| The Shins – Saint Simon Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| I love your optimism that 12 years later I still obsessively refresh songmeanings.net in the hope of a response. | |
| Le Tigre – Slideshow at Free University Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I see this as a criticism of a lot of recent art, stuff by and inspired by Jackson Pollack, it's quoting an opinion on abstract art, notably for Le Tigre in a man's voice (which sounds cartoonish, and almost ridiculous) and using the pronoun "him" alone at the end. The simple sentences make the assertions seem simplistic, trite and absurd; "make art more than just something to look at", "destroy illusion and reveal truth", etc., and the last verse has a ring of the sinister with the emphasis on the word "not" in the phrase "not his way". All this destroys both the effectiveness and the attractiveness of the "simple expression of the complex thought", in words and also in art which is just a huge wall of colour. It's a statement, and it was interesting once, but at this stage it's just obvious, we get it and could you please do something interesting? |
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| The Clash – Know Your Rights Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Osiris, he's talking about government benefits. The "investigation, humiliation" is means testing. | |
| Depeche Mode – When The Body Speaks Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| No, it's clearly about heroin, like every single Depeche Mode song, regardless of lyrics. | |
| Garbage – Use Me Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Argh people like the first person to comment here frustrate me. She is NOT sick of being used, why would you get that impression? Being used is good, it's hot and she likes it sometimes. | |
| Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| ahhhhhhhhh it's about bdsm like all their fucking songs. | |
| Depeche Mode – Blue Dress Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The blue dress is a microcosm of the woman wearing it. The blue dress is an object which he enjoys (on her). She is also an object he enjoys: Because you realise And you believe Something so worthless Serves a purpose What's worthless is both the dress and the person wearing it. But: Just how easy It is to please me Because when you learn You'll know what makes the world turn When she learns that she can please him, she will no longer be worthless. |
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| Belle & Sebastian – A Space Boy Dream Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| It's not hilarious, it's devastating, he just sounds so lost and insecure and you never find out if his dad did get there. | |
| The Shins – Saint Simon Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Well it's time for my yearly comment on this song on June 26th. I still like it as much as I did a couple of years ago. Strwbry_gal, Simon in Lord of the Flies does symbolise religion/Jesus, but I don't really think this is anything to do with him; Simon certainly doesn't experience mercy. | |
| Young Knives – She's Attracted To Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Cheers, I changed it. I saw Young Knives live last week and they were amazing, especially with this song. | |
| The Clash – Cheat Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I like this song but the lyrics, especially the last verse, are laughable. | |
| Manic Street Preachers – Leviathan Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Leviathan is a book written by Thomas Hobbes in the 1650s which western liberal democratic thought owes its origins. Hobbes was writing during the English civil war, where the country was effectively in a state of anarchy and he saw all manner of horrific things happen due to the lack of order. In Leviathan, he argued that effectively, without someone to punish people for harming others, humans have no reason to trust each other and given their legitimate self-interest in wanting to remain alive, there is no reason for every person to not fear being murdered by every other person all the time. This scenario without a "sovereign" (in Hobbes' terms) was referred to as the "state of nature". Hobbes believed that as all human life was in danger all the time in this state, humans should accept a "sovereign" under any conditions because it was still necessarily better than the alternative. There was enormous backlash to the idea of allegiance to any ruler, regardless of how oppressive, both at the time (as seen in John Locke) and recently, especially when events of the 20th century have strongly called into question Hobbes' contention that even a despotic ruler is better than lack of rule. The Manics are referring to this idea of unconditional obedience to any leader with contempt with most of this song, especially "dictators or democracy, obey the price to make us free". |
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| The Shins – Saint Simon Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Oh wow I wrote that comment exactly a year ago (to the day) and just happened to stumble upon it. Weird. I'm immeasurably different now but I still think that what I wrote was true. And Greyshoes, no I'm not American, I'm British. |
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| Garbage – Sleep Together Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Oh yeah you're all right, she's a woman so it must be about her feeling peer pressure about having sex with a guy. Are you just completely ignoring the lines, "i got you crawling up a mountain hanging round my neck i got you twisted round my finger crawling round my legs"? I think it's the exact opposite of what you think it's about. The point is that she currently has someone who she can control because he wants to sleep with her but she won't agree to it, and if she does it will be anticlimactic for her ("nothing satisfies me") because it will end the manipulation that she has. When she says, "will you like me better?", she's being satirical, she knows that sleeping with him will both end the thrill of the prospect of sleeping with her, for him, and the power that she has over him, so neither of them will like the other better. It's a pretty depressing song because she doesn't offer an alternative. |
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| The Shins – Saint Simon Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I interpreted this song to be about political and philosophical maturity rather than about growing up in general. Of course, before I even listened to the song I assumed it would contain a political message given that that it is named after one of the "fathers" of socialism. The first verse appears (to me) to be alluding to the enormity and complexity of past works and how authors have written whole volumes about the subtle differences between different schools of thought and that these views are much too intricate to just "pluck from the vine". I understood "I'll try hard to not pretend / allow myself no mock defense" to be about how easy it is to drop names like Saint-Simon or Thomas More (as in So Says I) and defend your views by impressing and bewildering people. In my eyes, at least, the writer seems to be promising intellectual honesty. Referring to these writings as "nursery rhymes" seems to be a combination of two factors. The first is irony in the way that society often dismisses the work of geniuses (such as Saint Simon) in his talking about Socialism because "communism doesn't work", without considering the amount of perception that is within a writer's wealth of ideas about the human condition and how to improve human life. The second factor in the use of the term "nursery rhyme" seems to be a confessional one - the writer is, as well as criticising society, endeavouring to belittle the works because "apathy releases" him from the responsibility to read them. This is then followed by "I'll try hard not to give in", which appears to refer to trying hard to resist the "wind" of society's political views as a whole and thinking individually, despite not reading ancient tomes. Finally, the part about "mercy" seems to be referring to the relief of being absolved and forgiven from neglecting to read all that one feels they should about humans and society. Interestingly, mercy is personified as a woman and the singer's relationship with her is referred to as "love". I'd like to end with the thought that what is being suggested is that true understanding of life, human nature and purpose can be understood more fully and truly than in any book when Love is found. What a hopeless romantic I am. Anyway, all just my interpretation of course. |
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| The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I didn't know that Morrissey was gay until I read this site, so I understood this song (and all others) differently to many of you. It's strange, everyone seems to think that every song is about Morrisey's sexual orientation. I interpreted this song similarly to BobC in the feeling of alienation in clubs and bars but not because of sexuality but because Morrissey feels the "need to be loved" and the sort of things that happen in clubs/bars cannot deliver this to him. So, Morrissey did not accost people in these establishments, hence being the "heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar", and when he asked his friends about why he was having difficulty having love, people criticised him for his standoffish attitude which caused him to respond "How can you say I go about things the wrong way?". Of course, art can be interpreted in different ways and I do see the gay side now. I suppose that what I wrote could be true regardless of Morrissey's sexuality. |
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