submissions
| Indigo Girls – Least Complicated Lyrics
| 6 months ago
|
I personally think this is one of those songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" or Faith No More's "Epic," a meditation on a general topic where the exact subject is intentionally ambiguous. Clearly there's a simple lesson that's hard to learn and easy to deny. What is it? That you'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling, i.e., you can't think or act your way out of love? That you can't skip or stop heartbreak? That you can't make someone love you if they don't? That your past affects your future? That the protagonist doesn't like boys in that way? All seem like valid interpretations, all inspired by the experiences that built the song and the imagery in it.
Since I brought them up, the other two songs, though probably not associated outside this comment, talk about something that's right in front of you yet can't be grasped. In the case of "Blowin'," it's probably an evident truth denied (sort of like "Least Complicated"), but it could be more like something on the tip of your tongue or something that just exists unknown; it's there, but you can't even name it, let alone know it, no matter how hard you try. In the case of "Epic," it's most likely sexual, although the exact act - or whether it's sexuality in general - is what remains ambiguous. Ambiguous enough that people can put their own non-sexual spin on it. |
submissions
| Eels – Ant Farm Lyrics
| 11 months ago
|
|
From the placement in the album, it's pretty clear it's about his troubled relationship with his dying mom, ergo "hard to believe after all of these years." The thing that gets me about this song is that, after it's over, you can hear E's physical emotional release, with Lisa Germano simply responding, "Wow." It's such a powerful and intimate moment, and they kept it on the record for those people who can catch it and have had similar emotions. |
submissions
| Eels – Ant Farm Lyrics
| 11 months ago
|
|
From the placement in the album, it's pretty clear it's about his troubled relationship with his dying mom, ergo "hard to believe after all of these years." The thing that gets me about this song is that, after it's over, you can hear E's physical emotional release, with Lisa Germano simply responding, "Wow." It's such a powerful and intimate moment, and they kept it on the record for those people who can catch it and have had similar emotions. |
submissions
| Ben Folds Five – Don't Change Your Plans Lyrics
| 1 year ago
|
This is part of a long history of songs about a person moving to L.A. to seek fame and fortune, leaving home and everyone there. The most famous is "Midnight Train to Georgia," but there's also "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" (Side note: The last of these is a Bacharach/David composition, and Ben Folds Five was clearly going for that type of feeling with this song's arrangement.)
However, whereas those songs are from the point of view of the fame-seeker going home (or at least considering it), "Don't Change Your Plans for Me" is about other person being the one who goes back. The person who decides to go to L.A. is enough reason for him to keep living, but not enough to keep living in L.A. He wants her to continue seeking what she wants even though he feels he can't stay there. |
submissions
| Camper Van Beethoven – When I Win the Lottery Lyrics
| 2 years ago
|
|
From the songwriter at https://davidlowerymusic.com/blogs/300-songs-blog/posts/46-the-van-part-1-when-i-win-the-lottery-i-m-gonna-buy-a-new-van: "I rear ended someone on the CA17/I280 interchange in Santa Clara. In the long run this was fortuitous. The tow truck driver launched into a monologue that became the basis for the song When I Win The Lottery. Over the course of the 30 minute ride... the tow truck driver confessed to a series of small felonies and a profound contempt for virtually every aspect of our society. Most striking was his contempt for religion and patriotism. He was out of his mind but totally fascinating." |
submissions
| Dead Kennedys – I Fought The Law Lyrics
| 11 years ago
|
|
Unfortunately, many of the things here - both comments and lyrics - reflect the common knowledge of the subject, and are thus just plain wrong. The main thing here is the "Twinkie defense." For the long version, see the Wikipedia article, but the short version is that eating junk food was seen as evidence that the health-conscious White wasn't in his right mind, not that eating junk food excused murder, which was the popular perception at the time. That led to the "diminished capacity" defense - a legal defense White used - being eliminated for all defendants. The idea that the murder of the mayor was cheered by the police is utterly ridiculous; the whole city was in shock and mourning. Also, people thought White got off easy with only a few years in prison, but he killed himself less than two years after his release. Although justice might have failed, what happened to him might have arguably been worse than life in prison and his life shorter than a life on death row. Almost no one wanted anything to do with him after that - not his family, not other officers. Still, many people remember this as his killing a gay man after eating Twinkies as him getting away with murder. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
