| Lou Reed – Kicks Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| The thing I don't understand about this song is the need for the background chatter. Did Lou just think it would be cool? Is there some meaning to it? Like, at first it sounds like a party, so I thought maybe it was supposed to be the singer's character meeting a person at a party: a person who they've watched, who they know is unhinged like they are, the singer has witnessed this person in the act of killing, and wants to be their accomplice. Here's a dinner party in open space, and these two secluded people are talking about murder. Like "Who knows what those people in the back are talking about when you're at a big party?" | |
| New Order – Regret Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Because I find it irritating when all songs of one group are believed to share the same one topic, I apologize for my previous interpretation of the song. I don't know why I used to think of a junkie when I heard this song. My mind really thought it was the POV of just a slacker-sort of person. | |
| Belly (US) – Feed the Tree Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| The lyrics _are_ quite surreal and there's an almost dark and sinister sound to the music, in my opinion, until the chorus kicks in. I think there's a supernatural hint -- the repeated lines of "the old man I used to be," "the little squirrel I used to be" makes me think of reincarnation. I think the song's from the point of view of a very old soul, demanding the respect for everything they've learned and know from their years on the planet. "Be there when I feed the tree," so that the knowledge can be passed along. | |
| The Killers – Somebody Told Me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This song's old, but I'm commenting on it anyway. It's tongue in cheek, edgy. The guy's heard a rumor a girl he's dated is dating another girl -- it's that old silly paranoia of a guy thinking he was such a miserable and poor lover to a girl that he actually drove her off of liking guys, not that it's actually genetics and the girl most likely realizes it and admits it to herself. He's at the club the second girl frequents, not being able to put his mind to rest until he sees for himself. Heaven knows he can't go off and have his fun with this knowledge (he "never thought a rumor would ruin his moonlight/good time"). The club's hellish and he's been there a while, nervously watching the girl, approaching her about it. It's not literal, but rather sarcastic -- "Somebody told me your 'boyfriend' looks a lot like my old girlfriend." This girl doesn't even pay him any attention -- torturing him with silence, not even saying her name, so he leaves in frustration. I think he was even considering, in an attempt to prove his "manliness," taking this new girlfriend home and trying to "turn her" (Leaving without you/Maybe, baby...all I wanna do is try), but that's obviously unrealistic. |
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| The Killers – Where the White Boys Dance Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This song's sung from the point of view of the girlfriend, quite obviously. The repeating of "where the white boys dance" (perhaps even the mentioning of "Levon" leaving her) tells me they may be a non-white couple. The boyfriend leaves the girl with a "man she's never met." This makes me think that the boyfriend claims he's just going out to hang with his friends or has a meeting with his boss or something -- the way the lyric is says to me that she's never even laid eyes upon the person who he's going to whereever with, not even as much as confirming that whoever is picking him up is indeed male. She's paranoid, calling up her friend for comfort, who's to the point and saying, "Yeah, he's cheating. So let's go out and have some fun ourselves." So what would get at him the most? "Going to the place where the white boys have fun," and picking up a white guy for a one night stand. I think they went through with this song purely for the comedic value of the title "Where the White Boys Dance." |
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| The Killers – When You Were Young Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think this song is about a girl who was brought up religious -- possibly being pushed into devoting her life to it, wanting an escape, and she "sins" when she meets and falls for a man, when she's supposed to be dedicated to Jesus/religion ("he doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like the man you pictured being with when you were young..."). She feels like she's lost it all, I suppose, sinning (closing her eyes to remember the times before the act/acts), but I think the message that the band's trying to convey is that to make it through life, you're going to find yourself sinning somehow, no matter how dedicated you are to a particular religion. How to put this...as long as it's not a "major" sin, anyway ("the devil's water ain't so sweet to drink, but it doesn't hurt to dip your feet once in a while"). I think part of this stems from Flowers' being criticized for drinking and smoking, something prohibited by his religion. Some could and would argue that something like drinking or smoking isn't quite up there with a sin like murder, so... |
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| The Killers – Bones Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I hope there's more meaning to this song than just "boning." I think it's about a romantic who's really into a girl, into the ideas of these hokey dates where they'll go to the oceanside, watching stars, holding hands. But the girl's a user, when it's made too known that he's looking for more out of their relationship, she leaves him. On the said romantic oceanside date, he notices she's off. I think these lines are meant to be together -- "I don't really like you apologetically dressed [it's causing his heart to skip knowing where the night will go and it's not quite the soulful and passionate love he was hoping for]". He probably told her he loved her and wasn't responded to; the imagery of the thunder in that silence telling him the true answer, as she leaves him "on the cold wet dirt, [crying]." "The cinematic vision" is the fairy tale romance he had visualized. He'd like to call the girl again and try to repair their relationship, being the puppet he's been for her. But his instinct tells him it's not for the best -- the "angel [on his shoulder]" telling him to move on and forget her ("wait and you'll be fine," but he doesn't trust his instincts which _are_ trying to save him from more hurt, but the "message goes to the dogs in his mind/never wronging [what he sees as] right." While he was the romantic, the girl was just using him, so I think the chorus is about what he has just discovered to be as a hollow relationship, physical and possessive. He was just meat (skin and bones) for her to get what she wanted -- with her he didn't have a soul, he didn't have the lover he thought he did, he never honestly had a good and meaningful time spent with her. But, again, the message is lost on him, he just wants to be with her, even if in their meaningless relationship with a one sided love (so can't she just come back and feel his emptiness on her emptiness?) |
