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| Ben Folds Five – Do It Anyway Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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This song arose out of Ben Folds not being able to play a song (or not wanting to -- perhaps it was "Rock This Bitch" -- I don't remember, exactly), to which a fan yelled, "do it anyway!".
A video of the resulting improvisation, on July 21, 2011 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, is on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZ-90rG0Us |
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| John Mayer – Queen of California Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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The line "If you see her, say 'hello'" is a reference to Bob Dylan's song of the same name. Mayer also references Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album, which contains the song "California", a song about being homesick for (and returning to) California. Both the Dylan song and Mitchell's "Blue" album are largely about heartbreak -- and, to some extent, so is Young's "After the Gold Rush" (e.g., "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and "Tell Me Why").
All in all, the song is contains some nice homages to other songs and albums written about heartbreak and California. |
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| John Mayer – Queen of California Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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The Neil Young line references Young's classic album "After the Gold Rush", which was released in 1970 (not 1971). The album was largely recorded at the Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles. |
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| The Weakerthans – Aside Lyrics
| 14 years ago
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I suspect that the closing of the song ("Losing, but I'll try, with the last ways left, to remember. Sing my imperfect offering.") is a reference to Leonard Cohen's "Anthem":
"Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in." |
submissions
| The Gaslight Anthem – Say I Won't (Recognize) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This may be an homage to the Counting Crows. Adam Durtiz sings, in one song, "There's a piece of Maria in every song that I sing" and has been known to say that "Maria" represents his feminine side. Gaslight Anthem has referenced a number of Counting Crows songs, so I'm sure the Maria meaning is not lost on them. |
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| Josh Ritter – Folk Bloodbath Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Some other songs telling the stories of Delia, Stack O'Lee, and Louis Collins:
Blind Willie McTell, "Delia"
Bob Dylan, "Delia"
Mississippi John Hurt, "Angels Laid Him Away"
Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O Lee"
Mississippi John Hurt, "Louis Collins"
Johnny Cash, "Delia's Gone" |
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| The Gaslight Anthem – Red at Night Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Just picked up on this -- this is a fairly positive song, the title coming from an old sailors' phrase: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky in morning, sailor's warning." It talks about how the sky was red in the morning (an ominous sign that the seas will be rough), but now things are looking up. |
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| The Gaslight Anthem – Miles Davis and the Cool Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"She never understood that it ain't no good" is a reference to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone": "You never understood that it ain't no good. You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you." That might tie into that song's idea of having "no direction home", given the repeated references here of returning home after a long time, from far away. |
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| Josh Ritter – Idaho Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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This song is a reference back to Wilco/Billy Bragg's adaptation of Woody Gurthrie's "Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key": "ain't nobody can sing like me." |
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| The Gaslight Anthem – Red at Night Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Definitely a Woody Guthrie/Wilco/Billy Bragg tribute, with a reference to CCR's "Lodi" thrown in, to boot: "things got bad and things got worse." |
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| The Gaslight Anthem – I Coulda Been a Contender Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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The "Waltzing Matilda" line is likely a reference to Tom Waits' "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind In Copenhagen)", which is itself a take on the traditional "Waltzing Matilda". Gaslight Anthem references Waits songs on number of occasions. |
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| The Gaslight Anthem – The Backseat Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"In the back seats of burned out cars" is likely an homage to Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road":
"There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street" |
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| The Weakerthans – The Prescience of Dawn Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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Just popped into my head, but on the theme of death, kindergarten anthems are often very dark, traditional songs -- e.g., "ring around the rosey, pocket full of posey, ashes, ashes, we all fall down!" |
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| Sparklehorse – Weird Sisters Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"Bad moon on the rise", for those who might not have caught it, is a reference to Creedence Clearwater Revival's song by the same name. |
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| Cymbals Eat Guitars – Cold Spring Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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"And where are you / As lives are punctuated by moons?"
Beautiful. Possibly referencing the passage of time and how it relates to our relationships with others, decrying the distance that grows as time goes on. |
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| Nada Surf – Popular Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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The song is a satire on all the stupid rules we apply to ourselves and to each other through society. The band starts by defining the song as being about "three important rules for breaking up", then proceeds to break its own rules. There aren't three rules -- there are dozens, and they're rambling, chaotic rules, designed simply to create conflict. It's difficult to be sure of what the band intended with this song, but I like to think that it's a rejection of people who justify their reasons to hate others, or to make themselves seem better than other people.
That said, anyone who replies after me is automatically wrong. BECAUSE I SAID SO. |
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| Sage Francis – Keep Moving Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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"There's no direction home only blood on the tracks"
This is likely a reference to Bob Dylan. The song "Like a Rolling Stone" has the lines, "How does it feel to be out on your own, with no direction home?", and "Blood on the Tracks" is the name of a Dylan album.
I think he's talking about Dylan in the ending of the track, as well, in the lyrics in the background. But I can't quite make it out. |
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| The Hold Steady – Hostile, Mass. Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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"wandered out of mass one day and faded into the fog and love and faithless fear."
Does he mean Massachusetts or the Catholic service? Clever, either way.
