submissions
| Yo La Tengo – Stockholm Syndrome Lyrics
| 2 years ago
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I’ve thought about this for a while as I want to sing this song with my band. I think perhaps the singer is addressing someone he yearns for who is themselves stuck in a bad marriage but who will not leave or be unfaithful to their spouse. This would account for the title (a reference to a hostage/prisoner situation) and the line “I know it’s wrong”, which I can’t otherwise make sense of. |
submissions
| Talking Heads – Take Me To The River Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[anat:44163] Actually Al Green co-wrote the song with Mason Hodgesand Hodges wrote the verses about money, cigarettes and sixteen candles, so I think there were two different narratives going on... ;-) |
submissions
| Pet Shop Boys – Rent Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[TheKeeper:43001] Neil Tennant has said he wrote the song from the perspective of a kept woman. But of course it does have a universal aspect. |
submissions
| Pet Shop Boys – Rent Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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@[jadyee:43000] Neil Tennant has actually explained what the song is about. The third paragraph of whitewolfbc’s reply here pretty much nails it. The “I love you” and “you pay my rent” are parallel to each other, not consequent. The younger, kept lover does indeed care for her (or his) benefactor but at the same time they’ve given up whatever plans they had for making their own way in the world in exchange for an easy life. It’s kind of beautiful and sad at the same time. |
submissions
| Lucinda Williams – Which Will Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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A Nick Drake song, about unrequited love, obviously.
Probably not many country singers are familiar with cult English singer-songwriter folkies from the early 70’s. Another reason Lucinda shines out. |
submissions
| Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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Apparently the title was inspired by the science fiction film “Time After Time” starring Malcolm McDowell. Though the lyrics bear no relation.
However when the film was reimagined as a TV series, the episode titles were taken from the song..... |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Reelin' In The Years Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[MattyLion:38212] I always thought the line about the diamond was the narrator being materialistic and criticising the girl for not valuing worldly goods. (See also the “spent a lot of money” line). Another indication of his limited perspective and another part of the reason she dumps him. |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Reelin' In The Years Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[aspiringmusician:38211] It depends, I suppose, on whether you think Fagen is singing as himself or as a character/unreliable narrator. I tend to think the latter, and that he does so in other Dan songs as well as this one. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Ol' 55 Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[AbnormalErnie:35057] I suspect that's Waits pulling the audience's collective leg? |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Ol' 55 Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[AbnormalErnie:35056] I suspect that's Waits pulling the audience's collective leg? |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – First We Take Manhattan Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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Just to add to my comments above, the reference to the line moving through the station also I think must refer to Jews being transported to the camps in WW2. The Lehi and others used terrorism in the process of struggling to create the state of Israel. Cohen at one point volunteered to go and fight for Israel but was persuaded that entertaining the troops would be a better use of his talents. |
submissions
| Leonard Cohen – Famous Blue Raincoat Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[mr_bunbun:34280] The "enemy" here is the singer's jealousy, I would say. The meaning of the line is that the singer is no longer angry with his friend for sleeping with his partner. The whole song is about reconciliation and getting things into proper perspective. |
submissions
| Television – Elevation Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[stormville:34279] I think that's probably correct. Note also that Verlaine was a big fan of 60's psychedelic rockers the 13th Floor Elevators, whose "Fire Engine" Television covered. They in turn had a song called "Levitation". A lot of Verlaine's lyrics are LSD-related I suspect. |
submissions
| Richard Hell And The Voidoids – The Plan Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[thaees:34278] Yeah, I don't see where the "sodomize" notion comes from. Having said that, the song is clearly a creepy incest fantasy - "she won't know another" points at a Josef Fritzl type scenario. I guess you can also read it as a metaphor, but for giving up on the world and taking refuge in self-absorption rather than for anything positive. |
submissions
| David Bowie – Song for Bob Dylan Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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"The same old painted lady" seems to me a whore metaphor, symbolising inauthenticity, commercialism and entertainment for the sake of it rather than art as an agent of social change.
Hard to see how that squares with the Pallas Athena reference though I guess she was the goddess of the arts as well as warfare... |
submissions
| Steely Dan – Midnight Cruiser Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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@[Udice:32918] Alternatively it's a 'born too late' song - Fagen wishing he could have been a 50's hipster but knowing those days are gone. |
submissions
| Roky Erickson – Two Headed Dog Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Rather horrifically, this is a true story, something I didn't know until doing a Google search for the song just now.... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Demikhov |
submissions
| Buzzcocks – Why Can't I Touch It? Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[TruckAntelope:28894] Me too. Less success than happiness, perhaps. Compare/contrast with "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" from the same period. |
submissions
| Buzzcocks – Lipstick Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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@[sivilla:28892] My understanding is that Pete Shelley wrote the ascending guitar riff, then he and Devoto both used it in songs for their respective bands. He had a hand in writing "The Light Pours Out of Me" on the first Magazine album, too. |
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