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| The Killers – Under the Gun Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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"If you look at their other songs, few of them are very literal, or at least as literal as this." I think a number of their songs are literal -- that doesn't make them bad or mindless, but just direct to the point. I think Under the Gun is very blatant, and what drives home that the girl's literally a danger with a "criminal mind" is the line "James Dean in the rain," which gives me the impression that the two were fooling around unlawfully until she abandoned the guy Flowers is singing about. That is, of course, since Dean's most famous role is "Rebel Without a Cause," in which he drags the wimpy loner Sal Mineo character onto a corrupt path with him. And while Mineo's character had hints of corruption in him prior to their meeting, it's once he becomes close to Dean's character when he decides to let loose and not be so repressed, it ultimately ending up in tragedy for the character, I think the song's a mirror of that. The James Dean type's a girl, luring a shy guy, getting into trouble, but it's ulimately the more innocent of the two who pays a harsher toll for their sins committed together. But, no matter what happened in the end and what atrocities were committed, Mineo and the guy in this song are happy to have been set free from their inhibitions. Whereas Mineo is killed in the film rather than go back to the boring life with his loveless parents, the person in this song wants to be killed rather than face a life of nothing without the girl who set him free. |
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| Queen – We Are The Champions Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I think it's Queen's ode to their fans. In their time, they were huge with their fans, but not really with music critics, who were often harsh about their music. So it's a bit like "Our music isn't as bad as this disco that's out there, but, we're doing our time for this crime we're accused of, the critics have kicked sand in our face, but so what? You, the fans are there by our side (giving me fame, fortune...) and we'll show them, we'll keep rocking, because we're the m-f'n champions!" It just has that personal, heart to heart, from the singer to the listener feel to it, and that especially comes across in footage where Freddie's performing it live. I think people are doing a disservice to the songwriting talents of Mercury, May, Deacon and Taylor to think that every single song the band has done is about Freddie's being gay or AIDS. |
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| Queen – Don't Stop Me Now Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I think Freddie's singing in the point of view of just this very fun, very free spirit who is always the life of the party, ready to show any timid guy or gal a great night on the town, hitting the discos or bars or what have you. If you want a good time, give him a call and he'll show you, turning you from a timid joykill into someone fun like he is ("Make a super-sonic man/woman of you"). The song itself is just bouncy and fun. I think the only sex oriented aspect of this song is the fact that he and the ones he's inviting are going out on the town -- presumably to look for a mate and have some fun with them. But I don't think the song's a graphic description of a sexual act as everyone is thinking. First off, if you want to look at it that way, he's saying that he's a quick and pathetic lay, an early bird. He'd essentially be saying "I'm so fast in the sack, I'm a racing car, traveling at the speed of light! That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit," which is an image I seriously don't think Mercury would like to have been associated with! So, I personally rule that theory out. |
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| The Killers – Andy, You're a Star Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I think it's a really big stretch for that "Junk" article to claim that every song on Hot Fuss is connected. I'm not one to hold back on what people think songs mean, a song means something different to each listener, but I also think that we should at least acknowledge the artists' intentions. The Killers claim that the only two tracks on Hot Fuss that are related to one another are "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" and "Midnight Show." While numerous other songs share the same theme (jealousy, for example), that doesn't mean each song relates to one another. It usually takes a band several albums before they become pretentious enough for a concept album, anyway. Take "Believe Me Natalie." The Killers' site says it's about Studio 54 and AIDS victims. "On Top" is referring to how they felt with their success. |
