| Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Angel's Harp Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Well, I haven't done ANY research for this one, but this interpretation may be interesting, and I'd like to hear other thoughts on it as well. This song to me says "death", or even "suicide" I mean, it IS on an album called Dark Night of the Soul, which is an old theological phrase denoting a period of deep depression and meaninglessness in life, the death of the ego, leading the wise or the willful to a state of being in their "true" self, noticing that death is just an illusion, a phase, and noticing the collective consciousness of all living beings. In a Borat voice I say "I digress!" So the main phrase that keeps getting repeated is "pluckin' all day on my angel's harp". So the narrator of the song either IS or simply likens himself to an angel. Depending on your own interpretation, this could be saying that he has died and now is like that cartoonish angel, complete with wings, halo, and harp. When I consider death as a theme in the album in general, it makes me think of the Grim Reaper (the angel of death), who is "plucking all day at his angel's harp", which for him, is his scythe. More generally, all day he is simply performing the function for which he was designed by God. He says "Shouting at the rising moon, knowing that I will soon stay at the edge of the plain, the top of the scarp" So the moon is rising, meaning night has come (figuratively speaking). If he is shouting, perhaps he is a person dying, and he is shouting either in resistance or defiance even. Without more to go on, it is hard to say which, if either, is more accurate. He knows that he "will soon stay at the edge of the plain, the top of the scarp". To me, this suggests he knows that night has fallen on his life, he is dying and that he will forever hence reside on the edge of the "plane" of existence (death being one plane and life being the other). If we're still considering the role of the angel of death here, which, as I go I'm starting to see less and less as the intention, but I'll indulge myself for a bit longer-- death sits at the edge of these two planes of existence, doing its duty. Death is at the top of the scarp (escarpment, a steep hill or bank, or ridge, or something similar), looking down over the field of souls to reap. If the narrator is just a dying man, he may be referring to the top of the scarp in a way meaning, as far as he can go, or an ascension of some kind, like an angel rising up from the body. "Though you made me a buffoon, you did not hear the words that I did croon" This one has me stumped. It has made a buffoon of me. HOWEVER if I HAVE to croon any guess, I'd say the narrator, which I think we can now assume is either a dying/dead man, or death incarnate (or maybe a simultaneous representation of both, who knows), is now addressing a third party. Maybe it's the dying man telling death or another person that by killing him, he/she/it, has made a buffoon of him, as he was foolish to think that death would not come to him (as we all tend to feel from time to time, especially when we're young). OR perhaps it is the reaper saying to the dying something like "You mocked me, but you didn't even hear me coming". This seems to make more sense to me now. It is starting to sound like a trade off between a human being and death, both saying their parts. Idk, this part was a stretch for me, so more ideas are welcomed and needed. Let's just move on. "I knew you'd finally come around, won't you please enjoy the sound" Again, sounds like the dying man telling death, "I knew you'd take me one day, so enjoy as I play on my new harp" lol. Maybe. "I didn't say clap, and I didn't stay sharp" No idea about the "I didn't say clap" part. But the "I didn't stay sharp" part may be saying something like, "I didn't stay alert, on my toes, ready, and that's why death (or my human killer -- let's not rule out human on human homicide here) eventually got me. The next part is tricky too, so forgive me if it starts to seem like reaching, but I'm doing my best with a very cryptic piece. "When I saw your eyes all brown, I pulled em boy and lo I cut you down" I've seen the lyrics written this way a couple of times, but it really sounds more to me like "I pulled the bow and lo I cut you down". Like an archer pulling a bow, firing an arrow, and killing a person. These lyrics would make a lot more sense for the death themed theory this way. It would also give meaning to the "When I saw your eyes all brown" part, which could have been written that way partly for the rhyme scheme. Basically saying, I looked into your eyes as I killed you, or I killed you when you got close, or something like that. We also have that famous command by William Prescott from the American Revolution during the battle of Bunker Hill, "Don't fire 'til you see the whites of their eyes!" which was said because (as the story goes) the Continental Army was low on ammunition and couldn't waste shots (wah wah wee wah I digress!). Brown is also the most common human eye color in the world (here's where I start reaching). So in this instance we have the killer (be it the angel of death, or a person), saying I looked into your eyes and killed you. Could be person to person, or could be the angel of death speaking to mankind in general. I know, reaching, reaching... But it does seem more and more like there are at least TWO different "speakers" in this song. The one doing the dying, and the one doing the killing, IF the death theme holds any water. MOVING ON... "This is where we all will fall, this is what we shall call kill" Ok definitely talking about death. At least I'm onto something there. Specifically, word for word, the lyrics are cryptic in this order, but shorter fragments like "we all will fall" and just the word "kill" give credence