| The Kinks – Wicked Annabella Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Wicked Annabella doesn't seem so bad after all. | |
| The Dears – The Second Part Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I'm almost certain those ending lines go "Our tongues may have tied / But all I remember was the notes", which would make an awful lot more sense. | |
| Florence + the Machine – My Boy Builds Coffins Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| It's not JUST that, though. That's where she got the idea for it, but the song seems much more to be about how someone who makes coffins is someone whose entire lifework has no point but being put in a hole and never seen again. It's about someone whose entire life has no legacy because he has a completely invisible effect, and how sad it is that someone who, y'know, has such a large job (building coffins for kings and queens, gypsies and thieves alike) but who will never be remembered for it (when each one's made you can't see it again). | |
| David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Actually, this is just a little detail, but Ashes To Ashes is from his 1980 album Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)- Low was 3 albums before this song, and Station To Station was the album before that. | |
| David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Wow, so few people have made any attempt at looking at the meaning of the song. Jesus, guys, I'd expect this from the Linkin Park pages but this is one song that desperately needs reading closely to find any meaning. I think saying the song's about drugs is certainly selling it short a little bit, in the same way saying Space Oddity is about a fella in a rocket isn't giving that justice, either. There's a lot of references towards drugs, to be sure, but I think that's intended more as a backdrop for the lyrics than the meaning itself. Bowie has said this song was primarily about "wrapping up the seventies really for myself... [it] seemed a good enough epitaph for it". So it's a dirge, really, for all of Bowie's career up to 1980, and a look forward to his (then hopeful) career from then on in. I think to see that meaning, the central parts you need to look at are, well, first the beginning - "do you remember a guy/in such an early song", which from the start sets the meaning as looking back to Bowie's early career. The self-reflexivity of the song from the very beginning mean we're looking at the song as being about Bowie writing about himself. So it's very nostalgic. This is sharply contrasted with the chorus, "Ashes to ashes, funk to funky". Obviously, "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" is part of the Anglican Christian funeral service, and the pun with "funk" means we're attending the funeral of Bowie as a musician, not a person. It's meant to mean that we're waving goodbye to the "action man" of the start of the song. The most effective way to create a sharp dichotomy between Bowie's pre and post 80s material in one song is to do what was considered the impossible in his old songs. And what is more impossible than to bring back that eternally lost in space character, Major Tom? Bowie could have just as easily brought Ziggy Stardust back to life, or given the Thin White Duke a genuine soul, but there's another layer in making mention of Major Tom: being from Bowie's first ever hit, 11 years before, Major Tom had not only been lost in the story, but forgotten in time itself by Bowie's audience. Bowie even mentions this fact in the first line, making sure to ask "do you remember the guy...?" And so Bowie has done the impossible and brought his first ever character back from space and back into our minds. Now to finally end the first half of his career for good there is only one thing left to do: destroy major Tom for good, so the "impossible" can not be ever done again. And what better fate for Major Tom to ultimately suffer, than the same that Bowie suffered throughout the 70s himself? And here is where the drugs come in. By presenting Major Tom as a "junkie, strung out on heaven's high, hitting an all time low" (note the title of Low in that line, another bit of self-reflexivity), Bowie also creates an analogue for his old career, as well. In an almost Dorian Gray-esque way, Major Tom is now suffering the addiction and debilitation while Bowie himself can now start again. So the way I read it, Bowie tries "wrapping up the seventies" by bringing back his most impossibly lost character, and revealing that the intervening 11 years have treated him in the same way as they have Bowie himself. And finally, by concluding Major Tom's story, Bowie is left renewed, without the drugs, musical, and physical baggage of 11 years of musicianship. |
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| David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I was just about to post the same thing, good one man. Although you didn't actually comment on the meaning of the song, either... | |
| The Velvet Underground – After Hours Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Y'know, I've never heard so much of the dispair and melancholy in this song that you guys seem to be. I think there's an element of it, but the way I hear it- helped by the upbeat and relaxed music it's set to- is that it's about comfort in solitude, about idly wishing she could be the kind of person who is always out having crazy nights out but really just being happy in the quiet life she has instead. | |
| Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – Knockturne Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I dunno, I'm not sure I see it as a love song at all. The whole thing sounds so hollow and empty that it almost gives me the impression of the opposite- of a completely feelingless, dead relationship grounded on old cliches that nobody believes. "Someone mawed and put my cock in, corner-eyed I saw it lock in" is gloriously disgusting and evocative, it's almost like he's nothing but a machine. | |