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| The Killers – Smile Like You Mean It Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I agree that it's about suicide, if not that, then just a deep depression. The point of view is sung by someone who has hit rock bottom in their life. The narrator/singer is at first warning youngsters. "Change your ways while you're young"/Don't just piss your life away and learn to regret it when you're too old to change any of it. "Dreams aren't what they used to be" -- when you're younger, the dreams and aspirations you have are so big, and the most of the time you can't really fulfill them in this world. So, things have taken a darker turn. And I think it's clear that the narrator/singer commits or contemplates suicide by looking at how the last verse is in the past tense, mostly the repetition of the line "(Someone's driving her around) down the same streets that I did/On he same streets that I did" as if Flowers repeats it to get the point across. With depression, you remember events that weren't even really that spectacular at the time with an almost joy, I think that last verse is him reflecting before killing himself. Good song. I think this song was a little inspired by New Order's "Ceremony," another song vaguely about suicide/depression. |
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| The J. Geils Band – Fright Night Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Awesomely cheesy song for the cool 1985 vampire flick "Fright Night." Lyrics are obvious (especially if you've seen the movie). The main character of the movie finds out his next door neighbor is a vampire, but nobody believes him. The vampire targets the character and his friends once he discovers the boy knows his secret. |
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| The Killers – Under the Gun Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Is there two different versions of this song, like an earlier recorded and the one on the LE Hot Fuss? Or is this a cover? Because before the LE Hot Fuss was released, I had an MP3 of this song and it didn't sound like Flowers singing at all. The voice was high-pitched, nasally with a fake British accent. I bought the Limited Edition Hot Fuss and it's for sure Flowers singing it there. I was curious what that other one was, though. This song's amazing. I think it's about a femme fatale in the guise of a nice & innocent girl, an "angel," luring a timid and unsuspecting guy into a life of crime and ditching him when caught, all of the blame placed on him. "She's got a criminal mind" "He wants to wake up/To prove it's a dream/Cause she's an angel for sure/But that remains to be seen" The guy's in jail, only she can set him free (if she confessed and he'd be charged with a lesser crime, someone obviously dying due to their crime -- "Crashing cars in his brain") and while he knows the girl's long gone (Caught in a trap/The angel's kiss was a joke/She's not coming back) and he wants to die rather than face the punishment she deserves, he does think fondly of the girl for the wild ride she's provided him. "Without her [life's] not the same." |
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| The Killers – Andy, You're a Star Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I apologize for another post, but I wanted to clarify what I meant about The Killers' lyrics not being "the same old thing." I didn't mean that I think they're 100% original, unique and innovative -- you can easily hear their '80s influences (I can hear Morrissey easily singing "Smile Like You Mean It"). What I meant was that, for the most part, their songs aren't all the same, they're not singing about the same exact thing each song. There's a variety, there's often a storytelling format to their songs. In the days when you have one-note hack bands like My Chemical Romance singing of how terrible the world is, it's nice to have a current band that's actually talented, can write good lyrics and have songs that differ from each other. |
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| The Killers – Andy, You're a Star Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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It's a little out of hand that people are assuming things about Flowers because of him writing an ambiguous song like this. He's obviously a talented lyricist/writer, and good writers can tap into any emotion or mindset and pull it off -- it's ridiculous for people to think that straight writers couldn't write a song or story about gays, or that gays couldn't write a song or story about straights, for that matter. It's like saying an African American writer has no business writing in the point of view of a white or vice-versa. There's no limit, it's not exclusive -- it's all storytelling, it's entertainment. In the case of The Killers, they provide good tunes with lyrics that tell a story or make you think, it's not mindless, it's not the same old thing, but a vast field of colors. And as a curmudgeonly guy who hates most new music, I like The Killers and think they're a welcome addition to the world of music for that. |
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| The Killers – Andy, You're a Star Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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If you're an unpopular one in school, you can't help but be envious of the ones who get more attention, such as the jocks. It can reach a level of almost obsession. I think for Flowers, this might ring true, and this is what he was originally writing the song about But as he further wrote it, it took on this entire psychosexual stalker spin. I'm into writing -- be it stories, poems or lyrics for local musician friends. There's time where you set out to write one thing, but the further you get into it, it can rise to quite a different level. It may have started off as something based on actual events, but once you add this other level to it, it sometimes works out better and becomes quite deeper or more interesting that if you're a writer worth your weight, you'll run with it, unafraid of how people may understand your work. I think that can certainly be said about Flowers. It's whatever satisfies you as a writer. So, he may have been envious/jealous of this jock he knew. But the sexual/stalker aspect was an addition to give it more layers. The "promise me she's not your world" line means to me that the person in the singer's point of view is slightly younger than Andy -- he's just coming into being a man (the song obviously set in teenage days), he probably respects this Andy for his athletic accomplishments and "manliness." They most likely became friends, but their friendship was split apart and reduced once Andy got into this girl. So, there's an area of the singer insanely jealous of this girl, not wanting her to be the sole focus of Andy's life. |
