| USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker) – Yin Yang Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| I cannot fathom why more people don't love this song, it's my god damn JAM. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Cotton Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
I think this song is about feeling trapped, because you don't know what to do, or because you're scared, and choosing to make the hard choice. There are five metaphors in this song: * Rats jumping into the ocean at the last moment to avoid an explosion * Dropping your seeds into toxic soil * People apologizing when they're not sorry * A desk in a storage locker with "stick pins and cottons" (drug stuff) * Cars on the highway but nobody's driving, "something has got to give". The rats are trapped; their only options are to stay on the ship (certain death) or to jump (probably also death). They choose to jump, to take whatever slim chance they have left. The person with seeds is trapped. The only soil they can find is toxic clear down to the bedrock, they have nowhere to plant their seeds. They choose to plant them anyway, just in case. The people who are apologizing are trapped with their decisions and their relationships. They aren't sorry, but they want to have their families around. So they drop the subject. They let it go. They choose to reconcile, even if they don't mean it, instead of holding a grudge. The desk is full of drug stuff, "stick pins and cottons". But it's in a storage locker somewhere. The person who used that stuff has given it up. They were trapped in drug addiction, but they chose to overcome and get past their addiction. They let go of their need to use drugs. But the last metaphor is different. This verse doesn't start with "this song is for...", it starts "I want to sing one for...". In this verse there are cars driving on the highway, but nobody is driving them. People are on "autopilot", not thinking about what they're doing, just staying in their ruts over and over. And something has got to give, at some point they're going to break down and face the choice of letting go of what's holding them down or giving in to it, but they're trying to avoid that choice for as long as they can. These people haven't "let it go" yet. And you, the person being addressed, you were standing on the roadside, watching all these cars go by with their drivers in their ruts just going through life on automatic. And you're contemplating it, and wondering if it's for you. And you didn't know that the singer was watching, that anybody cared, but he was, and he does. He wants you to know that it's better to let go of your problems and make the difficult choices than to stay in a bad place out of habit or fear. |
|
| Death Cab for Cutie – The Ghosts of Beverly Drive Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| I think the song is about two people with a lot of emotional baggage dating. They know that they're not each others firsts, and they've both been hurt a lot before. He still thinks about all the things he's gone through, and wonders why he bothers to keep trying for love. He does like her, but they're both afraid to open up emotionally again so he knows it can't last. | |
| Brand New – The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
I think the song is about a deadbeat dad, a father who left his kids when they were little, trying to make it up with his daughter. He knows he fucked up and he doesn't know how to make it better. If it makes you less sad, I will die by your hand. I hope you find out what you want, I already know what I am. And if it makes you less sad, we'll start talking again. And you can tell me how vile I already know that I am. I'll grow old and start acting my age. I'll be a brand new day in a life that you hate. >He knows that he's done wrong, he knows how vile he is, and he just wants to make her less sad however he can. He'll talk to her, he'll give his life for her, he'll start acting his age. But he predicts that even with all this, he'll still just be a part of her life that makes her upset. It doesn't matter if he changes now, it'll just be a new leaf for him, and she hates him. A crown of gold. A heart that's harder than stone. And it hurts a whole lot, but it's missed when it's gone. >He knows that it hurts her to talk to him, but he's afraid that she'll be more upset if he dies and she never made reconciliations with him. Call me a safe bet. I'm betting I'm not. I'm glad that you can forgive. I'm only hoping as time goes, you can forget. >She thinks it's a safe bet that he'll stay a deadbeat. He's begging for the chance to prove that he's not. She forgives him, but she still won't let him in her life because she hasn't forgotten how much he hurt her. If it makes you less sad, I'll move out of the state. You can keep to yourself. I'll keep out of your way. And if it makes you less sad, I'll take your pictures all down. Every picture you paint, I will paint myself out. >Ultimately, he just wants to make her happy. If she's really happier without him in her life, he'll leave her alone, even though it hurts him. It's cold as a tomb, and it's dark in your room, when I sneak to your bed to pour salt in your wounds. So call it quits or get a grip. Say you wanted a solution. You just wanted to be missed. >Now he's calling her out. He knows he hurt her, but this is hurting him, too. She says she wants to make things right with him, but really she's just acting vindictive. She wants to hear that he misses her, because she missed him for so long and it feels like revenge. Call me a safe bet. I'm betting I'm not. I'm glad that you can forgive. I'm only hoping as time goes, you can forget. >Back to asking for a chance, hoping that she can forget what he's done and let him back in. You are calm and reposed. Let your beauty unfold. Pale white, like the skin stretched over your bones. >He's watching her grow up and become a beautiful young woman. He wants her to be strong and successful. Spring keeps you ever close. You are second hand smoke. You are so fragile and thin. Standing trial for your sins. Holding onto yourself the best you can. >But he can see that beneath that she's still scarred from what he's done, she still has trust issues. She blames herself for him leaving, she's 'standing trial for her sins' in her own head. She's holding on, but it's hard for her. And it's killing him to see that. You are the smell before rain. You are the blood in my veins. >She is bittersweet, but she is the blood in his veins, his child. He feels connected to her. Call me a safe bet. I'm betting I'm not. I'm glad that you can forgive. I'm only hoping as time goes, you can forget. >One final plea, praying she gives him one more chance. |