| The Beach Boys – Surf's Up Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think one important point to make is that Beach Boys' albums had long been obsessed with surfing, as metaphors or literally: I mean, this was a band whose albums were, in order, Surfin' Safari, Surfin' USA and Surfer Girl. Therefore, saying "Surf's up" is more than just an idle comment, especially since this was long after the band had fallen on hard times, were on the brink of collapse and the early "surfing" days seemed a long, long way away. Of course, the song is far more transcendental than just a song about a band breaking up and it would belittle the song a lot to assume that. But I think that it plays an interesting part in the central theme of the song, which is that things will always end and that will cause other things to begin. A lot of the lyrics are highly stylised and there's it's difficult to analyse them at the best of times (I'm not sure the first 3 lines really "mean" anything in the traditional sense), but there's a lot of lines that suggest this sense of there being a circle. The major turning point arrives around "the laughs come hard in auld lang syne". Auld Lang Syne is famously a song about old aquaintances, ancient experience and remembering the past fondly. But Surf's Up subverts the idea by claiming that the past is cold and humourless. As the song goes on, this feeling gets stronger; "adieu or die" is obviously a statement of giving up or falling into this obsession with the past, and the much-reviled line "columnated ruins domino" is another example of this: columnated ruins refers to the ancient Graeco-Roman architecture that lies scattered around the mediterranean, and invoking a domino effect here puts it into the song's meaning; when one gets old, so do all the others, when one crumbles, so do all the others. This section ends with the lines "grief heart hardened". The emotion of grief has a strong connotation of death, and so this ends the aging process that has existed for the first half of the song. The next section changes tone completely: just look at the words used: "young", "spring"- here we have a sense of birth and growth, it's exactly the opposite of the death at the end of the last movement. The final movement of the song, the "children's song", is another symbol of youth, and movement. Claiming that the youth and renewal knows the way, rather than the old and dying ways, ends the song on a very optimistic note. And so I think this song is very stylised and rather than referring to anything specific try and evoke the long cycle of life and death. However, this song's interesting placement at the end of a band's career- hell, the album it was on CAUSED the death of the The Beach Boys- marks this as an interesting piece in moving on. Really, the final movement is probably one of the best pieces of music of all time, I really love it. |
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| Okkervil River – Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| No worries, it wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong about a song! | |
| Okkervil River – The War Criminal Rises and Speaks Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Man, I can't believe I had this song in my library for 2 years before I discovered it. Probably one of Okkervil's best! I'm not usually a fan of their early albums but this is phenomenal. | |
| Animal Collective – Alvin Row Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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So good I named my band after it! As for the lyrics, I think maybe some of you are trying to take these lyrics a little too literally? Avey's early lyrics were always very metaphorical and it takes a lot before they even come together to one meaning. Hell, his lyrics up until quite recently have been very abstract- look at his songs on Sung Tongs and a lot of them are even stranger than this. I mean, we don't have Avey on here so none of us really know what it's about, but here's some ideas I've come up with about the song: -for one, I really don't think Alvin Row is literally about a baby. It makes a lot of the lyrics about being old and dying a little difficult. I think if Alvin even is a character- which might be a stretch itself- then Avey is maybe trying to describe a person's entire life through the medium of them being a baby. -secondly, the song doesn't even cover one lifetime. The references are often ancient or historical (just yesterday you wore a sword, it's hard to be Ben Franklin). Considering a lot of these are in the past, then we could consider that he's using the past in a very exaggerated way. If that's true, then Alvin isn't even a person- he could be a nation or empire, which would make the personal references like "new year's evening" interesting- in that case he's either describing a nation in terms of personal landmarks or a person in terms of national ones. -thirdly, I don't think Alvin is even the same character throughout the story. Sometimes he seems like the narrater's son (baby in your cradle, look at me), next the narrater's lover (baby love me), next a friend, next a lost one (I remember the day that I walked away). I think these ambiguities really emphasise that fact that Alvin represents something rather than actually exists as any person in the song. So overall, the song doesn't really adhere to any strict plot or timeline: Alvin isn't one age, he doesn't exist in any one lifetime, and he doesn't even exist as one person. Which I suppose means that Alvin represents some kind of influence, or factor, in Avey's life- or anyone's, really. I couldn't possibly guess what that is, but although it seems a cop-out to say "it's drugs!", this song was written right at the time Avey was on a cocktail of different drugs and some of the lyrics seem to fit that interpretation (Watch your new years evening wash away/alvin all these visions are mine/they are figments of your mind/I remember I watched a man crying his weird chant/she only likes it when i beg so i expect she's waiting/words slip by when i'm silent i have to let so many people down) which imply a combination of hallucinogenics, addiction and guilt. But at the same time, all the ancient references seem to point towards Alvin being something far more ancient and long-standing, which complicates things a bit. Maybe Alvin represents the Muses, which were both known to create hallucinations and inspire, and were certainly ancient. Well, it's an idea, at least. What do you guys think? |
