| Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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Plenty has been said about the lyrics, but notice that the title is a tribute to "Hungarian Rhapsody" by Franz Liszt, the greatest piano player who ever lived. He composed 19 of these piano solos, but the most famous is #2. It begins with a formal and stately tune in a minor key, then picks up speed until it breaks into gay (in the original sense of the word) carnival music that is out of place in a concert hall as much as the "operatic" section of Bohemian Rhapsody is out of place in hard rock. It then winds down and returns to the original, minor feel. Hungary and Bohemia are both real areas in central Europe. Bohemia is associated with Gypsies, and so "Bohemian" has been taken in English to mean any kind of non-conformist. This interpretation of the music agrees with the interpretation of the lyrics that the song is about Freddie Mercury's struggles coming out with his sexual orientation. |
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| Bruno Mars – Finesse Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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Been streamed millions of times, 0 comments in 6 months... Either songmeanings.com doesn't amount to anything, or (in my opinion) Bruno Mars and his team doesn't amount to anything worth commenting on. |
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| Tommy Makem – The Moonshiner Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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The tune of the Star-Spangled Banner is an from an old drinking song, "Anacreon on Heaven" which appears to be related to The Moonshiner. You can sing the words of the Star-Spangled Banner to the tune of the Moonshiner, and vice versa. *** another verse of it goes: It's corn bread when I'm hungry, corn liquor when I'm dry Work when I'm hard up, and religion when I die For the world's but a bottle, and life's but a dram And when the bottle is empty, it ain't worth a damn. A couple of alternate lines: God bless pretty women, I wish they were mine But I love none so well as I love my moonshine. |
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| Simon and Garfunkel – A Hazy Shade of Winter Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The point is that even at a fairly young age, the best part of life is over and opportunities are gone. "Hazy Shade of Winter" was recorded 1966; Paul Simon must have been about 25 years old. "The Sound of Silence" came out that year and brought him instant fame. The song makes heavy use of the seasons metaphor, that relates time of year to stages of a person's life. It is about the author himself, but other people can relate to his situation. LINE BY LINE "Time, time time, see what's become of me" The answer to "what's become of..." is usually something bad. "While I looked around for my possibilities I was so hard to please" He was young and idealistic and thought of himself as a Great Artist. Probably he rejected a lot of offers and regrets it now. "Don't look around The leaves are brown And the sky is a hazy shade of winter" Only 25 and already an old man. He knows his best days are behind him now. "Hear the Salvation Army band" The Salvation Army used to have marching bands. They weren't very good. They would march around downtowns playing gospel music, with the purpose to disrupt and shame customers in the taverns (or in some cities, brothels). "Down by the riverside's bound to be a better ride" Down by the river, in the old, run-down part of town. Simon recognizes that his pretensions to be a poet are nothing -- the very uncool Salvation Army offers a better life. The squares doing charity work are happier than the hipster artists. "Than what you've got planned" You're going to the tavern. See below. "Carry your cup in your hand" As a beggar. Even the bums are better off than you. "And look around Leaves are brown, now And the sky is a hazy shade of winter" same as before "Hang on to your hopes, my friend That's an easy thing to say" And lots of people say it. "But if your hopes should pass away Simply pretend that you can build them again" You have no hope. "Look around The grass is high The fields are ripe It's the springtime of my life" A man in his 20's is still strong and healthy, but most of life's opportunities have passed him by. Irony. This is the reason for the verse saying it's winter and this one saying it's spring. "Seasons change with the scenery Weaving time in a tapestry" Musically, this is the bridge. Time passes. The tapestry is a person's life history, woven in the yarn spun by the Fates. -- a metaphor as old as the seasons metaphor. "Won't you stop and remember me" The sarcasm here is overpowering. He is alive. If you wanted to give him a call, you could. But people don't call as much as they used to. It's commonplace that people get married at this age and lose touch with their old friends. On another level of meaning, as an artist, he's striving to be remembered, to create timeless classics. This is a biting comment on the futility of being remembered. "At any convenient time?" And now people he thought were friends don't have time for him. "Funny how my memory skips while looking over manuscripts Of unpublished rhyme" Simon would have liked to been though of as some kind of poet. By the 1960's, what the literary critics called poetry was stream-of-consciousness gobbledygook broken into short choppy lines. It certainly did not rhyme. Dr. Suess wrote rhyme. To call his work rhyme is an insult. He recognizes that he is not a High Artist and never will be. His unpublished manuscripts are like those of any other semi-talented wannabe: not that great, and likely to stay unpublished. "Drinking my vodka and lime" A drink upper-class people liked. But drinking one doesn't make you upper class. He realizes he's a pretentious hipster who spends a lot of time at the bar. "I look around Leaves are brown, now And the sky is a hazy shade of winter Look around Leaves are brown There's a patch of snow on the ground Look around Leaves are brown There's a patch of snow on the ground Look around Leaves are brown There's a patch of snow on the ground" The ending makes it clear that it is now winter, not spring. |
