| David Sylvian – Transit (with Fennesz) Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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"Transit" stands out in Venice due to its being the only track with lyrics, by David Sylvian for that matter. It's not their first collaboration, since Fennesz had already appeared in Sylvian's Blemish. The song appears to be an elegy for Europe, and as always when this is the case, has somehow to do with fascism; as in the works of artists as varied as Ernst, Jean Renoir or one of Sylvian's greatest influences, Scott Walker. Various drones, buzzes and glitches flow underneath the metallic sonic explosions, which accentuate Sylvian's dismay in the face of that which is travelling towards us all. I think this combo really works well, and the lyrics are for the most part great. The only part I could do without is the last stanza, with the somewhat banal smoking, drinking etc. mythology. This is what separates Walker from his followers: he never has to tell us "how he feels", he lets his objects do the talking. |
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| The Germs – My Tunnel Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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This has always been one of my favorites late first wave punk tracks. 1. What's interesting is that Darby don't know where to go whether everything's dim or right, whether he's maimed or sane; it's a dead end anyway. 2. The cross-stanza rhyme of crumble-stumble is one of the little things which show his lyrical potential. 3. The rhythmic tension between guitar, drums-bass, and lyrics, together with the extra line in each verse (I fall into my tunnel / Back into the jungle) add a lot to this song, sending it off balance. 4. Out of the tunnel, into the jungle. One way to see it would be personal tunnel <--> social jungle: in the tunnel one is alone, but the jungle naturally bristles with movement and otherness. Even if one gets out of his tunnel, it's still the jungle around them. Yet another brilliant detail: whereas throughout the song it's "my tunnel" and "the jungle", in the last line he wants to be finally taken back in "his jungle". |
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| Scott Walker – Farmer In The City Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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As you can see below, it is not true that all the lyrics are from Pasolini's poem One of Many Epilogues [Uno dei tanti epiloghi], as Appers66 claims. Walker, as per his habit, freely uses material that seems to revolve around Pasolini and his problematics. So, here's the poem for context (trans. Stephen Sartarelli): One of Many Epilogues Hey, Ninarieddo, remember that dream, the one we talked about so many times . . . ? I was in my car, heading off alone, the seat beside me empty, and you were running after me; when you reached the still half-open door, anxious and stubbornly running, you cried out with a childish sort of whine in your voice: “Hey, Paolo, can you take me with you? Will you pay my way?” It was the journey of life, and only in a dream could you drop your guard and ask me for something. You know perfectly well that this dream belongs to reality, and that it wasn’t a dreamed Ninetto who said those words. In fact you blush when we talk about it. Last night in Arezzo, in the silence of the night, when the guard was locking the gate with a chain behind you, and you were about to disappear, with your sudden, funny smile, you said: “Thanks!” Thanks, Ninè? It’s the first time you ever said that to me. And in fact you realized this and corrected yourself, without losing face (something you’re a master at), saying: “Thanks for the ride.” The journey you wanted me to pay for was, I repeat, the journey of life; and it was in that dream some three, four years ago that I decided what my equivocal love of freedom was opposed to. If you now thank me for the ride, when you’re in the slammer, my God . . . In fear I board a plane for a faraway place. My thirst for our life is unquenchable, because something unique in all the world will never run dry. September 2, 1969 |
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| Radiohead – Daydreaming Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[Nolf:21801] new age mumbo jumbo of the obviousness kind | |
| Brian Eno – The True Wheel Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| @[foreverdrone:12666] The modern lovers were in fact formed before roxy music. | |
| Tom Waits – Anywhere I Lay My Head Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| the frankness of a roaring animal | |
| Wire – The 15th Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The only intuition on the so-called meaning of this track that made any sense was DemonicBaggie's: "It is about an idea. Any idea." Only even this has to be generalized: why limit ourselves to the idea and not go immediately for the thing, ideas included? (Or, if you prefer, for the fact or even for the process. It is not a matter of terminology: pick your elementary ontological unit and roll with it.) The lyrics correspond to this level of abstraction. This, in a way, makes it more approachable than other Wire tracks. |
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| Brian Eno – Backwater Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| @[bV:6503] * no more meaning than | |
| Brian Eno – Backwater Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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The first verse establishes the material, for no reason, since the others will soon demolish it. Apart from the edges of time bit, very charming in its inexplicability, there is not much to say. The second one is a typical Eno raving (cf. e.g. the last stanza of The Fat Lady of Limbourg or the last one of Driving Me Backwards), not of the worst kind. Consistently enoesque (and, I would add, with no more meaning that the meaning of using language) is also the subtle shift from backwater to black water. The last verse sums up the whole before and after science problematic as a direct and dense comparison, or maybe juxtaposition, of two paradigms, both in a way close to Eno's thought: mysticism and science. Divinity is here reached by conquering math, which is an axiomatic system (*the* axiomatic system), therefore moving in a line -even if producing arboreal structures. Here lies the first problem: if divinity is reached this way, why would the mystics have a problem with that? I guess it is the wrong kind of divinity, the one involving the subjugation of nature and man (possibly conquered, let me remind you, through a meteor that traveled from Peru to Turkey). Studying the logistics (in some anachronistic manner, evidently) and heuristics (accurate) of the mystics will reveal that they don't work axiomatically (interesting to note here that historically mysticism has always kept a cordial relationship with math, e.g. Pythagoreans, Kabbalah, Plotinus). While the stanza is one of his best, his argument is faulty: why would it be more *realistic*, of all things, to leave ballistics (part of physics, the birthplace of modern science) behind because of the above? First of all, linking mysticism to some sort of utilitarianism, connoted by realism, doesn't sound right. Even if this could stand, why would it be realistic for anyone apart from an already convinced follower of mysticism (whatever this entity is)? Realism could also be evoking philosophical realism, of course, in which case things could get more complicated, but it is already quite late (3 a.m.!) to delve into that. Resigning to be trapped in god, in fate, is where we are finally lead. One could prefer, though, surpassing both fatalism and positivism and link necessity to freedom, being sovereign of nothing but entering a thousand small worlds at each glance... |
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| Brian Eno – No One Receiving Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| Also has strong connotations of space traveling. Actually, the whole song can be read as a description of this activity. Of course, this theme cannot be dissociated from the general pattern referred to in msmoxwilliams' comment. | |
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