submissions
| Malevolent Creation – With Murderous Precision Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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This song describes the basic outline of the famous slasher film Halloween, about a ruthless killer stalking his "chosen prey" while one man tries to stop him.
The killer in Halloween was called The Shape in the film's ending credits. The killer wears a mask with an expressionless white face, which this song calls the "blank faceless disguise". |
submissions
| Dream Theater – Learning to Live Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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I hadn't considered that this was about the AIDS panic of the 80s and 90s, but I can see where that's relevant.
I always considered the meaning of this song to be right in the title. It's about learning to live. To put it another way, it's about growing and maturing, searching inside yourself for what gives meaning to your life. About identifying your goals, your values, your morals, and coming to understand your place in the world and what you want in order to be satisfied with life. In this life, it's important to face the unknown situations of the future, and by looking forward with confidence and self-control, you just might find kindness, beauty, truth. You can't escape the pain we all feel, that of loss, aging, and death ("nature's inflexible grace" is a poetic way of stating this), but you can reach for life, and learn to live. |
submissions
| Dead Can Dance – Severance Lyrics
| 9 years ago
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The first verse seems to be a metaphor for the fear or risk keeping people from the pursuit of opportunity.
The second verse is about a lack of determination; a failure to look toward the future, instead dwelling on the past, and not adapting to a changing cultural landscape.
The third verse seems to give a negative connotation to holding on to pointless traditions, rote thinking, or outdated idealism.
The final verse states that indifference is the attitude that causes these situations. "Tomorrow's child is the only child" might mean that it's our legacy that gives meaning to our efforts in life. What we do with our lives, our culture, and our society in our lifetime will affect the world that our next generation lives in. It is the children, the next generation, that gives a purpose to our efforts, and it's for their sake that we shouldn't fear change, shouldn't dwell on the past, and should instead look with optimism towards a future and seize the opportunity to better ourselves. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – All About U Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song is about the booty girls in the hip-hop music videos, the ones who get hired just to look sexy and shake their ass. Also it's about the groupies at the rap concerts. When Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Montel Jordan, and the other rappers would go to record a music video, the producers would have a bunch of booty girls hired to dance in the video. It would often be the same dancers, and they knew some of them by name. They got tired of seeing the same hoes at the video sets. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – Heavy in the Game Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The first two verses are about being drug dealers. It seems like Tupac is glorifying drug dealing in many of his songs, but looking closely at his words here, he doesn't seem to be bragging, just stating that he is a drug dealer because that's how things are, that's just how he gets his money ("just a nigga tryin' to make a livin"). He says he has no friends, because getting money is more important. Richie Rich seems to be glorifying the lifestyle a bit more in his verse, though ("my public status is floss", "a young nigga livin presidential").
The third verse, Tupac laments having a hard life growing up and again says he sells drugs to get by, even though he knows it can only lead to jail or a hearse. He then tells the listener not to follow the same path, but instead to "follow the rules" and "go with the grain" so as to have a better life. This sentiment is very similar to the song Young Niggaz on the same album, where he admits that selling drugs can get lots of money, but he tells the young niggaz to get their priorities straight and be an accountant or a lawyer instead. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – Hellrazor Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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Near the end of the song he mentions LaTasha, a little girl who never got to see the bullet but just heard the shot, then dropped. This is a reference to LaTasha Harlins, a 15-year-old black girl who was shot and killed by a shop owner in Los Angeles. LaTasha was unarmed and the shop owner shot her in the head while her back was turned, and the shop owner got a very light sentence. This happened only a couple weeks after the Rodney King videotape appeared in 1991, which increased racial tensions in the area. Tupac has often rapped about the oppression of blacks, so LaTasha's death and the light punishment of her murderer surely reaffirmed his perception of racism in the justice system. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – Can't C Me Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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He is not talking about the pineal gland when he says "they'll never see the P". That is George Clinton appearing as a guest on this track. Clinton was the creative mind behind Parliament-Funkadelic, also known as P-Funk. Clinton's style of funk music was a huge inspiration on what was to become hip-hop music, especially in the west coast scene. That's why he gives a shout out to the P. