submissions
| Metallica – Nothing Else Matters Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Like many great pieces of literature, contrast is added in to emphasize the strength of main points. While he is wise enough to admit he doesn't know everything, he " knows " that he knows more than certain people and their opinions that pale in comparison to what he shares with those he trusts and respects. To him, Nothing Else Matters but their mutual understanding of what they hold to ultimate value. |
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| Fleetwood Mac – Gypsy Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[srose99:28281] Thanks for this great summary. I love it when musicians give thanks to all of those who inspired them, and when they tribute as Nicks did for her friend in this beautiful tune. |
submissions
| Simon and Garfunkel – The Boxer Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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The Boxer is a ballad and is a powerful story that mixes in the simple hurdles he faced, but how they become magnified through the loneliness of a smaller town man living in a more complex society like New York City. As he reflects back on his life, he gives away some of the lessons such as accepting payments when he should have stayed more true to character, as well as how often he heard things as he wanted to hear them and then had to justify his errors by not hearing other truths. Often we read what pleases us and feeds our ego, but some reading or learning time should be dedicated to our more ignorant subjects. After all of the lessons are shared he sings the sad closing verse, which describes himself as a boxer in a clearing, now a scarred man ready to return back home where he left as just a boy. Despite carrying the reminders of all of his battles and the sight of the scars, he still remains. A boxer is just a metaphor, but is a very powerful one both literally and figuratively. I often wonder if he chose " lie la lie " not just for it's sound, but as a suggestion to those truly enlightened to know when to lie as his own earnest persona didn't get him to his truly happy place. |
submissions
| The Traveling Wilburys – End Of The Line Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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This song is a gift to everyone out there who stresses out over the small things in life.The song uses many simple messages to coherently demonstrate their understanding of people dynamics as they come to the end of the line, a powerful metaphor. With Orbison having passed, the main video emphasizes their association of the end of the line with death.
The versus are song by Harrison, Lynne, and Orbison and have alternating simple rules for living a happy life among your friends and family as things can get hectic. The chorus is a bit deeper, with Tom Petty's unique style really slowing down the music. He emphasizing many of the negative things, and poses questions to our thinking in the form of alternatives like " You can sit around and wait for the phone to ring ", when either way it can be " All Right ". As long as you follow all of the other suggestions, the band is saying it truly will be all right as you go after the things you desire. |
submissions
| Brian Fallon – Nobody Wins Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Fallon sticks to the theme of his album in Painkillers with this one. Unlike Honey Magnolia, in this song he just tells it plain and simple in his usual poetic lyrics that Nobody Wins when the relationship falls out. |
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| Brian Fallon – Honey Magnolia Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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The song uses a paradoxical metaphor in beautiful language to describe what may have been an imbalanced relationship. The opening line he defends his position that he won't be treated like he's only useful as some guy from a movie. Sometimes when I listen to it I feel he is telling women that he understands their feeling, and that the victim is often the lady. Brian Fallon is a deep thinker and song writer, so making it unisex may have been an intentional idea but I can't say for sure. The song was written early in the relationship or after some turbulence, and in the later verses he describes his predictions of who he may become to his love in the future. Just like Every Rose Has It's Thorn, him becoming a thorn in her side can be a good thing even if it hurts her pride. |
submissions
| The Tragically Hip – Gift Shop Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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I was a casual fan of Downie and the Hip gang up until I saw them live. His stage presence, passion, patriotic persona, and people pleasing.....ok, alliteration aside the band really rocks. His recent death has truly made this song in particular to me a true Gift Shop. I can only imagine being one of his closest friends listening to this stuff on his anniversaries as time goes by.
After reading the website provided where inside perspective on some of the songs was given, I found out it was inspired by the Grand Canyon. Like many of his songs, big iconic symbols and constant references to nature makes his material so appealing to Canadian fans, to really appreciate what we have. His appreciation of seeing the marvel of the Grand Canyon really inspired him. This particular listen and read I feel he describes a person in somewhat turmoil with life, riding a horse to the edge of the cliff where he gains a new perspective on life. The pendulum swinging, and the emphasis put on it with the way he sings it, makes me strongly believe he was inspired to share such a perspective. The part for the horse, " Out over the rim, is ice cream to him " is a little abstract. Perhaps he is saying it is simply unknown to it, but to us we have the knowledge and the mind to appreciate the beauty. The forced to bed and terrorists making people lie are deep lyrics that many people will take differently. It is obviously a contrast to the positivity of the song overall. |
submissions
| Five for Fighting – Superman (It's Not Easy) Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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The top comment makes a lot of sense from a figurative standpoint.
I really do think the writer really wanted to give people perspective that even their heroes, man or woman, do have inner desires, demons, and on the worst side regrets that many of us don't think about. It really is a song about putting yourself in the " boots " of somebody neglected in the compassionate sense like Superman. Perhaps it is another cry from musicians to the audience to appeal for some mercy with our expectations. They want us to ease up on the demands for perfection, that they too have " the right to bleed. It's not easy, to be....me. " |
submissions
| Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[StevenPascali:26447] great points. I will contest, though, that while there is an internal conflict and a recognition of his workaholic life, he is sharing with everybody that he does indeed have a spark that continually lights his fire. He reveals that he needs a love reaction, showing he is still human. |
submissions
| Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[StevenPascali:26446] great points. I will contest, though, that while there is an internal conflict and a recognition of his workaholic life, he is sharing with everybody that he does indeed have a spark that continually lights his fire. He reveals that he needs a love reaction, showing he is still human. |
submissions
| Simon and Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[MrMojoRisin5552:26445] the neon sign reference comes immediately after the perspective that many people have turned to a created " neon God ". While your interpretation of light and dark, personal vs superficial communication, and other points are all very valid, neon signs do serve their purpose. His perspective, at the time, was that there was a loss of faith and he is communicating that everyone is similar, especially at night if they were in the character's shoes at the time. He is the one who is sort of lost in the Sounds of Silence, not everybody else. How could he possibly tell, at his age, that the conversations he was witnessing were meaningless to them ? |
submissions
| Neil Young – Thrasher Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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While some of the wording may lead us otherwise, the thrashers that Young is referring to may be the family of birds similar to the hummingbird. There is even a Pearly-eyed Thrasher. The fact that much of the song creates a scene on farmland, you can support this interpretation with the other bird references of eagle and vulture. His contrasts of ascending and descending connected by glide vs the thrashers rolling by does lead me to believe that the ambiguity left by the 3 references to thrashers shows the evolution in his perspective from the natural to the more influenced by experienced perspective.