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| Animal Collective – Brother Sport Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Wow, you guys are still arguing over what the words are, huh? I'm pretty sure it turned out it was "daddy's done" in the end. As for the meaning, I think it's been mentioned a few times but it's about Noah comforting his brother about their father's death and telling him not to keep everything inside about it. There's a quote from him in a Pitchfork review about it: "Pitchfork: What about those lyrics? What do those words mean to you? Noah Lennox: The song is really an encouragement song for my brother who was having kind of a rough time at the time I was writing the song. That's what the song is about, for me at least." |
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| Bob Dylan – Ballad of a Thin Man Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Well, I've always thought it was about a quiet, withdrawn man slowly losing his mind, told very allegorically. At first he's very organised and clinical, "with the pencil in [his] hand" (a sign of businessmen, accountants, and all other supposedly "sober" professions), but he quickly meets the first test of his worldview with the naked man. Now out of his depth (as in the second half of the first verse), he never quite regains the stature of the beginning of the song. Now the rest of the song slowly shows society viewing him worse and worse, and him slowly reacting to it. O-kay, it might be a little pretentious to compare him to a literary figure but it's a little like Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea- where she was a normal, sane person until her husband kept claiming she's mad, which leads to her downfall and insanity by the end of the book, turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. So the first blow comes where the geek (which meant circus freak in the 60s, not computer nerd type) calls him the freak- it's unclear whether it's a reaction from him or the result of him having already degraded that much. His constant questions act to show how more and more out of touch with reality he's becoming. There's a verse in the middle (the lumberjack verse) which shows him at his peak again, being a well-read, academic person who is nevertheless underappreciated and abused. The implication throughout is that he was a good person, but just not ready to face the real world and this degradation is the result of being thrown out into the open. By the end, there's the double-blow of the midget reducing him down to being a cow- which is the ultimate blow to his stature by taking away his humanity altogether- and then the final verse shows what he has become in the end, eyes in his pocket, nose to the ground- two very animalistic metaphors. The line "there oughta be a law against you" shows the open hostility of the narrator itself, the only character in the song to have the slightest sympathy for him, and therefore his total social alienation and destruction. So overall, it seems like the song refers to a withdrawn and introverted man being thrown out into the real world where he's out of his depth, and then used and insulted by everyone until he ultimately turns into the nobody they implied he was at the start of the song. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Today's Lesson Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Maybe it's a tiny bit pretentious of an interpretation, but it really looks like it's meant to be about female sexual awakening, and the adult fear of it? The combination of all the sexual references with the insistence on "little Janie" only being a kid is one part of it. The sandman in this case being her realisation of sexuality, hence why he keeps on causing all her sexual feelings, congregating around the waistband of her jeans and all. But he's only a sandman- he isn't real, he's a mental process. Now, the second part of it is more interesting. There's something very, very sinister about the sandman- the name itself evokes a kind of bedtime monster. And similarly, there's lines like "there oughta be a law against me" reflect the feelings the narrator has towards him. Overall, it seems like "little Janie" is portrayed as very innocent and passive, and the sandman is the corrupting influence. But if the sandman is nothing but Janie's thoughts herself, then it ends up as meaning that the narrator (and, I suppose, society itself) is scared of her growing up. And to prove it IS Janie who is the sandman after all, the chorus shows her being her own influence, going "we're gonna have a real good time tonight". So overall it really seems like that's the main was to interpret the song? |
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| Grizzly Bear – Knife Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I hear that NiN song Hurt is a Johnny Cash cover, as well. And you know when Neil Young sang Only Love Can Break Your Heart? Bloody St. Etienne cover! | |
| Johnny Cash – Thirteen Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| But Bothe singers are gods, too, mind. | |
