| Gnarls Barkley – Crazy Lyrics | 1 year ago |
|
Ha ha ha bless your soul!! You really think you’re in control?! That is just incredible writing. |
|
| The Smiths – The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| This is a very selfish song. As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine. I see it as a conditional love - as long as the narrator has full control over the child. All the flowery, beautiful imagery and declarations of love , it is essentially all about him. | |
| The Smiths – I Know It's Over Lyrics | 3 years ago |
|
To me this is a song about intimate relationships. The narrator doesn't have any with another person and is a terrible state. He reaches out to the only person to whom he has to have had an 'intimate' relationship - his mother by virtue of his birth. He suffers so much that he invents a relationship in his head (he knows its imaginary) to stave off the pain. He commentates on the nature of relationships and the need for kindness to be shown to the 'female' or the so called 'sensitive' one. He sees himself in that bracket. Although his inner voice doesn't show him much kindness with its very harsh comments 'Why are you on your own tonight?' As the musical tempo of the song shifts towards the end, the narrator has a fleeting element of salvation consoling himself in the fact that he has in fact strength not to abolish his core values and is kind, even though that may result in him never having an intimate relationship. This is reinforced by the repeat of the opening line of the song at the end. A masterpiece. |
|
| The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| I always thought that this song is about being gay and the difficulties of being such within a gay culture when you don't fit into the cliched flamboyant gay 'type'. | |
| R.E.M. – You Are The Everything Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| The present moment. That\'s what it\'s about. | |
| The Smiths – The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| To me, this is an extremely self centred rant hidden within a love song to his child. 'As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine'. All the stuff he says is prefaced with as long as he can control this child/person. | |
| The Smiths – Paint a Vulgar Picture Lyrics | 4 years ago |
|
To me this song is almost split in two. It is a rant against the music business and then there is another part about two lovers. The music business bit is straightforward relatively, I think the two lovers are two sides of Morrissey. One being the star and the other being the normal guy from the ugly new houses. The latter really cares about the former despite being rebuffed. But eventually the 'real' Morrissey wins out as the star become wary with the music business nonsense. The record company at last have their dead star! |
|
| The Wedding Present – Give My Love To Kevin Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| Passive aggressive. That is what this song is all about. He acts nice but there is an undeniable shimmering tension between the singer and her ex about this guy Kevin. | |
| ABBA – The Day Before You Came Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| It is always 'the day before you came'. Tomorrow never comes. You never came. | |
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Hammer Song Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| Similar theme to Sorrow's Child? The hammer, the child - both references to depression? | |
| Teenage Fanclub – Everything Flows Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| A brilliant song. One of the very best. About a topic of great interest to me. The flow. Taoism. The idea that we are fully connected to the universe and that we are pretty much subject to the power of its flow. It's hard to describe in words..... 'and then the feeling'! | |
| U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| I am in Irish and there is quite a lot of Bono negativity in the country. The general feeling is that he pursues causes that are sexy and will get him in the limelight whilst ignoring blatant civil rights abuse within his own country. That being the fate of Catholics in Northern Ireland. His dismissal of this as not being a rebel song shows his view of what was a very justifiable nationalist cause. | |
| Morrissey – Speedway Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| This album was released in early 1994. The infamous court case took place in 1996. Now there was a lead in but could he really write this song in as much detail from two years previously? | |
| Pixies – Motorway To Roswell Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
Brilliant song. A lot going on. On the face of it, it's about an alien wanting to get to earth but seen as a threat when he arrives, his means of transport damaged, he's photographed and put into army crates. The narrator feels bad about this situation, that the world which had some much promised would do such a thing. He feels like he must go to where the alien landed - the motorway. The ending is superb. The tiny boat is coming down and this is displayed by the jolting music and then he's taken away as signed by the keyboard/piano sorrow outro. I think this is a child alien sent away to earth by his parents perhaps for a better life. Constant references to having difficulties getting there, his tiny boat etc etc. It can actually be adapted to so many different situations of people/kids being different and outcast. I don't believe Charles wanted to go there though! |
|
| Beastie Boys – Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
This is a song I return to time and timed again. The energy, the aggression, the arrangement, the production, the lyrics with a heavy pop culture element, It is utterly superb. ‘You’ve got your finger on the trigger like the Son of Sam!’ |
|
| M. Ward – Poison Cup Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
‘.... except mess you up’. I love that line, We’ve all been there with matters of love. Nothing quite like it to fuck with your head. |
|
| Pixies – Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
