| Splender – Supernatural Lyrics | 6 months ago |
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Plain and simple this is a song about mortality, acceptance and belief in something beyond our understanding. "And the sun is my best friend And the earth opened up to me We've been separate for so long So long..." This is literally the judeo-christian "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" from the point of view of the dying person, who is at peace returning to the earth. |
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| Splender – Cigarette Lyrics | 6 months ago |
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I'm not 100% sure about the ending of this song, but I've always considered it a song about, well "Cigarettes", and the addiction that is smoking. It's a person justifying why they smoke, and also deluding themselves that they won't fall victim to the negative effects of it. "I'm not afraid I'm unafraid I'm different from the rest somehow" He's not afraid of getting Cancer, because he's different from all the rest. I think a point of view is of a person with loved ones who are dying from Lung cancer after years of smoking. "Blind to the wind, the news And the culture Deaf to the sound that leaks From your voice Take a deep breath and pray For a second one" Even as the smoker's voice rattles, and can barely breath anymore. |
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| Jellyfish – The Ghost at Number One Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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This song was written sometime before 1993 when "Spilt Milk" was released. So what can we tell about the person in question? 1st are they alive or dead? The vast majority of the song suggests they are dead, and possibly they died of a heroin overdose, or at least were addicted to heroin. For example, there's lines like "Shoot up (bop bop)" Not all of the lyrics are listed here, as in the finale of the song includes these: (There's a party at the pearly gates of gold and platinum) To be the only one (For you, an invitation to the holy rock-n-rollers) To be the only one that knows that you're right (Standin' on the bandstand, you'll see the legends) To be a so deep down underground (Who'll tell you how it feels to be the only one who knows) To be the only one who knows you've been buried alive And yet... there's that last line: "you've been buried alive". So perhaps this person isn't dead? We know that Sturmer and Manning were big Anglophiles and lovers of power pop, so the "Nappy superstar" could perhaps be about hair, but it also could just be "diapers", since that's what they're called in the Uk and Ireland. It's easy to home in on the "Mrs. Lynn" reference. Some people think that this might be about Jeff Lynne, whose ELO was a big influence on Jellyfish, and perhaps might think that the "nappy superstar" lyric fits his hair, but Jeff Lynne is not from a mixed race background, and curly hair isn't "Nappy" hair. After considering a lot of different possibilities, one other person comes to mind, and that is Irish musician Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. You can short Lynott to Lynn, and you have a slightly disguised version of the name, and Phil was mixed race, had the hair style and had died after the effects of years of heroin addiction. In subsequent years, Thin Lizzy would find an even larger audience on AOR. Mrs. Lynn could be a hint, or it could just be a red herring, and the song could be about angry rock song writers who died and afterwards became more popular due to the music industry "death effect" where bands and musicians are promoted and exploited after they die. Jim Morrison and the Doors would be a prototype, as a song writer who did a lot of drugs (including Heroin, although he didn't shoot it) and whose record sales increased, in particular for the L.A. Woman album, which had been driven by Morrison's desire to make a blues record received some extremely negative reviews upon release. It would go on to produce several hits, and ultimately would sell 24 million records. Last but not least, some people think that the song could be about Brian Wilson, and there is some reason to believe this, as just prior to the making of Spilt Milk, Sturmer and Manning had worked on Ringo Starr's solo record, and also were booked to write songs with the legendary Wilson, which ultimately was a failure after only one session. At the time Wilson was emerging from a long period where he had been virtually controlled by his Doctor, and had been battling with drug addiction and mental illness. It is possible that this left Sturmer and Manning disillusioned, although in totality, while Wilson's musicality was certainly an influence on Jellyfish and a power-pop influence, his songs are not known for their acerbic lyrical content. Musically however, the "Mrs. Lynn" bridge is a clear musical homage to Wilson's Beach Boys compositions particularly in the "Pet Sounds". When reviewing the song recently on "Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro" channel on youtube, Manning went into a long discussion of his reflection that many of the song writers who connected with him, had some history of heartbreak and sadness, and this was a way for men in western society to process negative emotion through art, so perhaps there are also elements of this in the song. You could also make the argument that there are elements of Phil Spector's descent into seclusion and madness and his many years of drug abuse. Probably the song isn't about any one individual, but takes elements from many different stories, as Manning has suggested. Andy Sturmer has persistently resisted interviews or any projects involving reformation or performance, so if there are secrets to the song he imbued into it, we are unlikely to get them from him. |
