| Blink-182 – Bored To Death Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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A Freudian interpretation might ascribe a double meaning to the term high maintenance. In the song this term, like "the meaning" of the opening line, isn't explicit. But there are lots of clues the lyricist is giving us: "There's an echo" of an erection... "pulling out" of home base. Presumably after spending meaningful time in there. Not to mention at 1st, 2nd & 3rd. "The meaning: rescuing a nightmare" of frustration, realized by his partner's demand to prolong the climax to the point of exhaustion... "from a dream" of how good it could've been. "The voices in my head" -- she's already one of them, another is his need for consummation. "always screaming that none of this means anything to me" as there's no real arguing over whose unrealistic demands are failing to make the two of them closer. She may be more upset with the failure itself, blaming him for coldness. His libido's yelling about trying too hard to please. "it's a long way back from seventeen" -- maybe an overstatement. Or maybe centimeters. "the whispers turn into a scream" -- this is the 1st true rhyme with "dream" which could have involved a screaming climax, but... "I -- I'm not coming home" despite having meaningfully rounded the bases & gotten there. Though the next words imply an oral alternative. "Save your breath" as there's no point still demanding to keep it hard. "I'm nearly bored to death" -- maybe he's saying it on the stiffy's behalf. Maybe on behalf of his end of the relationship. Or should we take it more literally? Well... "...a stranger staring at the ceiling" remains fixed on that vision of up. "rescuing a tiger from a tree" -- house cats can stay up there for days; the tiger may represent male virility that she dreams will be rescued (frustrated) in a global sense. "pictures in her head are always dreaming / each of them means everything" -- if she's the same antisocial angel of the next track on the album, who says he no longer dreams of anything, then he may be hopelessly struggling to agree that his ordinary masculine wet dreams just don't count. So he fails at sharing her dreams. Too bad. By the track after that, he's looking for a rescue of his own from a whole city of angels. "I think I met her at the minute that the rhythm was set down" -- maybe she was a blink-182 fan. Maybe his destiny. "I'm a bit of a let-down" as opposed to a keep-up. "I come over and over and over" -- his dreams aren't boring. And E.D. isn't the problem. "we'll go over and over and over" -- there's no end of ruined dreams in sight, the kind that try to keep going instead of coming, while... "back on earth, I'm broken, lost & cold," thanks to this alienating & destructive relationship that had such potential to be heavenly & healing. Will it ever end? The repeating deep percussion pattern underlying the refrain... (pause) DA-da-da DA-da-da-da (pause) ...suggests a slowing of his once excited breath, ending altogether with "life is too short to last long". Then the song, and the album, pick up again rockin' as ever. Could the uplifted left hand with uplifted fingers and thumb, smack in the center of the cover, suggest the histrionic equivalent of beating a dead horse, as the right hand's forever out of sight somewhere down there? We see just enough upper arm to suggest where. And is that a hint of the L.A. skyline reflected in the headlights? |
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| Blind Melon – No Rain Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Is “No Rain” about a depressed person? It may be. It’s known to be about the lyricist’s ex, and though it appears to take her point of view, it hardly comes across as sympathetic. “All I can say” I’m starting out on the defensive, or my range of conversation topics is extremely limited, or both. “my life is pretty plain” Given that I do the insane things I’m about to describe, I should still be likeable because I’m ordinary. In other words, I assume that everyone’s insane and that I’m just one of the nuts, so I should fit right in. “I like watchin’ the puddles gather rain” I get a lot out of my long crying spells. “all I can do is just pour some tea for two and speak my point of view, but it’s not sane” I’m such a loser that no one wants to come hear me vent, I’m crazy enough to pretend otherwise, and that sums up how I spend my days. “Ya know I’d like to keep my cheeks dry today, so stay with me and I’ll have it made” It’s not “we’ll have it made”. Let me use you, at least for today, to listen to my maunderings. “I don’t understand why I sleep all day and I start to complain that there’s no rain” Why are my relationships so dismal that my best options are to either zone out or sit alone crying? “…all I can do is read a book to stay awake, and it rips my life away, but it’s a great escape” I waste my life on fantasy, because doing anything with anyone real, including sex, is a drag. “Ya don’t like my point of view” Well, who do I think I am, Rosanna Arquette? Going for a guy just because he’s a rock lyricist is the fast path to getting memorialized in sarcasm. The upbeat music drives home the point that he lacks the least care about the troubles – true or fictional – described in the lyrics. In the music video, at least, the misfit at last finds more of her own kind. |
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