submissions
| Manic Street Preachers – Prologue To History Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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In 1997 I saw the Manics at what was then the Nynex Arena in Manchester. The gig was really disappointing, and I wrote a anotty, arsey letter to the NME complaining that the band weren't as good as they used to be, using the (somewhat embarassing) pseduonym 'The Empty Vessel of Omnipotence'. And I like to believe that Nicky Wire read this letter and that it inspired the lines 'I'm talking rubbish to cover up the cracks / An empty vessel who can't make contact.'
I know this is actually very unlikely, but it's what the song means to me. |
submissions
| Joy Division – Walked In Line Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Yes, clearly it's about the army dehumanising soldiers so they cease to think for themselves, but at the same time they are normal people, they may have committed atrocities but they still love their wives. I'm not sure though it's specifically about the Nazis, it could just as easily be US troops in Vietnam or British troops in any part of the empire. |
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| Asian Dub Foundation – Officer Xx Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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It's about Stephen Lawrence and the Macpherson Report and institutional racism in the Met and Jack Straw as Home Secretary outpositioning the Tories on law and order and disappointment with New Labour and stop and search laws and the Freemasons and conspiracy theories about the security forces and the far right and the British state funding Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland and policemen being suspended still on full pay despite massive corruption and that the police are a political tool of the government and the reuling class and that the whole stinking system is wrong and only massive total structural reform will ever change it and blaming it on a few rogue racist copper is a fucking stupid.
It's funny, politicised, clever, provovative, tuneful, angry, righteous, brilliant. |
submissions
| Gay Dad – To Earth With Love Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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It's about the redemptive power of rock'n'roll. Gay Dad had the perfect career trajectory. two utterly amazing singles, then they disappeared for ever. |
submissions
| Paul Hardcastle – 19 Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Interestingly, while the song denounces the war it's still from a very western viewpoint, which is arguably a perpetuation of imperialism. |
submissions
| Manic Street Preachers – Archives of Pain Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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wireless89, I've always taken that as a reference to Nietzsche. Basically, he believed that Christianity was a way for the weak to try control the strong, and he argued that the superman (ubermensch) should be able to do anything they want at the expense of others, an idea later seized on by the Nazis.
The song might therefore be saying that serial killers are weak people, but society builds them up as if they were strong, Certainly it's an attack on Christian ideas of redemption and forgiveness. Or is it even suggesting that people who are murdered deserve to die? Very troubling....
By the way, 'Crucifix Kiss' is basically about Nietzsche and christianity, while in 'Judge Y'rself' the line about Dionysus against the crucified is to do his theory of tragedy. |
submissions
| Belle & Sebastian – This Is Just a Modern Rock Song Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I love this song, clearly it's about the band simultaneously mythologising and mocking themselves, but it disappoints me that they changed the lyrics slightly from an earlier session version. Originally, the line 'I'm only lucid when I'm writing songs' went 'I'm only lucid when I'm riding buses', which is a far superior line. Of course, it could just be that riding on city buses for a hobby is sad, and the band don't want to be accused of that. |
submissions
| Manic Street Preachers – Archives of Pain Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I'm a lefty, liberal sort, entirely opposed to the death penalty, and this is a song that really challenges my beliefs and prejusices. Originally I always took it to be a satirical attack on rightwing bullshit, particularly the ironic use of the opening sample - if only God has the right to take life, how can you support execution? The centre of humanity might be cruelty, but retribution only continues this.
Then, I changed my mind, and decided Richey actually meant it all, that rapists should be sterilised and murderers torn apart; it's about facing up to reality and adopting a consistent, stern and unflinching view of the world, and so in fact an attack on a Western liberal concensus that ducks the issue by believing people are inherently good but commit evil acts due to society.
Now, I'm not sure it's as simpe as either saying it's ironic or not. The song clearly detests serial killers, but also in a strange sense respects them, suggesting that violent retribution is somehow paying a tribute to them. But Richey includes far right politicians like Zhironovsky and Terre'Blanche in his litany, who espouse the same sort of discourse as the song.
So actually message is that whatever position you adopt on these matters should be rigorous, should stand up to scrutiny, shouldn't be hypocritical and shouldn't ignore difficult truths. He's against the right and the left, the fascist and liberal and the communist in equal measure.