|
| Barenaked Ladies – Upside Down Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
Would you say... *puts on shades* It's all been done? |
|
| The Wallflowers – One Headlight Lyrics | 9 years ago |
|
One Headlight is about a boy whose mother committed suicide when he was just a toddler. Later in life he's feeling depressed and trying to figure out why she did it. He pictures himself hanging out with her from what little he knows from other people, and imagines talking her out of suicide. I thought it was pretty obvious that it was about his mom, just from the lines "But me & Cinderella, we put it all together, we can drive it home, with one headlight." Cinderella. You know, the girl who led a depressing life after she lost her mother? (Until the magic stuff starts, obviously). Think about the phrase "one headlight". The headlights are a metaphor for your parents teaching you and helping you out throughout your life. He still has his father, but one of his headlights broke. He's got to drive with just the one. *Like Cinderella*. He's talking about how he's running in circles and just feeling more dejected and hopeless (“This place is always such a mess, sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn") just like his mother ("She ran until there's nothin' left, she hit the edge, it's just her window ledge"). And he thinks that subconsciously, he might be depressed because he misses the mother he doesn't even remember. ("I think her death it must be killing me".) I think maybe he only recently learned it was suicide, which is why he's focusing on it so much. He's feeling depressed (makes sense, it's often genetic) and realizes that his dead mom is the only person who could've understood what he's going through. |
|
| Barenaked Ladies – Maybe You're Right Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
I would respectfully disagree with all of the other comments here. I can see the abuse angle, but I feel like the political angle is stretching it. I think this song is about rape. I think this song is from the perspective of a rape victim, and the whole world is doubting her and telling her it wasn't that bad and that she's ruining the man's life, when all she wants is for the person who hurt her to go to jail. The first verse says "It was often talked about; it was often raised, but nothing was ever done about it. To hear the way they talked about it, no one could be saved..." This is talking about the arguments that "boys will be boys", that men can't help themselves. Nobody can be saved, nothing can be done. You should know that already, it's your fault if you expected something else. And then comes "It was oversimplified; it was under-thought, and nothing was ever done to stop it." People are treating it like no big deal. I get the feeling that this wasn't an attack-her-in-an-alley rape, this was a date rape, where he pressured her into sex. And now people are calling her a slut and saying she should have stopped him, and oversimplifying the issue. "Everything was fortified by all the lies we bought" could be talking about a lot of things, but I think it's talking about the nature of rape, how unless the man grabs a woman off the street and rapes her while she screams "NO" and kicks at him it's treated as vague and maybe-it's-not-really-rape. The man's obviously saying that he didn't rape her, he thought she was into it, and maybe it's true or maybe it isn't. But the real lie is that rape is violent and loud, not something that can happen quietly when you just don't want to argue anymore. There's a sinister few lines that run through the whole song: "Shall I take back everything I've ever said and live my whole life in silence instead?" and "Shall I take back all my attacks? All of my accusations? All my mistrust - we never discussed anyone's reservations." She wants her rapist to go to jail, but she's sick of having to prove to people that she was raped. She wants to put the whole thing behind her. Maybe it really was nothing. Maybe she should just let it go, pretend it never happened. Maybe it's her fault, for not saying "No". And that idea that maybe she's blowing this out of proportion comes up in the next verse, too. "There was a time when a crime was a crime, but now I think I'm losing my mind, or taking it all too hard." Rape is terrible, and they should just be convicting him, but instead they're focusing on her, on how it was nothing and she's just crazy and trying to ruin his life, and it's weighing on her. She was already raped, and now she has to deal with this backlash of people telling her she wasn't. It's messing with her head. And then at the end, making her decision on whether she's going to keep trying to convict him; "Maybe you're right. But I don't think so." She's decided that she really is in the right, and that she wants him to go to jail for what he did to her, regardless of whatever everyone else is saying. Of course, I'm using a male-on-female rape as an example because it's the most talked about kind. It could just as easily be male-on-male or female-on-male or female-on-female. And maybe it was statutory rape. Who knows. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.