| Eels – Going to Your Funeral Part I Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Also, E did hang out with his sister- he ended up falling in with a lot of her group of friends. And this is very by-and-by, but he did take drugs as a kid but he got over it when he grew up a bit more. So I guess it's like the opposite of what onceagain said! | |
| Eels – Going to Your Funeral Part I Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Just to correct a few things: his mother was still alive when Electro-Shock Blues was released, although he knew she had cancer. According to his autobiography this song was written about the funeral of his sister, Elizabeth. | |
| Happa-Tai – Yatta Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I mean, the Irrational Exuberance vid was my first exposure to it when I was like 12, but I just rediscovered it and it's still actually quite a good song? | |
| Happa-Tai – Yatta Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think I might actually unironically really, really like this song! As in, seriously. D-does that mean there's something wrong with me? Should I consult a doctor or something? | |
| Scott Walker – Cue Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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From http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/absoluteelsewhere/392/scott-walker-interviewed-2006-loneliness-is-a-cloak-you-wear: "Scott: Cue is the one that I can't talk about really. [...] That was the one that took the longest time. It started as one thing then became a personal song in the sense of Self, not ego-self or knowable-self but in the way of whatever the Self is. It's a very, very difficult song and I just hope that when people look at it they see that it has the rhythm in the lyric and the rhythm otherwise that will carry it along, because it was really tough." Supposedly this song took the longest time to create- Scott started work on it 9 years before The Drift was released. |
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| Lou Reed – Berlin Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Um, for those who don't know, this isn't really literally about anything in Lou Reed's life- it was precurser track (and part of it was the lead track) of his 1973 concept album, 'Berlin', which told the story of two drug-addicted bohemians in Berlin who fall in love. So it isn't about Nico or anything to do with Lou, it's just his vehicle for the story of Berlin. | |
| David Bowie – Station to Station Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Just to add that Bowie has always said this song has nothing to do with trains or train stations, despite the sample at the start of the song- he claimed the "stations" of the title referred to the stations of the cross. Which also explains the hebrew religious imagery in "Kether to Malkuth", maybe? | |
| The Libertines – The Good Old Days Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Yeah, I think this song is 50% personal song about lost friendships and 50% Libertines setting out their idea of albionism. Pete's always had a very strong belief in the ideal of leading the good ship Albion (Britain) to the utopia of Arcadia (paradise). They're both very, very old Celtic ideas that predate Christianity in Britain (albion is the oldest known term for Britain), and so they kind of represent that kind of ancient paradise based in nature that the Celts believed in. Hence namechecking Bodicea- what they're singing about is exactly what she was fighting for. Of course, she lost and so will they- and that's why the Arcadian dream has fallen through. But the idea of the Albion sailing on course is really suggesting that it's an inevitable journey, and in a metaphorical way the Libertines will bring it about. | |
| Primal Scream – Come Together Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Yeah, these aren't the lyrics, or anything even resembling them. The real lyrics are amazing, and this is probably my favourite Primal Scream track! | |
| Tricky – Strugglin' Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This song made me hate Tricky first time I heard it, but it's probably my favourite track, now! The music fits with the lyrics better than any song I've ever heard. It SOUNDS like being inside someone's mind slowly going more and more insane and struggling to keep control! Lyrically I guess it's say he's struggling to keep control of himself. But the final section is him saying that he may be struggling but everyone else has it so much worse because they're the ones living awful lives, brainwashed with the cheapest, exhausted with the mundane, and he may be drugged up and insane but at least he's living life. I love the reintroduction of "many switch in switch on switch off" from Black Steel. |
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| Tricky – You Don't Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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ahahahahaha, stentorian is amazing. You don't want to mess with me, motherfucker, BASICALLY! Really, basically, what I'm trying to say, is, basically... Looking at the lyrics, I guess it's about a kind of really utilitarian relationship where she gets used by someone but she's using them just as much and they both know it. |
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| Public Enemy – Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Tricky did an amazing cover of this song on his debut Maxinquay, which I can really recommend! | |
| Tricky – Ponderosa Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Okay, after a little bit of listening to it, I'd say the song's about hedonism and how much it leaves someone empty and unfulfilled. There's a lot of references to drink (drink til I'm drunk) and drugs (liquid lino), and very little positive about them- there's the weeping "wino"- a nice way of saying "drunk"- and she "drowns herself in sorrow". The part where they take her outside with "scars to show my rage" seem to be about her getting off her face and starting fights and getting kicked out. All and all, it's about the people who go out and binge drink and "smoke til I'm senseless" and how it never seems enough. | |