So, this is a song I've spent more than ten years trying to understand, and there are still vast complexities that I don't get. I think that's an amazing tribute to Richey as a lyricist, and demonstrates just how good The Holy Bible is. |
submissions
| The Dresden Dolls – Coin-Operated Boy Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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CoinXOperatedXGirl, you may be right, but you've just committed the so-called intentionalist fallacy. How can we ever know what the author of a work intended? And, even if they tell us, why should we assume it's true and that no other interpretations are possible. The writer doesn't necessarily know what a song means. |
submissions
| Wire – Mr. Suit Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Yes, but it's also a parody of lesser punk bands. In fact it is satirising the idea of rebellion while at the same time celebrating it. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The point remains, there's a lot of bands out there as good as and better than the Arctic Monkeys. Like a lot of current indie bands they're actually very musically conservative and not all that interesting. But, of course, the interesting, innovative bands don't get the mass exposure and will never appear to all that many people. Somebody above says that what makes the band special is that they've broken records because so many people like them, which is a return to the notion that commercial success equals artistic validity that was one of the bad parts of Britpop.
Basically, the Monkeys aren't that bad, just not anything we've not seen before. A bit dull really. Try listening to Jeffrey Lewis instead, he'll blow your little minds. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The point remains, there's a lot of bands out there as good as and better than the Arctic Monkeys. Like a lot of current indie bands they're actually very musically conservative and not all that interesting. But, of course, the interesting, innovative bands don't get the mass exposure and will never appear to all that many people. Somebody above says that what makes the band special is that they've broken records because so many people like them, which is a return to the notion that commercial success equals artistic validity that was one of the bad parts of Britpop.
Basically, the Monkeys aren't that bad, just not anything we've not seen before. A bit dull really. Try listening to Jeffrey Lewis instead, he'll blow your little minds. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales of San Francisco Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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sercute4e - sorry, was that comment addressed at me? I'm not American, I'm from Stockport. Point is, the Arctic Monkeys are at best an unremarkable band, but the great British public has bought into the hype like a flock of particularly docile sheep. |
submissions
| The Music – The Truth is No Words Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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'About that which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence' - Wittgenstein. This is a song about the inability of language to express the human condition. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales of San Francisco Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Right, just a few quick poitns because this is getting silly. You might also want to wonder if I may have exaggerated my positions to get a bit of a response.
1) I do think the term 'bird' can be misogynistic, it depends on context, but the wider point is there's a time people would have bothered about this, but now lad culture has re-legimitised such language.
2) I read a quote from Alex Turner recently saying something like if it's a Tuesday night in Sheffield why pretend that you're somewhere else? The answer is because art can be about escape.
3) I have no trouble with bands using explicitly American styles - rather, think cultural cross-fertilisation is where it's at. For example, I love Welsh language hip-hop music. I think the insistence that you should only write about what you know (hideous cliche of a thousand creative writing workshops) is backward looking. I think postmodernism has done a lot of harm to our culture, but one positive thing to arise from it is the destruction of spurious notions of authenticity.
3) Some bands are good. some are shit. The Thrills want to be from California, but they're rubbish. The Broken Family Band are from Cambridge but play melancholy country rock - and they're ace. 'You're not from San Francisco you're from Rotherham' is a neat line,
4) The Clash sang 'I'm so bored with the USA', which is a truly great song. But they were of course indebted to American music, as well as reggae from the Caribbean, and were one of the first British bands to be influenced by hip-hop.
John Mellor was the son of a diplomat who went to a boarding school; he reinvented himself as Joe Strummer and became a legend. Authenticity is bullshit. Pretending to be American isn't a problem, they only question is whether you're any good at it. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales of San Francisco Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I think you've misunderstood me. I believe that writing somgs criticising people for pretending to be American is ironic and pretty stupid because rock music is a fundamentally American construct. |
submissions
| Eminem – My Name Is Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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What I used to like this and similar songs is listening to it on the radio and working out what words have been omitted. |
submissions
| Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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When I was a kid my dad used to play us Johnny Cash on long car jourmeys, and I'm sure I genuinely believed he really had shot a man in Reno just to watch him die (Johnny Cash, that is, not my dad). |
submissions
| The Clash – Washington Bullets Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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Basically it's a critique of American foreign policy, particularly the habit of the US government in supporting anybody who was anti-communist, including fascist regimes such as that of Pinochet in Chile. Of course, US support for the Mojahadeen in Afghanistan is part of the reason the world is in the mess it's in right now. The lyrics are remarkably prescient.
However, the genius of the song is that it doesn't just attack America, it attacks the USSR for invading Afghanistan and China for invading Tibet. Strummer was against both sides in the cold war, against all human rights abuses, whoever committed them.
