| Rodriguez – Jane S. Piddy Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| So this is that eulogy for the hippie years, yeah? | |
| Bright Eyes – If Winter Ends Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| shit, it's in words | |
| The Mountain Goats – Age of Kings Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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I think the person talking in the first person is either a magician or a religious figure, or both. The whole action takes place in a mysterious medieval kingdom where magic exists. The object of the protagonist's attentions and longing can be read on two levels. It seems natural that he is talking about another person, a lover, or perhaps a pet he has loved and lost. On the other hand, however, there seems to be some peculiar property to this object. The gold light makes me think of a magical object made out of gold, which emanates light; the line about god's anointed makes reminds of King Arthur's sword, how only he could be the one to extract it and use it; the name burnt into the magician's skin makes me think of tattoos members of a cult often get (think of the death eaters in HP), or maybe that name appeared due to the magician being the anointed one, so it's a good omen; and finally "Reach down to the moment when I should've said something true / Shadows and their sources now stealing away with you" makes me think of a spell not properly done (or perhaps a broken prophecy), making the magician lose the object, the relations with other people and maybe even his sanity, in the same way God condamned Cain to roam the Earth and cursed him in the Genesis (which is of course what Prowl Great Cain is about). In the end, the whole story could be told by someone who has lost his mind, so it's just broken images and visions of terror (eg the wolves in the hallway) I can't really put together these two levels of reading in a way that makes sense. Maybe we're talking about a golden idol shaped like a person or animal, which would explain the head nestled under the magician's chin. Maybe it's the very opposite thing, where the magician falls in love with a person to only later realize her magical properties and the responsibilities that come with them, and eventually he's overwhelmed enough to just let her go. Maybe it's not a person but a magical pet he finds, with the same ultimate results. Maybe it's really just really a song about a failed relationship and all the magic talk is an extended metaphor. |
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| Franklin Bruno – The Irony Engine Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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Guy and a girl friend have have known each other long enough to have a balance in their relation, a set of rules ("You can act like I'm your chum and I can treat you like my little sister"). However, the guy has feelings for his friend, and at this point even though he hasn't really expressed them they are a pretty obvious undercurrent in the things he does for her, e.g. give her a long ride home in which she sleeps, leaving him alone with his thoughts. At the end of the trip, the guy has made up his mind enough to come out the girl. Up to his point he had his doubts as to whether she was getting what was going on, but now he realizes she's been aware for a while, and he sees how not being open about it could end up damaging their friendship ("if you cover the sun with your thumb you should expect to get a fever blister"). So when he finally starts leaning toward her while still in the car she diverts his avances in a light-hearted, off-hand way (she has that little girl thing to her, and uses that to cover up her embarassment). She smiles and hugs him awkwardly, then leaves. The guy is once again left to his thoughts, and the feeling he had while revealing his feelings to the girl, of a hum in the air, some cosmic powerful thing acting against his will, comes again and stronger. He probably has an affinity for machines and mechanisms, as they are quoted several times - rising like a crane to an occasion, a three point plug superheating, the motor chugging and feeling something coming loose in it -, so the name he gives to this thing is the Irony Engine. Also, he seems like an aw-shucks kind of guy, so naming the thing IE helps him turn his potential rage/humiliation/sadness into a manageable, homely kind of disappointment. Even though he can't completely explain to himself what happened in the car he is pretty sure he's not going to bring it up in conversation again. There are a couple of lines I haven't completely figured out: "You leapt at the chance to act alarmist You swept past my face like an eclipse." The second line there makes me think of the guy going for a kiss on the mouth and the girl diverting him and going for the cheek, but it's weird that that comes out so early in the song. "And if you still can't see how a three point plug Could superheat on the lunar tug" I think this refers to a space tug, a sort of rocket vehicle that's used to bring equipment to orbiting stations, or to carry satellites in their orbits. Maybe the guy sees a romantic relationship with the girl as inevitable, he's been foreseeing it and studying with the same focus scientists use in building a spacecraft, so when a minor malfunction foils his plans he just can't believe it. |
