| Jason Isbell – Elephant Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Anyone who has held someone's hand on their walk through terminal cancer knows this song too well. I think the storyline here is that we're dealing with longtime friends who, after her diagnosis, realize the big picture in a heaping way. She knows Andy's past - seems to hint he's had his share of women, and maybe been a guy who moves from bed-notch conquest to the next. Andy acknowledges this in putting her proposal -- that she take him home - into context: Had he taken her home before cancer for sex when she was tipsy and willing, and taken advantage of that mood, he should know her better -- it'd have been a breach of their friendship, and he'd "never have heard the end of it." They are close friends, he'd be out of line "trophy hunting" her like the others. With cancer, the big picture coming in clearly, she's living more for the moment, drowning her worries in drinks, and knowing her days are numbered, sees him more clearly for being a good guy despite his flaws. Under such circumstances, she indicates a heartfelt willingness to let loose with him. But the reality of cancer, chemo - hair falling out - is nausea, tiredness, and lagging libido... and he knows it, and as the good friend she knows he is, he steps up to do what cancer friends do: clean up hair, tuck 'em in, etc. As for who they are, "bitching about the weekend crowd", he's a musician as referenced, and a good crowd makes all the difference. Her role is not clear. She sings along, but strikes me as something she's done with him for years, maybe as a fellow musician or as an artist dependent on the bar scenes. He comments that she's dying alone amid family, suggesting that even as they're losing her, her family does not fully understand who she is... perhaps this made her the black sheep of the family? -- the eternal dilemma of so many artists. Amid it all, they do their best to laugh to stay sane, smoke and drink and sing songs as she deteriorates; they cry looking back on life. They mock cancer back as it mocks her life out of the both of them, doing their best to pretend the elephant in room ain't there. As we move in, his mind visits / revisits the process of her death 1,000 times (terminal cancer is a long "burial"....), and would gladly have traded his place in the line for death with her place. In the end, he sums up cancer death that there's nothing pretty about. You struggle through it, and do your best to ignore what it means. |
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| Regina Spektor – Blue Lips Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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@[mandafern:992] In interviews around the time of this album, she said she'd covered a lot of ground on the idea of God, religion, and humanity interaction thereof. |
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| Regina Spektor – Blue Lips Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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He stumbled into faith and thought, God this is all there is This is classic “Seek, and you shall find”, the old questions “there has to be more than this, right God?!?” “The pictures in his mind arose And began to breathe And all the gods in all the worlds Began colliding on a backdrop of blue” Fast forward to a moment of genuine spiritual enlightenment, to that realization of a spiritual singularity. “Blue lips Blue veins” Lord Krsna / Krishna! Blieved by many to be the ultimate expression of Gods many forms. Google “Krishna blue” and look at the images / description. Read up on Krsna! “He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while” After moments of enlightenment, people need to recalibrate. Their entire understanding of existence has changed. “But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child” Spiritual enlightenment is indescribable, a sense of understanding all things far better, making much more sense. Consequently, one views his prior understanding as a child’s interpretation of reality, immature and incomplete. “And all the people hurried past Real fast and no one ever smiled” Most people are spiritually disconnected, and those on the path of enlightenment see them scurry about hurrying to achieve their material objectives. Rather unattractive vs. the bliss one feels when spiritually centered / grounded. “Blue lips Blue veins Blue, the color of the planet from far, far away” Regina ties earth to the idea of being *of* God, of Krsna. “The pictures in his mind arose And began to breathe And no one saw and no one heard They just followed lead” After a return to the path of enlightenment, we get those lines. Can be one of two things: 1) this can be describing fully surrendering one’s ego / self to full spirituality, following the lead of God; or 2) he’s describing the reality of the unenlightened masses who remain tone-deaf to the idea of “God is within us all if we seek the right path” as the path to spiritual enlightenment, and instead they just follow the lead of those misguided souls before them, mostly off the spiritual path altogether. “The pictures in his mind awoke And began to breed” This, and what follows, leads me to believe it’s both 1) and 2) above, because the words “arose” and “awoke” reinforce a process of fully understanding and comprehending his reality and new perceptions of his place in existence vs. the limited understanding of so many others. These others are elaborated upon as follows: “They started off beneath the knowledge tree” According to Vedic and biblical traditions, humanity started off very connected to God. Both had humans in a blissful garden of full understanding with God. Both traditions explain that human ego, the thirst to embark on one’s own search for understanding by our own terms, leads to the downfall of humanity. Egos are fed, and the further humans get from god generationally, the worse things become for humanity and the more diluted our ability to experience spirituality among the unenlightened. “Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences” Drives home the point that humans abandoned this once sacred knowledge for the materialism, e.g. “The American Dream” = white picket fence home. “They marched along the railroad tracks” Many references, possibly marching to WAR – “thou shall not kill” is universal. Or towards destructive industrialism to achieve gratification. “And smiled real wide for the camera lenses” This is vanity /ego, exemplified. “They made it past the enemy lines” Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines We win the wars against our human enemies who wish to enslave us, only to enslave ourselves with materialism in a misguided “chasing” of the “tail of happiness”. “Blue, the most human color” She drives home repeatedly a description of Krsna and repeats that humans are of GOD, of Krsna and that blue is what we share with God and each other, the earth. Far (the Album this is on) covers a lot of religious exploration, and this strikes me that she’d checked out the subject, run into someone discussing his own experience. A brilliant song at that. |
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| Regina Spektor – Blue Lips Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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@[Lozeli:991] Blue is the color of Krsna. This piece could very well tell the story of one's path to spiritual enlightenment in the Vedic tradition. It references the timeless story of falling from enlightenment by pursuing ego, vanity / self-gratification, etc. while forsaking the "real path to happiness" of surrendering one's ego and becoming one with something far greater, our singularity of commonality via God / Krsna. Spektor explored a lot with religion on the album Far, and this seems to be an explanation with Krsna / enlightenment. |
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