submissions
| Dar Williams – Mortal City Lyrics
| 1 year ago
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@[Navelgazer33:45604] I had thought it was Boston, but Dar told the full story at one of her shows, and it’s actually set in Philadelphia. Who knew?! |
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| Eve 6 – Promise Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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From what I’ve read in interviews both modern and from their heyday, I wouldn’t be surprised if major chunks of this song (the wordplay lines) were the product of some word game one or two of them were playing where they had to make the lines tangentially related. And then built a song around it, which may have evolved some deeper meaning somewhere in the oddly profound ideas that came out. |
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| Art Garfunkel – Old Man Lyrics
| 3 years ago
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Lovely cover of a Randy Newman song (SUPER surprised when I learned of this song’s true creator). Anyone catch that the father better die, or the son will make sure he dies? “You wanna stay, I know you do/ But there ain’t no use to try/Cuz I’ll be here, and I’m just like you...” Some unresolved issues; sounds like Pops was an abusive jerk to everyone. |
submissions
| The Killers – Midnight Show Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[cyrolophosaurus:33005] Lol, I kinda had a moment where I was reading your comment about the band being fixated on death and murder and I was like, “well, yeah, duh, the band is called The Killers”... and I actually stopped and thought about that, because it never really sunk in that THE BAND IS CALLED “THE KILLERS”. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – Old Man Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[Lrg8607:28346] I completely disagree, just because Randy Newman was raised atheist and stayed atheist.
If anything, I kind of get where he’s coming from as his fellow Jewish atheist. I sometimes wish I’d been brought up to believe in an afterlife or a higher power because of my fear of death. There’s a lot that Randy Newman holds against his father, and that may be one piece - that tough, non sugarcoated reality - thrown right in the face of a man who may now be needing that comfort. |
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| Randy Newman – Old Man Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[paulmarkj:28345] He’s a good Jewish atheist. Dad taught him there’ll be no comfort of a god. |
submissions
| Randy Newman – Old Man Lyrics
| 5 years ago
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@[foreverdrone:28344] that last question of yours, I think, is the whole point of the song. What kind of twisted eff would say that to a dying father?
The dying father.
“Cuz I’ll be here... and I’m just like you.” |
submissions
| Suzanne Vega – The Queen And The Soldier Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Listening to this again years later as an adult, I hear a woman singing about the fine line we women walk in a post-feminist society. When she wrote this in the 90’s, women’s lib was in its young 20’s, and women were advancing in positions of actual power. To this day, we fight to maintain power and be seen as equals.
But we also want to be seen as women as well. To be seen as lovable. So it’s a fine line between a constant fight to be seen as a powerful entity but want to take off the armor and show our vulnerable sides to someone we can love. But it’s terrifying. |
submissions
| Dar Williams – The Ocean Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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I know the imagery of the ocean is making listeners reach for symbolism, but in this case I think it's really a song about an unrequited love, and much of the ocean metaphor relates to her feelings towards him - and the pain of not being able to have him. The ocean is this sensual, magnetic being she can't quite ever "have" - like him - and like the amoral sea, he has the power to drown her. Him... love... both have the power to "bludgeon the sailors". |
submissions
| Vertical Horizon – Everything You Want Lyrics
| 7 years ago
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I do see that this is generally unrequited love, and I've read interview snippets about how the song was formed. But I also wondered if it's a sexuality thing - if the woman was gay and these supermen were trying to swoop in and save her, but that's not who she was waiting for. |
submissions
| Chris Pureka – Burning Bridges Lyrics
| 10 years ago
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Originally I thought it was a song about unrequited love in general... probably because the words resonated so strongly with my own situation. But looking closely, Pureka is quite clear about the "story" she describes in the last verse. So I will jump to that part first - it's what's causing her the pain.
Her lover fell for another woman. The lover probably thought she was just going to be friends with this other woman, but "you can't choose who you love" - and things just happened. She's guilty because she does love Pureka, but she was weakened by "liquor" and the headiness of her attraction ("perfume").
So now Pureka is super depressed because it's a bad situation. She understands it's not her lover's fault, that she didn't mean to "let me down"... but it still hurts like hell. Pureka needs to get away from everything, burn the bridges, "allowing time to pass", and eventually forgive. But it hurts! Pureka is very bitter about it, asking "is this just what you wanted?" and breaks "things in my hand". It's a sad testament to how hard it is to reconcile feelings with logic... understanding with emotion. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Mary Jane Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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It does seem self-explanatory. However, I figured the link between girl and pot was forged by Tori, feminizing marijuana to make it seem like a questionable lady in the boy's eye. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Ophelia Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Interesting! I didn't know about "Veronica", and I was racking my mind as to who the women were. I did think briefly about Charlotte from Sex in the City, but I think that may be too... modern? low-brow? comedic? for a reference in this song. Had I not known about "Veronica" and the two characters whose names appear here, I would have had a different guess about Allison. Given that we are talking about Renaissance literature (Hamlet, Eve of Saint Agnes), I guessed that whispering Allison may be a Chaucer reference. Trouble was, there were a couple of Allisons in the Canterbury Tales. The most famous, of course, was the Miller's Allison, who was the center of two men who wanted to control her sexuality. Both got big-time screwed over for trying. Allison wanted to be able to choose between the two. She broke the chain by using her female powers to set the men upon each other.