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| Eagles – Hotel California Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| @[AnniNecaise:18813] Artists sometimes spin the meaning of their own work, especially if it's something that could get them in trouble. Snopes is just another website with somebody's opinion. Don't call us idiots. | |
| Eagles – Hotel California Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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The song is about the drug and party culture of L.A. rock stars. Don Henley has to downplay the drug part of it to keep out of trouble. In short, a man goes to Los Angeles (as the Eagles all did) seeking fame and fortune, finds it, but becomes trapped in an extravagant lifestyle and drug addiction. LINE BY LINE "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair" LA is in a desert, they have to suck most of the water out of the Colorado River hundreds of miles away. This is unnatural, and hence suspect. "Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air" colitas = marijuana. But that's just a gateway drug, and this is just an introductory verse. "Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light" Literally, the city lights of LA. Figuratively, the dream of succeeding in show business. "My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim I had to stop for the night" Maybe the writer, looking back on his past, recognizes his judgment was faulty, that the attraction of being a rock star dulled his senses. "There she stood in the doorway" I think "She" is a girlfriend, probably based on a real person. "I heard the mission bell" Don't know. "And I was thinking to myself 'This could be heaven or this could be Hell" That could apply to anything somebody tries for the first time, but from what follows, it's going to be cocaine. "Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way" Candles are groovy. I don't know that the candle really stands for anything. "the way" to what? Probably snort coke. "There were voices down the corridor I thought I heard them say" A lead-in to the chorus, nothing more. "Welcome to the Hotel California" Hotel California = Los Angeles, or anyhow the part of it the Eagles were concerned with...show biz, parties, wretched excess. "Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)" At least it seems so from a distance (Nebraska?) "Such a lovely face" The woman mentioned. "Plenty of room at the Hotel California" A cliche said about any hotel, a corny sales pitch line. "Any time of year (any time of year) you can find it here" Pretty vague. "It" meant "room" in the previous line, but the reason for the repetition is so that "it" can be taken to mean something else. The American Dream, the California Dream, whatever you want you can get--hedonism recast as a value. "Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes benz" Tiffany was designer glassware. Mercedes Benz is an expensive car. "She" is rich, and materialistic. "She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends" The man went to L.A. and thought that he would be pulling chicks. He saw how the girls screamed for the Beatles. How surprised he is to find that the chick has pulled him! "She" has other boys, maybe other rock stars. "How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat" The song is about a party culture, so there had to be dancing in it. "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" Some of them are has-beens recalling glory days. Others regret their whole experience in the Scene. "So I called up the Captain" He's the bellhop. Don't know why he is called "Captain" "'Please bring me my wine" Wine is the blood of Christ, and thus holy in a way that other forms of alcohol are not. This isn't about religion, though. It sets up the next line. "He said, 'we haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine'" Back in the 60's, hippie culture believed in peace, love, and changing the world. That "spirit" was lost. By the 70's, it was just about drugs. "And still those voices are calling from far away Wake you up in the middle of the night" Cocaine addiction will wake you up in the middle of the night literally. "Just to hear them say Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (such a lovely place) Such a lovely face They livin' it up at the Hotel California" same as before "What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise), bring your alibis" Don't know. "Mirrors on the ceiling" so you can get a better view during sex. Very indulgent, yet crude. "The pink champagne on ice" Excess "And she said, 'we are all just prisoners here, of our own device'" That's what addiction is. "And in the master's chambers" I've been told this is cocaine - as in, Master of Puppets "They gathered for the feast" snorting it up "They stab it with their steely knives" forming the powder into a line with a razor blade. THE LINER NOTES CLAIM that this is actually a jab at Steely Dan. If so, it's a lame one, and doesn't make as much sense as the drug interpretation. "But they just can't kill the beast" s'more "Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door" He has changed his mind and decided that this is Hell. "I had to find the passage back to the place I was before" Back before he had a coke habit. "'Relax' said the night man" Contrast the hero's "running for the door" with the night clerk telling him to "relax". The kind of thing Cali people always say -- it's all good, etc. "'We are programmed to receive" Weird line. It agrees with the following, and it rhymes. Maybe that's all it is. "We" (California) receive the newcomers. "You can check out any time you like But you can never leave!'" check out = commit suicide But you can't walk away from the cravings. More broadly, they've been changed, and can't fit in with people from back in their hometowns anymore. They've become celebrities in gated mansions, afraid to leave. |
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