to the death/killing theory of the meaning. Wait a second.. If the narrator is saying "this is what we shall call kill", could it be that whomever is doing the speaking is talking about the world's first murder (i.e., Cain killing Abel in the book of Genesis)? That makes sense if you think about the line "this is where we all will fall" too, because it's talking about the fall of man, original sin, expulsion from paradise, the fact that according to the Bible, humans all started out as immortal, but now because we broke God's law, we suffer a short life span? The title of the album being Dark Night of the Soul gives that a little weight as well, being a phrase from Christian theology. We may be closing in on a meaning for this one from this line alone. "A resonator is sounding dark" Since the song is called Angel's Harp, I think it's safe to assume that in this case, the "resonator" referred to is the part of the harp which produces sound when the string is plucked. It sounding dark signifies, maybe, that it's faint, or fading away. Perhaps just "dark" in the general sense of the word, mysterious, unknown, like death. "Though you might be walkin' tall, everybody gots a lot to grow" Well the first part makes sense in that no matter how big and bad you might be, death will take you eventually. If you got a lot to grow, that also means you have more development to undergo. As explained earlier, the Dark Night of the Soul is a metaphorical death, leading to a new rebirth. So maybe this line is talking about the death of the ego and the spiritual "growth" that follows the soul's "dark night". Sounds pretty good. Moving along. Almost done. "This is where I'm jumping off. This is where I sail aloft" Pretty obvious, it's the end of the song. It's almost like the same message as "This is where I'm signing off", like "I'm done", or "It's over", or "I'm dead". "Jumping off" sounds a little suicidal, but that doesn't really fit with the rest of the song when so much sounds like it's about being killed, or death in general. "This is where I sail aloft"... "Aloft" means "up" right, so he's now the angel, drifting upward into Heaven (..we hope). Thanks for reading if you made it this far. I hope more people comment on this obscure, but brilliantly produced piece of music. Proud to be the first. |
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| Radiohead – Where I End and You Begin. (The Sky Is Falling In.) Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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Seems to me, that this song is another example of RH's penchant for the existential. It also seems like another one about a relationship. In this case, it is the relationship between the singer (who could represent all of mankind), and God. Let's look at the lyrics. "There's a gap in between, there's a gap where we meet, where I end and you begin" - Could be talking about the singer (one person, some people, or all of mankind) feeling at a distance from, or in separation of God. A lot of religions talk about how we are all one with God and each other. In this case, the singer is in doubt of that. However, this song seems to be written perhaps from the perspective of God and not the man. God is telling us, that in fact we are separate beings, we are not together. Later lyrics indicate that God sees this as our fault, and God is not happy about it. "And I'm sorry for us" - God lamenting the way our relationship with each other turned out. "The dinosaurs roam the earth" - Alluding to extinction, the first hint in the song that God plans to wipe us out like the dinosaurs. "The sky turns green where I end and you begin" - God kind of giving something of a rationale for His plan to eliminate us. The sky turning green makes me think of pollution. When God created the world, the sky was blue. Now that we have left God behind and began destroying the world He gave us, the sky is turning green, like the planet is getting sick. Could also be, and this is a stretch, that the sky turning green might be what it would look like were the sun (often a symbol for God) to swallow the earth (eating us alive, perhaps?). "4,5,6,7" - You may find it interesting that I mention this count, but I think it may have been included in the recording (with an effect on the voice making it sound muffled and distant, with a slight echo) for a reason. In the bible, man is represented by the number 5, the devil by the number 6, and God by the number 7. The numbers are vocalized in the song, stopping at 7, which is God's number. Could be nothing, could be a hint at the song's meaning. During the "Radiohead: In Rainbows, Live from the Basement" performance of this song, Thom vocalizes the count, saying "seven get to heaven" before starting the next verse. Again, maybe a coincidence, maybe not. I grow more convinced all the time that there are no mistakes or coincidences in Radiohead's work. "I'm up in the clouds and I can't come down" - God is saying "Hey, I'm up here, you're down there. We are separated and I'm not coming back (in the form of Christ, if you're a Christian) to save you again." "I can watch and not take part, where I end and where you start, where you left me alone" - This is another hint at some existentialist stuff. Rene Descartes called God a "clockmaker". By this he meant that God had set the laws of the universe, winded the whole thing up like a clock, and let it start to ticking, and doesn't intervene in what happens here. Also, more specific to this song, God may be explaining that now that we've decided to leave Him behind with the free will he gave us, that he is unable, or unwilling to have anymore to do with us. We are on our own now. This is a lot like a person talking to a lover who has left them. The person on one hand seems well adjusted, telling their lover not to come back if they decide to leave. The