First of all, what a song. Completely different really to anything in the Pixies catalogue, slow initially and then soars. As Charles has said, I think this song is simply about a bird dreaming that it flies to the Olymous Mons. Speed leaving without warning - sudden tiredness I need some place to sleep tonight - bird wants to sleep Blowing in the rocking of the pine - goes to the pine tree to sleep Speed leaving without warning - now asleep The sunlight is going into the mountain - the dream of the Olymous Mons appears I will crawl into the mountain - the dream of the Olymous Mons appears Sun shines in the rusty morning - still in the dream on Mars Skyline of the Olympus Mons - still on Mars I think about it sometimes - I wish I could stay here Sun shines in the rusty morning - still on Mars Once I had a good fly - I wish I could stay here so long as I get here safely Into the mountain I will fall - more about wanting to go to the spaciousness of Mars. Why the bird wants to do this isn't addressed in the song. |
|
| Radiohead – There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere.) Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| I think it is no coincidence that this song was released in 2003, at the time of the war in Iraq justified by the feeling of WMDs of which there were none, and contains a repeated line 'just cos you feel it doesn't mean it's there'. | |
| Tom Waits – Anywhere I Lay My Head Lyrics | 5 years ago |
|
For me this song is all about recovering from a hangover but I might be wrong. He’s laying down his head as that’s all he can do to ease the pain, He’s dying - in the sense of dying from a hangover, hence the funeral feel to it. |
|
| The Knife – Still Light Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
‘If this was the last time now you should tell us what to do’. What a line. Shows the complete inadequacy of mental health professionals in such a crisis. |
|
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Sorrow's Child Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Firstly, what an utterly brilliant and beautiful song. Cave’s best in my view. It’s a song about sorrow. Or depression. Simple as that for me. Personified into a child, It’s an outside force which the ‘you’ can’t resist despite loathing it. The you is susceptible to the sorrow and that means the you surrenders to its call. The water references are brilliant. Water can kill but it is also represents the beauty of nature and the transience of life. Sorrow is only interested in the first bit and doesn’t hear the water moving, The hand lifted up and down again for me is back to the water but in a metaphorical sense being drowned by the sorrow. What a masterpiece. |
|
| Whipping Boy – We Don't Need Nobody Else Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
A masterpiece. Fearghal has previously spoken of his schizophrenia tendencies. The you and me are just him. He doesn’t need anyone but himself - or so he says. He questions the quality of general life - ‘you are what you own in this land’. However he realises towards the end that is where he ends up and is defiant about it. He has denied the appeal of getting close to anyone but you feel he is ‘trying to force it’. |
|
| Tom Waits – Tango Till They're Sore Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Make sure they play my theme song I guess daisies’ll have to do Quick change of subject as a drunk person one do. Then... Just get me to New Orleans And paint shadows on the pews I love the way the clarinet goes off into a wonderful melody at this time. The home of jazz. A masterpiece of a song that gets me emotional many times when I listen to it. It’s just so brilliant in every way. |
|
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – I See A Darkness Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
I worship Will Oldham. For me he is one of the greatest, most original, artists of our time. This song is his anthem (although not necessarily his best in my view!) I suffer from mental issues from time to time and the following lines are so, so true. Sad yet empowering. And you know I have a drive To live I won't let go But can you see it's opposition Comes a-rising up sometimes That it's dreadful and position Comes blacking in my mind |
|
| The Smiths – The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Tough one to categorise this. I think this is an essentially selfish song. It's all about the 'father'. He is deriving his existence from the life of the child. He comes across as overbearing, not allowing the child to be a child, such as experiencing the bogeyman, sitting on his knee and him only three etc. He makes a big deal of how much he loves the child, but he says that it is conditional on him rocking the cradle. Which is pretty horrible. Of course it is alluded to that this whole story is in Morrissey's mind. 'I once had a child and it saved my life and I never even asked his name'. |
|
| R.E.M. – You Are The Everything Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This song could be an advertisement for the mindfulness relaxation technique. He has his worries - that he can't sing, the world in general. But he drifts off into appreciation of the world around him and he feels euphoric. The 'you' in the title of the song refers the sensory wonder of the world around him - travel, sleep, stars, music, human beauty. | |
| Matthew Sweet – Sick Of Myself Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
Late teen crush is what this song says to me. You know the time when you feel something proper for a person for the first time but you still have elements of the teenage angst and shyness. Of course it's usually one sided with the slightest hint of reciprocation which the singer overstates - 'something in your eyes is keeping my hope alive'. He is 'sick of himself' because he hasn't told the person how he feels and 'baby you don't know' is self explanatory. |
|
| Radiohead – How to Disappear Completely Lyrics | 6 years ago |
|
First of all this song is a masterpiece. It sounds absolutely incredible and uses the instruments in the song as a sort of symbolism for its meaning. My take on it is as follows. Let's start with the title. How to Disappear Completely. For me this is very much grounded in the Buddhist notion of the non-self. There is so much in life that we cannot control but that has an impact on who we are in relation to the 'self'. Buddhist teachings suggest that the 'self' is an illusion, impacted by outside uncontrollable factors. So if there is no self then it is very easy to disappear completely. Also 'I'm not here, this isn't happening' also subscribes to the notion of the non-self. But the real skill in this song is the use of the instruments. A sort of a knock on from the Buddhist teachings comes this notion of the Observing 'Self'. Thoughts and feelings fly around in your head randomly but you are grounded by this sense of who you really are. Mindfulness meditation uses a similar idea - the grounding in this sense is usually a focus on the breath while thoughts and feelings swirl around. And the violins in this song represent the swirl of thoughts and feelings. The strummed acoustic guitar in the breath. Some of the thoughts and feelings carry a sharp, instance vibe (as displayed by the violins) and some have a more relaxing tone. But they are not the narrator - if anything is the narrator then it is the simplicity of the strummed acoustic guitar. The last piece of the song is incredible. The violins swirl around with power threatening to overtake the narrator (now represented in his 'true self' by Yorke's voice) but he breaks free of them where his voice comes to the surface - if only for a second. Then the thoughts come back (as they do) but at least he has been able to get that relief and can get it again as long as he realises 'I'm not here, this isn't happening'. |