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – Picture Me Rollin' Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song is about Tupac being released from jail, and going back to the thug life. The entire last verse is a shout out to all those people and things he hated about the justice department and being in jail: Clinton Correction Facilities (a prison on California), the bitch-ass COs (corrections officers), all them niggas in the cell blocks (the ones still in jail) and the district attorney. He asks them all to picture him rolling "free like OJ". OJ was a black man who did not go to jail when he was tried for murder, and now that Tupac is out of jail he is just like OJ. The rest of the song is just typical gangsta rap, glorifying the thug life while celebrating the fact that he is not in jail so he can enjoy hanging out doing thug things like getting bitches, selling drugs, and "flossin' a benz on rims that isn't stolen" which means showing off in a cool car. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – Picture Me Rollin' Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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This song is about Tupac being released from jail, and going back to the thug life. The entire last verse is a shout out to all those people and things he hated about the justice department and being in jail: Clinton Correction Facilities (a prison on California), the bitch-ass COs (corrections officers), all them niggas in the cell blocks (the ones still in jail) and the district attorney. He asks them all to picture him rolling "free like OJ". OJ was a black man who did not go to jail when he was tried for murder, and now that Tupac is out of jail he is just like OJ. The rest of the song is just typical gangsta rap, glorifying the thug life while celebrating the fact that he is not in jail so he can enjoy hanging out doing thug things like getting bitches, selling drugs, and "flossin' a benz on rims that isn't stolen" which means showing off in a cool car. |
submissions
| Tupac Shakur – Heaven Ain't Hard 2 Find Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The lyrics written above are the for the song "Heaven Ain't Hard 2 Find". I know it has a similar name, but there really is a song by 2Pac called "Ain't Hard 2 Find" and the two songs are completely different. I don't know the lyrics to "Ain't Hard 2 Find" so I can't do this myself, but someone needs to change the lyrics here so they are for the right song. |
submissions
| Dream Theater – Beyond This Life Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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An amusing anecdote about this song I recall hearing John Petrucci (guitarist for Dream Theater) said on the commentary on Scenes From New York DVD. He said that he went to his little daughter's school with her, she was only 8 or 9 years old I think. He was wearing a T-shirt with a picture of the newspaper from this song, with the words "MURDER YOUNG GIRL KILLED" in enormous letters. He said he didn't think anything of it, and he was wearing it to promote the album. He said he got a lot of shocked reactions from the other parents and the teachers. He said he was embarrassed that he didn't think that some people might be offended. |
submissions
| Dream Theater – Fatal Tragedy Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The liner notes state that this entire song is sung from Nicholas's point of view. In this song, he wants to learn more about his past life as Victoria, so he does research into the tragedy, starting by visiting her home.
I have always thought the old man in this song is mysterious. He is actually not the one who calls the tragedy a mystery, but it's still odd that Nicholas met him while visiting Victoria's house (or is it supposed to be Julian's house? It's not clear). Also, the old man tells Nicholas, "you'll know the truth as your future days unfold." How can he be sure of this? |
submissions
| Dream Theater – Through My Words Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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The liner notes state that this song is sung from Nicholas's point of view. It's pretty self-explanatory. Nicholas is just stating that he shares a soul with Victoria, and her memories and feelings are now a part of him. |
submissions
| Dream Theater – Strange Deja Vu Lyrics
| 11 years ago
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In this song, Nicholas is describing the dreams he has been having of his past life. In a past life, he was a young woman named Victoria on the 1920s. That is why "there's a girl in the mirror" in his dream, because the dream is actually a "scene from a memory" of Victoria's life and he is "looking through her eyes" and sees Victoria when he looks in the mirror.
In the dream, he is in a setting both familiar (as Victoria) and unfamiliar (as Nicholas). He says his soul is torn in two because he is experiencing this scene from memory as both personalities simultaneously. This is why he experiences uncanny, strange deja vu.
There is a pun on the word "sleeper", when Victoria/Nicholas says, "I'm not the one the Sleeper thought he knew." Since Nicholas is literally sleeping, he finds that he has a past life he never knew of, so he finds a new aspect to his soul. The other Sleeper is the character named Julian, who is Victoria's lover. This is only the second lyrical song on the album, so Julian hasn't been introduced to the story yet, but it is eventually revealed that Victoria had a secret hidden from Julian (she had a love affair with his brother, Edward "The Miracle") so that's what she means when she says she's not the one The Sleeper thought he knew.
This song also explains that Nicholas knows there is something very mysterious about these dream memories, and also it says that Victoria seems like she has something to tell him.
The album notes show that italicized lyrics are in the past, non-italicized lyrics are in the present. It also states which character is singing each part, since all characters' words are sung by James LaBrie and it can get confusing. But in this song, I think large parts of the lyrics are being told from the point-of-view of both Nicholas and Victoria simultaneously, so the same words can be interpreted differently if you think it's Nicholas or Victoria speaking. Hence why Nicholas feels his soul torn in two. |
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