decision will be final and they won't beg or wait for their lover to come back. On the other hand, the following, the next verse makes the person (or God in this case), seem quite vindictive, as he plans to destroy us for our decision. "X will mark the place like the parting of the waves, like a house falling in the sea" - There is a big red X on earth, upon which God will release his wrath. This will be his intervention, like the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus (from the bible), which God parted to help the Hebrews escape subjugation under the Egyptians. Only THIS time, his intervention won't be to deliver us from evil, but to swallow us whole. Like a house falling in the sea. A symbol for all of that which man has built, being destroyed and consumed by nature, really putting us in our place. "I will eat you alive" - As mentioned earlier, a couple of things hint at God's plan to destroy us, possibly by using the earth itself to consume us. It won't be a peaceful death, but a terrifying and violent one, like getting eaten alive would be. "There'll be no more lies" - God no longer has tolerance for the lies people spread about Him, or the lies we tell to each other, or the false promises we make to God. He has no more tolerance for it, and He's going to deal with it. The title, "Where I End and You Begin (The Sky Is Falling In) - The first part, about our separation from God, and the consequences. The part in parentheses is one of a couple of things, maybe both. For one, the end of the world, earth being destroyed by meteors or something else from the sky (God maybe, duh). Also makes me think of that story -- Chicken Little, wasn't it? Where he went around telling everyone the sky was falling, causing a huge panic, just because he could, or maybe it was because he was just ignorant about what was really going on (like it was raining or an acorn falling on his head or something, I can' t really remember). So if the Chicken Little allusion has anything to do with it, the whole meaning of the song could be somewhat self-denying, as the whole "the sky is falling!" thing was either a product of a lie or ignorance, meaning that the apocalypse we're seeing expressed in the song is a lie told to scare people into following certain social norms and mores, as well as submitting to those in power, or could express a concern that people have (God being pissed at us and planning his vengeance) that just isn't worth worrying about if you're a person of logic and reason. Sorry if this all sounds like ranting, but I'm passionate about Radiohead's work, and I think it's so much fun To analyze To think things through To make sense Thanks for reading. |
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| Radiohead – The Gloaming. (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold.) Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This song was released post 9-11 (not sure about when actually written) and in the early years of the U.S. with their all out "war on terror". In the aftermath of the crisis, the Patriot Act was signed into law, giving the U.S. government to invade the privacy of its citizens. I could go on and on about this kind of stuff, but suffice it to say that many civil liberties were and continue to be undermined as part of the war on terror. There was a quote somewhere that said this song was about the rise of fascism in our western society. Couldn't agree more. Let's take a look at the lyrics. "Genie let out of the bottle, it is now the witching hour" -A force (in this case evil -- more specifically, pre-fascist) has been released. Now it's time for mischief, mayhem, and destruction. Generally, a time for shit to go terribly wrong. When the tragedies of 9-11-2001 occurred, the U.S. immediately went into a loooooong nationalist uproar, characterized by its thirst for vengeance, a renewed sense of national pride, and the allowance given by the people to the government to do whatever necessary retaliate against the perpetrators of the attack (could debate whether it was an inside job, but not here, please). In a sense, someone, possibly citizens of the western world, unleashed this "genie" which is now going to royally fuck things up. "Murderers, you're murderers, we are not the same as you" - After the 9-11 attacks there was nationalist propaganda everywhere you looked as well as propaganda against a highly generalized, but hard to identify enemies (terrorists). However, U.S. retaliation seemed to REALLY be aimed at entire nations of people, rather than the specific group blamed for the attacks. The U.S. went to war with IRAQ, the leadership of which having little to nothing to do with 9-11 (It was said that they harbored terrorists, which is not a complete LIE, but the leadership of the people the U.S. was hunting down was supposedly in Afghanistan, where troops were sent as well, but the main focus being strangely on Iraq). We could speculate that the intention of the U.S. government was really to take control of Iraq and setting up a puppet government, all in attempt to control oil reserves and secure a Middle Eastern foothold from which to continue conquest of the region. SO it went that many many innocent civilian noncombatants died in Iraq and Afghanistan during out alleged hunt for terrorists. All the while the talking heads on TV and the press spat propaganda about how people from these countries were murderers, and surely we are NOT like them, even as the military killed thousands of innocent people... So what's being expressed in the lyric is hypocrisy, and filling the minds of Americans with so much bullshit that they were temporarily blinded to what was really going on. When we finally started to wake up, it was too late. Sorry for the history lesson, but real life context is important when analyzing art. "Funny how the walls bend with your breathing" - At