| Neko Case – Behind the House Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I agree that this song is/may have a narrator that is dead. She is also a murder. Here's my thought: this is a suicide ballad. Death can be a metaphor too if you prefer - the death is of innocence or the person that once was. The whole fire/flood thing is like the way an initial trauma won't get you but the PTSD will. I had a dream once where I went back to an old house I had lived in during the worst year of my life. In the dream it had burned down. And the hardest part of that whole experience had been sorting through the pieces afterwards. As one does. Like a flood, ya? The sword of damocles works for me too, although I can't see a broader metaphor past my own experience. Even if that's not what was going on in Neko's head it adds up as a song and work of art, and it is a beautiful song and poem. |
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| Regina Spektor – Samson Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Absolutely, this song is about Samson and Delilah and is a metaphor for regret. Sung in Delilah's voice, she is recreating her fantasy of what she wishes had happened instead of this destruction and death. The "wonderbread" reference is weird, and I think it just indicates the point where fantasy starts and reality ends. It also implies the distinction between life choices: simple / quiet / domestic (traditional female virtues), vs fame / renown / misery (traditional male virtues). Maybe, keeping in metaphor, Delilah would have been happy with a "normal" Samson but Samson preferred or was destined death and destruction rather than "normal". Which is actually pretty sad for Delilah, one of history's greatest so-called villains. |
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| Regina Spektor – Folding Chair Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I like the little mermaid comments, and liked someone's comment that Regina said in an interview the "dolphin song" was a seal imitating a dolphin. So here is my thought, by which I choose to interpret this song: This is a selkie song! All metaphorical, of course. Ms Selkie has come out of the water looking for love and human bliss (silver bullet trailer / baby boy / sweetly holding hands). However, noone's returning her love. Her prospective guy(s) is/are caught up in other things and leaving her alone. (For eg perhaps she is intimidating for them and they are being jerks based on their own insecurities, leaving her alone when she just wants their love, but I project). So she's lonely and considers going "home" since things aren't working out, ie back to the sea, giving up on love, going back to being alone in the wilderness. The sea is just a wetter version of the sky, she stays optimistic for the best of both worlds, love on earth. And although it's kind of a sad lonely moment, it's positive even while she is alone because she is choosing to believe in love, and stay optimistic for the future. |
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