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| Splender – I Think God Can Explain Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| I have always suspected, and am fairly convinced at this point, that this song is actually about a young gay man who has experienced a physical relationship, and is coming to terms with the fact that he's gay, in a world where there is still a huge stigma associated with that. think the song is about a person who was raised in the Christian faith, and perhaps in a way where being gay is not accepted, and has to come to a place where they can accept what they know to be true, despite the fact that this is often a painful transition to go through. In particular, the thing that always struck me about the lyrics is the verse where it seems to be about two lovers spending time together, and yet there's "the scent of vasoline in the summertime." I don't want to be too specific, but there's a particular sexual practice that typically involves the use of that product. Waymon Boone has never chosen to get into specifics of his sexual orientation to my knowledge, but now that he's transitioned to being a director, he's been identified at least in one Anthology where he directed an episode, as being one of a group of "queer men of color" in the gay press. Further evidence of this, is in his most recent project, which also involves two men who enter into a gay relationship. I have long believed that the song is basically saying: This is how I was made, and I'm ok with it. God made me this way, and he must have had a reason for that, and someday, it will all be explained to me. It's a person who was raised in a religious background, has a strong connection to their religion, but is still a gay person. | |
| Pixies – Debaser Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| I meant to say, the film that was Bunuel's follow up to Un Chien Andalou is L'Age d'Or, and was highly controversial and banned in many places for among other things, depicting the "debasing" of Catholic iconography. I also wanted to elaborate as to why I think this is really about young college age students not really understanding the philosophies and ideas they were trying on because they were fashionable, in that the name of the film is bastardized in the chorus, where he says it as " I am Un Chien... Andalusia", despite the fact that the title is french, and is in no way pronounced "Andalusia". The person in the song has mixed up the actual french title of the film with it's english translation "An Andalusian Dog" and come up with his hybrid version of it. | |
| Pixies – Debaser Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| @[epochblue:51394] You're right, but I think I can actually provide a bit more context. The film was not just made by Dali, but also by famous surrealist director Luis Bunuel. Both were at the time considered themselves to be "Surrealists". In the works of many surrealist artists, there is an element of "debasing" the female body for a variety of complicated reasons I won't go into. The other thing you have to know about Boston in the 80's is that, being a college town, an interest in history, the arts and film was common amongst college students. Black Francis grew up in Boston and for a time was a student at U.Mass Amherst before moving into the city when he formed the band with his former college roommate Joey Santiago. Just to give you an idea of how common it was, pretty much every college in Boston had film study classes, and any number of film schools, and it was common in these classes for people to see Bunuel movies and Un Chien Andalou, and to have to write papers about them. Around this same period one of the popular night clubs in Cambridge was named "Man Ray" after the surrealist artist who was friends with Dali and Bunuel, and is best known for his "Rayographs" that involved manipulating photosensitive paper, or later experimenting with exposure and film development to create various effects. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that when the Pixies got their record contract and made those records, the distinctive album covers were a modern reflection of art history, and famous artists like Man Ray. Bunuel wrote his autobiography title "My last sigh" that talks about his career and the history of the surrealists and their philosophy as it pertained to what was happening politically and in the world of art, literature and film. Black Francis was probably also familiar with Bunuel's feature film (co written by Dali prior to a falling out between he and Bunuel) which involves the "Debasing of symbols" which is one of the things surrealists employed. While this is all very interesting, I think what the song is really about, is the way so many young college students would become enamoured with philosophies and artistic movements in the past, despite not really understanding them. They get excited and try them on like trying on a style of dress, because it's fashionable. The guy has seen this crazy old surrealist film, and it's exciting and has a "groovy chick" and from what he's seen, just seems cool. He doesn't have any idea of what lead to surrealism, or what the surrealists were trying to say with their art. | |
| Steely Dan – Peg Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| @[jankout:51393] This is a band, that literally named itself after a steam powered mechanical Dildo from William Burroughs novel "Naked Lunch", so I think the thinly veiled references to porn/or at least movies with sexual content, are not far fetched at all. The chorus really makes more sense when you consider, especially in the late 70's when Aja was released, that "foreign movies" were in many cases known for their sexuality. Combine that with the fact that "sex movies" were also referred to as "blue movies", it all sort of lines up. "The shutter falls" meaning the shutter in the camera that is recording the movie she's in. For her, it's not a movie, it's reality. It's also possible to interpret this from his point of view: he sees it in his mind in 3-D, as he fantasizes about her -- thus it's his favorite "foreign movie". | |
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