|
| Sparklehorse – Maria's Little Elbows Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
'And it'll get you in the bathroom of a Texaco' This is a reference to the Tom Waits song called Gun Street Girl from the Rain Dogs album. 'And dyed his hair in a bathroom of a Texaco'. Mark Linkous admitted that he was listening to Rain Dogs a lot around that time. |
|
| The Divine Comedy – Don't Look Down Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
Love this song and this album. And soon my feet are safely back on solid ground And then I hear a voice say "Don't look down!". I've often wondered about this. Is the voice God saying 'don't look down' as that is where Neil is headed to Hell with his 'atheistic tosh'? |
|
| The Smiths – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
This song has puzzled me quite a bit with regard to its meaning. I think that the song is primarily about living with abandon and seems to be written from the point of view of a young person, probably a teenager, most likely to live with abandon. He seems to have had enough of parents and his home and and just wants 'cheap' pleasures such as seeing people and life and experiencing the buzz of being around them, and also the feeling of death alongside this person which he imagines would be a great way to go. He speaks about wanting to make a move on the person but a strange fear means that he can't do it - similar to J Alfred Prufrock in the TS Eliot poem. I am not sure where this fits into the meaning of the song but this type of lyric was also included somewhat out of sync in That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore and may simply be included as a by the way. Perhaps again it is part of this view of life as a teenager. The light that never goes out for feel is the sensuality of living with abandon and that fact that it will always be there despite the fact things may get clouded with life events and people's opinions. |
|
| The Smiths – I Won't Share You Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| I should also say that the 'I' and the 'you' throughout the song becomes less obvious as the song progresses Morrissey refers to himself as 'I', and Marr as 'You' towards the end. | |
| The Smiths – I Won't Share You Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
The subject of the song for me is about 'someone' in a relationship wanting to disband it because the person feels held back in some way from realising their true ambition. In my opinion this is far too much of a coincidence not to be about the Morrissey Marr relationship as this is essentially what was happening at the time with Marr being the 'someone', which eventually signalled the end of the band. Of course Morrissey is much too skilled of a song writer, or indeed a poet. to come straight out and say it. But I believe that the break up of the Morrissey Marr relationship is what this song is about. The opening verse is quite straightforward in terms of content but I believe it is Marr stating these words. He is the 'I'. In the second verse Morrissey is the 'she'. Morrissey uses 'she' so as to give the song the feel of a traditional man and woman relationship. Perhaps given Morrissey's homosexuality he feels as if he should be the 'she' but that is just speculation. Morrissey is devastated by Marr's note presumably saying he wanted the Smiths to break up. He doesn't know if it is real or if life is just 'sick and cruel'. Marr confirms that it is 'Yes' but Morrissey find its hard to accept it 'No, no, no.....' Things change after that as Marr seems to explain to Morrissey that just how much he wants to leave and there seems to be an acknowledgement and an acceptance and realisation of this by Morrissey.'In fact Morrissey tries to offer advice to Marr in that the grass isn't always greener on the other side ('Life tends to come and go') but realises and accepts that Marr is going in with his eyes open ('That's ok as long as you know') No no, no....' is now replaced by 'Know, know, know.....' There is no bad blood between the two. The last verse is very touching in that Morrissey accepts it but also yearns for the relationship to return perhaps returning to his belief that life tends to come and go (I'll see you somewhere, I'll see you sometime'). The 'darling' at the end shows the deep affection he has for Marr still and returns again to the notion of the traditional relationship which is what it felt like to Morrissey in his own unique world. What an incredible song to end the Smiths journey with as the lone harmonica plays out. |
|
| Tom Waits – Anywhere I Lay My Head Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
I think that this song is all about a huge hangover: 'I went and set the Thames on fire. Now I must come back down'. He obviously had money which is unusual for him and went on the beer. 'I see that the world is upside down, seems that my pocket was filled up with gold'. I think Tom is now in the throes of the hangover (Physical: 'my head is spinning round', Depression: 'my heart is in my shoes', 'Now the clouds cover everything over', 'The wind is blowing cold', 'I'd rather be alone', Paranoia: 'she's laughing in her sleeve boys, I can feel it in my bones'). All he wants to do is put down his head and go to sleep. Anywhere will do. He gets some solace from that and it actually quite defiant when he delivers the title line. I think the big band upbeat instrumental at the end represents death (as was commonly played at the funeral of jazz players back in the 60s and 70s). I don't think it actually means death but more the feeling of extreme pain during a monster hangover. I would hazard a guess that Tom has had many such feelings in his life so he was ok again in a couple of days. Incredible song though. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.