| Tricky – Ponderosa Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Phrogex- Bone Machine, man, not Bone Storm. Sorry. :P I'm just getting into Maxinquaye! I love Martina's voice, she enounces things so uniquely. |
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| Thom Yorke – Cymbal Rush Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| The Eraser was filled full of mythological references to the great flood, so I think the people talking about the tsunami or hurricane Katrina maybe aren't so far off the mark. I think the idea of it being water that's following is implied in the song- with references to damming, property destruction and "boiling over", as well- like in the cover. I'd say the song is about global warming, and the flood mythology being a metaphor for the very real flooding that'll be imminent unless we're careful. Thom's green politics are hardly hidden- being spokesman for Friends Of The Earth and The Big Ask and gawd knows how many other environmentalist pressure groups. The message is that unless we "take it out while we've got a chance", this nightmarish image of the flood will become a reality. | |
| Mirah And Spectratone International – Love Song of the Fly Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Wow, Thriggle really went above and beyond in that analysis. But I think the fly is meant to be a much more sympathetic character than you gave it credit for. After all, the fly doesn't do anything wrong in the whole song- on the contrary, it's given traits like bravery and selflessness that not even the human is given. I think it's more meant to be an analogy for unrequited love- after all, the fly loves the human but the human rejects and tries to extinguish every advance, even actively hating and trying to kill the thing that loves it. The ending really seals the deal- the fly even accepts being killed if it benefits the object of its affections. | |
| The Flaming Lips – Slow Nerve Action Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think you guys've got it, but the thing that I'd add is that it's not really about her boyfriend at all. He's just one of the many signs that she's changed and now she's "a kind that isn't so much in demand". What the big message is that the Lips are all still kids and love messing around and imagining stuff and she used to be good mates with them and the stuff about Paul was where they used to just sit around and laugh about stuff. But now she's grown up and turned serious and got herself a boyfriend who likes cars, stereotypical male things, and doesn't have any time for her old life, and she's got herself a job and works 9-5 and so she hasn't got any time for her old "immature" life, so she's left the "vegetables" for the very generic and bland world of adulthood, instead. | |
| Matt Elliott – What's Wrong Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Overwhelmingly dark lyrics like only Matt Elliott can do so well! The last line is most famous as a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: "An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind." | |
| Matt Elliott – The Guilty Party Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Matt Elliott's stuff is so bleak and dark, but it's so good! This was the first track of his I heard after completely going crazy for his second album as Third Eye Foundation, Ghost. It's absolutely nothing like the shambling hulk of textures and sheer horror that Ghost was, but it's still got its fair share of brooding hopelessness. I think the meaning is pretty clear, here- guy gets his dignity destroyed by someone and it haunts him until he kills himself. Pretty bleak stuff! | |
| Johnny Cash – The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave cover) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I'm not sure it's infinitely better, either. I mean, I absolutely adore Johnny's version of this song, but I think he missed out a pretty important part of Nick Cave's version that Adam actually highlighted: he's trying to make us sympathise with the character. Nick's version was massively sinister, and you get the impression more and more as the song goes on that the character is less and less good. But because Johnny's is meant to be a good character, the lines like "My kill hand's tattooed E.V.I.L" really fall flat. That said, I agree that Johnny made this one his own in a good way! I just think the original had a bit more impact. | |
| Okkervil River – Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979 Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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That was actually pretty interesting, reds, I didn't know any of that! The saw the song as being kinda like the final result of living the life Calling And Not Calling set out. After a while, she (well, it's not said, but I think the narrator is probably Shannon Wilsey) gets more and more introverted and reclusive, looking back on the groupie life she used to have before she became what she was now- and so she wants it back but it'll never happen, and the fire of yearning has turned on her- becoming a desctructive force in her life. What I don't understand is the final verse, and what the "morning starship" is. It sounds like it could be suicide, but it's way more optimistic-sounding like that. It would fit, though- "this ship isn't coming down" would imply that. And here's a theory- what if "this man left almost passed out" is John Allyn Smith, hero of the OTHER last track of the double album? Now, he DID kill himself, so that fits with that interpretation, and- and I guess here's the selling point of that interpretation for me- so did Shannon Wilsey, due in part to all her failed relationships with rock stars leaving her with depression. So I suppose this is the perfect song to end on- filling in the very large gap and entire centrepoint of the whole double-album, between Title Track, at the end of her groupie career, and Savannah Smiles, where she's found dead. |