I think Charlemagne is the one who becomes the Christ-like savior, Holly's the girl who wanders off with him, then comes back into the 'fold' at the end of Separation Sunday. |
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| The Hold Steady – Stuck Between Stations Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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My favorite part about this band is their cast of characters -- you never know who's perspective they're speaking from at any given time, but bits and pieces can come from seemingly random mentions in previous songs.
For example, the "damn good dancer but she wasn't all that great of a girlfriend" references Hostile, Mass., off of Almost Killed Me:
"They met as kids. He was angry and angsty. She was a damned good dancer. I'll be damned if they didn't disappear. Wandered out of mass one day and faded into the fog and love and faithless fear." |
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| Okkervil River – A Girl In Port Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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"Someone's plus one" refers to being the unknown counterpart to someone who's well known -- the latter makes reservations to an event saying "[my name] plus one". Just thought I'd share. |
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| Wilco – Sky Blue Sky Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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I believe the first line of the final stanza should read, "With the sky blue sky, this rotten time wouldn't seem so bad to me now." |
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| Cold War Kids – We Used to Vacation Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The line about ""tax deductible charity organizations"" may be a reference to Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man", which is about a man whose psychological wellbeing is collapsing in on him while various characters taunt him, despite his attempts to fit into certain social circles.
Dylan's lyrics read:
"But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To just give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations" |
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| Guster – One Man Wrecking Machine Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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From Filter Magazine:
One of the highlights is the lead-off single “One Man Wrecking Machine,” which is about a guy who hates his life and wants to go back to “the good ole days” and hang out with his buddies, get high, and make out with the hottest girl in school, as Miller puts it. “I’ve had that fantasy my entire adult life,” he says, “Like, what if I had the confidence of a 30-year-old man as a high school sophomore?” |
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| Son Volt – Jet Pilot Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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It's totally about George W. Bush.
His father had a job in Washington, "Junior" owned the Texas Rangers, was a "jet pilot" (but only did the bare minimum -- if that), got "gentleman's C's" in school (Harvard, among others), started a war "a hemisphere away", and when he was younger allegedly did a lot of drugs and admits to heavy drinking (letting his hair down) -- in politics, word gets around. |
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| The Lawrence Arms – Quincentuple Your Money Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I think the second line might be wrong -- I think it's actually "folded flag", not "floded", which isn't a word. That gives me that it's about a soldier who died, or, more likely, someone whose close friend or family member has died at war -- hence the letter and folded flag. The friend, hearing the bad news, runs out. He can't go back to the park and bear the memories it held, not to mention the other results of war: fences, cops, lightposts.
But I could be wrong. :) |
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| Ryan Adams – Meadowlake Street Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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It may be worth noting that in 'Death of a Salesman' (and referenced in the film American Beauty), the tree in front of the house represents happiness, and cutting it down marks the end of happiness, security. In both of those instances, however, the tree is a Sycamore; here it's a Maple. |
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| Extol – Burial Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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Yeah, why talk about God in a song?
Why sing about ANYTHING?
If you don't like it, don't listen to it. |
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| Songs: Ohia – Farewell Transmission Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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I must admit I don't know the full meaning of this song, but it's full of potent, forlorn images: the desert, "midnight with the dead moon in its jaws". This is one of those songs where the lyrics, the music, and, perhaps most importantly, the vocals were just meant for each other. |
submissions
| Ben Folds – Give Judy My Notice Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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Beautiful. Definitely my favorite piece of work from Ben's recent releases.
It's about having given up so much of yourself in order to accomodate someone you knew would "eventually" come around and fall in love with you, but that "you" is lost and the narrator can't continue living subdued. He wants appreciation, he wants Judy to feel sorry for the damage she causes, but she doesn't until she's told to... I don't know. It's about a complex emotional situation -- Judy feels the same way, but acts or feels hurt when the narrator brings up the elephant in the room first.
Apologies for the rambling post, but I heart this song. It speaks to me so much and I have enough trouble just figuring myself out. :) |
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| Beulah – Silver Lining Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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The beauty of any song is that the listener takes away from it what he or she wants to. If you find beauty in it, then it's beautiful, even if you get a completely different meaning out of it than the artist did or intended to evoke.
But I'm with WhiteTide -- "Punk rock was my first girl" allies punk rock with being a girl, with the narrator declaring that punk rock means/meant as much to him as his first girl did. But that's just what I took from it. |
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| Social Distortion – Don't Take Me for Granted Lyrics
| 21 years ago
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It's some of the best punk rock I've heard, even out of Social Distortion, in a long time, but I'm struggling with the meaning behind these lyrics. The first verse seems to be speaking to punk rock and its scene; the second speaks of the insight music grants its listener in times of love; the third some combination of the two. I identify a lot with the love part, but I have to wonder if Ness is trying to send some sort of anthemic message to 'the scene' and the wave of new bands that have hit it big recently?
Either way, damned good rock'n'roll. |
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| Alkaline Trio – Enjoy Your Day Lyrics
| 22 years ago
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I don't think he's being sarcastic at all in this song. It's one of those heartbroken "you left me, I love you, I want you to be happy" songs. For me, I listened to this song about half an hour before my girlfriend of seven months dumped me... on Valentine's Day. |
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