the moment all that comes to mind is the idea of people's houses, phones, computers, etc, being bugged as part of the Patriot Act. Like, the walls have ears, or Big Brother is watching you now. Stuff like that. Someone here may have had a better idea, but I like to do these analyses cold without reading much of other posts. It's just more fun for me that way, so sorry if there are repeats of what other people have said. "They will suck you down to the other side -- the shadows blue and red" -Pretty straight forward, "they" being the government, pulling us all into a situation we really don't want to be in (fascism). The shadows blue and red, to me, represent one or both of two things. First, the primary American political groups, Democratic (represented by the color blue) and Republican (by the color red). Notice how they are "shadows" indicating that they are not the actual embodiment of the idea, but more of a hollow representation, an illusion, or a deception. In other words, although we will still APPEAR to have a bicameral, democratic political process, what is really going on is something much different. The second thing the colors blue and red could represent, are the lights on a police cruiser's siren. A lot of people were arrested under the Patriot Act because information that was gathered (through a process which WOULD have been illegal had the Patriot Act not succeeded) gave some kind of probable cause to suspect terrorist activities. Also, we know that in a fascist society, many people are arrested under laws that violate basic rights and civil liberties. I think it's perfectly reasonable that the symbolic colors could have been used to support BOTH ideas at once. "Your alarm bells, they should be ringing" Again pretty obvious. We should all be a lot more concerned about what's going on with the evolution of our society. We should see what's really going on. Sadly, even today, many people who express any concern about the direction the U.S. (as well as other western nations, the U.S. is not the only one to be concerned about) is going in terms of fascism, or capitalism run amok, or 9-11 being an inside job (maybe), are dismissed as crazy or stupid or not patriotic. Lastly, the title, The Gloaming (Slowly Open Our Mouths in the Cold) has some meaning to it. "Gloaming" means dusk, or twilight. So maybe something about the sun setting on liberty, giving way to a dark night (a witching hour) of suppressed civil liberties and human rights. The phrase in parentheses, hmm, well, what happens when we do that? We may see the heat of our breath in the air, leaving our body. Certain ancient peoples used to believe that this was part of the soul escaping the body. So it's like it's saying we are losing our souls and what's worse is that it is a voluntary act as we slowly open our mouths and let the soul escape. Could be zoomed out to refer to the U.S. or the western world, willingly forfeiting our human rights and civil liberties. Phew, for a minute there... Well anyway, thanks for reading. |
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| Radiohead – Nude Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| @[nn1000:1536] Yeah the title "Nude" could refer to our identities, our true selves, our selves without any needs, or our lack of ability to attain that "something missing", which is probably as simple as love, or compassion, or other things which give meaning to our lives. | |
| Radiohead – Optimistic Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Also wanted to preemptively defend my interpretation of this song against people who like to jump in and say "Everyone thinks their music is always political" but then don't offer any of their own ideas, and just end up calling it a love song. First off, no, their music isn't ALWAYS political, but it often is. Thom Yorke is a person who pays a LOT of attention to politics and current events. The songs aren't always about politics per se, but about society, and our relationship with the structure of it. Secondly, they very rarely write what could be a "love" song, in the true sense of the term. Yes, they write about relationships between people, which of course, why wouldn't they? What I've noticed in my study of Yorke's work, is that a lot of what he writes seems to be ABOUT relationships between people, society, God, and what have you. A lot of the ideas are structured like: Here's the situation, and here is my (our, your, their etc) relationship to it. There is also a dichotomy at work when you look at the complete body of his released work. One side is the relationships, the other being introspective examinations of deep emotional states. Anyway, I guess it's a roundabout way of saying it but, pretty sure this song has political aspects, but really it's more to do with looking at our relationship to our societal structure. And it's certainly NOT a love song. Lol. | |
| Radiohead – Optimistic Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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This is an interesting song. The original lyrics as written by Thom Yorke say "the best you can is NOT good enough". As the story goes, his wife convinced him to change it to the way we know it today "the best you can IS good enough", which is kind of an ironic thing to say when the rest of the lyrics are taken into consideration. I think it's about our materialistic, individualistic, and capitalist society. One in which people don't help each other, are only out for their own interests, and will take advantage of your fall to make a gain. You can try your best to make it in this society, or change it to something better, but because we're so deep into it, we can't, try as we might. SO let's look at the lyrics a little more closely: "flies that buzz around my head, vultures circling the dead, picking up every last crumb" - Scavenger creatures