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Arcadia – Election Day Lyrics 2 years ago
As it is another election day in the US, I was thinking about this song. I love the mysterious lyrics and compelling music, not sure I know 100% what it all means though! lol

submissions
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Lyrics 3 years ago
To me, the key lines are these:

When it's over so they say
It'll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin' down like water

and

I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?

So, "it" will NEVER be over, because it NEVER rains on a sunny day? Have YOU ever seen it rain on a sunny day?

submissions
Three Dog Night – Mama Told Me (Not to Come) (Eric Burdon cover) Lyrics 4 years ago
@[Shep420:37226]
"that cigarette you're smoking about scares me half to death"

submissions
Elton John – Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters Lyrics 4 years ago
One thing I want to add is that I think the lines about the "mona lisas and mad hatters. . ." not knowing if it's dark or light and not being able to see the sky are about not having a moral compass about what is right and wrong.

submissions
Simon and Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair/Canticle Lyrics 5 years ago
@[crispin115:35497]
I think it is referring to a soldier's grave. His grave is on the side of the mountain. Because he is in his grave, he "sleeps unaware of the clarion call". The present tense phrase "a soldier cleans and polishes a gun" could just be interpreted as "this is what soldiers do, they handle guns". Or, maybe we are over analyzing lol. I think sometimes artists choose words that "sing well", not necessarily for a specific meaning.

submissions
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band – Cherchez la femme/C'est si bon Lyrics 5 years ago
"Cherchez la femme" is an old French expression. While it literally means "look for the woman", the usage of it is if a man seems upset or is behaving erratically, it's probably because he's having "woman troubles", so that's why you need to "cherchez la femme".

submissions
The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979 Lyrics 5 years ago
Love the song, I think everything has been said already, but I wanted to add one thing.

I like the expression "zipper blues", but I can't say I have ever heard anyone actually use this expression. I maybe should add that I was 16 in 1979.

submissions
Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense and Peppermints Lyrics 5 years ago
All the 60s references are obvious and have been covered, but I think these lines are the tell:

Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns
Look at yourself, look at yourself,
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view

It's saying "wake up young people, you are not paying attention, and are letting yourselves be distracted by unimportant things"

submissions
Steely Dan – Peg Lyrics 5 years ago
This is a great song, and the lyrics are just mysterious enough to get the brain gears turning. Here is what I think.

First, I see in the lyrics quoted above, in the first line of the second verse, the word is "picture", not "pin shot". That's how I've always heard it myself. I listened to it carefully again, and it sure sounds like "picture" to me. That seems the most logical, because "picture" is used in the first verse. I've been doing some Googling to try to find an "official" reference to resolve it, and haven't found one. So, if anyone has a bona fide, authoritative source that says it is "pin shot", I'd like to see it. It isn't a very important distinction, though, since a "pin shot" IS a picture anyway.

Getting on to the meat of it though, to me the song is clearly about a photographer taking nude, or at least risque, pictures of a model. He is getting ready to take his pic, and asks her to "smile for the camera" as photographers always do.

In this verse:

Peg
It will come back to you
Peg
It will come back to you
Then the shutter falls
You see it all in 3-D
It's your favorite foreign movie

He is just about to take his picture, and thinking to himself "you'll regret doing this later", as he's looking through his camera adjusting focus and such. Now what do you do when you are looking through a camera? You close one eye, and look through the view finder with the other eye. We get our perception of 3-D from our stereoscopic vision, which requires both eyes open, so with one eye closed, it is a 2-D image. When the shutter falls, he then opens both eyes and looks at her, and can see her in 3-D again, and likes what he sees!

submissions
Simon and Garfunkel – Scarborough Fair/Canticle Lyrics 7 years ago
These lyrics don't quite match the lyrics listed on Paul Simon's official site. Here are the lyrics from there:

Are you going to Scarborough Fair
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

On the side of a hill in the deep forest green
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley sage rosemary and thyme
Without no seams nor needle work
Then she’ll be a true love of mine

On the side of a hill in the sprinkling of leaves
Washes the grave with silvery tears
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call

Tell her to find me an acre of land
Parsley sage rosemary and thyme
Between the salt water and the sea strands
Then she’ll be a true love of mine

War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions
Generals order their soldiers to kill
And to fight for a cause they have long ago forgotten

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
Parsley sage rosemary and thyme
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
Then she’ll be a true love of mine

I get the "impossible tasks" aspect, but the lines I'm interested in are these:

On the side of a hill in the deep forest green
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call

On the side of a hill in the sprinkling of leaves
Washes the grave with silvery tears
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call

I think I get the gist, but would love if someone could give a "translation" of this part of the song. I think it is referencing the grave of the "child of the mountain", and then references the soldier who killed him, or am I all wet? Is it the soldiers silvery tears, who perhaps has some remorse about what he's done? It maybe is just a tad too mysterious, kind of reminds me of a scene from Auntie Mame where she tells the author she's hired something like "that's very poetic, but what's wrong with just being clear?" lol

Also, has anyone had the thought that "Scarborough Fair" is just a reference to death? So in other words, we're ALL going to "Scarborough Fair"?

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