| Soundgarden – Superunknown [*] Lyrics | 10 months ago |
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I'm probably way off the mark of the original meaning, but to me it resonates with the melee of life and the disparateness that exists between individuals. We will never see the world through the eyes and experiences of another person, but that doesn't make our own take on the world any less valid. Taken to extremes one can start obsessing about the lives of others, particularly when it comes to celebrities and popular figures, and there's a danger one can begin to live vicariously through the perceived life projected onto such an individual. Of course, what one believes another's life to be like is never accurate and cannot be, but as the obsessive fan of a celebrity, sports personality, pop idol etc, it could become all consuming until one begins to believe they are not really living because they don't have the other person's experiences. But at the end of the day, we're all alive in this restless ocean of humanity where one person's perspective is completely unknowable to another's. As a banal example, I often look up at and see an airliner streaking across the sky and I sometimes wonder who the people are onboard, where they are going and for what purpose. It's a mystery to me and in my head I might imagine myself jetting off to an exotic location for a few weeks of relaxation somewhere. But, just because I'm not it doesn't make my own reality any less valid. |
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| Mark Knopfler – Marbletown Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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It seems to be about vagrants travelling the railroads and sleeping rough among the graves in America, maybe in the early 20th century. Marbletown is slang for a graveyard, it was (and still is) common for homeless people to sleep rough among the graves, sometimes pushing tombstones off to find a dry place to sleep. Hence the opening line, roll out here mister if you need a little rest - to roll out would signify laying out some kind of bed to sleep on among the tombstones and hoping it doesn't rain. A "bull" is a name given to guards employed by the railroads to seek out those who would otherwise seek a free ride on a train and throw them off. On finding an illegal traveller on the train you can imagine the bull shouting out, "we got a man down here". Cannonball is a term given to a non-stop train, because it doesn't stop for anyone, much like a literal cannonball wouldn't, so our imagined protagonist waits his time and rests the night in the graveyard until morning comes when he can seek out an open box car on a train and take his chances once more. |
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| Dire Straits – Single-Handed Sailor Lyrics | 3 years ago |
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Obviously a nod to Sir Francis Chichester and his solo sailing achievements on the Gipsy Moth IV. As others have pointed out, the tangible is well presented in the song, with the Gipsy Moth, Cutty Sark, their dry dock prisons and reference to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. I do think there's a narrative open to interpretation about looking back at a better time - the song mentions the "lazy days of sail", as if looking back on better days through rose tinted glasses. To me, this suggests an underlying theme of regret, the protagonist is hurting and looking back on his own better days, unable to accept where he is in life right now. The line "You never want to fight against the river law" suggests the character is in emotional pain, much like the silent pain of the ships in dry dock. The next line, "Nobody rules the waves" seems to hint at the broad and open opportunities available when one is young and carefree, but now he can only look longingly from the confines of the well structured "river life" where he now finds himself. As such he longs to be that single handed sailor, able to disappear into the night without consequence, but the confines of his life are now a river "law" which keeps him to the inland waterways and predictability of every day life and relationships. The single handed sailor that goes sailing away in the dark is again the protagonist, but only in his own mind. The next line, "He's upon the bridge on the self same night, the mariner of dry dock land" is yet another admission to the incarcerated emotional state of the protagonist who is now only able to reminisce of his former days. At the sight of the sand barge passing he imagines himself stood on the barge and would welcome even such a lowly opportunity to experience his former days heading towards open opportunity. The green light signifying that the passing barge is heading towards open sea from the perspective of somebody on the south bank of the Thames, where our character finds himself. The line "she's gonna slip away below him" could be a reference to a failing relationship, in that his other half has taken enough from him. Perhaps he's so living in the past that he can't form a future with her, and he has symbolically scuttled the relationship. So she is now resigned to simply slip away from him as if a vessel sinking beneath the waves. Perhaps this has some reference to Wilfred Dowman whose wife left him after he started an affair with Catherine Courtauld, who was largely responsible for saving the Cutty Sark as she had the wealth to purchase it from its owners in the 1920s. The next line "hey man, what do you call this thing", I haven't settled upon a meaning for yet, nor the next line making reference to the "Pride of London". It might be again reference to the Cutty Sark before it was purchased by the Dowman family. It had been renamed Ferreira and was in Falmouth at the time and was only because Wilfred recognised it as the Cutty Sark that lead them to purchase the ship and restore it. Catherine eventually sold the ship for a very small fee to the Thames Nautical College and it obviously became something that London could be proud to host. So this could be a reference to the fact that a once great and respected tea clipper such as the Cutty Sark almost disappeared into obscurity that somebody might ask, "what do you call this thing" and not know of its heritage and history. It could also just be reference to the contempt Sir Francis felt for the Gipsy Moth, though. Anyway, a good psychologist would have a field day reading my interpretation, I'm sure. |
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