| Regina Spektor – Two Birds Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| That could actually have been what Spektor meant! She's so whimsical. | |
| Regina Spektor – Sailor Song Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Elephantine idiot! How could I have been — why do I continue to be — so stupid! "Mare", Latin, meaning "sea" or "ocean". From which, or relatives thereof, come the English words "marine" and "marina". Furthermore, the Russian for "sea" is also море (morye). Anyway, what does it matter? Most of her songs, with the exception perhaps of "Machine", don't have clear, definite meaning anyway, even to her! She confessed as much in that interview with . . . whatever the name of that magazine is; I can't remember. |
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| Regina Spektor – Eet Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Note: I haven't seen the music video. "Your favorite song", "always singing along", "It was so easy,"; Spektor is quite a combination, and if I may playfully say so, very often feels to me like l'enfant terrible. Born in Moscow, but ah, the irony of the big city: the grand theatre on which to display the picture-perfect homogeneity of official stereotype is overrun by the variation and deviation inherent in its own massiveness, or should I say, number!? Anyway, enough about Moscow. Spektor decries the inherent selfishness of capitalistic American society — in songs such as "Blue Lips", and her earlier "Ghost of Corporate Future", for example — while at the same time maintaining what I consider to be an almost obsessive cherishing of individualism, down to the very idea of being original in all things. I think that Spektor is suggesting in the first stanza that at some point in time, "you" had the opportunity to be yourself, independent-thinking, "real", she would probably say. (See how obsessive she is, leaving no room for simple "devotion"? More on her extrapolations of "simplicities" in a moment.) For whatever reason — mental laziness, fear of rejection, a desire to "fit in", the difficulties to be overcome implicated in such a line of thinking / doing , fill in the blank; I don't know — you abandoned individualism for "simplicty"; "Just sing along to the song and don't worry about it anymore. Worrying is too scary, or tiring, or exhausting, anyway. Who has the energy for it?" Or maybe this is just me speaking; I can be very pessimistic about the sustainability of current conditions. To me, Spektor is criticizing "You're settling for the 'solace' of detaching yourself from the problems menacing you, instead of facing them head-on and eliminating them." Or perhaps "you" have tried, but could come up with no solution. So instead, you just mindlessly chant a shiny cure-all, and let that be that. To me, Spektor is criticizing "You are just sticking your head in the sand, you nihilist! Get your happy butt (All solutions must be happy with Spektor, it seems to me. The tune of this song is subtly cheery. [Please note that I do not understand the musical definition of "tune".]) off of the ground and face it like a man!" Or woman, if applicable. "It was so easy, and the words so sweet." Ignorance is bliss. Not thinking is sweeter that the conclusive, reconciling thought or action that had supposedly proven so elusive in some past time. But, according to Spektor, borrowing and juxtaposing reconciliations on your own problems is just running on metaphorical fumes and the simple "That's the way it is!" solution will not stick or truly remedy anything in the long term. The corrosive effect of simply having your brain react to an incantation ("You were always singing ALONG,") ironically takes away even its ability to recall ("You can't believe it,"), much less devise. Only true victory is tenable. Settling for a substandard, but at least contented, detachment cannot be maintained. Perhaps someone can distill a line of coherent thought out of the mess that is the above, and come up with a really interesting interpretation. Please feel free! |
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