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| Okkervil River – Calling and Not Calling My Ex Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I dunno...! I think their earlier albums are a lot less driven than their later ones. I adore Black Sheep Boy- it's in my top 5 albums of all time- but their first two albums are a little bit overfilled with slow, winding folk tracks for me, and I don't think they were as good at it as they are in Stand-Ins? I suppose if your favourite SN track was Girl In Port and your favourite SI track was Blue Tulip then they demand a play! I totally agree that Stand-Ins flows a lot better than Stage Names, though. I'd put it as: 1. Black Sheep Boy 2. The Stage Names 3. The Stand-Ins 4. Down The River Of Golden Dreams 5. Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See As for Calling And Not Calling My Ex, I suppose the lyrics speak for themselves (guy dates girl, girl gets famous and it breaks them apart) but I think that last line has a pretty good claim as one of the most glorious moments of the album! |
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| Okkervil River – On Tour with Zykos Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This album's a lot more focussed than the last one. D'ya reckon this one's about the groupie lifestyle, too? | |
| Okkervil River – Blue Tulip Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think Will said something around the time they released Stage Names that he'd been obsessing over the idea of the groupie lifestyle- and of course, the big figure of the double album, Shannon Wilsey, started out her story as a groupie. So I guess this is like the sister-song to Girl In Port off the last album, written from the groupie's point of view. | |
| Okkervil River – Singer Songwriter Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Is "Anchor Watt" meant to be Angkor Wat? The first one doesn't really make sense and the second one's a pretty famous Cambodian monument which kinda fits with the whole privelaged upbringing thing? Just a thought, anyway. | |
| Okkervil River – (Shannon Wilsey on the) Starry Stairs Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This is meant to be about Shannon Wilsey, isn't it? | |
| Babyshambles – Delivery Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I just came on here to say the same thing, grapefruit! I'm not sure if it's a deliberate thing but if it was then I'd respect Pete even more for it. Great track! | |
| Tom Waits – ...But There's Never a Rose Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| This song is called The Harbour, and it's off Alice! Great track, but that ain't the title, I'm afraid! | |
| Squarepusher – Iambic 9 Poetry Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Actually, I think the doo on line 5 might be a du. | |
| The National – Daughters of the SoHo Riots Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| ...one too many "famous"es, there. Note to self: don't analyze songs at 1 in the morning again! | |
| The National – Daughters of the SoHo Riots Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Just to throw it in, Soho was originally- and still is- a famous area in London that was famous for its turbulent life. Since the 1600s it's been known as the centre of London's sex industry, and so the Daughters Of The Soho Riots could be talking about the prostitutes that live and work in Soho. Which makes the whole idea of escaping from a horrible life a lot more poignant! Since The National are an American band I'm guessing the place in America might be more likely but Soho is pretty big so they might have heard of it? |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Witness Song Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Such an amazingly catchy song! As for what it's about... I couldn't possibly guess. The lyrics are really vague and obscure, actually, so I'm not 100% on the meaning. There's a lot of bits about faces being hidden? And things being obscured really like the fog or the blindness. Yeah, there's probably something obvious going on here but I'm just not seeing it! | |
| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – And No More Shall We Part Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Whoa, a lot of craaaazy theories going about, here. I think it's a lot simpler than that. It doesn't mention killing or anything like that in the lyrics, but there is definitely a bit of reading between the lines, there. I think the insistance on him not being alone and them never parting is key: it's about a marriage of convenience. He's had a lot of relationships going awry and there's the sense of desperation: hence "the ring is LOCKED upon the finger". Even though there's no real emotion in the relationship, he thinks if he gets married he'll never have to deal with the pain of heartbreak. The ending refers to the flipside that becomes apparent: far from freeing himself from heartbreak and risk, he's trapped himself in an unhappy relationship with someone he doesn't really love. The line "I never was free- what are you talking about?" refers to his denial- in his time as a bachelor he saw it as a curse that trapped him as being alone. That's the literal interpretation, anyway. I think there's another level going on that I won't get into 'coz I can't work it out but there's more to the "lord" bit than just an unhappy marriage? |
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