who eat other creatures that have died. The idea of taking advantage of someone else's loss to sustain one's self, taking everything possible, leaving nothing behind. "big fish eat the little ones -- not my problem, give me some" -Again, big fish eat the little ones. Natural selection/Social Darwinism themes in capitalism, the big (those with wealth and power, the "haves") feed on the small (the "have nots"). A realization of this fact, and maybe that it is unjust, but as individuals many feel it is not their concern or problem, and just want to get a piece of the pie. Then we have the chorus of course which again points out that you can try your best to get ahead, or to succeed, or even to change the system, and the way the song was released, insists that if we try, we really CAN make a difference, but the original intention was to send a more pessimistic message. The next verse talks about being optimistic about the situation, and someone going to market. So the word "market" is actually used here, which is a good representation of our society as one big market. The coming out of the swamp thing, I'm not really sure. Maybe something about our actions and attitudes all being part of our primordial selves (our primitive, animalistic nature). Could be something else though. We all know that this verse alludes to Animal Farm by George Orwell which represents a society which is ruled by a select group, and is dominated through fear (RH loves them some Orwell). This also makes sense in the context of our capitalistic society, which is a lot more Orwellian than it lets on. I will digress for a moment by saying that although we grow up with words like "freedom", "liberty", etcetera, but we are all driven by this fear of not having enough, and it motivates us to play into the system and at times, screw others over to get ahead. End of digression. Then chorus again reiterating that we can change society if we try our best. Of course in the context of how the song came to be written, the chorus kind of winks at you, saying "Nah, you really can't do shit about it." "I'd really like to help you man -- But I'm a nervous messed up marionette, flying around on a prison ship" -Talking about our guilt when it comes to people who are less privileged or when confronted with the "have nots" in our society, and our desire to help, or to make things better for them. But unfortunately, we are too scared (nervous), confused/misguided (messed up), and controlled by this fear for our OWN well being, like puppets on a string (marionettes, obviously -- this is a symbol Yorke likes to use pretty often). The result is that we are imprisoned, and helpless (prison ship -- not sure why it's a prison "ship" but my guess is that it was simply more interesting imagery/symbolism than to just say "prison"). Anyway, we have the chorus again, getting across the main argument of the whole thing, then the final verse which is just "Dinosaurs roaming the earth". This is one of two songs in which Yorke uses a phrase like that (the other being in the song "Where I End and You Begin" From Hail to the Thief). In the case of THIS song, I believe he says it as a way of assuring us that, whether we fix our society or not, we are just like the dinosaurs, and our days are numbered. Bleak stuff, but so well expressed, and that's why we love RH :). |
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| Radiohead – 15 Step Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think it's about death. The whole 15 steps to the gallow thing makes sense, the title being "15 step" instead of "15 steps" makes it sound like a dance (a dance of death) that we do all of our lives as we ascend the 15 steps to the gallow before a shear drop (death). "How come I end up where I started?" Not only refers to the cycle of life and death (from ashes to ashes and so on), but it is kind of a question as to "How come?" Like, why do we come into existence from oblivion, just to make an exit back to oblivion. Thom says "I won't take my eye off the ball again", indicating (maybe a half-hearted) determination to break the cycle, or to find some answer to his question about existence, knowing full well that he probably never will. He says "You reel me out, then you cut the string", which could be referring to part of Greek mythology wherein everyone's life is represented by a thread, or a string, which is cut by the Fates, who control everyone's fate. When a person's thread is cut, they die. "You used to be alight" he says, "what happened? Did the cat get your tongue? Did your string come undone?" Like, talking to someone who has died, who has stopped speaking (cat got your tongue), and who has been shuffled loose the mortal coil (string come undone, or maybe back to the string being cut thing). One by one "it" comes to us all. The "it" being death in this context makes perfect sense. "It's as soft as your pillow" alluding to sleep (death being the cousin of sleep, and death itself being akin to a long sleep), and death being a release, and that once it has you, it's soft, and there's no noticing it. Yup, pretty sure this song is about death. It's interesting, and this is the kind of thing that makes RH such a brilliant group, that the song is rather upbeat, and that there are samples of what sounds like a bunch of children shouting in a celebratory manner intermittent in the song. One of my favorite albums from one of my favorite groups. Great topic to start a RH album. Death. Classic RH existentialism. Can't wait for their follow up to King of Limbs, hopefully coming out at some point this year. I'm sure it will not disappoint. Heard it could be kind of a "back to roots" kind of thing, which I would welcome. Of course, that said, I'm sure they will be full of surprises and their bag of tricks will be well stocked. | |
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