The first reference to thrashers coming was in a peaceful scene through a night in the fields, where they awoke perhaps in a figurative sense to these peaceful birds who will dig for the seeds that were sowed. The tone is still "light" at this point. It seems he observed these people, as he described them with " they ". The hiding behind hay bales supports the youth and innocence point, and then the "giving all they had for something new" is the stepping out into the unknown. He then moves into more personal experience.
The next reference to the " thrashers rolling by ", as I mentioned before, shows his change in perspective. He has now moved from observing the innocent farmers or youth to modern realities, but the continual references to nature shows his struggles with the changes.. As he watches these new thrashers, likely large transport trucks and the uneasy feeling you would get hiking or driving down a highway with their speed, noise, and appearance to disrupt your thoughts. I trust my thoughts on this one because he does indeed say he hit the road before it's light.
After some of the negative aspects of his experiences with friendship and political struggles, he comes to the conclusion that he is " better off down the road without that load " and he even states " he's got his own row left to hoe. " This demonstrates after his enlightenment that he has come to grips with many of the sad realities, or tragedies, from his perspective. His last reference to thrashers does leave things open for debate. Him being " stuck in the sun, like the dinosaurs in shrines " is a clear reference to inevitable death, and stuck is a feeling of entrapment to the perspective of future light he may never see. This clearly is the reaper perspective. However, he does return to belief in nature with the dinosaur reference after having stated that the pearly gates were chopped. Were they destroyed is a valid question that deserves attention. He is comparing himself to the dinosaurs, so has returned to his youthful beliefs in things like the existence of pre-historic reptile life. He is still open to finding out the answers that extend beyond the security of motels with heated pools and bars. Through learned experience and an overload of times where he questioned his faith, he returns to it to move on. Much of the song is just poetic filler and beautiful lines about society, so I chose to focus my interpretation on the thrashers, real and imaginary. |
submissions
| Metallica – The Unforgiven Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[OrgasmThroughFinch:26419] you know this song well, and probably have more years on me. If society is worse today for conforming, then it might be you being older and having more responsibility, but it is hard to say. In reality, it is your choice to blend in or stand out based on whatever situation you are in. When it doesn't go your way, you can write a song about it and become famous, but then you have to accept all of the requests that come with it. Metallica seems pretty happy despite the anger in their songs. |
submissions
| Simon and Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Having moved to a bigger city at a young age, I can relate to Paul Simon. However, there are a few decades in between and he is a musician. At night time he is restless and thinking about the days and his general feeling of what America (or society) means in New York (or other cities). When he calls them all fools, it really is a paradox of his own ability to see many things that they cannot in the busy lives they lead. He feels they are really saying nothing, and are essentially praying to " the neon God they made " in the way they lead their lives. There may have been a sense of frustration throughout his journey, which he knows many of them all feel, but this song is his gift back to enlighten everybody while hopefully making his mark in the society he feels lost in while trying to keep up. His references to words from the Prophets being written on the Subway Walls and Tenement Halls, both the busy people heading to work and the poor people in the analogous slum building all see the same messages. There are so many Prophets today, and so many followers that he may believe that it really does lead to a loss of unity indicated by Sounds of Silence. He even perhaps feels that Prophets of old did predict that this would happen and somewhere in all of the signage the messages are there but it is too confusing and they were all lost. |
submissions
| The Tragically Hip – My Music At Work Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Forgot to say more on it, but The Ganges is in Asia but has been used in businesses in Canada. The sink part is very symbolic, especially if you consider him feeling like with so many of them the competition gets to feeling like you are going down under control. My point on domestic or global ties back into The Ganges peace, but again I think he is talking about all of his songs too. |
submissions
| The Tragically Hip – My Music At Work Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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I have listened to this song so many times since I was captivated by it in concert. As others have said, it does deeply express the amount of thought, effort, struggle, and uncertainty with the making of a hit. I find the " sink full of Ganges " part very captivating, as getting toward the end of the song he is saying that he will still remain no matter what you have heard. Symbols to near or far or an anatomy of a stain show that he can appeal to a wide audience. Symbols can be domestic or global, and can even describe the creation or explanation of things not so pleasant like stains in a " societal " sense. This can even mean he is talking about all of their songs and how they are created, at this point in the band's history. |
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| The Tragically Hip – Blow At High Dough Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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Overall, with some of the other interpretations in mind, I think the band are describing the feeling you get going through the pace and lifestyle in many places in North America. The Elvis thing, while I agree that Elvis did take on too much, really a possible meaning here is that when used with the speed way theme they are really saying that often it is mixed up perception of love and relationships. Elvis often sang of the tragedies with love in the prior decades, but here it alludes to the fact that " some " kind of Elvis thing means that each case is different. The 2 cases of faster it gets and smarter it gets lead to either a short or long term marriage or relationship. Getting behind anything I take as a deep personal revelation. He cannot seem to catch the pace of any of the women, but he is open to giving it a try, or getting behind it only to learn later as most people do. |
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