IDK. I think you may be more educated in your hypothesis. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Josephine Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I'm surprised nobody wrote about this one. I love this song, and it's become like a family quote where my mom just goes, "not tonight, Josephine" and we know what she means. well, Josephine was Napolean's wife, and the song is kind of Napoleon talking to her. Remember, Napoleon was running around screwing up in Russia ("Moscow burning"), and the Tuileries was empty, Vienna was their resting stop for the troops, but the troops were decimated.... read up on Napoleon. Well, Napoleon was running around invading... and cheating on Josephine, a topic that may quite interest Tori. So, Napoleon is running around with his girls and his army, and Josephine is haunting him and laughing at him... But "even still, you're calling me." But he will not be home to her; he's doing the manly thing. "Not tonight, Josephine." |
submissions
| Third Eye Blind – Tattoo of the Sun Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I am a really big 3eb fan, with all three CDs and the autographs of everybody but Kevin (since he was gone and replaced by Tony at that point), but of all their songs, this is the best, most poignant, and most meaningfull. The day a guy ends a song, "And it makes me sad... hmm..." is the day you know he's a real artist. The lyrics to all of Steve's songs are poetic, revealing his way with words, but this is by far the best of the lyrical poetry Steve has sung. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Taxi Ride Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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i like this song too, it's up there with Talula and Silent all These Years for me. If you've been "pushed too far" and have been in New york on a long taxi ride, you can get the feeling of this song more easily. Tori songs are more feelings than real words. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Talula Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I don't know exactly what she means in this twisted song (heh. i love the popular Tornado Mix) but it is by far my favorite. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Spark Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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"She's convinced she could hold back a glacier,
(Convinced she could hold back sands of fire.)
But she couldn't keep Baby alive."
How else would a woman feel that she lost a baby? They say they didn't want the kid, "BUt you don't, don't really mean it." The fate turned around in the overtime. She must seem like such a failure, and is now looking for her spark. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Silent All These Years Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Tori's most popular song. I love it. And although i am not clear on the lyrics, the relationship issues seem close to reality. the lyric that really hits me, since i am in a relationship where my g/f is still cleaning up after her love for her ex (even though she says she's over her) is, "What if I'm a mermaid in these Jeans of yours with her name still on it?" |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Raspberry Swirl Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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yes, this song is sexual, and although i am a lesbian, i must say that the lyrics are hetero. "If you want inside her, well, boy you better make her raspberry swirl." In a very physical sense (yes, Tori is capable of carnal knowledge, she is, after all, an adult. These aren't kid songs), she seems to be saying that if he wants to get "some" from his woman, he'd better make her feel good first, i.e., make her raspberry swirl, i.e., lick pink, i.e., LICK PUSSY! so let's all be adults here and not worry about some sexual Tori lyrics. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Past The Mission Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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this song... well, they say this is Tori singing from May Magdalene's perspective. The "he" in this song would be Jesus, "She said they all think they know him well. she knew him better"
"and she gave him shelter
and somewhere I know she knows
somewhere I know she knows
somethings only she knows"
Only Mary, whom they said Jesus had an intimate relationship with (it's history, so don't get ticked off, Fundamentalists), would know him better than a bunch of sandaled guys following him around. Besides, Tori seems to have a fascination with this feminist Mary Magdalene figure in more than one song. See also Talula and Mary. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Mrs. Jesus Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I actually really like this song, as atypical as it may be among her old songs. It's the female, the nurturing Jesus figure, more in touch with Earth and its people and all its nuances than any man Jesus could be. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Me And A Gun Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I know this hell. She knew this hell. So many of us were burned. She wrote a song that finally truly captured the feelings. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Marianne Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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According to Tori, she did not say "Not a chance." she really said "F**k you" to she who told her Marianne was dead. Of all songs, this is her clearest, despite little poetic free associations about weasels and monkeys. This song is powerful and realistic, and very very sad. I had a friend named Liz who died of a heroin overdose last year - a nice kind suburban girl who closeted her depression, and to this day, nobody really knows whether or not it was suicide or accident. This song reminds me of Liz. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – I Can't See New York Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Scary. It's a 9/11 song, very clearly. I see it as the view from a woman on the plane thinking of loss and experiencing the plunge of death, and of course thinking of the one she's leaving behind ("and you said that you would find me even in Death"). The other side? Death, of course. Even musically, Tori seems to simulate the crash of the plane after it hovers after "Is there a signal there?" listen to the song and you'll see what i mean. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Father Lucifer Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I like this one. and I'm from Hoboken. And my mother had a condo there. Awwww...
What does Southern Tori know about Yuppie Central Hoboken? |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Carbon Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Well, no Tori song has a cut-and-dry meaning due to her poetry and seeming free-association, but this does seem to be about a woman going mentally of the edge. Maybe it's Bipolar ("Shred in ribbons of Lithium") or something, but that's why we're keeping our "eyes on her horizon". |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Bliss Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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OK... i bet nobody wants to hear this interpretation.
Remember how Tori is all about her RAINN - rape, incest, abuse, neglect network?
well... i think this song is about incest. Lyrics that make me think this:
"wonder if i will wander out
test my tether to
see if i'm still free
from you "
"what it means to be
made of you but not enough of you"
"a hot kachina who wants into mine ".
In other words, with incest, it is often not particularly TRAUMATIC at the time, but for the young kid that trusts the father and doesn't know what's going on, it could be bliss of another kind - a forbidden kind.
Don't hold this against me, but that's what i see from this song. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Bells For Her Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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I like this song, but i still think the live version on Venus Live is better. Anyway, it's kinda my song for my best friend, cuz this song is about two best friends who grew up together and are sort of... drifting away from each other. One found a lover who is treating her badly, and both can't really relate- their kiddie blankets are now threadbare. |
submissions
| Tori Amos – Upside Down Lyrics
| 20 years ago
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Ahhh... seems to be Tori's evaluation of life. Nothing's as it seems, and sometimes everything's OK - or better - upside down. |
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