submissions
| Bloc Party – Price of Gas Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Obviously about the Iraq war. "I've been driving a mid-sized car, I never hurt anyone, is that a fact?" urges against people who like to remove themselves from situations far away ("the price of gas" is civillian life and a country's strife as "nothing comes for free" reminds us). "Just swat the fly" perhaps most profoundly emphasises the irony present at the end - "we're going to win this" is hardly triumphant and "we" are left unfulfilled and ashamed like someone swatting a fly. |
submissions
| Bloc Party – Pioneers Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Possible anti-war elements here:
"You said you were going to conquer new frontiers, Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast" - Bush conquering Iraq
"We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?" - Bush and Blair promising they'll bring terror and despots under control.
"We will not be the last" - endless cycle of self-justified conquerors. |
submissions
| Bloc Party – Like Eating Glass Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Well - I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this song is about religious decay. In this interpretation "It's so cold in this house" would be the Church (the house of God) and it's cold because there's no-one there. Why's no-one there? - because they're "busy" even if they do "care". Who would the speaker be? - presumably God himself (He knows that you're busy but still knows that you care [i.e forgives] and "it hurts all the time when you don't return my calls" perhaps refers to people stopping praying).
I hate religious metaphor, especially when it's as Christian orientated as this would be, but the lyrics about "we've got crosses on our eyes", and the cross somehow blinding Christians really suggests an attack on Christian indifference. |
submissions
| The Smiths – The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Wow - what a gorgeous song. The menace creeps upon this lullaby almost unnoticed. Protection ("my life down I will lie") soon turns to obsession ("Oh, your untouched, unsoiled, wonderous eyes"). Of course it COULD be a harmless ode of protection, but the line "I once had a child, and it saved my life" suddenly shifts the protagonist to the position of the vulnerable - suggesting that despite the strong front he puts on, there's a serious weakness inside (and of course there are the undertones of child abuse in those few lines). |
submissions
| The Smiths – Still Ill Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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For Morrissey this is a very personal song - the "iron bridge" referring to a haunt very near where he lived. The fact that "we cannot cling to the old dreams anymore" represents a realisation that those dreams will never come true. And what is the mystery illness? Love? Well, maybe, but the fact that the protagonist ends up with "sore lips" suggests there is an underlying problem, that kissing doesn't provide the satisfaction it could - perhaps then the illness is never finding satisfaction. |
submissions
| The Smiths – Ask Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Morrissey rather sarcastically professes "Shyness is nice" before bitinglly contradicting his statement with the fact that it stops you from doing "ALL the things in life that you want to". If anything it's a song about seizing the moment, "cape diem" and whatnot. The somewhat confusing bit about "the bomb" could have any number of meanings. Morrissey imagining World War 2 lovers locked up in bomb shelters with nothing to do but huddle together and provide an opportunity for love to grow is just one possibility. Perhaps he just refers to the unity and love brought about through terror (quite appropriate in a post 9/11 era). Or it could just be that he's saying that something drastic (that likely will never come - after all how often do bombs really drop from the sky?) is going to have to happen for things to change. Multi-levelled I'd say. |
submissions
| The Smiths – I Know It's Over Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The song is about someone who has never loved and never been in a relationship. He feels the soil falling over his head because he might as well be dead with a loveless existence stretching out before him, and appeals to his mother as the only female figure of importance in his life. The "sad veiled bride" section refers to his jealousy of others ("loud loutish lovers" even), whom he presumably feels he is emotionally superior to and more deserving than, however it is these less pleasant male figures that end up with a woman. "It never really began, but in my heart, it was so real" is referring to his imagination, his hopes, his dreams, none of which have or will ever come true. |
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