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| Guided by Voices – Man Called Aerodynamics Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| I think he's talking about a person high up in a bureaucracy, his life spent between his office, political meetings, the club and parties with other politicians, who is growing disillusioned with his career and his colleagues ("ant god"). He misses being younger and having more time for himself, which allowed him to travel more (eg visiting Asia, where he bought crickets in a bag from a street vendor and ate them). Maybe in reaction to this, he sees in a favorable light the younger, more progressive colleagues who are emerging in the political arena, such as "the man called aerodynamics" whom the people in his party are instructed to "pounce upon". | |
| The Shins – When I Goose-Step Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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[cont.] that he sometimes is a bit too active for her, a bit insensitive to her problems, and the presence of her grandma in the house ("the queen of questions") who sits on her old wheelchair, often spouting about her nephew and her friend, about how they're too young and immature to spend together. Perhaps she's just a bit sour because the girl has a friend to keep her company, while she doesn't ("alone on a worn-out throne"). I think the whole situation is viewed by the boy, now a grown man, having long since cut all relations with the girl: it's a childhood memory, an old picture, which explains the way the details pile up one on top of each other in no precise order - the wheelchair, the grandma, the ice cream, the fantasy etc. Also, the sense of a passed time is conveyed by the echo-y, "dusty", indistinct sound of the record. So it's both a sweet memory and a painful one, because the man feels guilty and sad about truncating such a profound relation - perhaps his first love. The guitar countermelody in the second stanza evokes this bittersweet feeling, while the keyboard lick that begins the song evokes a carefree epoch, an innocent time. The pattern the rhythm guitar and drums play reminds me of someone stumbling awkwardly, like someone walking with a crutch (the girl?) or perhaps someone miming a soldier's walk (the boy goosestepping). In an interview James Mercer says that he writes the melody and guitar part to a song before writing the lyrics, and that every melody carries its own particular feel, which inspires the topic of the lyrics, so the idea for what the song is about could come from this weird rhythmic figure. However, it's not the only case where he uses this pattern: in Girl Sailor he plays the very same one. To me this song feels similar to some Neutral Milk Hotel/Jeff Mangum songs, like Sinking Ship, 2HB2 or KCF, in that it has this dreamy, iper-real, bittersweet-memory quality. And this is all I have about this When I Goosestep. What'd you guys think? :) |
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| The Shins – When I Goose-Step Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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I have a different interpretation for these lyrics, though most of it is sheer speculation. I think it's about a blooming romance (or deep friendship) between two kids or young teenagers. One of them had an accident when she was small, probably falling from a height, where she got seriously physically injured; ore else she was born with a medical condition; either way, she cannot walk properly (thus the "south paw", that is the leg she will always fight; but that could just refer to a generic physical handicap; riding the rails could refer to the elevators she has to use instead of doing the stairs, or to her wheelchair).She might even be stuck in bed, or in general her body won't allow many movements. In fact, she's not even able to reach under her bed, for the ice cream she lost in or around it. However, she still began this strong relation with the other kid (I'll assume it's a boy because that's the picture I have in my mind, but I'm not 100% sure), who plays and creates stories with her etc ("my inventions") in her house. Therefore, the boy knows her family well ("You know I still adore all your mother's old-fashioned ways") This way, the two progressively sink in a world of their own ("Your head will still be there where you put it, under the bed"; "And tonight you go to bed and dream"), where he can help her imagine that when she grows into a teenager she will be able to go out, be liked by guys and even worry her parents - which will be impossible, because of her condition. She is progressively falling in love with him (I don't know, that's just the feeling I get), partly because he can see beyond her physical limits and enjoy her company, making her a better person too ("I'm so impressed that you hear my inventions, and that it matters more than what you saw with your eyes"), whereas he has some doubts about her interest towards him ("Are your eyes changing hands?"). In fact, they have a few moments of coldness when, while playing a game about soldiers, he goosesteps across the room, reminding her of her condition. The only discordant notes about their relationship is therefore the fact |
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