The reference to a 'playboy' in the Cuba verse is of course to JFK, who ordered the Bay of Pigs fiasco. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales of San Francisco Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I think a lot of your arguments are very interesting. Yes, British and American popular music has diverged, but I don't think that undermines the point all rock music stems from an American root (all rock'n'roll is homosexual too, but that's another argument). Therefore, it always amuses me to see bands claiming wanting to be purely 'British' (however we define that) while using an American style of music. Especially as one of the defining feature of the band in question if their use of funk influenced guitar riffs.
Also, I think you're wrong about punk originating purely in the UK. There was a New York Punk scene in the mid-seventies, and people like Iggy Pop were around earlier. Certainly bands like The New York Dolls and the Ramones were around at the same if not before the British first wave of punk.
I must take exception however to your argument about the use of the word bird in the north of England. I'm from the north (although the other side of the Pennines) and yes people do use words like that, but it doesn't mean some people don't find it offensive. There was a time the NME would have picked up on this, but now they appear to have decided politics doesn't sell magazines.
I just can't buy into the Arctic Monkeys hype. They aren't actually that bad (musically they're slightly interesting once I get past the lyrics and the vocals) and they are a million times better than Coldplay. But there are so many better and more interesting bands out there and so it mystifies me why this one not terribly good band have shot to fame and fortune very quickly. It's the same herd mentality that made Oasis huge in 1994 (and I know all about that, I was one of those excited people). Maybe I'm just too old to appreciate it (though at 26 I don't think I'm quite past it yet) but it still mystifies me why certain bands with very little to distinguish them make it big.
On your final point, I think Razorlight are bloody awful. But, if Johnny Borrell had the tunes to back up his arrogance he'd be a great rock star. You say the Monkeys are down-to-earth, and that's true, but I see that as a return to the worst elements of Britpop.....which was a scene I loved, but it had its flaws.
Anyway, to get back to the point, I feel like the kid who's pointed out the emperor is naked when everybody else is too busy jumping on the next big thing to actually realise they haven't very much to offer. |
submissions
| Lead Belly – Rock Island Line Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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One of the all time greats for sure, although to be honest I think I prefer the Lonnie Donegan version. The lyrics (and it would nice if they were all there) tell the story of a train driver deceiving the guy collecting tolls; beyond that, what does it signify? It creates an image of the American south which is hugely evocative, and the sense of freedom and release contained in the gleeful description of the train driver's getaway suggest someone who screws the system and gets away with it; in that sense, it's about freedom, overcoming repression, and is perhaps even slightly revolutionary. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales of San Francisco Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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The song satrises a band who try to pretend to be something they're not, supposedly as opposed the Arctic Monkeys who are 'authentic' and tell it like it is in yorkshire accents.
I hate the idea that artists must be 'real', can't pretend to something cooler than they really are, can't use their imagination or build mystique or create myths about themselves.
Rock and roll grew out of an amalgam of the blues, gospel and r&b (the old sort) - essentially it found popularity when this essentially black music was repackaged for a mainstream white audience in 1950s by people such as Billy Haley and Elvis. Therefore, all rock music comes out of a fundamentally American tradition whether you like it or not. So the Arctic Monkeys' song ironically undermines its own existence.
Oh, and for the record Lonnie Donegan, first British rock star and skiffle king of the 1950s, came from London via Glasgow but sang Ledbelly and Woody Guthrie songs as if he was from the Mississippi delta. Art can be about possibilities beyond your own reality, which is why bands like the Arctic Monkeys slagging off people with ideas strikes me as so essentially regressive.
Oh, and I can't get over how crap the lyrics are. 'He's got a driving ban / among some other offences' - that's pretty awful. |
submissions
| Arctic Monkeys – Fake Tales of San Francisco Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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I think the line 'but his bird thinks it's amazing so all that's left / is the proof that love's not only blind but dead' is probably the worst I've ever heard. What makes it so loathsome is you can tell the band think it's really, really clever, and they are so smug and pleased with themselves.