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| The Vapors – Turning Japanese Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| sockhead, YOU need to stop chasing the dragon. I have no idea where you came up with that, but anybody who owns a real CD with this track can read that it was written by Vapors' lead vocalist Dave Fenton...who says it's a love song. | |
| The Vapors – Turning Japanese Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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There's been an even newer special on VH1 about the meaning of songs where the band says it's a love song. A twisted love song. There's masturbation implied, but this isn't "Teenage Kicks," it goes further than that... It's about a disturbed guy, completely obsessed with a girl he used to date. He's probably been committed or is in jail for stalking her, his walls covered in pictures of her. I believe the the line is "I'd like a million of them all over my cell." Saying he wants a doctor to take an internal picture of her is a little crazy, so he's probably locked up in a nut house. Sicko. "Everyone around me is a total stranger." When you're locked up and under watch by a doctor or guard, there won't be any "sex, drugs, wine, women, fun, sin" or the girl he wants. He's accumulated so many pictures of the girl that he's "turned Japanese," the Japanese stereotype of putting everything to film, taking pictures -- the entire "otaku" culture in Japan of fixating on one form of entertainment and spending your life dedicated to collecting everything related to the subject (for example collecting anime episodes or an idol's records and books). In this song's case, a girl who got away. Sure, he might wank to the picture, I think that's implied with "kissing her when no one else is around," but the "turning Japanese" isn't a face he makes, it's the obsession of the girl. |
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| New Order – Regret Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I think it's about a druggie whose girlfriend is disgusted with him with how low he's sunk. She often pesters and lectures him to get off the junk -- "Save it for another day, it's a school exam and the kids have run away" and the "Look at me, I'm not you" shows he's fed up with her lecturing. He may have hit rock bottom, but he's "happy" where he's at, being a junkie. He may have forgotten a lot of important things as a result of it, but he doesn't regret it. He doesn't want to hear any more lecturing, so he wants rid of her, not caring how much it would hurt him -- it seems they met at a time when he was depressed ("I was upset you see/Almost all the time/You were a complete stranger/Now you are mine"). What seemed like a good thing going at first ended up being a hassle -- not either to blame, but the drugs/booze/substance. "Just wait until tomorrow/That's what they all say/Just before they fall apart" |
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| The Clash – Janie Jones Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| From my understanding Janie Jones was a prostitute in London back in the 70s. She would cater to working stiffs, regular Joes. | |
| The Clash – I'm So Bored with the U.S.A. Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| I listened to this song on that endless night of the US Presidential election in 2000. I don't know why, it just felt right. | |
| Ramones – Do You Remember Rock'n'roll Radio? Lyrics | 22 years ago |
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It means "Do you remember when music was good, and kicked ass?" Another song I've really connected to in this past few years with this onslaught of bad bubblegum pop and wannabe punk bands. |
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| Ramones – We Want the Airwaves Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| It means a lot. Back in the Ramones' time, the radio, and music in general, was just all pop and disco. Punk was new, not being accepted, and here to kick ass, as were the Ramones! I really related to this song back in '99, when I first heard it. It was when the teenybopper bubblegum pop arrived. Unfortunately, we didn't get a revolution in music after that. | |
| Ramones – Wart Hog Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| I think this song reflects the way Dee Dee felt back in the 70s, when he was depressed and heavily screwed up on drugs. I don't think it was intended to be homophobic, but just paranoid. | |
| Ramones – Palisades Park Lyrics | 22 years ago |
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Amazing cover of the Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon pop song. This song proves the Ramones were able to cover anything and make it sound like their own. Being a 50s song, there's nothing in the lyrics to explain. Meeting a chick at a carnival. What else is there to say? |
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| Ramones – Poison Heart Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Yet another autobiographical song of Dee Dee's. Hell, he even named his autobiography book "Poison Heart". Awesome, awesome song. | |
| Ramones – Pinhead Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Inspired by an excellent little-known movie "Freaks". It can be taken as trying to belong. | |
| Ramones – Pet Sematary Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Title track for the Stephen King film of the same title. Great song, first Ramones song I heard, blew me away. Went out and bought the excellent Brain Drain. Another good thing about this song is that it appears Dee Dee actually read the book --- there's quite a few lines from King's book. Any Ramones fan should read the book, anyway. It's filled with dozens of Ramones references. | |
| Ramones – I Believe in Miracles Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| It's another one of Dee Dee's autobiographical "come out swinging" songs. You've been through some hell, life was terrible, you come to your senses and are amazed to be alive. With this awakening, you can start anew, no matter what. | |
| Ramones – Howling at the Moon (Sha-La-La) Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Dee Dee said in his book POISON HEART he wrote this song with a member of the Eurythmics, and it's about marijuana usage. | |
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