn kernels prepared as food (traditionally eaten by native Americans of course, and maybe reminiscent of Thanksgiving) as well as 'homine' which is a variation of 'homo,' latin for 'man' or 'human.' - Phoebe is a Greek name meaning "radiant, shining one." It was an epithet used to refer to Artemis, goddess of wilderness, wild animals and the moon. It corresponds to the male name Phoebus, which was an epithet for Apollo, the god of light and also Artemis' twin brother. Phoebe was also an early Christian deacon known for being a 'prostatis' to early Christians (a female guardian, protectoress or patroness; generally one who cares for others and offers her resources for them to share). |
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| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Sweet Sweet Bulbs Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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A few notes: - The repetition throughout the first verse is very evocative. Not only the repeated words ("Sweet, sweet..." and "Warm, warm...") but also repeated vowels: the long 'a' in "latest," "wave," "latest," "faces," and "brave." Also the repeated consonant 'r,' especially 'ar': "grow," "garden," "warm," "fingers," "their," and "brave"-- nearly half of the words in the entire verse. - In the second verse "hominy" is a play on 'hominy,' meaning corn kernels prepared as food (traditionally eaten by native Americans of course, and maybe reminiscent of Thanksgiving) as well as 'homine' which is a variation of 'homo,' latin for 'man' or 'human.' - Phoebe is a Greek name meaning "radiant, shining one." It was an epithet used to refer to Artemis, goddess of wilderness, wild animals and the moon. It corresponds to the male name Phoebus, which was an epithet for Apollo, the god of light and also Artemis' twin brother. Phoebe was also an early Christian deacon known for being a 'prostatis' to early Christians (a female guardian, protectoress or patroness; generally one who cares for others and offers her resources for them to share). |
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| Elliott Smith – No More Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| Also, I meant to say in my comment that jate's comment about the song is spot on. He gives a more specific auto-biographical interpretation along the same lines as mine, if that's what you're into. | |
| Elliott Smith – No More Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| This song has always reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" ("quoth the raven/nevermore."). Upon re-reading it now, I have noticed that the parallels actually run very deep. It's hard to think this was not intended by Elliott Smith. | |
| Elliott Smith – No More Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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This is a song about someone who no longer believes the story the've been telling themselves. They've been facing one way but looking sideways for a long time. Now they are giving up on denial and putting the thing to their face. Looking sideways also suggests some kind of middle ground. One might look sideways furtively out of the corner of their eye, but one might also look sideways in scrutiny, looking for an explanation, trying to understand, looking for a case to argue. But the thing's in black and white. It's either/or. |
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| Pink Floyd – Jugband Blues Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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The lyric "I never knew the moon could be so blue" parallels the later line that "the sea isn't green." There's also a lot of symbolism to be found in the image of the moon. Both the moon and the sea are associated with madness, as well as mystery, the feminine and other-worldliness. It is also a clever play on the idea of a blue moon, and there are actually parallels in the lyrics with the lyrics of the old popular standard Blue Moon. A blue moon is a rare kind of extra full moon, hence "once in a blue moon" but to be blue is to be sad, like having the blues. In the old standard, the moon is blue when the singer was "without a dream in my heart/ without a love of my own." Also, what you are saying of madness and mockery reminds me of Hamlet. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the play, the character Hamlet pretends to be mad. By pretending to be mad and using other's perception of him as mad, he is able to say things he could not say otherwise, often mocking the other characters in cutting, often profound ways, straight to their faces, and he is able to act in ways that would be unnacceptable because people dismiss his words and actions as meaningless. Some people debate though whether Hamlet might actually indeed be mad in the play. I'm actually reading the play for the first time now and haven't finished yet, but if this stuff is interesting to you, then I'd recommend it. I can't help but recognize many parallels between Barrett and Hamlet. They both even reference clowns a lot! In particular, there's a very famous scene in Hamlet involving a clown, and Hamlet's feelings about him. Also, if I can make a kind of bold assertion, both Hamlet and Barrett turn away from women and the possibility of love. Psychoanalytic critiques of Hamlet often emphasize that Hamlet, after he is "mad," rejects the love of Ophelia while turning all his attention to his mother. Not romantically of course, at least not overtly, but this fits the Freudian model. Syd too turned away from the world and relationships, besides his family. Eventually he moved back in with his mother. Both Hamlet and Syd also have bitter and biting criticisms to make about those around them and the world at large though. Both are very smart and sensitive souls. The stories of both are tragic too. I'm going to rewrite this for a general comment here too. |
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| Elliott Smith – Clementine Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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I'm surprised no one has suggested doubt as a theme of this song or drawn attention to the repeated emphasis of time here. I don't want to force a concrete meaning onto this song because I think people should relate in their own way but I will point out a few connections that seem important to me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The street is wet, rain/tears, drinking. The song's chorus is of course an allusion to the old folk song in which a miner's daughter drowns and he is unable to save her. Failing to forget her, he kills himself. The common Elliott Smith motif of waking/sleeping/dreaming is prominent. The bartender wakes him up and is singing the song Clementine which he would rather keep off his mind. He is closing the bar. Drinking, sleep, escape gives way to the woken doubts and sadness that plague the narrator. Doubt? "Though you're still her man/... maybe the whole thing's wrong/ what if she thinks so but just didn't say so?" Maybe the narrator's love did not break up with him or die but isn't really his love? What if he's with the wrong woman? What if she has the same doubts? Maybe he's "dreadful sorry" for feeling this way. If it's all wrong then was it just a waste of time? Another theme is passing time: Waking from sleep to find that the bar is closing (time has passed, unaware). "It seems a long time gone," seems to refer to the relationship. Our narrator seems worried about time passing; drinking has put him in to "slo-mo;" provides relief. Then lastly the ironic and biting line "anything to pass the time". Patterns in the development of the song can also be observed by comparing verses: Verse 1: Subject wakes, gathers his bearings, description of surroundings, "they" and "you". What is outside. Verse 2: Explores what is troubling the subject. Develops character. Moves from description to drama. What's inside. Verse 3: Describes how he spent this particular night. Or the addiction/escape activity. This verse also stands out for being in past tense while the rest of the song is in present tense. |
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| Red House Painters – Medicine Bottle Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I disagree that they separate in the song. I think that verse ("I've not been so alone...") emphasizes his dependance on her; it's not that they broke up but just that when she's not around he feels so alone and walks around pretending she's with him. This builds up to the medicine bottle confession– that he needs her like a drug that makes life tolerable but with too much he'll lose himself, or perhaps the part of himself which is so isolated. I also don't think this song is written as a narrative. It's more of a stream of thoughts, feelings and reflections, maybe memories, that are all connected. Brilliant song writing really. What makes it so great is that it's not all there. The song is like a still from a movie or a page from a diary. It leaves so much to the imagination but at the same time it's very direct and clear, not to mention powerful. and im aware this post is 11 years old, it was just a prompt to me |
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