| Portishead – Wandering Star Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| Although it draws on imagery used in the bible, (as do eg many Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen lyrics) this is clearly not about the bible! The "wandering stars" in the bible are indeed the planets, used in "Jude" as a metaphor for unreliability in dodgy religious teachers, condemned to wander through space (people didn\'t understand planetary orbits in biblical times). In the song makes these words a beautiful tragic metaphor for the isolation, suffering and aimlessness of someone who is a victim of some sort of predator, but also seems to feel guilty themselves. In that sense it does connect to what the author of "Jude" was talking about - the terrible effect of corrupt people in positions of authority, religious or otherwise. | |
| The Smashing Pumpkins – The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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A suggestion: perhaps this is a dialogue between the Batman and the void, and the chorus is the void's answer to him. Works perfectly for Watchmen for the same reason, especially since the Night Owl is a thinly-veiled Batman. The singer is in a post-apocalyptic or dystopian wilderness (Gotham?); he reflects on the past. The void answers that nothing changes; this secret is held by the void like an eternal flame. The singer is aware of being in a unique, solitary, position as the observer of the ruins of the world. The void repeats its perspective as a chorus. The singer realises that he may just as well not exist; he is at one with the void, being both all-important and nothing. The void's answer to this is the same. |
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| Bob Dylan – The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| The name "Judas Priest" is I think a clue to the moral nature of the narrative. It is a warning that those who seem to be doing you a favour may be actually leading you to destruction; the priest may be the one who betrays christ. This is an indication that Dylan was taking christian imagery very seriously at this point. The "neighbour boy" is guilty, maybe because he did not reveal the danger Frankie Lee was exposing himself to - Dylan is perhaps thinking that he ought to be telling people about the danger he thinks they are in, of dying of moral thirst. Later on he would produce plenty of songs along exactly those warning lines, before becoming rather less bothered. | |
| Blondie – Sunday Girl Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[c4rous3l:22869] A BBC documentary "Blondie in New York" suggested the situation might be more complex than that. Yes, there was a cat called "Sunday Man", but song-references can be multi-layered. There is nothing to say that a person's cat can't be used as an "alter-ego" or reference for that person, or someone completely different, if the songwriter wants to. A one-to-one correspondence with biographical details should also not be expected! For me, the song evokes the risks of safety as well as the dangers of adventure in personal relationships; for cats or anyone else! | |
| Gillian Welch – Look At Miss Ohio Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Interestingly, the line "I want to do right but not right now" echoes a famous prayer of St Augustine, made while he was a teenager (and a manichean) which could be rendered as follows: "Lord, make me good, but not just yet". Here the line is detached from a religious context but the sentiment appears to be similar! A nice allusion to the dualities of human nature. Maybe Miss Ohio went on to be good after all ... or maybe not ... | |
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