Fact: all British rock music is fundamentally about trying to be American, from Lonnie Donegan in 1956 onwards. |
submissions
| The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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So Joe Strummer is in the Palais with the black kids to see some reggae, and he hopes it'll be like black punk, radical and political, really really good. But it turns out to be just pop music and the groups are more bothered about getting a good spot than actually saying anything. Which he thinks is a shame, because lots of black people who would be receptive to a political message and there, and the opportunity to radicalise them is lost, a chance to change the world has not been seized. Rather than rebellion, it's rebellion packaged for capitalist means, which ironically is pretty much the definition of mass market rock and roll. The song ends with Strummer, ironically, stating that he's just looking for fun, when actually he's been looking for an awful lot more. He attacks apolitical bands, conservatives, fascists and racists. What more can you want in four minutes of music? |
submissions
| Blur – It Could Be You Lyrics
| 18 years ago
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It's about the National Lottery, which was introduced around the time this song came out. 'It could be you' was the slogan they used. So essentially the songs starts out by pointing what a scam the lottery is, how it sells hope to people trapped poverty although their chances of winning are around 14 million to 1. The Churchill reference is to the money given to Winston's Churchill's grandson to buy his granfather's papers - it was very controversial that money meant for good causes should be given to a rich Tory idiot. Which contrasts with the working-class people (also satirised in the song) who buy lottery tickets and dream of escape.
Oh, and Telly Addicts was a rubbish TV programme with Noel Edmonds on which families answered questions about TV programmes. |
submissions
| M.I.A. – Galang Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Also, why can't slang current in London be of Jamaican origin? The genius of MIA is that she mixes all sorts of influences, British, Sri Lankan, American, hip hop, UK garage and grime....in Britian, all sorts of things are combined, asian and West Indian influences. |
submissions
| M.I.A. – Galang Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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In Britain, you dial 1471 (on a landline) to find the number of the last person to phone you - so you can find out someone's phone number who's just called, or checked if you've missed a call when you're out.
Then again, it might not mean that. 147 is a maximum break in snooker.... |
submissions
| The Strokes – 12:51 Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Well, I didn't know what a 40 was until just now. Could it be that it's a term used only in the US, and expecting the rest of the world to understand is typical American arrogance?
Those who think this is purely a song about partying are wrong. There's a deep and affecting sense of melancholy at its centre, and it is perhaps about looking back on a good time, like other songs by the Strokes (in many ways, we'll miss the good old days, some day). Fridays have been lonely, he could go out and get drunk, but he doesn't really want to, he wants to get off with a girl whose parents are away instead. But it's not a happy song. It's about loneliness despite sex and drinking. Anyone who doesn't understand that is just not listening properly. |
submissions
| Blur – Mr. Robinson's Quango Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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This has to be linked to the political situation in 90s Britain. A Tory MP, Stepehn Milligan, was found dead from Amyl Nitrate induced heart failure wearing female underwear. There were numerous sex scandals. So this is a satire based on this, and other aspects of British life. Of course, it's also an attack on the so-called 'Quangocracy' - a Quango is a Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation -unelected bodis that have enormous power. |
submissions
| Weezer – Beverly Hills Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The video for this song enrages me. I realise it's supposed to be satire, but having Hugh Hefner and lots of scantily clad ladies it simply comes to reinforce the misogyny it's supposed to be attacking. Very disappointing. |
submissions
| The Beatles – I Am the Walrus Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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There's an article in today's Independent on Sunday in which Stephen Bayley claims to be the schoolboy who wrote to Lennon saying his English teacher had been using Beatle lyrics in class, thus indirectly inspiring the song. |
submissions
| Oasis – Digsy's Dinner Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Parabola 17 is correct, but forgets to add that Digsy was lead singer of the band Smaller, signed to creation records. Their biggest song was called 'Stray Dogs and Bin Bags'. They were rubbish. Alan McGee's greatest mistake, except Heavy Stereo and Hurricane#1. |
submissions
| Suede – She's In Fashion Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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At the time it was alleged to be about Zoe Ball, then presenter of the Radio 1 breakfast show but with no discernible talent. |
submissions
| The Velvet Underground – Sister Ray Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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The line about knocking on the chamber door is an Edgar Allan Poe reference.
The live Joy Division version of this song is great, but not as good as the original, which is the greatest song ever precisely because it's about drugs and sexual deviancy. |
submissions
| The Kinks – Lola Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Of course, originally the narrator doesn't realise Lola's a drag queen. But the real question is what happens at the end of the song - he 'almost' falls for her, which implies he is totally freaked out by the discovery, but I think there's also an implication he's very turned on by it. I like to think he goes home with Lola, but perhaps in fact he wants to, but can't admit it to himself, so leaves instead. The meta-narrative is of a naive young man encountering sexual deviancy in the big city. |
submissions
| Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap Lyrics
| 19 years ago
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Arab Strap, of course, were an excellent band from Falkirk, so the real question is whether this is about them. I also took the line about 'we all know you're hard' to be about the band, well known for their songs about drinking / drug taking etc. |
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